Monday, July 22, 2013

NAI Realvest Negotiates New Lease with Perfume Paris at Kissimmee Shopping Center, FL


Kissimmee Shopping Center, Kissimmee, FL

ORLANDO, FL. – NAI Realvest recently negotiated a new long-term lease agreement for 3,597 square feet at Kissimmee Shopping Center 2501-2573 Old Vineland Road in Kissimmee.

Paul P. Partyka
Paul P. Partyka, managing partner at NAI Realvest negotiated the transactions representing the landlord, Herndon, Va.-based KVOS, LLC.

Perfume Paris, Inc. leased unit 2539 at Kissimmee Shopping Center to open its third location offering fine perfumes at discount prices.  

Partyka added that Kissimmee Shopping Center is the retailer’s second location in Central Florida following another store on Osceola Parkway. 

Jeremy Gomez
Jeremy Gomez of G World Realty & Investments, Inc. represented the tenant.

Other major tenants at Kissimmee Shopping Center include Nike, Beall’s, Dollar Tree, Tommy Hilfiger and Converse.

For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-4142 Lvershelco@aol.com



Emerson International Negotiates Three Leases for 3,952 Square Feet of Office Space in Maitland, Altamonte Springs and Longwood, FL

  
2600 Maitland Center Parkway, Maitland, FL


Kenneth Koch
Altamonte Springs, FL. --- Emerson International recently negotiated three new commercial property leases that total 3,952 square feet of Class A office space in Longwood, Maitland and Altamonte Springs.

Kenneth Koch, director of leasing at Emerson International, negotiated an office lease agreement for 2,809 square feet of space at 2600 Maitland Center Parkway in Maitland. 

The tenant, VMAX Vision, Inc., was represented by Jason Schrago of CNL Commercial in the transaction

Zac Starkey
Koch also negotiated a new office lease for 730 square feet of space at 2180 Sanlando Center on West SR 434 in Longwood.  T.I.B. Insurance Brokers, Inc. is the new tenant.

Zac Starkey, commercial leasing associate at Emerson International negotiated a new lease agreement for 413 square feet of office space in the CenterPointe Office Park at  370 CenterPointe Circle in Altamonte Springs.  Cunningham Sales, Inc. is the new tenant.

For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-4142 Lvershelco@aol.com

City of Atlanta Announces New Opportunity Zone in Cleveland Avenue/Metropolitan Parkway Area Zones attract new business ventures and creates jobs


Atlanta's Night Skyline

 ATLANTA (July 22, 2013) –Mayor Kasim Reed and Invest Atlanta announced today that sections of the Cleveland Avenue/Metropolitan Parkway neighborhood have been approved as an Opportunity Zone by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. This new designation will create a tax incentive for businesses to expand and hire additional employees.

Mayor Kasim Reed
“Opportunity Zones give existing businesses the incentive to expand and motivate entrepreneurs to create new ventures,” said Mayor Reed. “These zones lead to job creation and neighborhood revitalization and have a direct positive impact on our overall economic competitiveness.”

Businesses within the Opportunity Zone boundaries of the Cleveland Avenue Gateway, Metropolitan Village, Cleveland Avenue Kmart, Lakewood Park and Crossroads Center redevelopment areas can qualify for a yearly income tax credit of $3,500 for each new job created, provided that there at least two net new jobs. Tax credits are good for up to five years and $17,500 as long as the business continues to hire at least two new people per year.

Brian P. McGowan
Previously approved Opportunity Zones in the city include Auburn Avenue, White-Lee Streets and Midtown. Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm, applies for Opportunity Zone designations on behalf of the city.

“An Opportunity Zone is an important tool in attracting investment to areas with unrealized potential,” said Brian P. McGowan, President and CEO of Invest Atlanta. “We are thrilled that the Cleveland Avenue/Metropolitan Parkway area was approved for a zone, and we will use it to help the community attract and retain quality businesses. ”

For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Tony Wilbert
The Wilbert Group
404-254-1487 (O)
404-405-3656 (C)

MBA Welcomes Campbell Eminent Domain Bill




  
Washington, D.C. (July 22, 2013) – David H. Stevens, President and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), applauds Congressman John Campbell (R-CA) for reintroducing the Defending American Taxpayers from Abusive Government Takings Act:

John Campbell
“Congressman Campbell is to be commended for reintroducing legislation that would limit the ability of local municipalities from using eminent domain to seize residential mortgages, and prohibit Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from purchasing any loans seized in this clearly unconstitutional manner.

“Using eminent domain to seize mortgages will result in tighter, more expensive credit for potential home buyers and those looking to refinance, driving down home values and threatening local economic recovery. 

David H. Stevens
"Further, cramming losses down on existing mortgage backed securities holders will drive down the value of millions of Americans' investments, including pension plans, mutual funds and 401(k) retirement accounts.

“MBA supports this bill and looks forward to working with Congressman Campbell and other members of Congress to protect homeowners and their communities by enacting this legislation.”

For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Rob Van Raaphorst
(202) 557-2799


Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty named exclusive broker for 20+ acre luxury estate adjacent to Heathrow. FL


20-Acre Estate Near Heathrow, FL for Sale

Lake Mary, FL --- Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty has been named exclusive sales and marketing agents for a 20+ acre estate located off Markham Woods Road north of Lake Mary Blvd. and bordering Heathrow in Lake Mary.
Sally Andy
Roger Soderstrom, founder and owner of Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty, said the new listing, one of the most exclusive estate properties in Central Florida, is offered for $4.95 million.
The gated estate property is fully fenced and borders on a private lake.
The European-style estate home offers 15,800 square feet of living space with six bedrooms, six full baths and two half baths. The estate includes an additional 3,000 square foot guest house with three bedrooms, three full baths and a half bath.
David Warren
To view a video of he estate visit http://www.stirlingsir.com/eng/3400michigan
Sally Andy and David Warren with Stirling Sotheby's International Realty's Heathrow Marketing Center are representing the property and are the principal contacts.
For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:
Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications 407-644-4142   Lvershelco@aol.com.


U.S. Home Prices, Transaction Activity Unscathed in June by Mortgage Rate Spike, Reports ZipRealty

  
.
  
EMERYVILLE, CA, July 22, 2013 – ZipRealty, Inc. (http://www.ziprealty.com) (NASDAQ: ZIPR), the leading online residential real estate brokerage and technology provider, has released its latest Housing Trends Report with data compiled as of June 30, 2013.

Lanny Baker
 “ZipRealty’s latest report provides our first real glimpse into the health of real estate market since mortgage interest rates began to rise in mid-June,” says CEO and President Lanny Baker.

 “During the third week of June, mortgage rates posted their largest one-week increase in more than a quarter-century and rates are now 1% higher than they were a month earlier. However, that hasn’t mattered much in terms of home sales prices and transaction activity,” he says.

 “The median home sales price in the 24 markets we analyzed was over $280,000, up $10,000 from May 2013 and 16% higher than May 2012.

Sales prices in June hovered above 99% of list prices on average, just as we’ve seen in prior months.

Median days on market for homes sold in June decreased by another two days compared to May 2013 − and at 27 days stands nearly two weeks shorter than last June. These indicators point to a market that appears to be relatively undisturbed by the recent rise in interest rates − as of yet,” Baker shares.

For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Stacey Corso
510.735.2667


3 New Highrise Condo Towers Proposed For Greater Downtown Miami, FL


Manuel Grosskopf
MIAMI, FL -- With at least 32 new condo towers already proposed for Greater Downtown Miami, developers are planning three more projects - each at least 55 stories tall - to be built on vacant sites north of the Miami River in the city's central business district as the South Florida real estate market shows signs of recovering from the crash of 2007, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com. 

Developers are in the early stages of planning a trio of towers - with an undetermined number of units to be located in the 600 block of Biscayne Boulevard, the 700 block of Biscayne Boulevard, and at 24 SW Fourth St. on the north bank of the Miami River, according to the respective developers. 

Harvey Hernandez
With the newly proposed projects in Greater Downtown Miami, developers are now proposing at least 145 new towers with nearly 19,500 units in the tricounty coastal region of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach some as of July 19, 2013, according to the Cranespotters.com Preconstruction Condo Projects Database™ compiled by the licensed Florida brokerage CVR Realty™.

In Greater Downtown Miami, the Chateau Group has started planning a pair of towers that will each stand more than 60-stories tall on neighboring development sites at 600 and 700 Biscayne Blvd. next to the Freedom Tower and across from the American Airlines Arena, developer Manuel Grosskopf said.

Freedom Tower
Detailed plans for the pair of Biscayne Boulevard towers - which are expected to be mixed-use in nature - are unlikely to be finalized before 2014 as the Chateau Group is currently working on a pair of project - Chateau Beach in Sunny Isles Beach and Chateau Ocean in Surfside - on the barrier island in Northeast Miami-Dade County, Grosskopf said.   

The third newly proposed Greater Downtown Miami project - a yet-to-be-named tower planned by the Newgard Development Group - is slated to stand 55-stories tall - originally planned as the CIMA tower during the last real estate boom - on a vacant site bordered by the Miami River on the south, the Wind condo on the north, South Miami Avenue on the east, and the Mint condo on the west, developer Harvey Hernandez wrote in an email.

The tower is slated to exclusively be a condominium but the number of units has not yet been finalized, Hernandez said.

BrickellHouse rendering, Downtown Miami
Newgard Development - which is currently constructing the BrickellHouse tower and preselling the proposed Centro condominium in Greater Downtown Miami - has obtained approval from the FAA to erect cranes to build a 610-foot-tall tower beginning as soon as December 2013, according to government records.
               
For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Condo Vultures® LLC
225 Midtown Building
225 NE 34th St.,
Suite 209B,
Downtown Miami, Florida, 33137.
800-750-0517.


Central Florida Market Update: What’s Really Going On?


Justin Greider
Gainesville, FL - Justin Greider, Vice President and Director of Leasing for Crossman & Company will be speaking at an upcoming invite only event designed to bring together Florida’s top real estate leaders and public officials.

On July 26th Justin will discuss the Central Florida Market during a Real Estate Bus Tour, providing information the current state of the market and what to expect in the future.

“Increased consumer confidence is driving retailer expansion for the first time since 2007, putting positive pressure on rental rates and occupancy.  Leasing activity is the strongest in major markets, but is still lagging in secondary and tertiary markets, where vacancy rates remain the highest,” stated Justin Greider.

For a complete update on all the markets Crossman & Company serves please download the 2013 Retail Report at www.crossmanco.com.

Crossman & Company was founded in 1990 and is a regional shopping center brokerage firm which represents over 200 shopping centers in FL, GA, AL, TN, SC and NC.
               
For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Claire Pagán
Marketing Specialist | Crossman & Company
3333 S. Orange Ave. Suite 201 | Orlando, Florida 32806
407.423.5400 main | 407.581.6223 direct | 352.348.3066 cell
cpagan@crossmanco.com | Web | Facebook


HFF closes sale and arranges joint venture equity for Echelon Pointe in St. Petersburg, FL


Echelon Pointe, St. Petersburg, FL
MIAMI, FL –HFF announced today that it has closed the sale of and arranged joint venture equity for the acquisition of Echelon Pointe, a 123,639-square-foot, Class A office building in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Hermen Rodriguez
HFF marketed the property on behalf of the seller, an institutional investor.  Cardinal Point Management, LLC purchased the asset free and clear of any debt and HFF also arranged the joint venture equity with Halstatt Real Estate Partners for the acquisition of the property. 

                Completed in 2007, Echelon Pointe is a five-story, Class A suburban office building with a 359-space parking garage.  The property is 97 percent leased to a number of prominent tenants including Paychex, Smith and Nephew, and Regus.

Ike Ojala
 Echelon Pointe is situated on 5.14 acres at 970 Lake Carillon Drive immediately adjacent to a full-service Hilton hotel within the 432-acre Carillon Park office park in St. Petersburg.

                The HFF investment sales team representing the seller was led by Hermen Rodriguez, Ike Ojala and Jorge Portela. 

                 “Echelon Pointe was developed as a Class A office building, with excellent tenancy and as such received tremendous investor interest,” noted Rodriguez. 

                HFF’s equity placement team representing Cardinal Point Management, LLC was led by director Chris Drew.  Halstatt Real Estate Partners provided the joint venture equity. 

                “This partnership has made strategic suburban office acquisitions during the past eight months and now controls almost half a million square feet of Class A office space in the gateway submarket of Tampa, Florida”, added Drew.     

 HFF’s investment sales team closed more than $4.9 billion in office building sales nationally in 2012.  HFF closed more than $400 million in office transactions across all capital markets platforms in the state of Florida during 2012.
               
For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

 Olivia Hennessey
HFF | 9 Greenway Plaza, Suite 700 | Houston, TX 77046
tel 713.852.3403 | fax 713.527.8725 | www.hfflp.com


Tim Rivers Joins C&W as Managing Director for Investor Services – Florida


Tim Rivers
TAMPA, FL -- Cushman & Wakefield of Florida is pleased to announce the hire of Tim Rivers as Managing Director of Investor Services – Florida.

Rivers, a 21-year veteran of the commercial real estate industry, has extensive property management experience as well as a distinguished background in facility and transactional operations.

With Cushman & Wakefield, he will focus on growing and developing new business for the firm's expanding Florida property management portfolio and will also be directly responsible for the oversight of management services for all of Cushman & Wakefield’s Florida offices. Mr. Rivers will be based in Cushman & Wakefield’s Tampa office.

Larry Richey
“We’re excited to have Tim on board,” said Larry Richey, Cushman & Wakefield’s Senior Managing Director and Market Leader for Central and North Florida. “He will help us better serve existing clients and continue to grow our Florida Investor Services business.”

"Tim's focus on superior and consistent delivery of services as well as his track record of client retention speaks for itself," added Richey. "It's one of the many reasons we feel he is a perfect fit to lead our Florida Investor Services team."

 Mr. Rivers comes to Cushman & Wakefield from Newmark Grubb Knight Frank where he was the Regional Director of Management Services. 

Prior to his time with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, he was the Director of Asset Services at CBRE where he was part of a leadership team that grew their property management portfolio by 30 million square feet over the span of six years. Mr. Rivers brings extensive expertise in managing distressed assets and a comprehensive understanding of the restructuring process.

"Cushman & Wakefield is one of the most respected brands in the global commercial real estate industry and I am thrilled to join such a wonderful organization," said Rivers.

Mr. Rivers is a licensed real estate sales person and is an active member of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA). He is also on the board of directors of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
  
For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

David A. Meyer
Cushman & Wakefield of Florida, Inc.
Senior Marketing Specialist – Orlando
Marketing & Corporate Communications
407.541.4407

Jennifer Patterson Joins Taylor & Mathis of Florida

  
Jennifer Patterson

 SUNRISE, FL, July 22, 2013 --  As the office market recovery continues, Taylor & Mathis of Florida has augmented their Broward County leasing team with the addition of Jennifer Patterson.  Jennifer will work with Director of Leasing Donna Korn in leasing a 1.1 million square foot office portfolio.

 Patterson will leverage her strong financial background and asset management experience in the negotiation of leases for Taylor & Mathis’ institutional clients.

“With a strong increase in leasing activity we needed an experienced leasing associate who can hit the ground running,” stated Korn.  “With her asset management and financial background she brings a unique skill set to negotiate and close deals that brings value to our clients.”

Donna Korn
 A CPA, Patterson has served as Vice President of Asset Management for New Boston Fund where she negotiated over 300,000 square feet of leases and as Asset Manager with Cushman & Wakefield negotiating over 700,000 square feet of leases.  Her experience includes financial, leasing, operational and capital objectives of office properties throughout the Southeast. 

The Broward County leasing team portfolio includes:

·         Sawgrass Plaza, International Place I, Corporate Centre I & III, Sunrise on behalf of The Brookdale Group
·         Corporate Centre II, Sunrise on behalf of USB Realty Investors
·         Miramar Centre I & III , Miramar on behalf of MetLife
·         Huntington Centre I & II, Miramar on behalf of MetLife
·         Venture Corporate Center I, II & III, Hollywood on behalf of MetLife

For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Jennifer Patterson,
Senior Leasing Associate
 (954)-845-8840


Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty Negotiates New Long-Term Lease of Signature Penthouse Space at The Plaza’s North Tower in Downtown Orlando, FL


The Plaza, 121 South Orange Avenue, Downtown Orlando, FL

ORLANDO, Fla. --- Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty recently negotiated a new six-year lease agreement for the 10,000 square feet of penthouse office space with a 10,000 square foot rooftop garden terrace in The Plaza, located at 121 S. Orange Ave. in downtown Orlando.

John Kurtz
John Kurtz, commercial specialist with Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty, negotiated the $1.5 million lease with Team Gemini LLC, a sustainable project design and development company.   

The Plaza north tower penthouse, which overlooks Lake Eola, will serve as the world headquarters of Team Gemini which is expanding rapidly due in part to a $300 Million flagship project in Ohio.

Kurtz brokered the transaction representing the landlord ACM DT Properties LLC and Team Gemini.

For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Beth Payan or Larry Vershel, Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-4142 


NAI Realvest Negotiates Lease Agreements with High Tech, Insurance and Staffing Firms in Maitland, FL and Orlando, FL


2201 Lucien Way, Maitland, FL

MAITLAND, FL--- NAI Realvest recently negotiated three lease agreements for office space totaling 2,657 square feet in both the Maitland Center area and at Plaza Central on South Orange Blossom Trail.

Mary Frances West
 Senior Broker Associate Mary Frances West, CCIM and Tom R. Kelley II, CCIM, a principal in the firm, negotiated a new lease at Suite 401, 2201 Lucien Way in Maitland representing the local landlord Florida Bramingham Construction, Inc.    The new tenant, who was not represented by a separate broker, is  Atlantic.Net.Inc., a provider of dedicated data center and cloud hosting services.

 Kelley and associate Chris Adams represented the landlord at Plaza Central, 6220 S. Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando in brokering two lease agreements with local tenants American Integrity Insurance who leased suite 136 with 595 square feet of office space and Magnus Staffing LLC who renewed its lease of suite 115 with 616 square feet.

For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Beth Payan or Larry Vershel, Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-4142