GSU Students Win REIAC Challenge

From left, Nick West, Professor Julian Diaz, Seth Coan, Andrea Ivory and Paul Welch Goggins.

ATLANTA, GA – Four graduate students from the Department of Real Estate at Georgia State University have received $1,000 each for envisioning an environmentally-friendly residential community along the BeltLine.

The Southeast Chapter of the Real Estate Investment Advisory Council REIAC hosted the yearly REIAC Challenge at Georgia State University on April 24. Each of the four competing teams chose a brownfield parcel in the Boulevard Crossing area that would both match the overall vision for the Beltline and deliver high returns to investors.

Winning team members Seth Coan, Paul Welch Goggins, Andrea Ivory and Nick West (above group photo) designed a $30 million, 250-unit luxury apartment community called “Hamilton Plaza Apartments,” which would theoretically be built on a 3.6 acre Grant Park site. The “green” community would be constructed to LEED standards.

“We are very grateful to REIAC for its support of this case competition,” said Julian Diaz, III, Ph.D., Chair of the Real Estate Department. “This is a wonderful opportunity to reinforce classroom learning with real world problems. The value to our students and therefore to the community is clearly significant.”

Judges for the competition included K. C. Boyce, (left bottom photo) Senior Project Manager with Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.; Paul Vespermann, Director of Real Estate for Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.; Simon Bloom (top right photo) and Stephanie Dyer, (top left photo) Partners at The Bloom Law Firm; Jon Callaghan, (photo at left) Director of Real Estate and Added Values for RMK Timberland Group; Kurt Wassenar, Vice President of ING Investment Management; and REIAC Board member Paul Gallimore, a Professor in GSU’s Department of Real Estate in the Robinson College of Business.

Several other top real estate executives donated their time to help coach the teams. They include Stephen DeVinney, Principal of Goddard Investment Group; Peter Mitchell, Vice President Acquisitions for Wells Real Estate Funds; Michael Pelt, President of MDH Partners; and Mitchell Powell, CFO of The Integral Group, and member of the REIAC Board.

The Real Estate Investment Advisory Council (REIAC) is a national nonprofit trade association that provides an open forum for the exchange of ideas, concerns and experiences between professionals who conduct commercial real estate transactions.

The organization is comprised of real estate owners and senior executives of institutions and real estate investment firms who, acting as principals, are primarily engaged in the areas of equity transactions and debt origination. (Georgia State University building is at right below)

REIAC also provides opportunities for improving the knowledge and professional standards within the industry; and acts as a vehicle for community service. For more information visit http://www.reiac.org/.
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Media Contact: Terri Thornton, 404-932-4347, TerriThornton@mindspring.com

Alabama Adventure Amusement Park Acquired by Adrenaline Family Entertainment, Inc.

BESSEMER, AL/PR Newswire/ -- Adrenaline Family Entertainment, Inc. has acquired Alabama Adventure (above and top left photos) in Bessemer, Alabama.

Adrenaline Family Entertainment is a theme park operating company made up of former seasoned senior Six Flags Inc. executives and majority owned by Angelo, Gordon & Co., an alternative investment management firm with more than $18 billion of assets under management.

Adrenaline Family Entertainment's CEO, Hue Eichelberger, was previously an Executive Vice President at Six Flags responsible for overseeing that company's operations in the eastern half of North America.

Eichelberger commented, "The acquisition of Alabama Adventure was based on the quality of the Park, the impressive turnaround under the seller's ownership, the strength of the greater Birmingham market and the potential for significant growth."

Alabama Adventure is the second Park purchased by Adrenaline in the past year and fits its business model of acquiring and operating high quality entertainment venues in strong regional markets.

The seller, Southland Entertainment, LLC, acquired the park in 2003 and has since invested substantial capital, including new rides and attractions. Southland will now turn its attention and resources to the development of the adjacent 157 acre parcel for which preliminary development plans include a hotel/indoor waterpark project, a possible RV park project and other commercial and retail development.

Southland President, Kent Lemasters, stated, "Our decision to sell the Park was based not only on our desire to develop the real estate around the park, but it was also important for us to sell to someone who has the resources and experience to expand the park."

Adrenaline Family Entertainment's resources, operating experience and capital investment plan are expected to contribute to an improved park experience.

Eichelberger, the Company's CEO, said, "We are committed to delivering top quality family entertainment to our visitors and are excited to show the people of the great state of Alabama what we can do."

Alabama Adventure is currently open weekends and will begin fulltime operation May 22nd.

CONTACT: Brian McDuff, +1-205-481-4750 ext. 230, for Adrenaline FamilyEntertainment, Inc.

Point2 Technologies and RealtyTrac Enter Marketing Partnership

Deal Provides 1.2 Million Monthly Visitors on www.Point2Homes.com with Access to RealtyTrac Foreclosure Listings

SASKATOON, SK, Canada and IRVINE, CA – Point2 Technologies Inc. (“Point2”), the industry’s largest independent provider of website and listing syndication software for real estate professionals, and RealtyTrac Inc.

(http://www.realtytrac.com/), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, announces a marketing partnership agreement that aims to extend both organizations’ market reach and exposure while establishing new revenue streams at the same time.

Under the deal, Point2 will integrate access to RealtyTrac foreclosure listings, on http://www.point2homes.com/. The integration will enable the site’s growing community of nearly 1.2 million unique monthly visitors to access and research the latest foreclosure and bank-owned properties in the United States, as well as related market data, through a simple subscription process.

“With interest in foreclosures unabated, our partnership with the industry’s leading provider of pre-foreclosure and bank-owned properties makes the consumer experience on Point2 Homes that much more valuable and comprehensive and it creates a new lead generation channel we can potentially leverage to drive more business to Point2 members,” said Saul Klein, (top left photo) Point2 Technologies Chief Executive Officer.

“We’re extremely excited to partner with Point2 to integrate RealtyTrac foreclosure properties on Point2 Homes,” said Rick Sharga, (top right photo) vice president of marketing at RealtyTrac.

“Point2 Homes has and continues to grow at a solid pace, mainly due to the appeal of its unique, rich and detailed listings online consumers seek today. This partnership will enable RealtyTrac to provide foreclosure data to Point2’s growing audience and thereby help us continue to carry out our mission of making foreclosure data more conveniently accessible to more people.”

CONTACT:

Heather Pond, Atomic Public Relations, 415 402 0230, Heather@atomicpr.com

Realvest Study Shows Skyrocketing Fuel Costs Are Reshaping America's Consumer Products, Transport, Delivery Systems, Analysts Say

Florida Will Benefit but Coastal Areas Will Benefit the Most as U.S. Retools its Shipping, Warehouses and Delivery Systems

MAITLAND, FL – America’s fuel crisis is already reshaping the nation’s consumer products transport and delivery systems, says commercial real estate analysts George Livingston (top right photo) and Christie Alexander (top left photo) of NAI Realvest in Maitland, and that evolution will have vast and far reaching consequences that could be felt in as little as 18 months.

“America’s consumer products supply chain used a large percentage of all energy consumed. To cut costs, energy use has to be reduced,” said Livingston, founder and chairman of NAI Realvest.

Livingston and Alexander recently completed a major independent study to identify strategic trends in U.S. transportation, warehousing and distribution industries.

Among their findings:

• Ships will be calling at more ports to minimize the cost of moving the goods over land from the ports to the distribution and fulfillment centers;

• Rail will be used as much as possible to deliver containers from the port to integrated logistic centers, intermodal and terminals, and distribution centers.

Rail will be put on docks to increase efficiency;

• The distribution centers will be positioned so that the delivery trucks operate within a day’s drive to the end user;

• This likely will result in more and smaller distribution centers;

• Coastal and gateway cities will become more important;

• Ports will be expanded;

• New ports will open;

• Coastal areas will benefit;

“Florida’s industrial real estate markets will benefit from the new strategies,” Alexander said, “and most of our population can be served within a one day drive.”

In addition, Florida has a large population and tourist market that is growing steadily, and Florida businesses are major exporters, Alexander added.

“We foresee increasing demand for well-located and efficient distribution and fulfillment centers,” Livingston said. “There likely will be increased demand for well-located and smaller distribution and fulfillment centers to reduce costs,” he said.

Florida’s hot spots? “Central Florida will be the most likely geographic beneficiary of these trends,” Livingston concluded, “especially Orange, Osceola, Hillsborough and Polk Counties.”

For more information, contact:
George Livingston, Chairman, NAI Realvest 407-875-9989, glivingston@realvest.com

Christie Alexander, Principal NAI Realvest 407-875-9989 calexander@realvest.com

Beth Payan or Larry Vershel, Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-414