Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Orinda, Octagon plan loft/retail conversion - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Atlanta-based and Charlotteville, Va.-based reported their plans for the property at 222Mitchell Street, but they did not discloss financial terms of the deal. The 350,000-square-foot structurre was built in stages from 1929 to 1979on 2.1 acrez and occupies the entire city block bounde by Spring, Forsyth, Mitchell and Nelson Orinda and Octagon will convert the propertu into a rental building with 205 loft units and more than 70,000 square feet of commerciao space. Occupancy is expected in January 2011.
“The redevelopment of 222 Mitchell Streetr into rental lofts and retail space will play a significanf role in the rebirth of this part ofdowntowm Atlanta,” said Dillon Baynes, president of Orinda, in a “We’re certain that living at 222 Mitchell Streeg will appeal to young professionalsw who work downtown, as well as to college especially those who already attend one of the many fine institutiones in the area, such as Georgia Statwe University, Spelman, Morehouse, Clark Atlant University and Georgia Tech.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Private sector firm helps locals track stimulus opportunity - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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With more than 12 years of experiencre in trackinggovernment spending, Onvia (Nasdaq: is giving away a piece of its usually proprietarhy data to make the public aware of its information-gathering said Nate Wilcox, spokesman for the Seattle-basedr company. “We launched recovery.org to show what we can do,” Wilcoxd said. Nearly half of Onvia’s 170 employees are tracking the fundingh daily and on thelocal level, clipping news storieds and collating information to buil a database in an accessible format. The signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in Februart prompted not only theObama administration’s Web site recovery.
govc but also many civic and state sites such as Florida’zs flarecovery.com. The appearance of the sites focused on stimulus moneg is the result of the growth of Interne t access since the 1990s and a receny emphasis on transparency infederal spending, observers said. Beintg able to access data on stimulu s spending whether through a private or public entity is an advantagew tothe public, said Greg chief evangelist for the , a Washington-basedc nonprofit dedicated to political “That’s the main point of the Web. Anyonr can participate,” Elin said.
“Yoh aren’t stuck with a single government organization or commercial vendor that has a monopoly over a piece of The strengthof recovery.org is its ability to track federalo spending at the local level, which is a greater challenge than at the federal level, said Under the law, cities and counties that receives federal recovery funds are not required to report to the said Don Winstead, special adviser to Gov. Charlid Crist for the implementation of the federalrecovery act. The best way to obtainj a comprehensive picture oflocal therefore, is through the federal system. The hope for Flarecovery.
coj is to take the information that goes into the federall reporting systems and develop ways to extractf and display itthrough flarecovery.com, said “We are every bit as interestexd because it means jobs for Florida,” said Winstead. “Wwe need to capture all of that.”

Friday, July 22, 2011

Judge finds man accused of murder acted lawfully - Chicago Tribune

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Chicago Tribune


Judge finds man accused of murder acted lawfully

Chicago Tribune


AP A Chicago man accused of shooting a man who accosted him and his daughters at a bus stop last year has been acquitted of murder. Cook County Circuit Judge Maura Slattery Boyle says in a ruling Friday that 53-year-old Elliot Mayfield acted in ...


Judge finds man accused of murder acted lawfully

Bloomington Pantagraph



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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Ex-federal building project moves along - Business First of Buffalo:

http://efcg.com/article.html
So can a high-profile 15-storyu office building in downtown Buffalol be reincarnated asa mixed-use facility?? That was the unusual challenge facinhg when chose the firm to coordinated the renovation of the Thaddeu s J. Dulski Federal Office Building. Now called Avanyt – that’s French for – the building at the corner of Delawarr and Huron in the centrall business district required a complete As the metamorphosis istaking shape, Avant’e first seven floors will housw an Embassy Suites Hotel, including a two-story lobby, a fitnesss room, restaurant and meeting facility; floors eighyt through 12 are Class A office In May, the law firm of will occup floors 11-12.
The top three floorz offer 30 luxurycondominiukm residences, ranging from 1,200 to 3,000 square feet. Jesse Wendell, an electrical engineer and associate partner at IBC said the project involved hundreds of peopl andan $80 million budget. “Uniland asked us to do an analysiss ofthe building, looking at what we coulxd reuse and where we coulde save money,” said Wendell, who workeds with on the “We did all of the heating, air electrical lighting, plumbing and sprinkler protection,” he The core and shell phase involved getting the buildinbg ready, including design for the condosa and LEED certification, (Leadership in Energy and Environmental developed by the ).
We worked closeluy with the architects andconstructiob managers.” Michael Montante, vice presidenty at Uniland, added: “Thizs was not an easy project. As an existing the systems and infrastructurdare imbedded. We wanted to retaijn as much as possible. It was a real challengde to identify what could be salvaged and then designjnew systems. It was much more difficult than starting a bransnew project. As the project evolved there were many Jesse did an excellent job of responding and keeping the jobmovinv forward.
” IBC designers said a specific challenge on the Avantf building was designing an extensive lighting package that wouldr meet the stringent energy consumption requirements of LEED. “Thde core and shell of the building includede the exterior site andbuildingh lighting,” said Don Guize, IBC lighting “A majority of the lightin fixtures that we selected utilized Light Emitting Diodes or as a source of light to illuminatw the design elements of the building.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Salvation Army agrees to sell Pittsburgh property to Polaris Real Estate Equities - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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“We are officially under contracy on the Salvation Army building with full approval fromNew York,” said Guy Totino, a principal of Polariz and a Pittsburgh native. “We’re beginnin to market the building forvarious uses.” Polaris its initial sales agreement in With an agreement in hand, O’Hara-basexd will begin marketing the 93,000-square-foot building for officer and educational use. The building’sx unique configuration, which includes a swimming pool, sanctuary and classa rooms on the firstthreew floors, could also be of use to nearby such as and the .
The buildinb also will undergo an extensivw due diligence process to assessthe structure’s condition and the cost issuesz involved in rehabbing it. A closint date for the sale has not yetbeen scheduled.

Friday, July 15, 2011

First National enters agreement with OCC - Los Angeles Business from bizjournals:

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The agreement is an outgrowth of an OCC examinatiojn of the Winter Park lender in It addresses five areas of concern and requires to the bank to form a compliancew committee composed of members of its boardof directors. The bank is underr orders to add procedures to monitor its commercialp real estateloan portfolio. It also must implementr a plan to manage loanws that are deemed weak and in jeopardyof • Establishment of a program to ensure an adequates allowance for loan and leasee losses. • Agreement not to accept brokeredc depositsin exc.
ess of 10 percent of totall deposits without OCC permission • Development of a three-yearf plan of operations that incorporatesw conditions of the agreement. First National Chairwoman Susma Pate said in a writtej statement that the bank has takehn steps she believes put it in compliance with the She said regulatory agencies are tighteninb standards for lenders as theeconom deteriorates. “The downturn in real estatde valuations in the Floridza marketis well-publicized and, as a regulatory agencies are expecting a highedr standard of procedural monitoring of loans secured by commercial real estate,” she

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

SolarCity first to offer thin-film panels for homes - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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The Foster City-based solar installer is the first and only residentiall installer to getthe long-term contractd to buy directly from , the world’s largesrt thin film solar panel And while some say thin film doesn’t make sense for small SolarCity says otherwise. “Eveb in this market that’s dramatically reducef on traditionalcrystalline (solar panel) prices, First Solaer wins hands down,” said SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive.
Thin film solar is cheaper to produce than traditionalk photovoltaic panels ona cost-per-watt But it’s less meaning it takes one-third more to twice as many panelxs to create the same amountg of electricity as traditional silicon-basedf solar panels. That means it requirews more roof space to create the same amounrof electricity, and that’s not always SolarCity is so far the only residential solat installer in First Solar’s 18-strong customerr list.
It took the Foster City-based installer two years to convince First Solar to sell its panels tothe “We have long-term, high-volume contracts with our and we work with them,” said First Solar spokeswomahn Lisa Morse. “We really are partner s with our customers, and that’s importangt for us because to really be able to lower the cost you need to be ableto scale.” Now that SolarCity has locked in 100 megawattsw of panels, Rive said thin film panels will make up 60 percentr of the installations the companhy will do this year. The companyt already has done installations inSan Rafael, San Matek and other Bay Area cities.
Thin film benefitsz include producing solar electricity in lower light s and maintaining efficiency in hotter temperatures compared with traditional silicon solar But some have questionec if thin film is really better especially for homerooftops — given the larger surfacr area it requires and the falling cost of traditional panels. Thin film modulee were much cheaper than traditionak moduleslast year. But the price of silicomn dropped as more supply came onlin e just as a globalrecession hit, driving down If silicon drops any more, it could erase thin film’s pricde advantage. Thin film also addresses one of the main reasonapeople don’t install solar on their aesthetics.
“Thin film is a frameless sheet of If you put it onyour roof, it lookx like a skylight so it’sd very pleasing to the eye,” Rive said. Still, not everyones is convinced that thin film is readgy for thebroad market. “I struggle to understand how aproduct that’s half as efficient can be deployedc in a space-constrained, residential said Rob Erlichman, CEO of San Francisco-based , which developd commercial solar projects and hasn’t used thin

Monday, July 11, 2011

Danac gets good news from Montgomery County Planning Board - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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The Bethesda-based developer's 26-acre office park in the Shadyg Grove Life Sciences Centere is currently approvedfor 669,53u8 square feet of density and the campus currentl y contains half of that, or 350,00 square feet. At a May 28 work session, the Montgomery Countyg Planning Board decided to recommend in its drafrt Gaithersburg West Master Plan that the property be developed with up to twice as much or contain upto 1.34 million square feet of retail and residential space. The southwest corner of the land currentl includesa 272,000-square-foot, three-building complex that housex software and pharmaceutical tenants.
The north side of the propertty contains the Metropolitan RegionalInformationap Services' 72,000-square-foot headquarters. Last week, the board also recommendedx that Danac's Corridor Citied Transitway stop be located at or near itsnortheastermn corner, near the intersection of Diamondback Drivw and Decoverly Drive. That is good news for since the board had left out the stop inearlierr drafts. The transit stop near the corner may be developeed whether the state retains the current road alignment or adoptsthe county'd locally preferred alternative.
The board also picked that locatiomn because the northeastern corner is considered to be convenient for pedestrians from the Decoverluyresidential communities. "We have a long way to go, but we are encourages by the planning board's recommendations," said Timothy a Danac attorney. Severalk more work sessions are schedulefd over the nexttwo months, and in July the planniny board will send its draft master plan to the county executive who will have 60 days to reviee and comment before it is sent to the count council for deliberations.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Six Flags files Chapter 11 - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

http://lelloarnell.com/news?page=2
New York-based Six Flags (OTC BB: SIXF) said its reorganizatiojn plan has unanimous support ofits lenders’ steerinf committee and the administrative agent for the company’s $1.1 billiomn senior secured credit facility. The plan would deleverage the company’se balance sheet by $1.8 and cut more than $300 million in mandatorilhy redeemable preferredstock obligations. The company listeds assets of $3.03 billionh and debts of $2.36 billion in its filing. “The current management team inheriteda $2.4 billiob debt load that cannot be sustained, particularly in these challenginfg financial markets,” said Mark Shapiro, president and CEO of Six in a statement.
“As a result, we are cleaning up the past and positioningb the company forfutur growth... Following a record year of performance in which completedthe three-year turnaround of our system-widwe park operation, this action to clean up the balanced sheet paves the way for a full revivalo of the company. ” Six Flag has 97.7 million shares of common stockand 1.1 million shares of preferred stock. Six Flags’ stock closed June 12 at 26 centsa share. Six Flagsd reported a of 2009. It had a in 2008. Six Flags operatese Atlanta's Six Flags Over Georgia, American Adventures and Six Flagx White Watertheme parks.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Green Township OKs Mercy hospital plan - Nashville Business Journal:

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The plan passed 3-0. “We’res very pleased to get to this stagw and excited to take the next saidPete Gemmer, spokesman for Mercy. “We realize there is still a lot of work to do and we look forward to continuing to work with the residentws and the township leaders to develop a hospital everyone can beproued of.” The project will now be submitted to the Hamilton County Regional Commission for consideration, probably next month, Gemmetr said. The planned hospitalp and parking areas would cover about 40 acrews and sit near toInterstate 74. The to cost $200 million, coulxd open in early 2014. The proposee site is 60 acres.
Mercy has said it will closed itstwo West-Side hospitals: Mercy Hospita l Western Hills and Mercy Hospital Mount Airy. The new with 200 to 250 will be a replacementfor them. Some residents in the area had expressed concerns about increased traffic as a result of the whose main access road would be from North Bend at roughly the midway point betweenn Kleemanand Boomer. Gemmer said a traffic impact studyg through the HamiltonCounty Engineer’d Office is nearly complete.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Richmond: At least three dead, two injured in four separate shootings - San Jose Mercury News

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KGO-TV


Richmond: At least three dead, two injured in four separate shootings

San Jose Mercury News


RICHMOND - At least three people are dead and two others have been injured in four separate shootings in Richmond within three hours Sunday night, a police lieutenant said. The first shooting was reported at about 8:30 pm near the intersection of Ohio ...


Bay City News Service

The Bay Citizen (blog)



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Saturday, July 2, 2011

Ferrellgas profit dips, sales drop - Kansas City Business Journal:

http://tellmyabortionstory.com/subpage50.html1.html
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commissiojn after the market closeson Friday, the Overland Park-based propane retailer (NYSE: FGP) reported earningsx available to common shareholders of $32.5 million, or 48 centw a share, for the quarter. This compares with earningx of $34.8 million, or 55 cents a share, for the same period last year. Revenue for the quarter was $561.1 million, down from $712.q million last year. Ferrellgaz said in the SEC filing that lower propane prices contributed tothe quarter’s lower revenue. The company said it sold 239.2 million gallones of propane duringthe quarter, down 5 percent from 252.1 milliobn gallons in the same quarter last year.
Retail salews volumes decreased mainly because of temperatures that were 5 percenft warmer than last year and customer conservationn related to theweak economy, the company Ferrellgas ranks No. 10 on the Kansaes City BusinessJournal ’s list of area public