In the News—Week of September 19, 2022
Deal of the Week
A Kentucky-based seller, sold a three-property portfolio in Tennessee and Kentucky for $19.4 million. Amerco Real Estate, which is the Real Estate affiliate of U-Haul, was the buyer. This transaction was closed by Joel Montemayor, Assistant Vice President and Commercial Escrow Officer, in the Scottsdale office.
National
Until the cows leave home: California dairy farms moving to Arizona, Texas
It’s not just people who are leaving California, the cows are leaving, too, the Los Angeles Times reports. The number of dairy farms has dropped from around 2,100 in 2001 to about 1,200 today. “As urban expansion came in and got close to the farm, developers would come in and buy the land and convert it into housing or commercial buildings,” a farmer in Lakeview tells the newspaper. “That’s the progression of what’s happened in the California dairy industry. More recently in the last 20 years, a lot of people have started to move out of state.” Dairy cows are being shipped to Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, South Dakota and Kansas.
Energy & Efficiency
Oregon demolishes its last coal-fired plant for generating electricity
A demolition contractor used a controlled explosion to take down a smokestack and a 19-story boiler building at a power-generation plant near Boardman, Oregon, KNKX radio reports. The demolition of Portland General Electric’s coal-fired power plant spells the end of coal-fired power generation in Oregon. “The coal plant has been just a workhorse of the fleet for 40 years,” Bruce Jenkins, a PGE vice president, tells the radio station. “But if you look around the landscape here, we’ve got lots of clean, renewable resources coming in. We’re transitioning, and this is just part of that transition.”
Texas
Houston’s NAI Partners pulls out of network and rebrands itself
The Houston affiliate of NAI Global has declared its independence and rebranded itself, the Houston Chronicle reports. NAI Partners, which has been doing business in Houston for 25 years, will now be known as Partners and is staying at its headquarters in the Galleria area. Already one of the largest privately-held Texas-based commercial real estate brokerages, Partners plans to expand.
Texas
Downtown Dallas will see millions of square feet turned into residences
The tall buildings in downtown Dallas will look the same from the outside, but their interiors will see a major makeover in the coming years as empty offices are converted to residences, Dan Harris, CEO of Stream Realty Partners, writes for D Magazine. The buildings in the central business district are losing out to the appeal of Uptown. “Fortunately, in the coming months and years, downtown Dallas will potentially add somewhere in the vein of 2-3 million square feet of conversions from office to multifamily,” Harris writes.
Arizona
For $1.1M, buyer can turn converted home back into a general store
Patricia Burris has a building for sale that can serve as a one-bedroom residence or a general store or a museum. The choice is yours if you are willing to pony up $1.1 million for the property in Pearce, Arizona, Insider reports. Burris and her late husband brought the 127-year-old building in 1996. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. They made it into a one-bedroom residence. They kept all the shelves for the Old Pearce Mercantile store and the artifacts for the Arizona Ghost Town Museum. Pearce, which is south of Interstate 10 in the eastern part of Arizona isn’t exactly a ghost town. This old mining town still has around 2,000 people, but it has declined since its heyday in the 1930s. Burris first listed the property in 2020 and when it didn’t sell, she chose an interesting tactic. She raised the price.
Mexico
Queretaro gets first mixed-use project integrating business and residential
Following the trends from Mexico’s population centers, Queretaro is about to get its first district that combines office and residential, Mexico Business News reports. The Xentric District in Juriquilla will be home to a mixed-use project that includes residential, an office tower, a shopping center and a hotel. Xentric is close to the Queretaro Aerospace Park and other industrial areas. The district will offer an auditorium with seating for 50, designed for press conferences and pitch meetings.
