The Dirt Lawyer's Blog Archive

Shopping here appears to be the national pastime. Forget basketball. Hit the mall. You can even got to Sunday Mass there if you are so inclined, with services in English and Tagalog. (Remember, English is an official language here.) We are about to celebrate my mother-in-law's 80th birthday in an hour. There should be 200+ people in our yard here, and hopefully we'll have enough food. You never know how many people will show. The problem with estimating a crowd is that it is acceptable for the invitees to bring family and friends. And since my wife and I are the official hosts of the party...well, you get the picture. The mayor of Maria's hometown (pop. > 260,000) was kind enough to send over a tent. A burger, fries and a drink: $1.50 US. Two large pizzas: $9. A party for 200 with food, two bands, a staff of 20 serving and all cheaper than you would think. Going to a shopping mall literally halfway around the world from home and randomly running into Eddie and ...

Hard to say at this point. The stock's up 31% as I type. The company announced that it was able to refinance $900 million in debt , but that is not the $900 million that comes due today for the Vegas malls. There's no assurance of further extensions on those loans; I'd have to speculate that this is because Citibank has been playing hardball by wanting a retrade on another deal. And I guess the other banks cannot, have not or will not buy Citi out of its share of the loans, which is one way to skin that cat. For those of you interested in the CMBS part of the deal in the event of a filing, this story on a Fitch downgrade will explain it well , and that those investors ought to be safe becauseof bankruptcy remoteness. Ah yes, substantive nonconsolidation opinions.....zzzzzz...... Have a good weekend! I'll be back if there is more to say. I may have to head back to the Office Depot liquidation sale at the brand-new branch near my house. So sad. That's a ...

Actually, that's a misnomer here. "Dumb doctor deals" are real estate transactions that make no sense but for the fact that there are doctors with plenty of money backing them. Reading this NREI story was a welcome relief from all the gloom and doom in the news lately. The sector, while perhaps not recession-proof, is still alive: According to the latest data from Real Capital Analytics, sales of medical office properties totaled $3.3 billion in the first nine months of 2008, a 13% drop compared with the same period a year earlier. But that dip pales in comparison to the 62% dive in property sales for the entire office market in the third quarter. Whew! Someone's doing something! And banks are dying to lend money to doctors right now, as they think that is a good exposure for their money. Let's face it -- we all get sick. We are, however, noticing anecdotally that the ER is in more use lately. Why? People are waiting until they are really sick to see a doc...

So much to write about, but so little time. Tales from the front? Deals are closing, but lenders are still stalling. One great story I heard today: a lender has been putting off a borrower for six months now for various reasons; the latest is that the appraisal is more than six months old and therefore stale, thus requiring a new appraisal. Gotta love that one. On the good front, I appear to have wrapped up a deal or two today. Many institutional buyers are still sitting out of the commercial market, even cash buyers. Why? They say there's just no confidence at all that we are anywhere near a bottom. I guess the mentality is why buy a 7 cap when it might be an 8 or 9 in a year? Of course, there is still a lost opportunity risk associated with being on the sidelines. You eventually have to move money to make money. (H/T Traffic Court .) One of the better real estate bloggers out there, Doug Cornelius, has moved on from Goodwin Proctor to an in-house gig. I wish Doug we...

I've been meaning to write about this for a couple of weeks, but just plain forgot. Joe Nugent and Chris Curtis, two local real estate brokers, have teamed up to form Nugent Curtis Real Estate, LLC down here in Kankakee. Joe and Chris are both good guys whom I know a little through some deals and their reputation. (Full disclosure: Joe was also kind enough, shortly after he started out on his own a couple of years ago, to spend an evening with me and my wife and her partners looking at land, and, while we never bought anything, we were and are grateful for his courtesy and professionalism.) I think they'll be a good team, and I wish them well.

Kroger is building a new grocery store down here in Bourbonnais and it was scheduled to open on September 13. Unfortunately, in a situation that almost reminds me of a bar exam question, the opening has been postponed indefinitely because there is no "curb cut" permit, or a permit to access the property via the adjoining street. (Kroger operates in a nearby building that it rents; I know one of the owners of that location and I’m sure that person is happy.) I do not purport to know all the facts here, nor am I assigning blame or even suggesting that anyone is in fact to blame. But, had I been involved, is there anything I could have have done to try to prevent this problem? Maybe, maybe not. At the least, I would have tried to obtain title insurance over this issue when buying the land. A basic title policy only insures ownership of the property in question. In a commercial deal of this size, if representing the buyer I would have insisted upon obtaining an access end...

Because it is new construction it is really development, and thus within this blog's bailiwick. New home sales last quarter were at lows not seen since the early 90s. And there's no end in sight. In the city, you have a "glut" of new buildings online or under construction. I use glut in quotes because we've all been talking about this for, oh, seven years, and things bounce back. If it isn't and prices plummet then I guess I'll have that pied-a-terre I've always wanted sooner than later. The suburbs actually scare me far more. There sales are down to levels last seen in the recession of the early 90s. Most firms have laid people off and some companies are going under or on the brink. And there are rumors that new developments, even some with models, are just being shut down, sold off and left as farms for the foreseeable future. This can bring down land prices, which may be good from my perspective as a developer's counsel. I spoke to a so...

What does food have to do with dirt? Development, development, development, my friends. Let me say this right out of the box: I come not to bash Bolingbrook but to praise it. My parents moved to Bolingbrook when I was a little kid, and I consider it my hometown. And I still own property in Bolingbrook. I've written about this to some extent before so I will try not to bore you too much. Bolingbrook in the early 1970s was a small town in the middle of the world's largest cornfield. No stoplights, one grocery (Totura's, which is still in Lemont), no post office, one fast food restaurant (Mr. Quick), a 7-11 and, if I recall correctly, a Union 76 truck stop and three gas stations (Shell, Standard and Hauck Oil [now Speedway]). That was about it. The growth of Bolingbrook into a village of 75,000 has been a sight to see. And I have enjoyed the ride, even though the 70s and 80s were bumpy because of crowded schools, congestion and other growth-associated problems. It took about 2...

There's a new development that is trying to get off the ground near my house. Its name is Rhapsody Cove . I've seen some of this developer's work in the past, and my reaction was, "Boy, I wish this near where I live, because I'd like to love there. Alas, like most of my local friends who could afford to live there, I already built a nice house and put too much into it to move. Plus the development is too far from the center of the action for me. Besides, the costlier the house down here, the harder it is to sell; I've seen some houses go three years, even in a booming market, without a sale. Now, this development is good enough that it may convince some people to go there or others to move down here to take advantage of the ponds, trails and open space. I hope they will succeed, though I don't think it is a slam dunk. This brings us to the interesting incongruity. You can call the developer and get a "muddy tire tour" of the ecologically sen...

The Village of Bourbonnais cut a very nice deal for Edgemark Realty on Monday night. Apparently, the redevelopment of a shopping center anchored by a new Jewel (and, apparently, an Office Depot where an old Jewel once stood) had some cost overruns because of a UST and ACM (that's underground storage tank and asbestos-containing materials for you civilians). So, the Village forgave Edgemark's $450,000 purchase price for the land where Jewel is now (a former K-Mart site). I am philosophically opposed to this giveaway for two reasons. First, I don't think government should generally be a backstop for development risk. Second, I'm surprised that the UST and ACM were unforeseen. But maybe that is because of my past experience with buildings almost identical to those in question and where, lo-and-behold, we found a UST and ACM . I've seen enough of their (excellent) projects to have no doubt in my mind that the Edgemark guys are smart and know what they ...