REAL ESTATE NEWS

A UTAZ referred bank has announced a temporary special on commercial mortgage rates:

The 4.95% is a 5 year fixed rate on a 20 year amortization. The LTV is 80%, which can be extended to 85% with strong medical borrowers.

Call for more info, 480-304-7477.

Gilbert – Ironwood Gilbert LLC in Paradise Valley (Ironwood Cancer and Research Centers, Dr. Parvinder Khanuja, principal) paid $1,825,250 ($175 per foot) to purchase a 10,430-square-foot medical office building located at 3855 S. Val Vista Drive in Gilbert. The seller was Mercy Point Medical Center, Inc., an affiliate of UTAZ Development Corporation in Gilbert (Craig Willett, president). The seller was represented by Kyle LeSueur of UTAZ Real Estate Corporation in Gilbert. The building sold in shell condition. The buyer intends to occupy with Ironwood Cancer and Research Centers, which has multiple valley locations including Chandler and Mesa. UTAZ is pleased to welcome Ironwood Cancer and Research Centers to the Mercy Point Medical Center.

Gilbert – MDNB LLC in Gilbert (Dr. Tim Bryan, principal) paid $476,084 ($180 per foot) to purchase a 2,648-square-foot medical office building located at 4365 E. Pecos Road in Gilbert. The seller was Power Ranch Professional Village Development LC, an affiliate of UTAZ Development Corporation in Gilbert (Craig Willett, president). The buyer was represented by Sheila Bale of Prudential CRES in Scottsdale. The seller was represented by Kyle LeSueur of UTAZ Real Estate Corporation in Gilbert. The building sold in shell condition. The buyer intends to occupy with a family practice. UTAZ is pleased to welcome Dr. Tim Bryan to the Power Ranch Professional Village.

Craig Willett, UTAZ President & CEO, was featured in the Phoenix Business Journal’s Commercial Real Estate Section on July 31, 2009.

They quote:

“Things have started picking up again for Gilbert-based UTAZ Development Corp., which has sold or leased more than 13,000 square feet of office condo space in the past [month].

“Willett said UTAZ is seeing activity because of the ‘function of value’ in the market right now. With prices dropping and interest rates low, he said potential buyers have come back into the market to get good deals. He said prices have stabilized in the past few months, making it an attractive buyer’s market.

“‘Today by far represents the best value we’ve seen in years,’ Willett said. ‘The fact we’ve been doing more business in the last 60 days than we did in the last nine months means we have definitely turned a corner.’”

The full article is available at bizjournals.com

By Craig Willett

There are not many individuals who have the ability to pick the “tops” of markets nor the “bottom” of markets. Don’t you ever wonder why so many people are buying stocks when the market is up? Why don’t people rush out and buy investments when they are tumbling? The elements of supply and demand dictate that very action, markets move higher based on demand and scarcity. Markets move lower from lack of demand and or oversupply of product. With the bidding wars pushing home prices up, the next move for office ownership will be up. The uptick in market activity for completed shell buildings is the highest it has been in nearly two years. With low interest rates and the drastic reduction in office prices – nearly 40%, the renewed demand is going to cause scarcity of well located office space. The weak businesses and business operators have closed their doors as victims of the economic downturn.

The time to buy office space is now. While nobody is perfect at picking bottoms, the decision to wait any longer to buy your next office is not likely to be rewarded with lower prices or costs. With the interest rates historically low, and all of the money being pumped in to revive the economy, a major uptick in rates in the next 12 months is likely. This event will increase your monthly payment (cost of ongoing ownership). Many banks have pulled their loans from developers not allowing them to finish buildings they have started. The uptick in demand and the lack of construction will leave very few choices for well-located office space.

While nobody is perfect, now is a great time to buy and the chance is high that you will reward yourself with lower payments than you would by waiting and greater appreciation by taking advantage of the economic circumstances that have lead to a 40% reduction in prices. Buying the right office space at the right time will bring great rewards.

By Rajiv Kapadia (rkapadia@spgstudios.net)
TI Architect

Many business owners, while aware of the numerous advantages of having a custom designed space, are often hesitant to embark upon the tenant improvement process. Perceived deterrents are often cost, time and unfamiliarity with the process. The following article attempts to shed some light on these issues and thus assist the owner in objectively determining the best course of action for their business.

The process ideally begins with an initial (often no-cost) consultation with the architect who will obtain the specifics of your project from you. This will generally include information such as project size, location, target budget, timeframes, special considerations, services desired, and so forth. Based on this you will be provided with a fee proposal and contract. You can elect to hire the engineers separately but you will almost always be better served through a single contract with the architect for both the architectural and engineering work. For a typical tenant improvement, an architect will hire mechanical, plumbing and electrical engineers as sub-contractors. On occasion, you may require the services of a structural engineer, fire-protection/fire-alarm specialist, or other specialists, depending upon the complexity of your project and the rules of the governing local jurisdiction. The architect should be able to advise you regarding these. A single contract generally makes the architect your single-point contact for all architectural and engineering issues and holds the architect accountable for the performance of his or her sub-contractors. Once you have hired the architect you will need to provide him or her with the “as-built” information, which is generally copies of the existing building plans in hard or softcopy format.

You will also either provide an architectural program to the architect, or else use his or her services to help you establish one. This is a list of your requirements and can be either a brief summary of the desired spaces and their relational dependencies, or a detailed listing of these along with other factors such as required performances of certain building elements. Put another way, it can be a simple count of rooms, their functions, and their desired proximity to one another. Or it can be as detailed as a room-by-room analysis identifying specifics such as the wall against which certain equipment will need to be installed, so that the architect knows to give you the right amount of power at that location etc. It can also be intangible items such as ensuring that certain rooms have sound privacy whereas others have a view of the exterior landscaping, which might translate to increased insulation in the walls and rooms oriented to a specific direction. The architect will then create one or more customized space plans for you, based upon these criteria.

Thereafter the process follows an iterative loop whereby the architect refines the space plan based on your feedback until such time as most, if not all, of your requirements are met and the architect is fairly confident the plan is approvable and constructible, barring any unknowns. Alternatively, it may not be possible to meet all your requirements for a number of reasons, in which event you will have either revised your requirements or agreed to proceed further on an “at-risk” basis.

Once the space plan has been finalized and marked by your approval, the architect will proceed with the construction documents. This usually involves creating the technical documents that explain to the local municipality how code requirements are being met, as well as establish the construction systems and materials for the contractors so that they may construct to the specified minimum standard. All of the engineering is completed as part of this process.

Once the construction documents are complete, they are submitted to the reviewing jurisdiction (usually city), which checks for compliance with locally adopted codes and ordinances. The plan-review officials usually will generate a list of comments or questions wherein they may reject certain portions of the documents, request further clarifications, and/or impose additional requirements. The architect, along with his or her engineering team, will review the comments and respond appropriately. Any changes stemming from such comments that involve a substantial deviation from your requirements generally should be brought to your notice. These revised construction documents are then resubmitted for second review, at the end of which either a construction permit is granted or else a second set of comments is issued by the city. On some occasions a third or, rarely, fourth set of comments may be issued, but they are generally of smaller magnitudes than previous versions, especially on smaller sized tenant improvement projects. Once the city approves the construction documents and issues a construction permit a general contractor can usually begin construction on the project immediately.

As an informed owner, the design, engineering and permitting process does not need to be an intimidating process subject to guesswork, but rather an inclusive forum with a predictable outcome in sync with your tastes, pocketbook, and calendar.

Rajiv Kapadia is a registered architect with 20 years’ experience. As principal of SPG Studios, he has competed more than 120 medical, dental, and office projects. Examples of his work are available for viewing at www.spgstudios.net.

According to the New York Times, “The administration’s plan included provisions increasing loan guarantees for small business to 90 percent of the loan value to encourage banks and other lenders to extend credit, and waiving the Small Business Administration’s loan fees and requiring banks that received federal bailout money to report each month how much small-business lending they did.”

Source: New York Times

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gilbert, AZ (February 18, 2009)— UTAZ™ Development announced today the Seller Carryback Program, a plan to help medical practitioners and small business owners reduce the amount required for the down payment in order to purchase office space. “The Seller Carryback is a plan whereby UTAZ™ will finance up to an additional five percent of the total project cost of new office space,” Craig Willett, UTAZ™ President and CEO revealed, “effectively reducing the down payment by half for an SBA Loan.”

Current SBA loan guidelines allow up to ninety percent financing for medical practices and small businesses. Couple that with the five percent carryback offered by UTAZ™, and the loan to value ratio totals ninety-five percent—a very favorable position for doctors and business owners with limited liquidity or a desire to leverage others’ money. This allows for business owners in these uncertain times to reduce the amount of capital they need to invest allowing them to keep more of their capital to weather the current economic times.

With yesterday’s approval of the stimulus package, all government SBA loan fees are now temporarily waived, making it more desirable for SBA lenders to provide financing. “The financing is available, rates are low, prices are great,” affirms Willett. “With only five percent down, there has been no better time to buy while holding onto more of your savings or capital.”

The Seller Carryback Program continues until April 30^th, 2009 and is available at 10 UTAZ Professional Village™ locations, including Gilbert, Chandler, Queen Creek (Pinal County), Sun Lakes, and Casa Grande. For more information call Kyle LeSueur at (480) 304-7477.

UTAZ™ Development Corporation is the creator of the “Professional Village” concept, uniquely designed to increase revenue to small businesses and medical practices that purchase offices in a Professional Village. Since 1997, UTAZ™ has developed more than 30 unique commercial office properties in the Valley. The Professional Village design elements combine visibility, prestige, exceptional locations, ample front door parking, and convenience to offer bottom-line success to small business owners, professionals, and medical practitioners.
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The Federal Reserve Slashed a short term key interest rate by three-quarters of a percent today. This translates into lower commercial real estate interest rates for office space buyers.

According to Bob Wasieko with Security Mortgage, “Affordability has doubled in the past 12 months,” referring to the one-year-ago Prime rate at 7.25 % that is now 3.25%. “There are a lot of viable lenders out there, hungry for good loans.”

For medical, dental and professional practices, now is a great time to take advantage of these “all-time low” rates.
For more information, please call 480-304-7477.

The Phoenix Business Journal reports “the Federal Reserve Board announced plans Nov.25 for a $200 billion lending facility aimed at unfreezing secondary markets for U.S. Small Business Administration loans and consumer loans.” According to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson this will “[enable] a broad range of institutions to step up their lending.” Read the article at http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/12/08/story14.html