Raleigh, North Carolina.  Greg Sandreuter Proposes Four Major Buildings For Downtown Raleigh.  A plan Greg initially presented a year ago has been revised and expanded.  It now calls for two 39 story buildings and two 29 story buildings.  It would also have many street level shops and restaurants, a hotel, condos, half a million square feet of offices and 1,600 parking spaces.  Construction would start in two years and take eight years to complete.  Adding this to all the other downtown projects, both underway and planned, would take what has been (just in the recent past) a pretty drab an dumpy downtown and transform it into almost anyone’s vision of what a new and vibrant American city should look like.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Plans Filed For Addition To Mixed-Used Project.  A project with the rather hum-drum name of 5401 North was approved by the city of Raleigh in January of 2007.  It calls for housing, offices and shops near the intersection of U.S. 401 and I-540.  Last week the developer, Commercial Properties Development Corp. of Louisiana, submitted plans to the city for a new 156 acre residential portion (making the total site about 400 acres) that will contain about 181 lots and set aside 30 acres for open space.  When the entire project is completed there will be approximately 1,400 single-family homes, townhomes, lofts and apartments.  It will also have a movie theatre, hotel and 1.6 million square feet of retail and office space.  5401 North is within the northeast planning district (talked about in one of my recent posts) which is the fastest growing of the ten Raleigh regions.  The nation’s current economic malaise isn’t dampening optimism about Raleigh’s future.  While lending problems are slowing down some projects and putting other projects on hold there is, none-the-less, a continuing stream of new projects being announced.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Four Partnerships Buy 32,000 Sqare Foot Crabtree Office Building.  The buyers are three Greensboro partnerships and one Durham partnership.  The seller is the Narigant Investment Group.  The buyers plant to attract tenants and reduce operating expenses by making the building meet the U.S. Green Building Council standards in Environmental Design and Energy.  A further attraction for both the investors and potential tenants is the building’s prime location at the corner of U.S. 70 and Creedmoor Road.  It is across the street from Crabtree Valley Mall and will soon be under the shadow of the 42 story Soleil Center which is under construction just West of it.  Other buildings are to be built in the immediate area as well.  Tri Properties, a Durham commercial real estate services firm, will handle the building’s renovation and then manage it.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  GlenLake office park to house PRA International.  Drug testing company PRA will bring 500 jobs to Raleigh and to the third Highwoods building in GlanLake.  The GlenLake office park off of Edwards Mill Road near Crabtree Valley Mall is a great central location for almost any kind of business.  It is close to excellent shopping, restaurants, major highways and is in an area that offers a broad range of types and sizes of homes. 

For those of you who are interested in the nation’s economy, the global economy, securities markets, real estate, business and the many facets that make them up I would like to recommend John Mauldin’s web site to you.  If you are well versed in such things you probably are well aware of his site.  If not I think you would find it rewarding to get acquainted with it.  Either way I doubt that you will be able to follow all he has to say but you will understand enough of it to quickly get a pretty good idea of what is happening and what is likely to happen to our economy.  One of the many good things about John’s site is that he has top flight financial people from the most respected firms all over the world who contribute articles and information to his site.  Therefore, while John is highly respected, his is not the only opinion you get.  To stay abreast of what is going on and to learn a lot in the process may I suggest you try - - johnmauldin@investorsinsight.com

Boat Lovers - Listen Up! In the sports section of today’s News & Observer Mike Zlotnicki has a great article about six boat owners who have lavished the time, effort, love - and money - it takes to restore a boat.  Several of them are mouth watering Chris-Crafts.  Be still my heart!

Car Lovers - Listen Up!  In order to present a well balanced cup of lusts I would also like to mention that on Saturday, October 20 the Cadillace and LaSalle Club will meet at the J.C. Harris Pontiac/Cadillac dealership in Wilson.  The dealership is located at the junction of Raleigh Road and Ward Boulevard in Wilson.  If you want to attend call Louis Johnson TODAY at (919) 481-3501 or send him an email – ljohnson21@nc.rr.com.  

John Fish (919) 696-3474    Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com     Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  The office building at 4700 Falls of Neuse Road was sold for $33 million.  The reported price per square foot is $183.  My calculator says that works out to $189.84.  Take your pick.  Interncontinental Real Estate of Boston sold the building to Castle & Cooke. Space in the building currently leases at $21.75 per square foot.  As ot the end of June 89% of the office space in the building was leased.

Geothermal post follow-up.  I received an email from Paul Donaldson about Monday’s post concerning heating and cooling with geothermal units.  Paul is the Territory Manager for North and South Carolina for WaterFurnace of Fort Wayne, Indiana.  He sent detailed information about their product, how it works and about the various types of geothermal loop types.  Paul says WaterFurnace is the #1 unit in the world.  I don’t know about that but I do know that:  (1) - Either Paul or WaterFurnace (or both) is pretty darn good.  When I mention a product or a product area I rarely get a response from anyone associated with either one.  That indicates to me that these are pretty good business people and that they probably stay on top of things.  (2) - If you are interested in a geothermal unit you would do well to get WaterFurnace’s information.  Regarless of where you live why not send Paul an email and ask for it.  His email address is:  paul.donaldson@waterfurnace.com.  Like it or not Paul, this is what you get for being on the ball.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website:  wwwJohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Downtown buildings “grow” in size.  Plans for a downtown 10-story office building and a 9-story residential building have been expanded. The 10 story building is to become 21 stories and the 9 story will become 15 stories.  Steriods?  Nope - demand!  The buildings, known as ’Site One’ are to be built on the eastern half of the lot where the old Convention Center stood.  The “growth” is due to strong demand for space in downtown Raleigh and projections for even more in the future.  Office vacancy during the second quarter was at 6%.

An open breezeway plaza is to connect the buildings and there will be an underground parking deck.  The 21 story building will have 332,000 square feet of office space, 35 residential units and 284,000 square feet structured parking.  The 15 story building will have 187 residential units, 21,000 square feet of retail space and 137,000 square feet of structured parking.

The complex is being developed by TMC Development Group.  TMC is a collaboration between Beacon Street Development Co. and White Oak Properties of Raleigh, Craig Davis Properties of Cary and EastWest Partners of Chapel Hill.

John Fish (919) 696-3474     Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com     Website: www.JohnFish.com 

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Office space demand and rents rise.  Grubb & Ellis/Thomas Linderman Graham reports that in the three months ended June 30, quality office space in the region averaged $21.69 per square foot - a record.  That’s an increase of $1.25 from the first quarter.  There was a 12.1% office vacancy in Wake, Durham and Orange counties which was a six year low.  Rising gasoline prices, increasing steel and labor costs, demand for space by businesses and investors are all combining to cause rents to rise.

Rents at 3700 Glenwood are about $26 per square foot and a twin is advertised at $28.95.  GlenLake Office Park is asking $23.00 per square foot and a twin is asking $24.50.  While there is still a lot of space to fill there is, at this point, a short, medium and long-term need for considerably more.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.johnfish.com 

Raleigh, North Carolina - Aegon USA Realty Advisors which last month purchased WestChase II and III office buildings, purchased the 98,000 square foot WestChase I for $12.75 million. This translates into just over $130 per square foot.   

John Fish (919) 696-3474   email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com