Commercial Real Estate Foreclosures [Housing Tracker]

Quote Of The Day 

“We thrive in markets that are overdeveloped. And overdeveloped markets always have people that are struggling or underperforming. We don't really care, because we're not the Chamber of Commerce. But the more people there are in the market, the better it is for us, because we take the top end of that business... I would prefer that our neighbors be successful-- but their success is not entirely relevant to our own performance.” - Steve Wynn, Chairman, CEO, Wynn Resorts Ltd. (Wynn Resorts Ltd. Q2'08 Conference Call Transcript in Seeking Alpha, July 24^th)

Commercial Real Estate

The Chips Are Down in Vegas, but Steve Wynn Is Betting Big. “Las Vegas Sands (LVS) and MGM Mirage… have investors worried about rising debt levels on their balance sheets. MGM (MGM), for example, has its $9.2 billion CityCenter development under way here… On Friday, Boyd Gaming, which owns several middle-market casinos here and co-owns the more upscale Borgata in Atlantic City, said it was delaying construction of a partially built, multibillion-dollar casino on the Strip… citing the credit crisis and the “challenging economic conditions” as reasons. But even smaller companies operating in Atlantic City and elsewhere are hurting: shares of Pinnacle Entertainment are down 62% over the last year, Riviera Holdings is down 73% and Trump Entertainment Resorts is off 83%.”  (NY Times, Aug. 3^rd)

Where Crane Fell, Foreclosure Looms. New York: “The developer of a high-rise apartment house on the East Side of Manhattan where a construction crane collapsed in March, killing seven people, now faces foreclosure and the loss of the entire property… City officials rejected the developer’s revised construction plans in June and revoked his building permit. On July 25, the developer’s lender, Arbor Realty Funding L.L.C., began a foreclosure action in State Supreme Court in Manhattan against the developer, James P. Kennelly, for failure to repay $70.4 million in overdue project loans. Arbor is seeking to sell the property to satisfy the loans.” (NY Times, Aug. 2^nd)

Bank Seeks Foreclosure Against Boca Developers Project. “The 468-unit Marina Grande in North Miami Beach is going the way of many similar projects: into foreclosure. Lender IStar FM Loans (SFI)… has filed a foreclosure lawsuit in Miami-Dade County court against Marina Grande, an unfinished condo by Boca Developers. The action… also named Boca Developers executives James Cohen and Brian Street, plus 18 contractors that worked on the project. The lender based the lawsuit on a May 2006 mortgage with Fremont Investment and Loan for $40 million, which could increase to $350M based on future advances. According to the lawsuit, Cohen and Street personally guaranteed the full payment of $4.9M, plus interest, of the note.” (South Florida Business Journal, July 31^st)

Revere Begins Foreclosure Action Against Dog Track. Massachusetts: “A dog racing track in Revere faces foreclosure proceedings for allegedly failing to pay its taxes. The city’s finance director [said] Wonderland Greyhound Park owes about $789,000 in back taxes over the last two years, along with more than $16,000 in overdue water and sewer bills. Mayor Thomas Ambrosino was unable to explain to the city council last week why Wonderland was able to renew its annual liquor and restaurant licenses despite a lien placed on the property in June 2007. The mayor said the licenses would not be renewed in December if the taxes remain delinquent.” (Boston Herald, July 31^st) 

Developers Scale Back Mega Housing Projects.  “Lennar (LEN) began planning its $1 billion, 3,600-acre Asante project in Surprise in 2004... The community [was] envisioned to include 14,000 homes, schools, [and] a 1 million-square-foot retail center -. Now Lennar launched [only one] 60-acre housing development called the Vistas. Lennar originally had expected to open three or four housing developments… Barclay Group planned to build Surprise Spectrum at Asante, a 124-acre power center... Barclay (BCS) is now re-evaluating its commercial plans for the area, primarily because when the housing market was hot, Surprise increased its commercial building fees. Now, those increased fees could hurt its projects' profitability because of the recent drop in land values.” Arizona Republic, July 28^th)

 

Seeking Alpha's Housing Tracker is a collection of housing-related excerpts from various sources, grouped by topic. Feel free to post any interesting links on the subject in the comments section below.

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Comments

[investor88:]

The news here is all negative. The implication is that it is too early to look for bargains for boom times.

2008 Aug 05 08:11 AM

[Rhett:]

May Steve Wynn be brought down to size. Las Vegas runs on air and there is a widening economic puncture.

2008 Aug 05 09:19 AM

[Richard Col...:]

Steve Wynn is one of the greatest minds in the corporate world today. He made Las Vegas what it is today when he built the Mirage. He's a real leader and he has started to turn the gaming industry around. He did this with Insider Buying at the appropriate time. I'll sign my name.
Daniel Kowkabany

2008 Aug 05 10:06 AM

[notsosmart:]

since wall st & vegas have merged its all one big game. wall st lets you lose slower but nobody brings you a drink. "investing????" is now like rolling dice.i dont think the stockholder is ever mentioned @ board meetings.all are just selfserving entities & if you make a few bucks its just luck.

2008 Aug 05 10:46 AM

[Richard Col...:]

notsosmart
Vegas is a game of chance. It's also entertainment and entertainment is not free anywhere. When's the last time you went to football game and came back with more money than you started with or a vacation and only spent 0 to whatever you won or lost?
Average Wall Street investors and mutual funds over the past 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years have shown a profit.
Just hang in there and buy low and sell high and you'll do o.k. I'll sign my name.
Daniel Kowkabany

2008 Aug 05 11:43 AM

[capital pains:]

I was banished by Alpha for strongly disagreeing with the rosey picture Dan Ahrens has continuously posted on this site ...I expressly pointed out myriad reasons why LVS is a very special loser amongst the gaming stocks.. LVS is desperately seeking $9 billion dollars to fund its expansion plans. In this environment LVS will have to give up its" first born" to raise anywhere near that sum ..
MGM is so severely undervalued that if you must gamble in this sector, only MGM presents a value. Plus, Dubai's deep pockets will ultimately gaurantee any MGM plans, both present and in the future.
With Vegas in a deep recession and with the extortionist Chinese government messing with visa restrictions to Macau, I again state, as I have for 1 year now; the gaming sector is not the place to be !
Hopefully Alpha will respect me enough this time around not to "punish" me for strongly disagreeing with the most wrong-headed analyst in the gaming sector ..Dan Ahrens ..

2008 Aug 25 03:52 PM