Scottsdale Arizona Real Estate Blog

Peter Corbett
Arizona Business Gazette
Apr. 26, 2007 12:00 AM

 The Scottsdale Waterfront Residences welcomed the first residents in February in the 13-story western tower.

By June, residents should start to occupy the eastern tower, the one closer to Camelback and Scottsdale roads, said Geoffrey Edmunds, a development partner with Opus West.

The $240 million condo project is the most prominent landmark in downtown’s redevelopment, which in recent years has brought more than $3 billion in public and private investment.

The 198-unit luxury condo project takes its name from the Arizona Canal, which cuts across the site and its mix of shops, restaurants and offices.

A promenade along the canal, a bridge and plaza will create a new focal point for downtown.

Scottsdale Waterfront, Optima Camelview Village and other luxury condos opening downtown will bring a new tier of luxury residential living to the city.

Buyers at the Waterfront paid an average of $1.2 million for condos that rise 143 feet above a growing urban scene in a downtown Scottsdale that includes restaurants, nightclubs and a mix of local and national retailers.

The Waterfront’s last few condos of 1,100 to 5,000 square feet were priced starting at $1.7 million each.

The condos generally match new Scottsdale homes in size, furnishings and amenities, with the exception of the yards and attached garages. Some have compared it with living in a Ritz-Carlton Hotel with a 3,500-square-foot condo instead of the standard room.

The Waterfront offers its residents an underground garage, valet parking, a concierge desk and business center.

The lofty pool deck has a zero-edge pool, a spa, gas barbecue grills and an outdoor kitchen.

Residents can work out in a fitness center above the lobby, then relax in the steam rooms in each of the locker rooms.

The Waterfront’s club room, with its wood-plank floors and paneling, will be a gathering spot for residents that’s also available for private functions, including catered meals and parties. It includes two dining rooms, a professional kitchen and a wine storage room with lockers for every resident.

A patio off the clubroom will look out onto a landscaped public area along the canal.

Waterfront residents will have perhaps Arizona’s greatest selection of shopping at the doorstep, what with the adjacent shops and sprawling Scottsdale Fashion Square a stone’s throw away.

They will be just across the canal from the new SouthBridge restaurant and retail project, which should be completed by fall. Developer Fred Unger plans to open the first of his three restaurants in May.

Plus, the shops and galleries of Fifth Avenue and Marshall Way are minutes away.

Downtown’s expanding universe of nightlife has options for most tastes and ages.

Scottsdale Waterfront itself has a mix or residents ranging from their late 20s to 70s. Only one in five buyers was from out of state, according to Edmunds, the developer.

“These are people we built homes for previously,” he said. “They trust us and didn’t mind buying off blueprints.”

Jeff Roberts, vice president of Opus West, said that the location and amenities attracted buyers.

“There was a clear demand for this style and quality of living,” Roberts said 

The Holm Group 480-206-4265

A new product from Washington Mutual lets borrowers shift from fixed to variable and back again on a dime. 

By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writerApril 26 2007: 2:21 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — There’s a new kind of mortgage in town – and it’s very limber.

Usually, when borrowers want to restructure their mortgages – go from a fixed-rate to a variable rate, for example – they have to refinance, an onerous, expensive process. There are new closing costs, legal fees and title search and insurance fees that could add thousands of dollars to the mortgage principals.

But the new product from Washington Mutual (Charts, Fortune 500) (WaMu), called Mortgage Plus, gives customers the ability to switch the type of loan they have without going through a refinance. Say that originally, a family is planning to spend only a few years in their new house – they may choose a low, variable rate loan. They plan to sell the home and move before rate resets to higher one.

But if they decide to stay in town longer, they can switch the terms of their variable-rate Mortgage Plus loan to a fixed rate.Washington Mutual says the process should take no longer than 15 minutes. Basically, all borrowers have to do is call WaMu or stop into their bank and say they want to switch.

The first reset is free and subsequent ones will usually cost $250 (clients pay no fee ever for moving from a fixed to a variable rate).

Changes can be made twice a year. “It allows you to take advantage of opportunities as they arise,” said Steve Rotella, WaMu CEO, in a press release.All this flexibility comes at a price in the form of higher interest rates. But the Washington Mutual said rates will probably be less than a half percentage point above averages.

 Todd Snow Washington Mutual 602-740-0000

NEW BANK IN THE KIERLAND AREA.. 

Posted by AZ CentralApril, 27^th, 2007 

The Biltmore Bank of Arizona will open its second branch Tuesday at 14850 N. Scottsdale Road, at the corner of Greenway road.

Banking veteran Bill Aust is president of the Scottsdale branch, which will initially employ 10 people.

Aust has been with the bank since its inception in June 2003 and has more than 30 years of business experience and community involvement in the Scottsdale area.

The new branch will offer the same full range of business and personal banking and cash management services provided at the bank’s home office near 32nd Street and Camelback Road.

“Opening a branch in the Scottsdale Airpark area marks the next step in our strategic growth and reflects the growth of our customer base in that region of the Valley,” said Jeffrey P. Gaia, chairman and CEO. “As we continue to grow we will look to add additional branches in similarly important locations across the metropolitan area.”

The Biltmore Bank of Arizona was founded nearly four years ago to provide banking services to the small and mid-sized business market.

At the end of 2006, Biltmore Bank had total assets of $251 million.  

THE HOLM GROUP 480-206-4265

Peter Corbett
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 26, 2007 09:09 AM

 It wasn’t the first time the Arizona State Land Department held a silent auction – so to speak – in which none of the bidders offered a single dime for prime commercial land.

But State Land Commissioner Mark Winkleman still looked disappointed earlier this week when developers took a pass on 125 acres of state trust in the Scottsdale Airpark northeast of Loop 101 and Bell Road.

The land, valued at $68.5 million or $549,000 per acre, is well suited for multistory office buildings along Loop 101 in an area that has seen an office building boom over the past five years.
So what happened?

“I don’t know,” Winkleman said on Tuesday as developers filed out of the Land Department’s basement bidding room.

The price was high but the land commissioner said he thinks the problem may have been the size of the parcel and the complexity of getting it developed.

Scottsdale Airpark commercial Realtor Jim Keeley agreed.

“Ultimately, you would build about 2 million square feet and that is a lot of office space to commit to one (developer),” said Keeley, founding partner of Colliers Classic Commercial Real Estate.

Plus, the office market, which has been good for about five years, could face a slowdown in the next few years, he said. Going once, going twice . . . Opus West, one of five registered bidders, said it liked the location but decided against bidding after weighing what it would take to get the necessary approvals to develop the site.

Other developers were not talking.

Only two groups, Scottsdale Pima LLC and Desert Troon Cos., showed up with a $2.8 million deposit check required for bidders.

“Occasionally, developers need more time, so our staff will continue working with those interested bidders and plan for the sale to take place next month,” said Winkleman, adding that a split of the land is an option.

A rescheduled auction will be held at 11 a.m. May 24 at the Land Department, 1616 W. Adams St.

The department still has high hopes for this parcel, which could generate a record $1 billion in revenue over the 99-year lease. That includes about $800,000 million in lease payments plus a percentage of revenue the project would generate, Winkleman said.

The sale or lease of state trust land goes to support Arizona schools and other state agencies.Previous bidding delayed He noted that developers initially passed on bidding for state trust land in Deer Valley last year. But in October, at a second auction, a Las Vegas developer agreed to pay $216 million for a long-term lease of 74 acres at Seventh Avenue and Rose Garden Lane.

Other state land auctions in the past year for residential development were initially rebuffed as well.Northern site up for bids The land commissioner said the department plans to go ahead with an auction this year of up to 1,700 acres of state trust land in north Scottsdale.

Tempe-based SunCor Development Co. applied last year to acquire the trust land that stretches northeast from Scottsdale and Happy Valley roads to east of Pima Road at Dixileta Drive.

SunCor is studying suitable uses for the land, which is zoned for low-density housing and has washes and power lines cutting across it.

Winkleman angered Scottsdale officials, who expected that the land would not be put up for auction for several years. The city wants the land for its vast McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

Scottsdale will have to compete with the private sector for the trust land when it goes to auction in November or December, Winkleman said. 

Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 25, 2007 12:00 AM  

By one measure, the Desert Ridge area of northeast Phoenix is almost finished.

More than 90 percent of the available land has been sold to developers, much of it at record-breaking prices.

But in some ways, the master-planned community has barely gotten started, even though the first land transactions in the area took place 14 years ago.

Consider: Less than 20 percent of the expected housing in the area has been built, despite it being in private hands.

So what’s behind the delay?

Officials say there are many factors.

Certainly, money is part of the equation. The land prices, which topped last week’s sale of 269 acres west of Desert Ridge Marketplace for almost $150 million, are just part of the cost. But the ongoing housing slump and a lack of infrastructure add to the delay, as well.

“It all should be solid from Phoenix to Scottsdale sooner than you think,” said David Richert, senior executive assistant to the city manager.

Last week’s land sale leaves just three parcels remaining in the area.

• One parcel contains a little more than 25 acres, zoned for high-density residential. It is scheduled for auction at the end of May and has an appraised value of $20.5 million.

• Another parcel wraps around the northern and eastern sides of the Wildfire Golf Club courses. That parcel has 200 acres and is zoned residential. A sale isn’t scheduled.

• Also not scheduled for sale is a 265-acre parcel at Pinnacle Peak Road and 56th Street that is zoned for residential. Neither of the larger parcels has had a price put on it yet.

Those parcels make up the last 9 percent of developable land in the area. The master plan calls for up to 18,000 homes and 50,000 residents, and it could take 10 years to complete.

The buyer, Rightpath Limited, said it expects to complete its development of 3,700 homes, most of them condos, townhouses and apartments, in three to five years.

Other large developments in Desert Ridge appear to be on that kind of schedule. CityNorth, being developed by the Thomas J. Klutznick Co., was announced in January 2005. Only now has work started. The project, assuming it stays on schedule, will be finished by late 2009.

Large parcels farther east, owned by Meritage Homes, Pulte Homes and Toll Brothers Builders, are in the works, but no soil has been turned yet.

David Richert, senior executive assistant to the Phoenix city manager, said a large waterline being built from Cave Creek Road east into Desert Ridge will play a big part in the timing of those developments. It could take four years to finish, he said.

But not everyone is happy about what lies ahead.

Nick Meris, a homeowner in the area, said he is starting to feel the pinch of more people.

“We moved here 10 years ago. What a great move it was, getting out of the hubbub of the city. We were happy when the stores finally came. Now, we are wondering if we need to move on again.”