Ritz-Carlton Gets Deadline From Rancho Mirage

By Kate McGinty, The Desert Sun
December 4, 2009

The long-awaited Ritz-Carlton in Rancho Mirage must open for business by June 2011, the City Council decided Thursday.

Under a new operating contract with the hotel, which was approved 4-0, the city laid out details of a modified financing agreement and set a new deadline for the hotel to open for business.

The Ritz-Carlton, in the Santa Rosa Mountains at the top of Frank Sinatra Drive, must open its doors by June 30, 2011.

The hotel — which is “coming back to life”— plans to pick up construction by March to make that happen, project attorney Emily Hemphill said.

“I think finally I can stand here and tell you we are making significant progress,” she said.

The previous hilltop hotel, The Lodge, shut down in August 2006 to be renovated into the Ritz-Carlton. The city estimated it would raise at least $1.2 million in annual transient occupancy tax.

Construction came to an abrupt halt last year, though, after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., a major investor, filed for bankruptcy.

That left about 80 percent of the project complete and more than 200 people without jobs.

Now, the hotel is on the cusp of clearing its debt on the project and an equity partner is buying the lender note, Hemphill said.

The hotel will next secure a construction loan, which Hemphill estimated could be about $50 million.

Construction is then expected to take about seven months, City Manager Pat Pratt said.

Hemphill was optimistic the hotel could open ahead of schedule.

“I don't think it would be very long. My guess is if we could get started in the first quarter of the year, that we would be open for the subsequent season,” she said.

Councilman Dana Hobart said Rancho Mirage residents and the rest of the Coachella Valley have eagerly awaited the opening, and its progress is a sign the valley can flourish.

“The completion of this project will be evidence to all of the world that the Palm Springs valley is a tourism destination that is a vibrant destination, regardless of world and national distress,” he said.

Report: California foreclosures drop in December

from the LA Times:

Notices of default dropped 17.5% compared with November and 32.5% on a daily average basis, according to the report by ForeclosureRadar.com.

The drop in foreclosures appears to reflect an easing in activity by banks and other lenders hoping to avoid delivering disheartening news to troubled buyers and shutting people out of their homes during the holiday season, said the website, which is based in Discovery Bay, Calif.

Mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suspended foreclosures for part of last month through Jan. 3, and Citigroup Inc. also said it would suspend some foreclosures and evictions for part of last month through Jan. 17.

“The dramatic drop in foreclosure activity may have been a Christmas gift to homeowners,” Sean O’Toole, chief executive of ForeclosureRadar.com, said in a statement. “Given rising mortgage delinquencies, it is becoming increasingly clear that foreclosure activity no longer fully represents market realities.”

Foreclosure sales were canceled at an increasing rate in December, but only by 3.5% on an average daily basis. That was much smaller than anticipated by analysts at ForeclosureRadar.com, given the push by the Obama administration to make trial loan modifications under its Home Affordable Modification Program permanent.

-- Alejandro Lazo

Move Your Money: A New Year's Resolution

Too-big-to-fail banks are profiting from bailout dollars and government guarantees, and growing bigger.

Last week, over a pre-Christmas dinner, the two of us, along with political strategist Alexis McGill, filmmaker/author Eugene Jarecki, and Nick Penniman of the HuffPost Investigative Fund, began talking about the huge, growing chasm between the fortunes of Wall Street banks and Main Street banks, and started discussing what concrete steps individuals could take to help create a better financial system. Before long, the conversation turned practical, and with some help from friends in the world of bank analysis, a video and website were produced devoted to a simple idea: Move Your Money to a Community Bank.

WestJet to provide year-round service to Palm Springs airport from Canada

From The Desert Sun; Dec 2009

Canadian airline WestJet announced today it will expand from seasonal to year-round service to Palm Springs International Airport, according to a city news release.

Beginning in June the airline will fly two weekly round trips, on Thursday and Sunday, from its hub in Calgary, Alberta, the release stated.

WestJest provides daily service to Palm Springs from Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, it added. The airline has transported some 128,000 passengers to and from the Coachella Valley this year, according to Tom Nolan, Executive Director of the Palm Springs International Airport.

SoCal median home price holds steady

The median home price in Southern California held steady at $275,000 last month compared with August, as low mortgage rates and other incentives enlivened a normally sleepy season for sales, a tracking firm said Tuesday....

Palm Springs Real Estate - July Home Sales Increase

The Associated Press reported July home sales surged more than 7 percent. This includes home resales posting the largest monthly increase in at least 10 years. Click Here to read the full article.

Call M1 Properties for Market or Property Information. We are your desert real estate experts.

Jeremy Metz
jmetzm1@gmail.com
www.m1properties.com
760-864-1410

Recovery Signs in Housing Market Stir Some Hope

An article David Streitfeld of the New York Times details the following:“The long slide in housing prices is continuing to brake, figures released Tuesday indicate. For the fourth consecutive month, there was modest improvement in May in housing prices, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, a closely watched measure of the market.” Streitfeld points out “The report contained another, more startling piece of data: prices increased in May by a half-percentage point from April, the first positive monthly return for the index in three years.”

“It is very possible that years from now we will say that April 2009 was the trough in home prices,” S.& P.’s vice president for index services, Maureen Maitland, said.

“Recession is over, economy is recovering — let’s look forward and stop the backward-looking focus,” the Wells Fargo chief economist John E. Silvia wrote in a research note.

“For 16 months, beginning in October 2007 and ending in January 2009, the Case-Shiller index posted record annual declines. As recently as February, all of the 20 cities in the index showed a decline from the previous month,” Streitfeld states. “In May, only five of them did. The cities that are still dropping are Las Vegas and Phoenix, the two places where the bubble was the worst, and Miami, Seattle and Los Angeles. Prices improved in 13 cities.”

Although there are still skeptics out there, it is very possible the bottom is behind us and we can look to the future. From what we have seen first hand with the Palm Springs real estate market, today represents an opportunity. The prices have stabilized and the inventory is changing. The best properties are selling quickly. Deals are happening today that we will look back on and be amazed.

Call M1 Properties at 760-864-1410. We are local market experts and can help with your Palm Springs real estate needs. Full story click here.

Jeremy Metz
M1 Properties
Palm Springs Real Estate Sales