Heller Companies, a Las Vegas-based commercial real estate development and management firm, has implemented a new strategy to deal with waste at several of its multi-tenant business parks, including Valley View Business Center, one of the largest multi-tenant office/industrial flex projects in Southern Nevada.

The Valley View Business Center development, located at South Valley View Blvd. and Sunset Road, has more than 554,000-square feet of office, showroom and warehouse space, which accommodates more than 200 tenants. Heller Companies principal Jay Heller estimates those tenants produce 2,784 cubic yards of refuse each month.

“We started to analyze ways of incorporating more green practices in our projects and realized that when companies normally think green, they tend to look towards energy efficiency and alternate sources of energy,” Heller said. “But there is equally as much green potential in recycling the materials we use on a daily basis.”

Wanting to leave less of a carbon footprint, Heller set out to correct the problem by adopting and implementing a waste management program for all of his company’s multi-tenant business centers. The program went into effect May 1.

To make the program work, Heller Companies enlisted the assistance of a local recycling company, NVCCU, which consulted with Heller throughout the changeover and supplied the necessary recycle-only bins. The new bins handle all waste material except food waste. Special bins are in place specifically to handle the food waste. The recyclable materials are all co-mingled in the bins and require no additional effort from the tenants to sort.

“As odd as it sounds only the food waste needs to be separated out, which in the entire facility is minimal,” Heller said. “All the co-mingled recyclables go to a special facility owned and operated by NVCCU, where they are then sorted, baled and sent off to be recycled.

“The majority of the waste generated at our developments are recyclable, material such as paper, cardboard, plastics, wood, etcetera, and previously it was all just going to the land fill. Now the majority of our trash is being recycled.”

Because the bins are twice the capacity of previous garbage bins, they are emptied less often, further decreasing the overall carbon footprint of the business park. It also means lower operating costs for Heller Companies, and ultimately the tenants.

“It’s a win-win situation. Everything about this initiative makes sense,” Heller said.

For more information on Valley View Business Center, or other Heller Companies projects, visit www.hellercompanies.com.

Posted May 29, 2009 10:28 AM by Blogging Vegas | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Born to fill a void in Truckee’s (Calif.) affordable housing market, Hopkins Village, earned the award for “Best New Subdivision in the United States” at the 2009 Manufactured Housing Institute’s National Industry Award ceremony during the industry’s National Congress and Expo for Manufactured and Modular Housing at Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas last month.

The subdivision is comprised of two-story, multi-family units that look and feel like town homes that belong in the alpine village located across the California border roughly 30 miles west of Reno.

“This was a unique situation because the product had to fit two criteria that are not usually consistent with one another,” said Leo Poggione, a 1992 graduate of UNLV (Business Administration) and president of Reno-based Craftsman Homes. “They had to be completed within a relatively tight budget, but also be attractive enough so they would not detract from the surrounding area.”

Hopkins Village is located between three world-class golf courses and Northstar, an upscale community that features world-class skiing, a country club, high-end residences and a host of celebrity neighbors.

A greater challenge was the small window of time allowed to complete the project. Because of the unpredictable weather that Truckee is known for, a project of this magnitude - if it were site-built - might take up to 24 months to complete. As modular units that are constructed in closed, controlled environments, shipped and assembled on site, that window was reduced to just 90 days.

“This project presented a lot of challenges that we would not have been able to overcome if we were building these units from scratch,” said Poggione, who also was honored as the 2009 National Retail Person of the Year.

The National Industry Awards are presented annually. Entries submitted for awards were judged by an independent panel of professionals within the planning, community development, Realtor and homebuilding professions.

Craftsman Homes is a 10-year-old Reno company that specializes in the sale of homes from a variety of different manufacturers. To view pictures of these homes you can visit www.forahouse.com or call Craftsman Homes, Inc. at 775-853-3004. For information on the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), go to www.manufacturedhousing.org.

Posted May 26, 2009 2:45 PM by Blogging Vegas | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

I’ve received more phone calls than I can count from people asking for help in refinancing their homes. The typical scenario is a family who took out an adjustable rate mortgage two or three years ago, some of them with no money down, and it is now cycling to adjust. When they took the loan out, it was foreseeable that they could refinance the home in the future into a fixed rate or into another adjustable but the values of the home are so low now that the house is no longer worth what the family owes on the home.

In response to these phone calls, I’m writing some information about what I’ve been reading and hopefully lend a helping hand for those still in need.

My first recommendation is to get prepared to contact your lender and ask for a loan modification. This website has a lender contact list for most lenders. You will need to bypass the first level customer service rep and reach out to the loss mitigation department, workout department or asset management department. You will also need to prepare some documents before you call.

Continue reading "Ideas and resources for preventing Las Vegas foreclosures" »

Posted June 17, 2008 2:21 PM by Casey Moseman | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Many curious consumers are listening to news and reading headlines about the mixed messages being sent about home ownership and loans. For a typical first time home buyer all of this can be very confusing and many people don’t want to ask questions for fear of looking ignorant. I will try to sort through the mixture of reviews being heard in the Las Vegas valley concerning mortgages and explain what these opinions mean.

Most common headline #1: Las Vegas is ranked in the top 10 for foreclosures

It’s very scary for a new homeowner to enter into a purchase seeing what’s happening to other homeowners right now. New home buyers should know that steps are being implemented by our federal and local governments, by mortgage companies as well as secondary market investors so that this problem doesn’t happen again. Right now in the state of Nevada, a person without stellar credit cannot obtain a stated loan and still they are hard to come by WITH hefty down payment/equity requirements. Having that said, anyone approving you for a mortgage must review all your financials and prove that you can financially afford the home. Additionally folks are required to put down some money so they have some skin in the game as opposed to before when 100% financing was running amuck. With some skin in the game it would be much harder for the new homeowner to walk away from the investment.

Most common headline #2: Home appreciation is falling and homeowners are upside down

This is absolutely, 100%, without a doubt true. And what this translates to the first time home buyer is THIS IS A BUYERS MARKET. No one said a buyers market is a warm and fuzzy upside for everyone. It is a market advantageous to a buyer! On the opposite side of the coin someone is losing. That doesn’t mean that you are losing for picking up a home for less than its previous value. And you shouldn’t feel bad for purchasing a home for thousands of dollars less due to someone else’s hardships. People purchasing right now are helping our homes future appreciation by eating up the large supply of homes on the market. Someone really smart stated a pretty clear fact that made a lot of sense, “buy on bad news and sell good news.” Buy when the market is down or low and sell when the market is high or overpriced. Think of keeping your home long term. Don’t believe you can flip a home in this market. Appreciation will make gains again as historically they have shown us an average of 5% a year.

Continue reading "Las Vegas real estate: I hear the buzz on the street is it's a buyers market?" »

Posted May 28, 2008 10:10 AM by Casey Moseman | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Stable Development, a Las Vegas-based real estate developer, has pioneered a model for business owners to build equity in commercial property. Instead of paying rent to a landlord, clients of Stable Development’s Shared Equity Program receive ownership in the building they occupy, essentially becoming their own landlord.

What’s unique about the Shared Equity Program is that it doesn’t require these new commercial property owners to make down payments or guarantee loans.

To further expand the development of the Shared Equity Program, Stable Development recently hired Michael Young and Ryan Gould as team members. Young and Gould will manage and raise awareness of the Shared Equity Program throughout the Las Vegas Valley and nationwide.

The latest example of Stable Development’s Shared Equity Program is Corporate Center at the Curve, next to the I-215 beltway at Sunset Road where a few dozen business owners have signed 10-year occupancy agreements in exchange for a portion of ownership in one of the eight Corporate Center at the Curve buildings.

Continue reading "Stable Development expands Shared Equity Program for building ownership in Las Vegas" »

Posted April 30, 2008 3:17 PM by Pete Codella, APR | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This