It seems like the Montage and downtown issues are what everyone wants to talk about, so I’ll give them their own thread. Rumors certainly have been swirling lately. At least 2 readers of this blog have units reserved at the Montage – maybe they could give us the "facts" as they know them – and many more readers are plugged into the industry. I have absolutely no inside information, but will share what I have found in the public records.
When a project starts going bad financially, the contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and consultants are usually the first to know – they aren’t getting paid and start filing liens. There are NO significant liens on the property, and the industry scuttlebutt is that everyone are happy campers.
The $143,164,000 construction loan for the project (Recorder Document 3478066 21 December 2006) has a maturity date of 15 December 2008. This is probably the source of the "going back to Corus Bank on the 15th" rumor. The recorded deed of trust includes references to unrecorded documents that allow extensions of the loan up to 15 May 2009. Could the rumor be true? Yes, but I highly doubt it.
A buyer can’t close on a unit until it has received a Certificate of Occupancy (CO) from the City. Although there are some out-standing floors still under permit, the majority of the project had received COs by 20 November 2008. The Montage would not have been able to issue their enforceable 30 Day Closure Notifications to buyers until they received the COs, and closings could not begin until 20 December at the earliest. Closings are phased, since everyone can’t move in at once.
$143,164,000 divided by 370 units = $386,930 per unit. The project pro forma would also have included allowances for carrying costs, construction contingencies, sales and marketing costs, and of course profit. If you assume 30% for these costs, it would put the expected average unit sale price at a scooch over $500,000.
I really like the Montage, and "Mikey hates everything". Everything has been built to first class standards, and I admire Fernando Leal’s vision and commitment to downtown Reno. It will be a big blow to all of us if the project is not successful.
On another but related note, DowntownMakeoverDude has a great article on the Reno City Council prioritizing the 73 projects they would like to be part of the (still theoretical) Main Street Stimulus Package. Make sure to check out the list and leave comments, both there and here and with your councilperson.
GLF
To all Montage purchaser’s: I am represented by Lee Hotchkin, Esq of Reno (775 786-5791) to secure the return of my contract deposit. His representation has been excellent and I recommend to any Montage purchaser thinking about buying or not buying to seek his advice.
Renotopdog
Commerciallender–thanks for the advice. In no way do I want any Montage buyer to breach their contract with the seller and I would not assist in such action. That would be Tortuous Interference. Likewise I am not an attorney and never give legal advice. That’s what we pay the lawyers for. What I want is the opportunity to exercise my free speech and the blogs provide a forum for this.
Renotopdog
So many of our politicians have failed to file property IRS tax returns and only pay delinquent taxes, interest and penalties when caught. I wonder what will happen to the heavy hearted developers in this current real estate downturn?
On 12/30/08 when 255 North Sierra Street LLC and Commercial & West LLC provided Corus Bank/Montage Marketing Corp with a deed in lieu of foreclosure–did a taxable event occur? Would there be taxable income to 255 North and Commercial & West for real property business debt forgiveness? Wonder if there will be any flow through debt forgiveness income to the owners of these two companies? This Montage mess could be a very expensive IRS event to some developers.
Complicating the situation both 255 North and Commercial & West were dissolved on 12/31/08—a New Years Eve Special. Guess we’ll have to wait and see if the IRS is happy with the tax returns. Most likely Corus Bank will send them a 1099-C. Good luck on this one.
smarten
Hey Renotopdog, I think there’s a whistle blower’s provision in the IRS and if you’re the result of the IRS securing delinquent income tax revenue, you get a bounty!
So my suggestion would be to wait until after April 15, 2009 and then send a letter with all the little details to the IRS making request for your share of the tax the IRS ultimately secures, if any, as a result of this episode.
Good luck.
Arlo
The Las Vegas Sun ran a story about the LV high rise condos yesterday. Almost none of these projects ever got to even 50% sold. And now, the developers are in a race to the bottom with the shortselling owners trying to cut their losses and run. The developers can undercut the shortsellers, causing the shortsellers to just give up and let their units become REO. So now it’s the banks and the developers trying to undercut each other. Meanwhile, the developers are turning their unsold inventory into rentals, further depressing values.
It is a major trainwreck.
stjoe56
The Downside for Condos in a Downturn
By TERI KARUSH ROGERS
Published: February 6, 2009
For the full article go to
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/realestate/08COV.html?pagewanted=all
FOR WHAT IT IS WORTH.
. . .
Mr. Kuperberg sketched out a second chain of events, this one pertaining to new buildings with many unsold units. It unfolds like this: Unable to sell half the units in a building, a struggling developer stops paying common charges and defaults on obligations to the lender. Foreclosure by the lender may take years, while individual unit owners effectively wind up paying double their normal common charges. This pushes some owners, themselves struggling, into default. Meanwhile, they are trapped — unable to sell, even at a steep loss, because most mortgage lenders won’t lend to potential buyers in a building where half the units are in default.
“That is a death spiral that could push a building into bankruptcy,” Mr. Kuperberg said. “You basically have a building unable to meet its operating expenses.”
Once the lender succeeds in foreclosing on the developer, there may not be enough money to cover the lender costs and unpaid common charges, forcing the unit owners to permanently swallow the loss. And while the lender must pay carrying costs going forward, it may decide not to throw good money after bad and instead dump the units at auction. The investors who buy them may act against the building’s best interests — renting them out cheaply (introducing a transient population that, among other things, inflicts more wear and tear) andelecting boards who defer maintenance and refuse to make improvements.
“We work with a building that’s about 50 percent sold and the developer is gone — they lost all their money and they weren’t able to sell,” said one managing agent who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for the impact on property values in the building. “The lender took over and pays the common charges but doesn’t talk to us and won’t return our calls. If you’re running a building and 50 percent of the ownership doesn’t give you direction, that’s a problem. But I’m really nervous about what happens if the lender sells into the vulture market.”
Even condo boards in fully sold buildings have begun to contemplate the once unthinkable: slashing the very amenities that defined the recent boom.
“The boards are starting to talk about cutting things that might be considered a little excessive,” said Leslie Bogen Winkler, the vice president and director of management at Penmark Realty, a property management firm that has opened 50 condo buildings in the last three and a half years. “They may reduce health-club hours and maybe scale back breakfast. The biggest amenities that are costly are the health club with a swimming pool. It can run up to $200,000 to $400,000, depending on the size, hours open and operator.”
Renotopdog
Smarten–thanks for the bounty info. I’ll keep on top of this one.
lukywnr
Is there a way to verify the number of cash buyers that have closed so far?
Renotopdog
No one has closed as of 2/10/09. You can check with the Washoe County Recorder’s web site and search grantor/grantee under the names of 255 North Sierra Street, LLC or Montage Marketing Corporation. You won’t find any closings yet.
Renotopdog
Downtown Reno condos hit a foreclosure high. It seems as if just about every condo unit in the Belvedere Condo building, 450 N. Arlington Ave. is either in foreclosure or heading in that direction. Guess the lawsuit by Metcalf Builders, Inc. case no. CV08-02058 and its Notice of Lis Pendens has sent the owners running for the front door.
Not much better at the Riverwalk Condo building, 200 W. 2nd St. Foreclosure are growing at this downtown disaster as well. This is the typical story for most of the downtown condo projects.
All of this within a short walk of the Montage. Could this be–“Back to the Future”.
Maybe Leal, or some of his buddies or even Corus Bank executives will buy in the Montage to improve the sales level and appraisal values. No–they are not that crazy.
GreenNV
Belvedere update – Most of the units in default were purchased by the shady “friends and family.” Belvedere owned the parking lot just west across Arlington. It went back to the lender a couple months ago. The main project received a Notice of Sale, and is scheduled for the courthouse steps on the 17th.
Some of the Riverwalk foreclosures are coming back on the market at over 50% off their original prices. I’m working up a post about the Grand Sierra Resort – yikes!
eabo56
Just heard that there is an informational meeting Friday at noon for contract holders. You must bring documentation that you are a certified contract holder. Call ahead to see what’s up.
Lawyer’s info is:
Ken Lyon and Jon Whitehead
Law Offices of Kenneth Lyon
6121 Lakeside Drive, Suite 200, Reno, Nevada 89511
http://www.kennethlyon.com Telephone: 775-823-7700
Sunshine
I would urge everyone who does not want to close on their condo at The Montage to unite and attend the Friday meeting if possible
RenoRetiree
These downtown condos are a mismatch for the Reno demographics. Reno gambling was built on the backs of the little guys–the retirees who blow $20/day on the slots and another $12 for a buffet meal and $1 tip. Now $33 doesn’t sound like a lot until you start multiplying: $33 * 365 * 10000 = $120 million/year.
What should have been done is to simply make a few cosmetic changes to the exterior of the old casino buildings, put in new carpets in each unit, put some better soundproofing on the walls between units, add a microwave and mini-refrigerator to each unit, and maybe a few other minor changes, but that’s it. Then turn the buildings into coops, with strict prohibitions against renting, and sell them for $60,000 unit cash, with monthly coops fees (including utilities and property taxes) of maybe $400/month.
Let’s run these numbers on the Belvedere, which had something like 500 units when it was the Sundowner hotel. If we assume the $400/mo fee includes $50/mo for property tax, thats leave $350/mo x 500 units x 12 = $2.1 million for management and maintenance, which should be sufficient. The true market value of the Sundowner building and land (exclusive of the gambling license, which I know nothing about) should have been $20K per unit max, for a total of $10 million for the building. Now add another $20K per unit for renovations and selling costs, then sell for $60K per unit, and you’re talking about $10 million profit on an investment of $20 million over the space of maybe 2 years. Not bad. It would have been a piece of cake to sell these units for $60K each back in 2006. No need for outside real estate agents. Just hire some guy to stand on Virginia street and hand out flyers offering some sort of freebie to people who walked two blocks over the Sundowner to listen to a sales spiel.
At $60K/unit, the buyers are getting a pretty good deal as well. Figure that $60K has an opportunity cost of 3% above inflation, or $150/mo. Add $400/mo coop fee and you’re talking $550/mo total effective housing/utility costs, other than cable and phone service. Not bad.
For a couple, a single unit might have been tight quarters. Very well, buy both his and hers units for $120K up-front plus $800/month continuing costs. Again, not a bad deal.
I know there are people who will jump on me about some of what I am saying above:
1) Banks won’t loan against coops so you can’t resell them! Go read that NYTimes article above about the problems with condos and foreclosures. The solution is low prices. That way, buyers pay cash and the loan problem disappears. If the buyers can’t come up with $60K cash, then maybe those aren’t the types of buyers you want in the building.
2) You can’t sell a condo without a full kitchen, and probably not without granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, etc! Now granted, just like you have people who can’t imagine life without a full garage full of powertools and a big space to overhaul their cars and a yard for their 3 dogs, likewise there are people who can’t imagine not having a place to fry up a mess of bacon and onion rings and thereby stink up their whole house with cooking smells. The thing is, those people live in suburbia. Condos are for people who want a carefree existence. When downtown condo dwellers have a sudden lust for fried bacon and onion rings, they trot on down to a nearby restaurant.
3) What about the amenities like a pool and gym? Only a small minority of people use these and they raise monthly costs for everyone else. Swim in the river. Join a public gym. Better yet, lease some of that old casino space at the bottom of these buildings to someone who wants to run a public gym.
4) $60K upfront plus $400/mo continuing costs sounds low-rent. Won’t low costs attract the wrong element? First, the true low-rent element seldom has $60K of available cash. Second, the coop boards can be selective about who it allows in.
As gambling declines, the Sands will probably be the next joint to close. I hope they have the sense to follow the rearview mirror advice I am giving here about what the Sundowners/Belvedere should have done.
Looking forward in regards to ultimate pricing for the luxury condos, I start with the old 100 times gross monthly rent multiple rule for multi-family housing as a sanity check. That is, if a multi-family dwelling has units which rents for $1000/month, then each unit should sell for $100K. Maybe you can boost the multiple to 150x for owner occupants, since these don’t have all the costs of a landlord (vacancy, higher insurance, management, profit margin). Then again, the 100x rule is primarily for buildings without HOA’s. So 150x is definitely a max. (Detached owner-occupant housing has traditionally sold for multiples of 180 to 200, but hi-rise condos seem much more similar to multi-family rental buildings than detached houses.) Anyway, Craigslist shows 1BR at the Riverwalk for $1000/mo, 1BR at Palladio for $1350/mo, $650 for a studio in the Park Towers, $1450/mo for a 2BR in the Arlington Towers. Readers can do the 100x convesion in their head. The 150x conversion results in $150K for Riverwalk 1BR, $202.5K for Palladio 1BR, $97.5K for the Park Towers studio, $217.5Kk for the Arlington Towers 2BR. Personally, I think the 100x multiple will prevail in the long run, which suggests there is still plenty of blood to be spilt. Prices are going to collapse in real terms and nominal terms as well unless we have some really bad inflation in the years ahead.
Now return to my proposal for $60K units in the Sundowner converted to a coop. At the 100x multiple, this translates to $600/mo for a studio with full bath, great view, microwave/mini-refrigerate rather than a full kitchen, which is about right.
In the long run, I think the future of Reno downtown involves making it a mecca for the early retiree crowd of moderate means. The people whose aim in life is to retire at 55 and spent the rest of their life RV’ing during the warm months and returning to home base (downtown Reno) in the cold months. Reno is perfect for this crowd, especially if they like gambling. It is really too bad all these luxury condos were built, because they are overkill for this crowd and now all these business failures are going to poison the waters for the next decade.
Tom
RR, your interesting and well thought-out comment concludes that “the future of Reno downtown involves making it a mecca for the early retiree crowd of moderate means.” I am not “jumping” on you, I just want to comment on the social-economic impact of that vision upon local government.
Maybe your proposition is economically consistent, but isn’t that what age-driven projects like Sun City seek to provide? In those places, as a senior, you pay your money and get a smallish apartment-type unit, a place to park the RV nearby, some amenities, and hired staff to do everything. But I think to make this premise fly as you have applied it, the term “moderate” would need to be replaced by “very limited.” Because “moderate” means seniors will typically go to the Sun City models. Your model, I suspect, would be attractive to seniors without options.
There is a social problem with such a “very limited” means model, though. It would drown the local governmental entity in Medi-Cal type supplemental health care costs and over-stress public benefits programs. I believe that you cannot concentrate a large, disproportionate number of very limited means seniors in one county without taking on a significant services cost. It may be attractive for the recipients, but it amounts to a wealth transfer from others in the county whose taxes will be raised to support the bulge in the demographics which such a model creates.
As my erstwhile senior partner once commented, “There is nothing wrong with communities of older poor people; they are nice folks, the problem is they just don’t have any money.”
We could talk about the availability of Medicare, SSI, private supplement plans, social security, savings, all of those things, but the truth of the matter remains that any economic model bulging the demos with a needy group of seniors will over-burden the local governments’ resources.
There must be a better way.
RenoRetiree
Tom: there is an old adage in business. “Sell to the classes, eat with the masses. Sell to the masses, eat with the classes.” Walmart is a fine example of putting this adage into practice. The elderly with tiny social security pensions are certainly a burden on the country as a whole (“useless eaters”) but they are a boon to those who know how to milk them properly.
First, given my scenario of $400/month cash outflow for housing. Throw in another $100/month for cable TV, clothing and laundry, and total expenses are $500/month. If the social security pension is $1000/month, that means we can allocate $500/month to the slot machines. My own experience is that none of the downtown casinos is too proud to turn away steady customers wanting to give them dribs and drabs of money like this.
Second, where on earth do you get this idea that Medicare is a burden to the state and local government? Maybe in California it is, but that can easily be changed. Just don’t pay for preventative care, so that the patients don’t visit the hospital until things are really bad. At that point, Medicare kicks in and you have a potential gold mine on your hands if you know to manage things properly. “Make ’em die slowly…” A tragedy for the family no doubt (to speak nothing of the patient) but hardly a financial tragedy for the service providers, as long as they don’t provide any services not authorized by the Federal government.
Third, not everyone wants Sun City. Some people like Reno, for various reasons. For example, I was listening to a cashier in her 50’s (I would guess) the other day talking to a customer how Reno winters were too warm and she couldn’t wait to move to someplace like Alaska or Maine. Takes all types to make the world go round. Myself, I’d move back to San Francisco before Sun City.
Fourth, many people (yours truly included) got rich largely by being cheapskates. Why rent an office when you can run a business from a corner of an apartment? Why pays for print advertising when you can sell over the internet? Just because you offer coops for $60K/unit upfront plus $400/month continuing costs doesn’t mean you ONLY attract poor folk. From what I hear, Warren Buffett eats at the local same diner he’s been patronizing for the past 50 years, and lives the same modest sized house he’s lived in during that same time period.
Fifth, these $500K condos are hardly helping Reno. On the contrary, they are part of this bubble that will bring financial disaster upon this city for the next decade or so. Slow but steady growth is a lot healthier than cycles of boom and bust.
Finally, (I could go on and on, but I don’t want to waste too much bandwidth) I repeat what I said in my first post. Reno gambling, and thus the propersity of the city itself, was built largely on squeezing nickles and dimes out of the low-rollers. The high-rollers never did come to Reno and they never will. At best, you’ll get people like me. Refugees from California, who made their fortune in the tech industry and now want to live someplace with all the conveniences of a big city, but with a very slow pace of life. “Biggest little city in the world” sort of place. Down to earth types who wouldn’t think of spending $500K for a condo, regardless of their means.
tom
RR, it is Medi-Cal and SSI which are burdensome, and that is the type of programs I refer to when referring to burdens on the local governmental entity of supplemental health and public benefits programs. Those are programs disproportionately utilized by the elderly poor. Sure there may be the occasional frugal wealthy retiree who chooses to live in the model you describe, and to eat at the Main Street cafeteria, but I submit that wouldn’t be a large fraction of the people who move in.
You are able to make a persuasive argument, and I was reading with interest, but you lost me when you referred to the goldmine available through the Medicare business if you manage it right. Huh? I can tell you that I don’t have any physician clients telling me how anxious they are to build a book of business on Medicare patients. They do it because it is the right thing to do, but if you have just that book of business only–watch out.
I like your creativity and your idea is catchy, I’m just not convinced that a congregating a mass of coupon-clipping, low budget nickel slot retirees in a community will contribute enough to a local economy to offset the cost of hosting them there.
Grand Wazoo
RenoRetiree:
Two of the best posts E V E R.
You nailed downtown and exactly what it could be, and I think your financial logic flies pretty well.
Apparently the goons who built the Palladio and the Montage thought downtown Reno was just one zip code over from Beverly Hills.
RenoRetiree
There is money to be made in Medicare, but it is not necessarily easy or pretty money. You have to run an assembly line operation, so as to boost revenues while cutting costs, and you have to overtreat the patients, thus typically making their last fews days of life miserable. The current system is a mess, and hardly benefits either the elderly or the country, but it isn’t going to stop anytime soon. People believe medical care is good and they want more of it, and so they will get more of it. Advanced capitalism always tends towards excess supply and insufficient demand, and useless medical care is currently the most politically palatable way of bridging this gap (useless military expenditures, trips to Mars and back, excess higher education are other possibilities for pumping up demand without corresponding increases in supply).
The money for Medicare comes from the federal government and not the state. There is thus wealth transfer between states with large numbers of young people (Utah, Colorado) and those with large number of elderly (Florida, Arizona), but the elderly are NOT a burden on the state unless the state chooses to make them a burden (by creating expensive programs for the elderly). Whereas the young are always a burden. In some cases, the parents of the young create enough value (money drawn into the community from outside) to pay for the child’s education, but not always. Note carefully that the value must involve outside money. Thus a well-paid mayor or college president produces nothing of value by this definition, because he/she is paid by the taxpayers. Whereas even the smallest social security check is pure outside money. Thus communities of masses of elderly, no matter how poor, are quite profitable for those who know how to manage them. Once again, think Walmart (or McDonald’s, Dell computer, Microsoft, Starbucks, the tobacco companies, etc). Small profit margins times large quantitites = large total profits.
Reno Ignoramus
Ok, you all want a laugh?
This goes right on the heels of Reno Retirees’s comment.
Look at MLS # 80016558. This is a 549 sq. ft. condo in the ……Belvedere!
Asking price $310,000.
Step right up, ladies and gentlemen. Here is your chance, at only $564 a sq. ft., to buy into Foreclosure Haven, a new and exciting “urban village” in the heart of downtown Reno.
(Oops, I think one of the other downtown condo busts has already coined the phrase “urban village, no?)
Corina
I was going to say something about the competence of the realtor that listed this joke. But then I remembered that Diane and Guy don’t want us to say impolite things about their brethern in the real estate trade. So I won’t.
I’ll just point out that with the median now south of $200K, there are some pretty damn decent houses available for less than $310K. Can we start a pool? How long you all think before this goes REO? Or is this just a shill listing intended to create the illusion that these condos are worth something?
billddrummer
To Tom,
Well thought out posts, and I appreciate your candor.
As I posted before, the yuppie crowd would be the only ones interested in $500K condos. And they don’t live (nor do they want to live) in downtown Reno.
And to Corina,
You’re right. There are some dandy homes available now for much less than $310K, and they don’t have HOAs or stupid parking lots. And some of them are less than 5 minutes from downtown.
I’m not a realtor, so I can speak freely.
The apartment complex I live in is less than 5 minutes from downtown, is located along Virginia Lake, and rents 1200 s.f. 2 br/1.5 ba two story units for $1000/month. The same development was attempting to sell ‘renovated’ units for $200,000. Now, this development has been zoned for condos, but the rental side is being assessed as apartments. The owners thought that they had a gold mine when prices spiked in 2006–move out all the low rent people and replace them with owners–that way, they would give up having to maintain these apartments (30 years old) and charge HOA fees as well.
But just down the street, you can buy a brand new 1250 s.f. townhouse for $199,000, or a 1650 s.f. townhouse for $255,000.
Well, now they’ve listed the model home with a Re/Max agent. So I guess the great plan didn’t work.
stjoe56
I got a NEW First Amendment to the Purchase and Sale Agreement, Earnest Money Receipt and Escrow Instructions.
When I got the last one, I wrote a letter to the Montage’s lawyers complaining that my parking spaces had been cut from two to one.
Today I got a new written response.
1. There has been no change to the number of parking spaces allocated. When the original letter cut me back from two to one, it was a mistake. My new Amendment states I have the Parking Space(s) as provided for in the original agreement.
2. There is no deadline to sign.
3. There was no 30-day notice to close.
SJ
Lurch
Fun action on the Montage today. Montage Marketing Corporation filed a First Amendment to the Revised CCRs. It looks like the penthouses, rowhouses, lofts, and terrace townhomes are not being included in the official Montage project at this time.
Sunshine
Maybe they are going to do fractional share ownership on the Penthouses and floors 1-6. But how does this exclude them from HOA fees?
Renotopdog
“Downtown loses key patrol service” is the front page RGJ article in today’s Sunday newspaper and it is an eye opener about the future of downtown Reno. At the end of February the City of Reno as part of budget cutbacks eliminated the Reno Police Department reserve officers downtown police patrol. The reserve officers were retired police officers who worked part-time patrolling downtown Reno, keeping police coverage on the streets and managing the homeless and street criminals problems.
This is what the laid-off reserves said about the City of Reno’s move:
?we “are worried downtown Reno will return to a haven for the homeless and street criminals because no one is on foot patrol”
?”transients are already back to their old bad habits”
?”Soon, you’re not going to be able to walk downtown without seeing panhandlers and drunks”
?”It’s going to make it worse for our economy”
?”Now it will go back to the way it was: dirty”
?”When the weather turns warmer, the problems will increase, the ex-reserves said”
?”The ultimate losers are the downtown area and businesses. The unintended consequences will be the city will now have to play catch-up cleaning up the problems”
?the reserves “made customers and tourists feel safe. Reno depends on them”
?”Martini said transients have begun to urinate on the walls of his business and panhandle in the nearby alley, making customers and tourists uncomfortable”
?Michael Ford, executive director of Catholic Community Services of Northern Nevada said, “The presence of the uniforms does indeed provide deterrence to unacceptable behavior” “It was a valuable public relations and security”
As the Montage web site quotes “Reno offers a quality of life unmatched by any other Western U.S. city. Reach urban conveniences with a few steps”. But beware, when you step outside of your new Montage condo, as you may be greeted by the new downtown Reno quality of life—the homeless, panhandlers, vagrants and criminals that await your arrival.
Tom
As the son of a retired police chief, I can recall many dinner discussions with Dad lecturing us about the irreplaceable value of the uniformed beat cop on neighborhood patrol. This cut-back as referred to by RenoTopDog is a very short-sighted decision by your local Council, in my opinion.
It will soon be time for my siblings and our sons and cousins to start our long-planned, uniformed “_ _ _ _ _ Brothers & Sons — Shotgun Sentry Service.” Our SS men will provide an armed, uniform presence at the edge of your property’s boundaries, and our patrolmen are ALL former sworn peace officers or are Regular Army combat arms veterans; all are criminal justice procedure-trained and all are in good physical shape–not your typical mall security guards. It will be pricier than a typical security guard service, but we aim to please property owners with our results, not merely have an old geezer standing around to inform and report.
Seriously, if we don’t fulfill our after-dinner discussion ideas, someone else will. I predict that local public agency policing functions such as neighborhood patrol and surveillance, over the next two years of budget-challenges, will necessarily be assumed by expanded neighborhood watch `vigilance committees’ or specially-designed subscription security services, like our family has been talking about initiating. That gap of need is going to be filled somehow.
Here is the interesting question:
How equitable will it be when community security and neighborhood peace may depend in part upon the particular neighborhood property owners’ ability to subscribe to a private specialty security service? Strange times we may be entering.
BanteringBear
This is positively the WORST time to be cutting back on policemen and patrol in any city. I cannot fathom how shortsighted and ignorant one must be to arrive at such a decision. Crime is sure to skyrocket as job losses continue to mount. The criminals are going to have a heyday.
Carol
It’s already happening. The other day around 6pm I drove by the Montage on the north side along Commercial Row to see what the retrac cover looks like. I looked over at the Montage and a man was urinating on the building. Now it was still pretty light out and he seemed not the least bit concerned about being observed. I thought perhaps he was confused and believed he was urinating on the Kings Inn across the street.
Then just a couple of days ago I was walking east on 2d Street between Sierra and Virginia. As I passed the alley, I saw another man standing in the alley urinating into a garbage can. This was at about 1:00 pm.
I wonder if the powers that be at Corus Bank really have a feel for downtown Reno. This isn’t like Michigan Ave.
Renotopdog
As of 3/17/09 there are two new proud buyers/owners of Montage units.
1. Peggy Prescott Hall, Manager of the Prescott Famyle LLC, a Nevada LLC, purchased unit #1511. Peggy is from Carson City and it appears may be going to live in the Montage.
2. Louis John Marsella and Alicia Rose Marsella purchased unit #2218. Marsella’s are from Reno (4521 Glenshyre Ct., Reno)
Not sure what the purchase prices were. Will have to check how the recording fees translate into purchase price.
Peggy, John and Alicia, welcome to your new home in beautiful downtown Reno.
BanteringBear
“Corus bank warns of possible failure
March 18, 2009 5:08 AM
Corus Bancshares Inc., the Chicago lender that staked its fortune on the condominium boom, has confessed that it might not survive, the Sun-Times reports.
In a regulatory filing, Corus said it expects its independent accountants will “raise substantial doubts with respect to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.” The warning would be attached to earnings for the fourth quarter that Corus said it needs extra time to complete.”
Melina
Hello!!! I have had a reservation since 2006 a studio unit on the 20th floor. In the middle of March this year, I’ve told Mr. Fernando Leal that my earned income has reduced down to 60% due to the hours reduction at work. In the same time, I also provided him the loan denial letter from Corus Bank. I was advised by Mr. Leal that the letter has been forwarded to Corus bank attorney, Rob Winkel for review.
Recently, I received the short notice from Montage to close the escrow. I then followed up with Rob and explained my situation. He told me the only options that I have are either to close the escrow or cancel the contract, which I will loose the entire 10% deposit. However, he’ll try to refund me interest earned for the past 3 years.
Could anyone please let me know if they were able to cancel the contract and get back their deposit or any recommendations would be very much appreciated.
Kzen
Melina – Several lawyers in town are handling these cases for contract holders. I have signed up with Lee Hotchkin at 775-786-5791. Another website with good info (taken with a grain of salt, of course) is http://montagebuyer.wordpress.com/
Don’t know of any cases where the contract holder has gotten their deposit back – yet.
Good Luck!
Melina
Thank you so much for the reply Kzen. I really appreciate it. I am just in contacting with Lee Hotchkin.
Good Luck to you as well!
Christine Wicks-Blanchard
Kzen,
I have had a deposit on 2 condos since 2005 with My business partner and have been trying to get “all” the money back for awhile. I did not join the group represented by Lee Hotchkin but I am mad. As a realtor I know that there are several points that are in our favor to qualify for the complete refund. Anyone have any other suggestions?
Thank you!
Christine
renolocalgirl
Pay your money and get represented. Without a lawyer,it will be very difficult to get anything done.
billddrummer
Corus Bank Death Watch:
Corus may be shut as soon as today after posting its 5th consecutive quarterly loss, stemming from bad condo loans in FL and NV:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&tkr=CORS%3AUS&sid=aTTT9jivRIWE