“This is a great opportunity for the Escambia-Santa Rosa region,” said Fred Donovan, Jr., chair of the Vision 2015 Sites & Buildings Committee. “When complete, the program will result in the first-ever comprehensive database of certified ‘shovel-ready’ sites and buildings in the Pensacola MSA. This critical resource is invaluable to our chamber economic development professional staff in their efforts to compete with other communities for business and jobs. ”

FAST TRACK was created by the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce’s Vision 2015 Sites & Buildings Committee. The Vision 2015 initiative is a five-year job creation program focused on recruiting new businesses, helping local businesses expand and strengthening the partnerships between the military and private sector in the Pensacola Bay Area.

“I am truly excited to see this system evolve from an idea, into what will eventually be the complete database from which the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce will source information regarding all of the region’s “business-ready” properties,” said Sonny Granger, sub-committee chair for the Vision 2015 Sites & Buildings Committee. “As the Vision 2015 program gains momentum in getting Pensacola on the radar with new and expanding businesses, as well as site selectors, this will serve as the foundation (pun intended) for 3,000 jobs and beyond by the year 2015.”

For additional information on FAST TRACK or to submit properties, please visit www.pensacolachamber.com/fasttrack.

Press release credit:

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=89fdvycab&v=001TZa7AKGpnMH-DPQFOCYP97tyfGRccPdtPujkjuRuTy1JgBXgQu7_k0y6gzfrb4bZ8P2LGSRUSzWrbys2ywg7mVaT0Oi0N_SQfS3H5t0RBIUfNvjN-KAoHN3E2JZcGzm1mkTq1np8dP5oQK_S66Gov5FgIW7wtajEtMR1XkmDTLV-Sm5PnPgkPTvyyaYOBRtEcy-xpkK8QGtKSZK4-IxNsQ%3D%3D

 A 1031 Exchange is also known as a Tax-Deferred Exchange, a powerful strategy for taxpayers. Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code gives details explaining how taxpayers should never pay income taxes on the sale of a property if they intend to reinvest the proceeds in a similar property.  The taxpayer can invest their income in a like-kind replacement property without having to pay federal or state income taxes on the transaction.  We will consider the following requirements for this process:

•  The basic rules for a 1031 exchange
• The basic types of exchanges
• The “Held-for” Requirement for 1031 exchanges
• The exchange process and time clocks
• The role of a qualified intermediary
• Partnership and co-ownership
• What is a section 721 exchange into an UPREIT?

Our next chain of blogs will focus on each of these areas. If there are any questions before we reach one of the blogs, feel to contact us and we will be more than willing to help.

Gulf Coast Commercial Real Estate MLS

While the system is new, and the historical commercial real estate sales and lease transactions are being transferred from the older residential platform, we as commercial brokers have been given a charge to upload our listings into Catalyst.  This is a fantastic step in the right direction as Catalyst was specifically built to handle commercial real estate information whereas the old system, which had been continually adapted over time from a residential based platform, never seemed to quite fit the bill.  Once the entire commercial real estate brokerage community embraces Catalyst, we will have a wealth of information and tools at our fingertips to better serve our Clients.  The two systems will run simultaneously for a while as information is ported over.  After a relatively short period of time, there will be no need for commercial real estate listings to exist on a dated residential-based platform any longer.  We, as an evolving community of brokers, will be one step closer to gaining more perfect information about our market around us.  The analytics, reporting, and search functions are far and above better than anything that has been provided previously.  While there is always resistance to change, this one will serve us, and more importantly, our Clients, very well.

Press Release

Granger Properties Commercial Real Estate Sells Two GSA Buildings in Downtown Pensacola, FL

Social Security Admin Building at 411 West Garden Street, Pensacola, FL and U.S. Probation office at 17 South Devillers Street, Pensacola, FL

Pensacola, October 21, 2011:  Today Granger Properties announced a commercial real estate sale of two buildings leased by the U.S. General Services Administration located in Downtown Pensacola, Florida.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies.

 The transaction represents another milestone for Granger Properties, headquartered in Pensacola, as a leading commercial real estate firm specializing in complex commercial real estate transactions. While many of the specifics of the transaction must be held as confidential, what is known is that commercial real estate is still alive and well in Pensacola.

For more information about GSA, visit their website at http://www.gsa.gov

Under the terms of the proposed agreement, the City will provide Hixardt with a property on West Government Street as an economic development incentive. In exchange for the property, Hixardt has agreed to create at least 100 jobs with an average salary of $45,000 over the next five years.

The property, located at 120 West Government Street, is owned by the City’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and is currently used as a surface parking lot. Hixardt would use the property to build a new 30,000 ft2 office building adjacent to its current headquarters on West Intendencia Street, representing a minimum capital investment of $4 million.

The deal contains a number of firm benchmarks which must be met by Hixardt. Upon closing, Hixardt would provide the CRA with a note for the property’s assessed value of $750,000. That note would be forgiven as follows: 10% at commencement of construction; 10% when Certificate of Occupancy obtained; and 20% for each sustainable and measurable 25 jobs.

“One of my 20 Solutions for 2011 was to find uses for vacant, surplus City property to encourage businesses to move and expand here in Pensacola,” Mayor Hayward said. “I learned about this potential economic development opportunity last year and am happy that we were able to make this happen.”

Hayward credited the company owner, Mike Hicks, as well as the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce for working with the City to put the successful transaction together.

“This deal is a true win-win for the citizens, the community, and Hixardt Technologies, and it is another example of a true public-private partnership between the City, the CRA, the Chamber and the company,” said Hayward. “As I’ve said before, government shouldn’t be in the business of creating jobs, but rather creating the incentives and the environment for the private sector to flourish, and I think this deal does that,” continued Hayward, “and I hope the City Council will approve this transaction.”

“We were pleased to partner with the City of Pensacola and Hixardt Technologies to support this local expansion,” said Donnie McMahon, Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors chairman. “This project is yet another step in reaching the goals of our Vision 2015 initiative and the creation of these jobs will enhance opportunities for Pensacola residents.”

Courtesy of: http://www.cityofpensacola.com/news/?rid=21287

World of Beer to open in Downtown Pensacola, FL.

The first national tenant bar to open in Downtown at 200 S. Palafox.

Pensacola, September 26, 2011: Granger Properties today announced a commercial real estate lease agreement with the national company World of Beer.

World of Beer is based out of Tampa, FL and currently has 15 locations and 7 other locations opening soon. The company’s founders, Scott Zepp and Matt LaFon are from Pensacola, FL and are proud to be bringing their successful company to the place they call home.

The new World of Beer location is going to be occupying the former Blazzues space at 200 S. Palafox Place. Renovations to the building are going to start immediately and World of Beer should be open for business around spring time.

For more information about World of Beer, visit their website at http://www.wobusa.com

The 600,000 square mile Gulf region has long been
derided for its humid climate, conservative political traditions and
vulnerability to natural disasters. Yet despite these factors, the Gulf is
destined to emerge as the most economically vibrant of our three coasts. In
Forbes’ rankings of the fastest-growing job markets in the country, six Gulf cities
made the top 50: Houston, Corpus Christi and Brownsville, in Texas; New Orleans;
and Gulfport-Biloxi and Pascagoula, in Mississippi. In contrast, just one
Pacific port, Anchorage, Alaska, and one small Atlantic port, Portsmouth, N.H.,
made the cut.

This reflects a long-term shift of money, power and
jobs away from both the North Atlantic and the Pacific to the cities of the
Gulf. The Port of Houston, for example, enjoyed a 28.1% jump in
foreign trade this year, and trade at Louisiana’s main ports also reached
records levels.

This growth stems from a host of factors ranging from politics, demographics
and energy to emerging trade patterns and new technologies. One potential
game-changer is the scheduled 2014 $5.25 billion widening of the Panama Canal,
which will allow the passage to accommodate ships carrying twice as much cargo
as they are able to carry currently. This will open the Gulf to megaships from
Pacific Basin ports such as Singapore, Shanghai, Pusan and
Kaohsiung, which have mostly sent their cargos to West Coast ports such as Los
Angeles and Long Beach. Some analysts predict that more than
25% of this traffic could shift to Gulf and South Atlantic ports. “More of
Asia will be heading to this part of the world,” says Jimmy Lyons, CEO of the Alabama State Port Authority.

The area also is getting a big jolt from ascendant Latin America, the Gulf’s
historic leading trade partner. Bill Gilmer, an economist with the Federal
Reserve Bank of Dallas, notes that Latin America is home to many of the world’s fastest-growing economies, with overall growth rates
last year exceeding 6.1%. Since 2002 about 56 million people in the region have
risen out of poverty, according to the World Bank.

Trade with Latin American partners — including Mexico — is ramping up
growth in Houston as well as other Gulf ports. Brazil, for instance, has
risen to become Mobile, Ala.’s leading trade partner.  Latin immigration to
virtually all the Gulf cities, including New Orleans, can only strengthen these economic ties.

The energy
industry represents another critical force in the Gulf’s resurgence. It
employs at least 55,000 workers in the Gulf, which produces roughly one-quarter
of the nation’s natural gas and one-eighth of its oil. Although Houston seems
assured of its spot as the focal point of the world fossil fuel industry, oil
and gas also boosts numerous economies throughout the region, notably in Corpus
Christi and various ports across Southern Louisiana.

Though the Obama administration puts its bets on subsidizing “green jobs,” traditional energy jobs may prove, in the short and medium
term, far more important.  There is even widespread talk about the Gulf emerging
as a center for the export of natural gas. Over $ 6 billion in new
investments are already being proposed for export facilities, notes David
Dismukes, associate director of the Louisiana State University Center for
Energy Studies.

The energy-related economy produces high-wage jobs that range from geology
and engineering to the muscle work on the oil rigs, which provide well above
average wages for blue collar workers. Such growth is particularly critical to
regions such as New Orleans, long dependent on generally lower-wage industries
like hospitality and personal services. The energy business also will help
accelerate the expansion of business services such as law, accounting,
architecture and advertising.

The shift to the Gulf includes some rapid industrial expansion, particularly
for energy intensive industries. Huge natural gas supplies are creating enormous
opportunities for expanding petrochemical industries. The German firm Thyssen
Krupp opened a new $5 billion steel mill last year, and Nucor Steel announced a large new facility to be built just
outside New Orleans. Like energy production, these facilities tend to pay
above-average wages for blue collar workers, which will likely raise living
standards for a region that has lagged historically.

At the same time, demographic trends suggest these
areas will continue to become more attractive to international commerce. Despite
a legacy of hurricanes and floods, Houston, with over 5 million people, has
emerged as among the fastest-growing large metropolitan regions in the country. The
region’s population is expected to double in the next 20 years. Most of the
economies its port serves — Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin — also
have experienced rapid growth. Recoveries are in place in many other
hurricane-devastated areas, including greater New Orleans.

Overall the Gulf is expected to be home to 61.4 million people by 2025, a
nearly 50% increase from its 1995 base. This expanding domestic market — along
with the possibilities posed by the canal — have already persuaded two larger
retailers, Wal-Mart and Home Depot, to establish modern new distribution centers in
Houston.

Finally there is the matter of political will. Both the Northeast and the
Pacific regions are increasingly dominated by environmental, labor, urban land
and other interests often hostile to wide-ranging industrial expansion.  A
legacy of labor unrest, most notably a big strike of West Coast ports in 2002,
convinced some shippers to diversify their operations elsewhere.   Growing
regulation in California, suggests economist John Husing, a leading expert on
port-related issues, makes the prospects for growing warehouse, logistics and
manufacturing jobs increasingly “impossible”  there.

East Coast ports, subject to some of the same
pressures, may be slow to make the “intense capital
improvements” required to capture expanding trade. In contrast, the Gulf’s
leaders in both parties support   broad based economic growth.  New Orleans’
Democratic Mayor Mitch Landrieu is no less friendly to industrial and port
expansion  than Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal. Houston Democratic mayors like
Annise Parker, Bill White and Bob Lanier have been as strongly in favor of
critical business and infrastructure investment as their Republican
counterparts.

Such differences in attitude have driven power shifts   throughout American
economic history. In the 19th century New York through a combination of ruthless
ambition and greater vision  overcame aristocratic Boston and more established
Philadelphia. Icy Chicago performed a similar coup over its then far more
established and temperate rival, St. Louis, in the mid- and late 1800s.

In the last century, unfashionable Los Angeles, without a great natural port,
overcame the grand Pacific dowager San Francisco, blessed by one of the world’s
great natural harbors, as the economic center of the West Coast. Los Angeles
built a vast new modern and largely artificial port to make up for what nature
failed to provide, and also nurtured a host of   industries from aerospace, oil
and entertainment to garments.

Now history is about to repeat itself as Texas, Louisiana and other Gulf
Cities seek to reorder the nation’s economic balance of power.  Unless
California and the Northeast awaken to the challenge, they will be increasingly
supplanted by a region that seems more determined to expand their economic
dominion.

http://blogs.forbes.com/joelkotkin/2011/06/23/the-rise-of-the-third-coast-the-gulf-regions-ascendancy-in-u-s/

2010 CoStar Power Broker Awards

And the winners are…

The market was tough. The economy was hard. And you, well, you stood tall, brave and faced the market like a true power broker. You put in long hours, sacrificed weekends and your results are proof of your incredible dedication and talent.

Now it’s time for the industry to recognize you, too. CoStar Group is proud to announce the winners of the 2010 CoStar Power Broker Awards in the following categories:

• Top Brokerage Firms – Sales Transactions
• Top Brokerage Firms – Lease Transactions/Total Square Feet
• Top Dealmakers – Individual Sales Transactions
• Top Dealmakers – Individual Lease Transactions/Total Square Feet

http://www.costar.com/specialprograms/powerbrokers.aspx

Sonny Granger

President

Granger Properties, LLC

850.434.7500 Office

850.438.4148 Fax

www.grangerpro.com

Florida, Georgia and Alabama Licensed Real Estate Broker

Finding the right office space for you practice can be severe pain in the gluteus maximus. Doctors can search for years to find a cure to their medical office needs to no avail. Even if the right space is finally located, how long can your practice expand and grow before you feel the growing pains and need a bigger office? Within your successful medical practice, which one of your staff has enough time to go and find a bigger place? Luckily, Granger Properties specializes in Commercial Real Estate in Pensacola. We are here to work our phalanges to the bone for you. Granger Properties will find the best commercial real estate to help your practice meet its fullest potential. With our professional Commercial Real Estate agents at your disposal, there is now no need to wear out your superior colliculus looking at endless amounts of office space. Contact our office today to discover how we can help you.