Lack of Development

Well Ladies and Gentlemen,

Due to the recent economy, suffice to say, there hasn't been much to post on this blog.

So, I'd like your help. If you know of any developments in your area, please email me (alephew at gmail.com) so you can share the good news with everyone! Now since there is much un-development happening, let's report on that as well.

When I created this blog (my first), I did it to help out my previous employers (condo developers) find localized information. This was to aide them in making purchasing decisions, as well as create bank packages to apply for mezzanine funding. My first blog has stretched it's legs since then.

Let's pool our resources to help those who still want to open business in our communities. Anything that you think will help others succeed, or save them from making a poor choice, send it! Pictures, stories, articles, you send it, we'll post it, and of course provide the source (unless anonymity is requested).

Email alephew at gmail.com

Photographer: Unknown

Penn Turnpike plan could hike tolls 25%

Abertis-Citi Encounter
High Costs and Potholes
For Infrastructure Investors
May 21, 2008; Page C16

America is definitely becoming a mecca for deal-hungry infrastructure funds. Whether investors in this burgeoning asset class making the pilgrimage to these shores will find redemption, however, is far from certain.
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A consortium led by Spanish transportation and highway operator Abertis has offered $12.8 billion to operate the Pennsylvania Turnpike for 75 years, edging out local heavyweight Goldman Sachs Group in the process. Moreover, the final price was 20% more than Abertis, along with a Citigroup fund and a minor Spanish partner, had offered in the first round of bidding. From the looks of it, Abertis and Citi have stretched themselves to the limit.

Continue Reading

Lauth Plans 3M-SF Distribution Park

By Jim T. Ryan
5/19/2008

Lauth Property Group, an Indiana-based construction and property-management firm, today announced plans to begin construction on the first of three buildings for the Key Logistics Park in Cumberland County.

The first building will be nearly 1.2 million square feet off exit 37 of Interstate 81 in Penn Township, said Marc Lotter, a Lauth spokesman. Key Logistics Park includes 206 acres near the exit. The park is being built on speculation and build-to-suit basis, he said.

Site preparation is underway, Lotter said, and the first building could be completed by the second quarter of 2009. The company declined to release the total cost of building the park.

Construction on the second and third buildings would depend on market conditions, Lotter said. The buildings will have more than 3 million square feet of warehousing space.

Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing spending $2M on ads

Philadelphia Business Journal

Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. said Thursday that it will launch a $2 million advertising campaign to promote the region.

The campaign will kick off June 1 and run through September, GPTMC said at its annual meeting Thursday.

Advertising will run in national magazines, as well as newspapers, online, on billboards, cable television, satellite radio and through search-engine optimization.

Areas targeted are within driving distance of Philadelphia, including Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington.

The campaigns will center around a Philly's More Fun theme as well as Historic Philadelphia, which promotes the historic district bounded by Front Street to the east, 7th Street to the west, Race Street to the north and Spruce Street to the south.

Advertising will include lines including, "The Liberty Bell is only the beginning," and feature a collage of photographs featuring daytime and nighttime activities.

Of the 27 million people that visit Philadelphia annually, a third visit in the summer months.

As an incentive, travelers who book two-night stays through GoPhila.com are eligible to receive a $50 American Express gift card.

EarthLink to pull the plug on Wi-Fi in Philadelphia

By DEBORAH YAO
The Associaited Press
Published on: 05/13/08

EarthLink Inc. is pulling the plug on its troubled wireless high-speed Internet network in Philadelphia, once touted as a model for how big cities should deploy Wi-Fi.

EarthLink, which once pinned its future on municipal networks such as Philadelphia's following rapid declines in its dial-up Internet access business, said Tuesday that it could not find a buyer for the $17 million network and that talks to give it to either the city or a nonprofit organization had failed.

City officials have said it would cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year to operate the network.

"It's been an unfortunate situation," Chief Executive Officer Rolla Huff told The Associated Press. "It was a great idea a few years ago, ... but it's an idea that simply didn't make it."

A few weeks earlier, Atlanta-based Earthlink announced it would shut down a similar network in New Orleans. EarthLink has reached agreements with the cities of Corpus Christi, Texas, and Milpitas, Calif., which are taking over ownership of their networks. EarthLink also has been running a network in Anaheim, Calif.

EarthLink, which will give current customers until June 12 to switch to another provider, said it even offered to donate the Wi-Fi equipment to someone and give them an additional $1 million.

Meanwhile, EarthLink filed a federal suit Tuesday that seeks to remove its Wi-Fi equipment from city street lights and cap its potential liability at $1 million.

Four years ago, Philadelphia officials announced the EarthLink deal with great fanfare that attracted attention from cities in the United States and around the world.

But the technology itself proved to be difficult to deploy and, at times, unreliable. EarthLink later admitted that its Wi-Fi business model had not panned out. In Philadelphia, EarthLink built the network at no cost to the city. It also pledged to pay the city rent for use of its street lights from which Wi-Fi equipment would be hung.

At the time, EarthLink had wanted to have a direct Internet pipeline into the home so it would not have to buy capacity from phone companies.

Philadelphia officials recently said they want EarthLink to abide by the contract, but would rather not go to court to enforce it.

Councilman Frank Rizzo, an early opponent of the Wi-Fi network, said he hasn't heard of anyone interested in buying EarthLink's network.

"Comcast and Verizon, they haven't even sniffed around," he said of the companies that provide cable and phone-based Internet access in Philadelphia.

He said the city's Wi-Fi network has not been completed.

"EarthLink knows they are vulnerable to litigation," Rizzo said.

EarthLink reclassified its municipal Wi-Fi assets as discontinued operations in the third quarter of 2007. The company said the shutdown of the Philadelphia network should not materially affect its current financial outlook.

EarthLink shares fell 12 cents to $9.12 in midday trading Tuesday.

— Associated Press business writer Rachel Metz in New York contributed to this report.

Luxury condo sales office closing amid economic uncertainty

Philadelphia Business Journal

Part of the development team for Parkway 22, a planned 35-story condominium and townhouse community that would sit off the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Center City Philadelphia, said the project's sales center will close Friday, citing a change in market conditions.

Developer Dalia Shuster and property owner V&H Hotel Associates said in a statement that uncertain market conditions facing buyers of high-end residential condominiums prompted the decision to shut the sales center down. In spite of that, design and site preparation, including the demolition of the "Franklin House" portion of the existing and operating Best Western Hotel, will continue.