I attended a breakfast meeting the other day in San Francisco that included most of the major candidates for Governor of California, as well as Governor Schwarzenegger.
Here are my notes:
Gov. Schwarzenegger just meet with President Obama at the White House and the main focus of their meeting was the implementation of the $50 billion USD that the state is receiving from the economic stimulus plan. The Governor reported that 110,000 jobs were created as a direct result of this. The state has only received a portion of the allocated money from Washington. Future funding will go well to create jobs predominately by spending directed towards infrastructure projects.
The major theme shared by all candidates: JOBS!!! Creating jobs and retaining California's "State of Imagination" culture intact. That's the key.
Obviously, the critical component of our strategy, is the ability to "bounce back" as quickly as possible. Monies committed from Washington, along with every single candidate focusing on the state economy should assist the recovery with a much greater impact than most other states.
Seth Chandler
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Great cover story in Time Magazine, "Why California Is Still America's Future"
As the majority of our target markets are in the state of California, I found this cover article (dated November 2, 2009) really hits the nail on head as to why California has a history of being the leader of all American States, on many different levels.
Here are selected quotes:
In fact, the pioneering megastate that gave us microchips, freeways, blue jeans, tax revolts, extreme sports, energy efficiency, health clubs, Google searches, Craigslist, iPhones and the Hollywood vision of success is still the cutting edge of the American future — economically, environmentally, demographically, culturally and maybe politically. It's the greenest and most diverse state, the most globalized in general and most Asia-oriented in particular at a time when the world is heading in all those directions. It's also an unparalleled engine of innovation, the mecca of high tech, biotech and now clean tech. In 2008, California's wipeout economy attracted more venture capital than the rest of the nation combined. Somehow its supposedly hostile business climate has nurtured Google, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Facebook, Twitter, Disney, Cisco, Intel, eBay, YouTube, MySpace, the Gap and countless other companies that drive the way we live.
When it comes to energy, California is not just ahead of the game; it's playing a different game. Its carbon emissions per capita are less than half the U.S. average. And from 2006 to '08, it attracted $3 of every $5 invested in U.S. clean tech — five times as much as the No. 2 state. It's by far the national leader in green jobs, green patents, supply from renewables and savings from efficiency
Today, it's still the home of the new new thing. It is electric-vehicle start-ups like Tesla, Fisker and Better Place taking on the Big Three, or the local-organic foodies behind California cuisine going after Big Ag. It's Kaiser Permanente, the HMO whose model of salaried doctors in group practice may be the future of health care, or the University of California at Irvine's law school, which opened this semester with free tuition and was instantly more selective than Harvard or Yale. It's SpaceX, the private rocket-launching company, or Kogi, the Korean taco truck that announces its location over Twitter to flash mobs of Angelenos. "The beauty of California is the idea that you can reinvent yourself and do something totally creative," says Kogi's Roy Choi, a former chef at the Beverly Hilton. "It's still the Wild West that way."
Read the full article on TIME.com
Here are selected quotes:
In fact, the pioneering megastate that gave us microchips, freeways, blue jeans, tax revolts, extreme sports, energy efficiency, health clubs, Google searches, Craigslist, iPhones and the Hollywood vision of success is still the cutting edge of the American future — economically, environmentally, demographically, culturally and maybe politically. It's the greenest and most diverse state, the most globalized in general and most Asia-oriented in particular at a time when the world is heading in all those directions. It's also an unparalleled engine of innovation, the mecca of high tech, biotech and now clean tech. In 2008, California's wipeout economy attracted more venture capital than the rest of the nation combined. Somehow its supposedly hostile business climate has nurtured Google, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Facebook, Twitter, Disney, Cisco, Intel, eBay, YouTube, MySpace, the Gap and countless other companies that drive the way we live.
When it comes to energy, California is not just ahead of the game; it's playing a different game. Its carbon emissions per capita are less than half the U.S. average. And from 2006 to '08, it attracted $3 of every $5 invested in U.S. clean tech — five times as much as the No. 2 state. It's by far the national leader in green jobs, green patents, supply from renewables and savings from efficiency
Today, it's still the home of the new new thing. It is electric-vehicle start-ups like Tesla, Fisker and Better Place taking on the Big Three, or the local-organic foodies behind California cuisine going after Big Ag. It's Kaiser Permanente, the HMO whose model of salaried doctors in group practice may be the future of health care, or the University of California at Irvine's law school, which opened this semester with free tuition and was instantly more selective than Harvard or Yale. It's SpaceX, the private rocket-launching company, or Kogi, the Korean taco truck that announces its location over Twitter to flash mobs of Angelenos. "The beauty of California is the idea that you can reinvent yourself and do something totally creative," says Kogi's Roy Choi, a former chef at the Beverly Hilton. "It's still the Wild West that way."
Read the full article on TIME.com
FDIC Pressure On Commercial Banks = Opportunity
The next shoe to fall in the United States are the commercial banks that will be brought down due to their bad commercial real estate loans. The big news these days is that over 100 banks have failed this year in the United States, primarily due to bad real estate loans. The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Company) claims to have another 400 banks on their “problem list” and some experts say that many of those banks will fail over the next couple of years.
What does this mean for Stella Capital Real Estate Opportunity Fund? We have focused our buying opportunities around distressed situations and the commercial banks with numerous real estate loans is a great source of properties in our targets markets. We have long standing relationships with many commercial banks that are now showing us properties that they have foreclosed upon. We also work with investment sales brokers who have formed a niche business working with banks that are marketing their properties. Banks has told us how desirable we are to work with primarily for the reasons:
1) We are an all cash buyer.
2) The Fund is NOT a large institution that has rounds of committee meetings to purchase a property.....we are decision makers that after thorough due diligence, are capable of acting quickly.
Either way we are just starting to see many real estate deals that are heavily discounted and this trend will pick up as bank regulators continue to press the banks to clean up their balance sheets, or, be taken over by the FDIC. Essentially the FDIC is saying......Dump your real estate now or we are going to shut you down.
What does this mean for Stella Capital Real Estate Opportunity Fund? We have focused our buying opportunities around distressed situations and the commercial banks with numerous real estate loans is a great source of properties in our targets markets. We have long standing relationships with many commercial banks that are now showing us properties that they have foreclosed upon. We also work with investment sales brokers who have formed a niche business working with banks that are marketing their properties. Banks has told us how desirable we are to work with primarily for the reasons:
1) We are an all cash buyer.
2) The Fund is NOT a large institution that has rounds of committee meetings to purchase a property.....we are decision makers that after thorough due diligence, are capable of acting quickly.
Either way we are just starting to see many real estate deals that are heavily discounted and this trend will pick up as bank regulators continue to press the banks to clean up their balance sheets, or, be taken over by the FDIC. Essentially the FDIC is saying......Dump your real estate now or we are going to shut you down.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
