THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR | 2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)

City Center Sold to Chi Trust. Cappelli Retains Interest. Loans Paid Off

Posted on October 10, 2012 by John Bailey

WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL By John F. Bailey. October 10, 2012 UPDATED 9:43 A.M. EDT: NEW EDITION UPDATE 3:22 P.M. E.DT. UPDATED October 11, 2012:

Developer Louis R. Cappelli has sold his company’s majority interest in City Center in downtown White Plains to a real estate investment trust based in suburban Chicago, while retaining a minority interest, a CB Richard Ellis spokesperson told WPCNR.

The buyer is identified as Inland Diversified Real Estate Trust, Inc., of Chicago.

Alyson Leiter of Great Ink Communications, speaking for CB Richard Ellis, said in a statement to WPCNR,

“Basically, Mr. Cappelli sold his majority interest in the property to Inland, but he still retains a minority interest (in the form of two subsidiaries, White Plains Retail L.L.C. and White Plains Recreation LLC, each an affiliate of Cappelli Enterprises).

“The new joint venture ownership of Inland (majority interest) and Cappelli (minority interest) valued the City Center at $166.4 Million. The sales price isn’t disclosed in the press release.

Since Mr. Cappelli is still the minority holder, I assume the City Center Parking Garage is still owned by him, But I am confirming this.”

Thursday morning, John Callahan, the White Plains city Corporation Counsel in a written statement to WPCNR, wrote “Nothing relating to the ownership or operation of the garage has changed.”

The terms of the transaction according to the Form 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission are very complex. Inland Diversified has taken out a $99 Million loan from Bank of America (cash proceeds of $87 Million) and $42.4 Million of their own cash. The 8-K reports Inland will use the $139.4 Million to pay off Mr. Cappelli’s first mortgage on the property of $124.6 Million, maturing on October 7, 2016, and $4.8 million to repay a second loan Cappelli Enterprises holds from New York State Urban Development Corporation. The remaining $10.4 Million is going to pay “preformation expenditures and closing costs.”

The 8-K states that “management of the property will be the sole responsibility of Inland White Plains. Inland Diversified Real Estate Services, LLC has been appointed by Inland White Plains (subsidiary of Inland Diversified)to serve as property manager of the Property and will be paid a 4.5% annual fee.”

Complex finanical distributions to the majority and minority partners are described in the 8-K

To view the 8-K go to: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1438897/000143889712000035/idiv8koct4.htm

City Hall has not answered WPCNR’s question as to whether Mr. Cappelli retains the parking garage. The air rights and the New York Sports Club and 24 apartments atop the garage ownership has been sold to Inland according to the CB Richard Ellis news release. (Cappelli Enterprises presently receives revenues from the parking garage up to $600,000 and invests the excess in garage maintenance.)

No connection, but the surprise deal comes after the city of White Plains recently increased assessed value of the complex through to 2019, by $300,000 a year, after the original Payment In Lieu of Taxes Agreement with the city expires in January 2016. The extension of PILOT agreement means that the new buyer and the new minority interest will not be reassessed until the year 2019.

Councilman John Martin is the only city official to comment on whether or not the city knew Mr. Cappelli was in the process of selling majority interest when the city agreed to extend the assessment incrementally beginning in 2016.

Mr. Martin,wrote WPCNR today: I do not believe that the sale was made known at the time we amended the PILOT but also don’t think it would have changed anything. The decision remains valid based on the marketplace for large leasehold space.

The original news release from CB Richard Ellis follows:

Jeffrey Dunne, Steven Bardsley and David Gavin of CBRE Group Inc.’s New York Institutional Group represented LC White Plains Retail, LLC, and LC White Plains Recreation, LLC, affiliated entities of Cappelli Group, Inc., in arranging the joint venture majority interest sale of City Center Retail in White Plains, NY. The team was also responsible for procuring the new joint venture partner, whose parent company is Inland Diversified Real Estate Trust, Inc. The new joint venture valued the center at $166.4 million.

City Center is a 381,905± square-foot, grocery-anchored, trophy mixed-use retail and apartment property located in the heart of downtown White Plains. The property is fully leased and anchored by a high profile tenant mix, including ShopRite Supermarkets, Toys ‘R Us (estimated occupancy March 2013), Nordstrom Rack, National Amusements (15-screen theater), Barnes & Noble and New York Sports Club. The Center is shadow-anchored by a 154,241±sq.-ft. Target P-Fresh store, which was not included in the sale. The sale included 99-year air rights over the parking garage, which houses the New York Sports Club and 24 fully leased, in-demand residential apartment units.

City Center’s epicenter location, with frontage on Main Street, Martine Avenue and Mamaroneck Avenue, is surrounded by several recently developed apartment and condominium projects totaling more than 1,000 units, including The Residences at the Ritz Carlton and Trump Tower at City Center. With population growth of more than 15% since 2000 within a one-mile radius and average household incomes of nearly $140,000 within five miles, City Center will continue to be a primary shopping and entertainment destination.

Mr. Dunne commented: “City Center will provide the new partnership with stable in-place income due to anchor tenants’ long-term leases, while providing upside through contractual rent increases. The significant foot traffic generated as a result of ShopRite opening last year will be further enhanced by Toys ‘R Us opening at the Center in the spring of 2013.”

Teachers and School District Negotiators Hammer Out Agreement on New Contract

Posted on October 9, 2012 by John Bailey

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. October 9, 2012 UPDATED OCTOBER 10, 2012 11:15 A.M.:

Dr. Christopher Clouet, Superintendent of Schools, did not provide any further information on the possibility of an immediate settlement in a new contract with the teachers union this morning. He issued this statement when asked if the Board of Education had arrived at any position on the contract:

“Regarding executive session last night – there is nothing to report, but we remain hopeful.”

The President of the White Plains Teachers Association, Kerry Broderick, told WPCNR Tuesday night that her teachers union negotiators and the school district have reached a Memorandum of Agreement on a new contract for 2012-13, pending ratification by the teacher union membership.

As the meeting closed, Board President Rosemarie Eller asked for a vote to go into Executive Session, without explaining the purpose of the Session, a practice long in effect. Carl Albanese politely confronted Superintendent of Schools Dr. Christopher Clouet, pointing out to him by law the district could not do that without explaining the purpose of the executive session. Clouet said, to discuss the White Plains Teachers Association.

Ms. Broderick told WPCNR she would release the MOA tomorrow after she had distributed the tentative agreement to her membership.

Previously the teachers union had rejected a mediator-suggested settlement, by a 52%-48% margin. Broderick at that time, said the next step would be fact-finding with a mediator, which would require extensive disclosure of financial positions of both sides.

It is unclear whether the MOA the School Board is considering in executive session is an improvement in the offer to the teachers.

Absentee Ballots Available to Be Pick Up Now at Board of Elections

Posted on October 9, 2012 by John Bailey

WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2012. October 9, 2012:

The absentee ballots for the November 6 general election were available for the first time today at the Westchester County Board of Elections. If you requested one, you may pick it up from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. at the Westchester Couny Board of Elections on Quarropas Street, White Plains. If you are picking one up for someone else, you must have been named on the application for an Absentee Ballot by the person requested the ballot, and be able to present a I.D. (Drivers License) to pick up the ballot.

Home Sales up in Region. Home Prices Continue to Sink

Posted on October 9, 2012 by John Bailey

WPCNR HOUSING NEWS. From Mary Prenon, the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service. October 9, 2012:

Westchester and Putnam Counties enjoyed a second round of increased residential real estate sales during the third quarter, July 1 to September 30, of this year.

Realtor firms participating in the Westchester-Putnam Division of the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service (HGMLS) reported 2,243 closed residential transactions in Westchester, a 15% increase over the same period last year; in Putnam County the increase was 29%. During the second quarter, the year-over-year increases were 13% and 24% respectively. For Westchester, the third quarter volume was the highest since 2007, and for Putnam, since 2008.

While sales volumes have increased for two consecutive quarters, selling prices have not. The third quarter median¹ sale price of a single family house in Westchester was $630,000 or nearly 8% less than last year’s third quarter median. The decrease in Putnam was a hefty 25% (although please note the customary caution in these reports that Putnam data are subject to large percentage swings because the overall base count is low).

The lower average price in the region is mostly due to sellers’ price concessions in response to general economic conditions but also partly to a downshift in the proportion of high end (million-dollar-plus) properties that were sold. In Westchester, such properties accounted for 22% of all house sales in the third quarter; in 2011 that ratio was 26%, and in 2010 it was 28%. The only sector to enjoy price gains was Westchester condominiums, up by 4% to a median of $349,750. The cooperative apartment median fell by 7%, to $155,000.

Taking into account the comparatively lackluster market performance of the first three months of 2012, the year-to-date sales rate in Westchester thus far is 10.6% above that of 2011. If the current sales rate continues, Westchester will close the year with approximately 7,000 sales in all residential categories – single family houses, condominiums, cooperatives, and 2-4 family houses – resetting sales volume convincingly above the 6,639 unit level when our local market entered into real estate recession in 2008. Putnam County will follow a similar pattern.

The end-of-quarter inventory of properties listed for sale through HGMLS decreased by 10% in Westchester, to 6,398 units, and by 11% in Putnam, to 945 units. The strong sales volumes of the past two quarters have braked the growth of inventory, but it is also true that inventory remains low on account of the continuing reluctance of potential sellers to test the waters.

Consumer confidence in the general economy just isn’t strong enough yet to propel the real estate market to its pre-recession vigor, even with the attractive forces of historically low prices (for this region) as well as mortgage interest rates that are as low as 3.5% or less for conventional 30-year loans. However, the beneficial effect of low rates is being offset in part by the increasingly demanding criteria by lenders with respect to the credit worthiness of borrowers.

The closings posted with HGMLS in the third quarter largely reflected real estate sales and marketing activity that took place during the late spring and summer months of 2012. Other than low mortgage interest rates in that period there was not much supportive energy from other components of the economy that affect consumer confidence.

For example, the local unemployment rate has remained stuck in the high (for here) range of 7.5-7.6% range; and most consumers probably believe it is more than 8% due to the focus on that persistent national rate in the presidential election campaigns. The equity markets, which many consumers regard as an index of economic well-being, performed well over the course of this year, but with a pattern of volatility along the way that would intimidate all but sophisticated investors.

Still, posting two consecutive quarters of increased real estate sales in our region is encouraging because it occurred in the face of lackluster or even adverse economic circumstances. We are probably close to the point where buyers and sellers see eye to eye on the bottom line for prices, and where an increasingly active market generates its own energy for renewed health.