Charlie Malet of Shorenstein, which won the Real Estate Deal of the Year in 2011 for its lease with Twitter, stands outside Market Square.

Emily Fancher
Senior Editor- San Francisco Business Times

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Which Bay Area real estate deals and projects caught your eye in 2012? Any memorable, bold office purchases? How about a huge, complex lease transaction or a beautifully designed medical research building?

The San Francisco Business Times is asking the real estate community to nominate the biggest, best and most complex deals and projects of 2012 for our annual Real Estate Deals of the Year Awards. Projects and deals throughout the Bay Area are eligible to win.

The categories include housing, office, retail, RD, health, renovation, hotel, restaurant, public/cultural, infrastructure and industrial. The paper will feature the winners in a special publication to be published March 22, 2013, and at an awards gala in March.

Click here to fill out a nomination for the 2012 Real Estate Deals of the Year.

Click here to fill out a nomination for Real Estate Dealmaker of 2012.

The deadline for submitting entries for this year’s competition is 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 4, 2013.

Questions? Feel free to email me at efancher@bizjournals.com.

Emily Fancher is a senior editor at the San Francisco Business Times.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2012/11/real-estate-deals-of-the-year.html

This model is known as the Breezehouse. 

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Blu Homes is quickly becoming a household name in the Bay Area. The maker of prefabricated homes is targeting Bay Area buyers for their sustainably designed and energy-efficient houses.

Click on the image for a slideshow of Blu Homes units.

“You have a lot of people in the Bay Area who care deeply about technology, who want convenience, who are willing to go online and design something on their own, and who also want a process that is not going to take two years,” said Maura McCarthy, co-founder and vice president of strategy for Blu Homes.

The company makes homes with green building materials and steel framing that use about half the energy of a conventional home.

Now four years after it was founded, Blu Homes is ramping up production at its Vallejo factory and watching its sales climb.

You can read more in the Nov. 23rd edition of the San Francisco Business Times.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2012/11/blu-homes-targets-bay-area-buyers.html

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Foods Co. plans to start construction on an 80,000-square-foot new store in Foothill Square in Oakland.

The store at, 10790 MacArthur Blvd., will be the supermarket’s first store in Oakland. It plans to finish construction in the summer of 2013.

Foods Co., a division of Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), the nation’s largest grocer, made plans several years ago to open three stores in areas of Oakland known as “food deserts” because of their lack of access to fresh food and groceries.

“We are very excited about the construction of the first Foods Co. supermarket in Oakland and the opportunity it gives us to expand our presence in the Bay Area,” said Bryan Kaltenbach, president of Foods Co.

The grocer plans to hold a ground-breaking ceremony Nov. 2.

The East Oakland store is part of a major overhaul of Foothill Square, a shopping center near Mills College off of Interstate 580 owned by developer Jay-Phares Corp.

Foods Co. and Ross Dress for Less (NASDAQ: ROST) will anchor the center after a $30 million renovation that will boost the size of the center to 201,900 square feet from 155,000 square feet.

Foods Co. has 145 stores, with five stores in the Bay Area — two stores in San Francisco and one each in Pittsburgh, Redwood City and Richmond.

The East Oakland store will employ about 100 workers.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2012/11/foods-co-to-build-new-foothill-square.html

The Syrah Versailles is one of four home prototypes available in Toll Brothers’ The Reserve development in Pleasanton. 

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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In another sign that the single-family home market is rebounding in the Bay Area, Toll Brothers, one of the country’s largest homebuilders, is now selling homes in the Reserve, a 19-unit luxury home development in Pleasanton.

The development, at the corner of Manoir Lane and Vineyard Avenue, is surrounded by vineyards. The homes start at $1.3 million and range in size from 3,800 to 4,160 square feet with 4 or 5 bedrooms.

Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) designed four different prototypes for the development, all named after wine varietals including Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah and Riesling.

The company joins other homebuilders including KB Home (NYSE: KBH), Shea Homes and Summerhill Homes, who have been debuting new home developments in the Bay Area.

Demand for single family homes is on the rise and homebuilders say there aren’t enough development sites available to keep up.

Toll Brothers, based in Pennsylvania, reported revenue of $1.68 billion for the most recent fiscal year ending July 31, 2012.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2012/10/toll-brothers-opens-pleasanton.html

Wendy Culverwell
Business Journal staff writer- Portland Business Journal

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Pomegranate Communications Inc., a small art publishing business in the Bay Area suburb of Petaluma, is moving to Portland.

The company leased the former SCS Building at Southshore Corporate Park, near Portland International Airport, and expects to complete the move by late March 2013.

Katie Burke, who co-owns the business with her husband, company founder Thomas Burke, confirmed Pomegranate began scouting Oregon locations as its Petaluma lease was set to expire.

Burke said she and her husband love Portland and wanted to move their art-related company to a more urban setting than their existing suburban location.

“Portland just kind of worked out,” she said.

She expects some of the company’s 30 employees to move to Oregon but details are still being worked out.

The company, which distributes its own work, will move into the 84,184-square-foot Southshore building, 19018 N.E. Portal, near Portland International Airport after racking and other equipment is installed.

Dick Shafer Jr. of Shafer Realty represented Pomegranate; Peter Stalick of Kidder Mathews represented the property.

Thomas Burke began Pomegranate as ThoFra Distributors, a poster distribution company, in San Francisco in 1968. The business began publishing art work in 1970. As the company grew, it moved north in pursuit of additional distribution space.

The company works directly with artists and museums to produce art books, calendars, cards, paper gift products including jigsaw puzzles and children’s items.

Katie Burke said Pomegranate does not disclose revenue.

Wendy Culverwell covers real estate, retail and hospitality.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/real-estate-daily/2012/10/pomegranate-communications-moving-to.html

The fall in the U.S. housing market in recent years is attracting a new wave of foreign buyers, who are making a dent in the Bay Area and national real estate markets, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Foreign buyers spent $82.5 billion on homes in the U.S. during the 12 months ending in March, an increase of $66.4 billion a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors.

As for the Bay Area, about 6 percent of all property searches by prospective buyers are from abroad, according to the real estate site Trulia.com, with San Francisco being the most-popular search location.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/morning_call/2012/09/foreign-buyers-shopping-for-bay-area.html

Jane Duperrault, CEO of Stanford Federal Credit Union.

Chris S. Burns
Researcher- San Francisco Business Times

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The accompanying gallery is an excerpt from this week’s List of Largest Credit Unions in the Bay Area.

Click on the image to start a slideshow of top Bay Credit Unions.

The San Francisco Business Times publishes industry rankings in each issue of the paper and reprints them at the end of the year for our annual Book of Lists. These lists are unique and authoritative sources of Bay Area business news.

To see the full list, check out this week’s issue. Other lists in this week’s issue include Largest Credit Unions in the East Bay and Largest Construction Project on the Peninsula.

Chris S. Burns is a researcher at the San Francisco Business Times.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2012/08/top-5-bay-area-credit-unions.html

J.K. Dineen
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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In the world of Peninsula real estate, Daly City is often overlooked. After all, the city only has one Class A office building, the 600,000 square foot Pacific Plaza, which also has 20-screen cineplex and 40,000 square feet of retail and restaurants.

But Daly City wants the Bay Area real estate community to know it is open for business, and there may be more opportunities than people realize.

On Aug. 15, the city, along with Pacific Plaza owner RREEF, is holding an open house for brokers, tenants, builders, investors, and anyone else who might want to bring their business to Daly City.

Those who attend the party will learn about the second Pacific Plaza office building that is entitled, according to Brian Millar, the city’s director of economic and community development. The city wants to also highlight development opportunities next to the Colma BART station, land that is in Daly City and owned by Samtrans.

“This is a big and visable site — a couple of acres off the freeway,” said Millar. “Samtrans has expressed interest in moving ahead with moving some sort of transit-oriented development use. They have asked the city to be part of the process.”

Currently in Daly City, a Taco Bell, a CVS Pharmacy, and an 80,000-square-foot Dick’s Sporting Goods are under construction. The office portion of Pacific Plaza has a low vacancy, but the retail has three vacancies. From a vacant Blockbuster to a 4.8 acre retail site across from the Serramonte Mall, Daly City has plenty of opportunities, according to Millar.

“We want to provide a forum for brokers and developers to meet and interact so they can exchange information,” said Millar.

J.K. Dineen covers real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2012/08/daly-city-opens-door-to-office-tenants.html