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Vanguard Properties Welcomes Bay Area Real Estate Veteran, Michael Fanelli, as New Sales Director for Healdsburg, CA Office

SAN FRANCISCO , CALIFORNIA (PRWEB) May 14, 2016

The continual growth of Vanguard Properties, the well-known San Francisco Real Estate firm headed by CEO James Nunemacher for almost 30 years, has never been more evident. Today the firm announced the appointment of Michael Fanelli to now act as Sales Director for the team of established Realtors at Vanguard’s Healdsburg office. With more than 20 years of real estate experience, Michael’s cutting-edge, multi-faceted marketing programs and negotiating know-how have resulted in the successful closing of nearly 400 career transactions. In his new role, Michael’s responsibilities shall include training, mentoring and the imparting of his deep industry knowledge as he artfully guides Vanguard agents in today’s marketplace.

“I couldn’t be more delighted than to be aligned with THE most forward-thinking, design driven, technologically advanced, and customer satisfaction-focused real estate brokerage in Northern California,” declared Michael Fanelli. “My aim as Sales Director is to ensure that our real estate professionals are the best trained marketers and savviest negotiators so as to consistently provide the highest standard of care while representing our buyer and seller clients’ needs.”

He has won countless national industry awards and is perennially ranked within the top one percent of all real estate professionals nationwide. Recognized as an expert in the field, Michael is a frequent lecturer on business success strategies and is a guest commentator on KGO radio, offering insights on the Greater San Francisco and Bay Area real estate topics and issues.

A member of San Francisco’s prestigious Olympic Club, Michael is a two-time winner of the San Francisco Pacific Rim Marathon, is a former head coach of the USA National Track Field team, and has been inducted into the San Francisco State University Athletics Hall of Fame.

Grace Lucero, one of Sonoma County’s top producers, will be taking on the role of Director of Investment Sales for Sonoma County and also working closely with the San Francisco Headquarters’ management on developments.

The office is located at 421 Healdsburg Avenue, directly next door to the famed Cousteaux Bakery and two blocks from Healdsburg’s renowned town plaza. The office is in the center of all the shops, restaurants and tasting rooms nearby including the fabulous SHED, the Healdsburg gathering space that is equal parts wine, beer and fermentation bar, restaurant and a high end home supply store.

Vanguard Properties is confident that the cross pollination of their 4 offices in Sonoma County, 4 offices in San Francisco and two offices in Marin County serve San Francisco buyers and sellers looking for property in Wine Country but also promote Healdsburg sellers in getting the “right” exposure in the San Francisco and Marin marketplace.

Vanguard is known for its unique, fresh and exciting approach to marketing homes and many real estate agents in Healdsburg and the surrounding areas are very interested in what Vanguard has to offer in marketing versus their competitors. “Our company takes a different approach to marketing Real Estate and supporting our agents. We work in collaboration to assist our agents and clients to achieve success,” said CEO James Nunemacher.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/05/prweb13413599.htm

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Article source: http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/16/05/p7983667/vanguard-properties-welcomes-bay-area-real-estate-veteran-michael-fanel

SAN FRANCISCO , CALIFORNIA (PRWEB)
May 14, 2016

The continual growth of Vanguard Properties, the well-known San Francisco Real Estate firm headed by CEO James Nunemacher for almost 30 years, has never been more evident. Today the firm announced the appointment of Michael Fanelli to now act as Sales Director for the team of established Realtors at Vanguard’s Healdsburg office. With more than 20 years of real estate experience, Michael’s cutting-edge, multi-faceted marketing programs and negotiating know-how have resulted in the successful closing of nearly 400 career transactions. In his new role, Michael’s responsibilities shall include training, mentoring and the imparting of his deep industry knowledge as he artfully guides Vanguard agents in today’s marketplace.

“I couldn’t be more delighted than to be aligned with THE most forward-thinking, design driven, technologically advanced, and customer satisfaction-focused real estate brokerage in Northern California,” declared Michael Fanelli. “My aim as Sales Director is to ensure that our real estate professionals are the best trained marketers and savviest negotiators so as to consistently provide the highest standard of care while representing our buyer and seller clients’ needs.”

He has won countless national industry awards and is perennially ranked within the top one percent of all real estate professionals nationwide. Recognized as an expert in the field, Michael is a frequent lecturer on business success strategies and is a guest commentator on KGO radio, offering insights on the Greater San Francisco and Bay Area real estate topics and issues.

A member of San Francisco’s prestigious Olympic Club, Michael is a two-time winner of the San Francisco Pacific Rim Marathon, is a former head coach of the USA National Track Field team, and has been inducted into the San Francisco State University Athletics Hall of Fame.

Grace Lucero, one of Sonoma County’s top producers, will be taking on the role of Director of Investment Sales for Sonoma County and also working closely with the San Francisco Headquarters’ management on developments.

The office is located at 421 Healdsburg Avenue, directly next door to the famed Cousteaux Bakery and two blocks from Healdsburg’s renowned town plaza. The office is in the center of all the shops, restaurants and tasting rooms nearby including the fabulous SHED, the Healdsburg gathering space that is equal parts wine, beer and fermentation bar, restaurant and a high end home supply store.

Vanguard Properties is confident that the cross pollination of their 4 offices in Sonoma County, 4 offices in San Francisco and two offices in Marin County serve San Francisco buyers and sellers looking for property in Wine Country but also promote Healdsburg sellers in getting the “right” exposure in the San Francisco and Marin marketplace.

Vanguard is known for its unique, fresh and exciting approach to marketing homes and many real estate agents in Healdsburg and the surrounding areas are very interested in what Vanguard has to offer in marketing versus their competitors. “Our company takes a different approach to marketing Real Estate and supporting our agents. We work in collaboration to assist our agents and clients to achieve success,” said CEO James Nunemacher.

Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/05/prweb13413599.htm

Embattled UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks and his wife have agreed to buy Alice Walker’s home in the Berkeley hills, which the Pulitzer Prize-winning author listed for $2.65 million.

Article source: http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/UC-Berkeley-chancellor-buying-novelist-Alice-7419375.php

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After years of finger-pointing, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera says “enough is enough” and is filing suit against the Academy of Art University, saying the nation’s largest for-profit art school and one of the city’s biggest landlords has illegally converted 22 buildings in amassing a real estate empire.

Citing “deliberate noncompliance … repeated missed deadlines and recurrent unfulfilled promises,” Herrera said it is time for the university to fall into line with city planning laws.

“In particular, defendants must return the many housing units they unlawfully displaced to San Francisco’s affordable housing stock,” the city attorney said in the suit he plans to file Friday in San Francisco Superior Court.

The lawsuit comes after a decade of bickering between the city, which has imposed hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines against the Academy of Art for alleged planning violations, and the university, which has refused to pay the money.

22 buildings at issue

According to the suit, Academy of Art President Elisa Stephens and her family, acting through subsidiary companies, have bought 22 commercial and residential buildings and “cavalierly” converted them to university use without obtaining the required city authorization. The buildings are among 40 buildings that the university owns in the city, many of them clustered in the South of Market and on Nob Hill.

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  City still has problems with Academy of Art’s building plans
  
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  Showdown nears for Academy of Art’s battle with city planners
  

Six of the buildings cited in Herrera’s complaint were residential structures that the school turned into student housing — “exacerbating the already scarce supply of affordable housing,” the suit says — and an additional three were hotels where students now live.

The real estate-buying spree was one of the main strategies for dealing with a boom in enrollment at the Academy of Art, which went from 5,000 students when Stephens took over in 1992 to a peak of more than 18,000, the suit says. More than a third of the buildings that Herrera cites in the lawsuit would need changes in the city’s planning code to come into compliance — something that would require a vote of the Board of Supervisors.

‘Flouted’ law

“In implementing their real estate scheme for profit,” the suit says, Stephens and her family “have flagrantly ignored and flouted the zoning and planning restrictions applicable to their properties that govern all San Francisco property owners.”

In addition to restoring properties for residential use, the lawsuit calls for administrative and civil penalties against the university that could add up to tens of millions of dollars.

Herrera’s assertion that the Academy of Art is taking affordable housing units off the market is especially explosive, given San Francisco’s out-of-control rental prices. However, just how many of the 252 units in the buildings cited in the lawsuit were actually being used for affordable housing before the academy bought them is likely to be a major issue as the legal case unfolds.

James Brosnahan, an attorney for the Academy of Art, branded Herrera’s lawsuit as “completely premature and unnecessary.” He said the university had spent nine years and $8 million working on an environmental impact report that it must produce before any of the properties can be legalized, and that the document was expected to be done by July 1.

“The idea that a lawsuit would be plunked down in the middle of all this is extremely surprising,” Brosnahan said.

He added that Herrera appeared to have politics on his mind, saying that “the city attorney has taken for himself the functions of the Planning Commission.”

‘Broken promises’

Herrera said there was nothing to prevent the Academy of Art from finishing its environmental report. But, in an interview, he said the city’s long dispute with the academy had been filled with “broken promises and missed deadlines.”

“This is a way to keep everyone’s feet to the fire,” Herrera said.

The university’s questionable real estate conversions have been the subject of years of conflict at City Hall, with Herrera repeatedly raising questions about the Planning Department’s inability or unwillingness to lower the boom on the university for alleged violations.

There have also been behind-the-scenes allegations that the university, which besides being a big landlord is also one of the city’s major employers and civic and charity donors, was getting special treatment.

The Planning Department has denied any pressure coming from City Hall, and instead points to the university’s ability to hire teams of lawyers that succeeded in delaying any action.

Settlement talks

The clock finally began to run out in March, when the Planning Commission and planning Director John Rahaim made it clear that they would not support efforts to amend the rules to allow many of the conversions.

There were also attempts in recent weeks to broker a settlement.

According to sources privy to the negotiations, Stephens had offered to lease at least one of her properties to the city for use as affordable housing — but the two sides apparently couldn’t come to terms.

Brosnahan said that “if the city attorney would get out of the way,” the university is prepared to build its own housing in the future, put money into the city’s affordable-housing fund and, “to the extent it would help, we would be open to converting one of the (university) buildings into affordable housing.”

‘Political ax to grind’

But he said Herrera appears intent on “walking away from all of that,” because he has “some kind of political ax to grind that has nothing to do with the academy.”

That’s not how critics of the university see it. Said Supervisor Aaron Peskin: “This institution has been playing San Francisco for a fool, and the merry-go-round is finally going to stop.”

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SF-suing-Academy-of-Art-over-real-estate-empire-7396553.php

Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and several car makers are seeking large expanses of real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area for their autonomous-car operations, a top landlord in the area said Thursday, illustrating Silicon Valley’s growing importance in the auto industry.

Victor Coleman, chief executive of Hudson Pacific Properties Inc., told analysts that “we are seeing a definitive movement” from autonomous-car research-and-development facilities, which “seem to be a hot demand item.”

“We’re seeing the Toyotas of the world, the Teslas of the world, BMWs, Mercedes. Ford now is out in the marketplace looking for space,” he said on the landlord’s quarterly investor call. “I haven’t even mentioned the 400,000 square feet that Google’s looking to take down and the 800,000 square feet that Apple’s looking to take down for their autonomous cars as well.”

Such spaces would be large, but car factories tend to be much larger. Tesla’s auto-making plant in nearby Fremont, Calif., is about 5.3 million square feet. Apple’s new under-construction headquarters is about 2.8 million square feet, while Google’s headquarters are about 4.8 million square feet. Both companies lease millions of additional square feet nearby.

Apple declined to comment. Alphabet representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hudson Pacific is one of the largest landlords in the area, with offices throughout Silicon Valley and San Francisco, where its buildings are home to the headquarters of Square Inc.
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and Uber Technologies Inc.

The remarks on driverless cars came as Mr. Coleman was seeking to explain that demand is still strong in Silicon Valley despite concerns about the health of the tech sector. Earlier in the call, he said growth in San Francisco was moderating—a shift in tone that worried some analysts on the call given that tech companies account for a large chunk of the company’s income.

Alphabet has been quite public about its driverless-car ambitions, but Apple has been far more tight-lipped. Apple is in the process of expanding a team that had about 600 employees last year, according to people familiar with the matter.

—Daisuke Wakabayashi contributed to this article.

Write to Eliot Brown at eliot.brown@wsj.com

Article source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/real-estate-for-autonomous-car-facilities-gains-movement-in-silicon-valley-1462493064