Five employees of the Sacramento Mountain Lions – including former Raiders defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan, who held the same position there – say that owner Paul Pelosi, a real-estate investor and businessman, owes them $250,000, according to the suit filed this month in San Francisco Superior Court.

That would seem like pocket change to Pelosi. He and his wife, the top Democrat in the House, are worth $26 million, according to federal financial disclosure statements. Their investments range from real estate around the Bay Area to their vineyard and home in St. Helena.

The league’s founder is Pelosi’s friend Bill Hambrecht, a San Francisco investment banker who managed Google’s initial public offering.

“It’s a vanity sports league and the people who own them are wealthy men,” said Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco civil-rights attorney who is representing the plaintiffs. “They have ignored their obligations to pay these people. Hambrecht and Paul Pelosi could write a check for what they owe these people without blinking, and they haven’t bothered to do it.”

In meetings before the team, Dhillon said, her clients recall Pelosi guaranteeing that they would get paid.

An additional political twist: Dhillon is the vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party – but she said she this is not about politics.

“I didn’t go out and seek this case; these plaintiffs sought me out,” Dhillon said. “You can take this set of facts, you can take out the name Pelosi and take it to any labor lawyer in California and they would file this lawsuit because it is outrageous.”

Paul Pelosi did not return phone calls requesting comment Monday.

When the league canceled the second half of its season in October, Paul Pelosi said in a statement that “it is our first priority to take care of our players, coaches, and staff and then to raise sufficient funds to take care of our other obligations and to resume fully financed operations in 2013.”

Speaking as a “spokesman for the UFL ownership group” in that same statement, Paul Pelosi blamed postponement on “a lack of sufficient funds due to the high cost of workmen’s compensation insurance and other elements.”

Dhillon said, “They never got (worker’s compensation insurance) from what my clients told me.”

Nancy Pelosi has a 95 percent lifetime rating on labor issues, according to the AFL-CIO rating of legislators.

Paul Pelosi’s stake in the Sacramento football team is in the range of $5 million to $25 million, according to the broad scale used in federal financial-disclosure forms. He claimed between $1 million and $5 million in losses, according to the disclosures.

Founded in 2009, the UFL has teetered on the edge of viability. It promised to return in the spring of 2013 but didn’t, and a future return is in peril.

Earlier this year, 78 of its players sued the league, its teams and Hambrecht for failing to pay them fully. They were seeking $1.5 million plus fees.

Nearly a year ago, Dennis Green – the former Stanford and Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals head coach – sued the Sacramento team for $1 million that he said he is still owed for coaching the Mountain Lions. The matter is in arbitration.

Joe Garofoli is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/joegarofoli/article/Employees-of-UFL-Sacramento-team-sue-Paul-Pelosi-4667148.php

Tim J. Gullicksen is a San Francisco Real Estate Agent at Zephyr Realty.

If this is a bubble, then it cannot last. One sector of the local economy (high tech) may be doing well, but the national and international forecasts are more gloomy

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) June 05, 2012

Tim Gullicksen of Zephyr Realty, a San Francisco real estate agent, is announcing that the high prices of real estate properties throughout the San Francisco Bay Area may only be another “bubble” that will soon go down in this current economic state.

“If this is a bubble, then it cannot last. One sector of the local economy (high tech) may be doing well, but the national and international forecasts are more gloomy. At best, the recovery is going achingly slow and unemployment remains high. At worst, we could have a world-wide double dip to our great recession,” Gullicksen said. “So can the vast increases in sales prices for homes in these highly desirable real estate markets really stay up there in the stratosphere? No one knows for sure, but my money is on ‘not likely.’”

From data and analysis of the current real estate market, this potential bubble is a combination of the Facebook initial public offering, historically low interest rates, the most anemic inventory of homes for sale in memory and the collective realization by the market that real estate values aren’t going any lower.

“When you combine economic confidence with a lot of buyers competing for very few listings, you have a recipe for sky-rocketing prices” Gullicksen said.

Properties are selling for 10 to 20 percent above what the recent comparables justify and often receive multiple offers; however, there is no economic recovery underpinning this massive and sudden increases in value.

For more information about Tim Gullicksen of Zephyr Realty, call 415-655-1588, view him on the Web at http://www.timgullicksen.com or visit 2523 California St. in San Francisco.

About Tim Gullicksen of Zephyr Realty

Tim Gullicksen of Zephyr Realty is a San Francisco real estate agent who specializes in a broad spectrum of San Francisco real estate property types, from affordable units sold through the Mayor’s Office of Housing to multi-million dollar buildings and single-family homes. Gullicksen works with experienced and first-time home buyers in San Francisco to find them the right home.

For more than 30 years, Zephyr Realty has been one of the most respected real estate firms in San Francisco. Its reputation as a highly professional and effective group of agents is recognized by both clients and the entire real estate community. As the most successful independent real estate firm serving San Francisco, with more than $1 billion in gross sales annually, its real estate agents understand the San Francisco market like no one else.

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Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/real-estate/san-francisco/prweb9573062.htm

For all the latest news on Facebook’s first day of trading, see MarketWatch’s special report on the company’s initial public offering.

Read more real-estate news in this week’s pages, including why lenders are asking borrowers for a mountain of paperwork when they apply for a loan, the latest on record-low mortgage rates and a Realty QA about a landlord who refuses to address a renter’s noisy neighbors.

To read more about the “Facebook effect” on San Francisco real estate, check out The Basis Point blog.

—Amy Hoak, Real Estate writer

Mortgage borrowers face litany of questions

As a home buyer or a candidate for refinancing, you’d expect to submit recent pay stubs and bank-account statements when applying for a mortgage loan. But a copy of your college transcripts? Or a decade-old divorce decree?Read more: Mortgage borrowers face litany of questions.

Landlord refuses to address noisy neighbor

In a recent column, you mentioned dispossessed homeowners sliding “all the way to the bottom of the ladder” to an apartment. Describes me perfectly!Read more: Landlord refuses to address noisy neighbor.

Another record low for fixed-rate mortgages

Fixed-rate mortgage rates hit yet another set of record lows this week, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 3.79% in Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of conforming mortgage rates.Read more: Another record low for fixed-rate mortgages.

Foreclosure activity drops in April

The number of foreclosure filings in April fell to the lowest monthly total since July 2007, according to RealtyTrac’s most recent report, released Thursday.Read more: Foreclosure activity drops in April.

Skip the dorm, buy your kid a condo

Low real-estate prices—and sweet tax breaks—may make buying a condo preferable to student housing.Read more: Skip the dorm, buy your kid a condo.

Is now the time to buy your first house?

Article source: http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-05-18/finance/31758589_1_fixed-rate-mortgages-mortgage-rates-mortgage-delinquencies

“You know how normally you have a desert, and in the desert you have a little oasis?” said Matt Henry, president of the Belle Haven Neighborhood Association. “With us, it’s just the exact opposite. We’re here in Silicon Valley, which is absolutely wonderful. But we’re the little small desert in the middle of something great.” Now, Facebook, the world’s largest social network, is moving in to the neighborhood.

Facebook has grown to more than 750 million active users and is on the verge of an initial public offering projected to value the company at $100 billion. After outgrowing its Palo Alto headquarters, the company is moving to Belle Haven, where it is creating a campus large enough to accommodate nearly 10,000 employees. The move is to be completed by the end of the year.

Residents of Belle Haven and its neighbor East Palo Alto, which is also entrenched in an urban malaise, hope Facebook’s arrival signals their long-awaited integration into the Silicon Valley economy. They picture the company’s wealth and dynamism spreading across the freeways, bringing better housing, services and schools.

“The table is being set for some really great things to happen,” said Charley Scandlyn, executive director of the Ravenswood Education Foundation, which aims to bring East Palo Alto schools up to the same standards as those in neighboring communities.

“The whole Facebook mission is about connecting people,” Mr. Scandlyn said. “Sometimes our kids in East Palo Alto don’t feel like they get to be a part of the good dreams in the world. Here is Facebook, that actually gets to live out its mission in its own neighborhood.”

It may not be that easy. Across the Bay Area, cities continue to hope that tech companies will provide the spark for a renaissance in low-income communities. Earlier this year, for example, San Francisco granted Twitter a six-year tax holiday to lure the company to the blighted mid-Market district.

But there is no conclusive evidence that the presence of a technology company can turn a neighborhood or a city around. Google’s hometown, Mountain View, still struggles to pay its bills and is threatening to lay off employees, despite the presence of several tech companies, including Google, with a combined value of well over $200 billion. Belle Haven’s hopeful uncertainty underscores the growing disconnect between a technology boom fueled by the explosive growth of social media companies and the continuing struggles of the communities in which those companies are located.

According to economists and public officials, the divide is related to the nature of the tech economy, much of which takes place in cyberspace, removed from the world of cash registers, low-income jobs and sales taxes. Companies like Google and Facebook pay property taxes, but cities draw little direct economic benefit from their core businesses. Their highly skilled, highly educated employees commute to lavish, insular campuses where most of their needs are met.

“A social networking company doesn’t have as much revenue-generating material,” said David Johnson, Menlo Park’s business development manager.

Still, Mr. Johnson said he was pleased to have found a company to fill the vacated one-million-square-foot property once occupied by Sun Microsystems.

“How can you not be excited about Facebook coming to town — it’s a potential game changer for that whole part of town,” Mr. Johnson said. “They are showing all indications of being a great corporate neighbor.”

Menlo Park officials said that as Facebook expanded, the city would have leverage to negotiate additional compensation. The site is currently zoned for 3,600 employees. Once Facebook outgrows that number, “the city will be looking for something in exchange,” said Justin Murphy, Menlo Park’s development manager.

In its recent approval of a hotel project, the city agreed to alter zoning requirements in exchange for a guarantee that the developer would spend $1.25 million on capital improvements and lock in the amount of revenue the city would receive from a hotel transient tax.

hadsrobinson@gmail.com

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/us/12bcfacebook.html

Terreno Realty Corp. has a market cap of $161.5 million; its shares were traded at around $17.45 .

Mutual Fund and Other Gurus that owns TRNO: Third Avenue Management.

Highlight of Business Operations:

Terreno Realty Corporation (?Terreno?, and together with its subsidiaries, ?we?, ?us?, ?our,? ?our company? or ?the company?) is an internally managed Maryland corporation focused on acquiring, owning and operating industrial real estate located in six major coastal U.S. markets: Los Angeles Area; Northern New Jersey/New York City; San Francisco Bay Area; Seattle Area; Miami Area; and Washington, D.C./Baltimore. We invest in several types of industrial real estate, including warehouse/distribution, flex (including light industrial and RD) and trans-shipment. We target functional buildings in infill locations that may be shared by multiple tenants and that cater to customer demand within the various submarkets in which we operate. Infill locations are geographic locations surrounded by high concentrations of already developed land and existing buildings. As of December 31, 2010, we owned a total of 33 buildings in five of the above markets aggregating approximately 2.4 million square feet, which we purchased for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $134.4 million, including the assumption of mortgage loans payable of approximately $17.9 million. As of December 31, 2010, our tenants Home Depot, Precision Custom Coating and YRC, Inc. accounted for approximately 17.4%, 14.9% and 11.5%, respectively, of our total annualized base rent.

We were incorporated in November 2009 and on February 16, 2010, we completed both our initial public offering of 8,750,000 shares of our common stock and a concurrent private placement of an aggregate of 350,000 shares of our common stock to our executive officers at a price per share of $20.00. We estimate that the net proceeds of our initial public offering were approximately $162.8 million after deducting the full underwriting discount of approximately $10.5 million and other estimated offering expenses of approximately $1.7 million. The underwriters agreed to forego the receipt of payment of $0.80 per share, or approximately $7.0 million in the aggregate, until such time as we purchase assets in accordance with our investment strategy as described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K with an aggregate purchase price (including the amount of any outstanding indebtedness assumed or incurred by us) at least equal to the net proceeds from our initial public offering (after deducting the full underwriting discount and other estimated offering expenses payable by us), at which time, we have agreed to pay the underwriters the remainder of the underwriting discount. We received net proceeds of approximately $7.0 million from our concurrent private placement. In the aggregate, we had approximately $169.8 million in cash available to execute our business strategy upon completion of our initial public offering and the concurrent private placement on February 16, 2010.

Read the The complete Report

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Article source: http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=123558