Daily News April 16, 2009

Here are the news stories you might find interesting today:

General Growth Files for Bankruptcy Protection
CHICAGO-The company is unable to come to an agreement with creditors; 158 of its more than 200 centers are included in the filing.

Finance woes for $140 mil Town Square

Southwest Valley Chamber to hear I-10 update

Downtown pharmacy set to open next year

Hints of stabilizing economy spark late stock rally

Fed finds faint signs of hope

Metro lists busiest light-rail stations

Valley getting stations for electric cars

Volume softens on Rockford sales
Weak consumer demand turned down the volume at Rockford Corp. in the fourth quarter.
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Bank of Arizona opens three branches
Bank of Arizona will celebrate the grand opening of three branches in the Phoenix area Thursday.
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Builders gain confidence in new home market
The market for new homes is slowly improving, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
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Kitchen Market Cafe begins breakfast catering
The Kitchen Market Cafe and Wine Bar launched a catering service that offers breakfast buffets, boxed lunches, company dinners and holiday events.
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Qwest relocating small-business operations to regional hubs
Qwest Communications International Inc. will close its Arizona small-business services call center and shed 61 local jobs in the process. (Q)
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SBA loans fall 67 percent in Arizona
SBA lending continues to decline across the state, according to figures from the Arizona district office of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
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Summit to highlight South Scottsdale potential
More than a dozen experts in business and economics, real estate development, urban design, community planning and the automotive industry will gather for an economic checkup of South Scottsdale this Saturday.
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Knoll furniture heads list of new retail at Hayden Ferry
Three retailers will open at Hayden Ferry Lakeside within the next three weeks: Knoll Inc., an internationally known furniture showroom and design firm; Segway of Tempe; and City Market and Deli, a high-end boutique grocer and prepared-foods purveyor.
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Progressive Insurance signed a 17,184-square-foot office lease on the third floor of 2550 W. Union Hills Drive in Phoenix. Progressive will occupy the space in July after the build-out is complete. The three-story, 146,000-square-foot office building was built in 2007 in the Union Hills Office Plaza.

Tata Consultancy, an Indian software services and consulting company, signed a lease for 21,647 square feet of office space at the Union Hills Office Plaza in Phoenix. Tata will begin its 69-month term in July. The three-story, 146,000-square-foot office building was built in 2007 on 15-acres. Tenants include Progressive Insurance and the University of Phoenix.

Economists: Arizona in for long recovery
Early indicators of a turnaround in the economy may be emerging, economists said Thursday. But they also cautioned the pullout from the deep recession is likely to be long and slow, and it will still feel like a recession long after technical numbers say the downturn is over.

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Mesa firms honored for community service
A decades-old family business, a locally owned fast-food restaurant and a military contractor were given awards by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce Wednesday for their charitable efforts to help the community.

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ASU-RSI: Economic Malaise Slowing Arrival of Real Estate Relief Malaise in the economy is slowing down the arrival of relief for Phoenix real estate and lengthening what is already a record-breaking run of declining prices, according to an analysis of the Arizona State University-Repeat Sales Index (ASU-RSI). The rate of decline had been showing signs of leveling off last fall, but then the financial crises hit, further injuring the limping market, said Finance Professor Karl Guntermann, who compiles the index with research associate Alex Horenstein. Home prices in the metro-Phoenix area dropped 33 percent in 2008, and in January and February prices are projected to drop even more. Prices have been declining for 22 months now, exceeding the previous record: a 17-month plunge in prices between 1989 and 1991.

Forecast: After Residential Market Bottoms Out, Commercial Construction Will Continue To Fall The 13 economists who track the real estate construction industry for the Greater Phoenix Blue Chip Economic Forecast are projecting that the metro area's residential market will bottom out in 2009, however down times will continue on for the multi family and commercial sector. The Greater Phoenix Blue Chip Economic Forecast appears quarterly on Economy@W. P. Carey, a new web site offered by K@WPC that covers the economy in the western United States.

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