We Value Bloomington-Normal

BLOOMINGTON — Verizon has sold its property on East Empire Street in Bloomington to a New York-based real estate firm for $4.96 million, the communications company announced Tuesday.

Verizon put the 117,539 square foot office building on the market in February 2006 because the company no longer needed the space. Many of the 128 workers there have already transferred to offices in downtown Bloomington and Normal.

The GHP deal includes two office buildings and two parking lots on 8.6 acres of property, according to documents Verizon filed with the ICC.

According to the documents, Verizon agrees to lease space from GHP for at least two years.

The Empire Street building dates to 1957. When constructed, Verizon placed a time capsule on the property.

Parcels: 14-34-480-027 AV $2,225,297  and 14-34-480-017  $79,961

NORMAL -- The Hampton Inn & Suites opened at the Shoppes at College Hills in Normal Monday, the first of many new Twin City hotels set to open this year or next.

"Our location is perfect right next to the Shoppes. It gives our guests something to do at night," said Joel Ramseyer, the hotel's director of sales. The hotel sits at northwest corner of the Shoppes along Veterans Parkway.

The 128-room hotel has a swimming pool, a fitness room, a business center, a small convenience store and a conference room that can house up to 100 people. It also has a breakfast bar serving hot meals, fresh fruit, muffins, cereal and beverages.

Each room has complimentary wireless Internet access as well as connections for dial-up service, Ramseyer said. All rooms also have 32-inch high-definition televisions and rentable Nintendo Gamecube games.

Rooms range from $99 to $189 per night, he said.

When the adjacent Destihl Restaurant and Brew Works -- formerly called Gridiron Brew Works -- opens this fall, it will provide catering and room service for the Hampton Inn, Ramseyer said. Guests can charge the meals to their hotel tabs.

The Hampton Inn is the first of several new hotels set to open in Bloomington-Normal this year or next. Others in the works include

• a Holiday Inn & Suites in east Bloomington,
• a Marriot Hotel and Conference Center in uptown Normal,
• an AmericInn in north Normal,
• a Fairfield Inn & Suites in west Bloomington and
• a Candlewood Suites in east Normal.

That's about 740 new rooms combined. Bloomington-Normal currently has about 2,900 rooms, according to figures from the Bloomington-Normal Area Conventions and Visitors Bureau.

Gridiron

Owner Matthew Potts changed the restaurant's name so people would not confuse it for a sports bar. The original name was supposed to play off the restaurant's grill, but most people associate "gridiron" with football, he said. Potts is planning Destihl to be a sit-down restaurant with live music on the weekend.

Total home sales were up 2.4 percent in February 2007 to 8,792 homes sold compared to 8,584 homes sold in January 2007.

Sales were 12.1 percent below the 10,007 homes sold in February 2006.

The Illinois median home price in February was $193,000, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier.

"We experienced some winter storms which delayed activity in February. Naturally the cold temperatures and snow kept buyers inside,” said IAR President Robert Zoretich. Read more.

NORMAL -- Work on McLean County’s second wind farm could begin this summer. The McLean County Board approved Invenergy’s request for a special-use permit for the 100-turbine White Oak Wind Energy Center in western McLean County and part of Woodford County on Tuesday.

Joel Link, Midwest director of business development for Invenergy, said the company needs to finish up a few things, including determining final turbine placement, but could apply for building permits in a couple of months.

Meanwhile, Melissa McGrath, the Bloomington attorney representing residents who oppose the wind farm, said she will be discussing a possible appeal of the County Board’s decision with her clients.  Click Here for the complete Pantagraph story.

At a glance

What does this mean to you?

Invenergy will be able to build a 100-turbine wind farm on 12,212 acres in western McLean County.

Background

The McLean County Zoning Board of Appeals recommended a special-use permit for the project on Feb. 8, after 12 days of often heated testimony.

How they voted?

17-1; Tari Renner voted no; Ann Harding was absent; a replacement has not been named for Duffy Bass, who died last week.

NORMAL - A new high-end housing development will expand the town's eastern boundary by more than 80 acres.

Approval of the executive-level Trails at Sunset Lake, a development on the northeast corner of Airport and Fort Jesse roads planned by Jim O'Neal and B.J. Armstrong, didn't come quickly Monday night.

City Council members struggled over the developers' request to have eight 65-foot lots. The other 120 lots featuring homes in the $600,000 range will have 70-foot lots.

Read the complete Pantagraph story: Click Here.

There are some topics an agent simply can't address due to fair housing laws. But home buyers can go online to find data on neighborhood characteristics like demographics, the quality of the schools, area crime and environmental concerns.

• Checking on the schools
• Crime matters
• Judging the environment
• Learning the demographics
• Walking the neighborhood - GIS maps

Unusual weather patterns and problems in the subprime lending marketplace are creating challenges in assessing housing market conditions, according to the latest NAR forecast.

Said NAR chief economist David Lereah: “Underlying trends point to a housing recovery in 2007, but it will take a couple months for us to get a better handle on it.

Existing-home sales are expected to slowly improve from what appears to be the cyclical low last fall.” Read the full forecast.

By any reckoning, a home is expected to last many years and serve several successive generations. But what about the individual components that comprise the house? How many years of service can a home owner reasonably expect from a roof or a door, a window or a whirlpool tub? 

Recently, two bills increasing the state transfer tax were introduced in the Illinois General Assembly.  The Home Builders Association of Illinois is opposed to both HB 728 and SB 445. 

These bills increase the state's tax on the sale and transfer of real estate property on a graduated basis.  The tax could increase from $1 per $1000 up to $10 per $1000, depending upon the sale price of the property. 

The money generated by the real estate transfer tax is dedicated to open space land acquisition and affordable housing. 

Both of these funds were recently swept by the Governor for other state budgetary purposes; using your property taxes to fund general state operations. 

In addition, in 2005, the Home Builders Association of Illinois supported a $10 fee on the recording of all property transfers.  That revenue is dedicated to affordable rental housing.  Now, the same housing advocates are back with their hands in your pockets.

Contact your legislator today to oppose HB 728 and SB 445!


Click the following link to take action on this issue.
http://votervoice.net/Groups/HBAIL/?Screen=Alert&IssueID=9792

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) was established as an independent entity within the Department of Housing and Urban Development by the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (Title 13 of P.L. 102-550).

From an appraiser's perspective, the article is refreshing in that it does not lay all the blame for the current level of mortgage fraud at the feet of the appraisal industry. 

Ronald Frazier, president of LSI, and Arthur Prieston, chairman of the Prieston Group, give their thoughs on the causes of the unprecidented rise in mortgage fraud by title companies, commissioned loan officers, builders, and scammers.

Click here for the full story: Fraud: $4 Billion and Rising 

A housing crash?!  Well . . .it's more of a crashed house!

A Bloomington, IL couple caught a falling star Monday morning, not quite in their pockets but in a bedroom of their house. | Photo gallery | Video

A chunk of metal that crashed through the bedroom window of David and Dee Riddle’s home, 25 Partner Place, just after 9:30 a.m. appears to be a meteorite, but it also could be a piece of space junk, according to preliminary analysis by several Illinois State University geology professors.

However, the professors who had a look at it agree that whatever the heavy, gray object that crashed through their window is, it definitely came from space.

Robert “Skip” Nelson, a professor of geology at ISU, came out to Riddles’ home to take a look at the object, which is about the size of deck of cards.

Nelson said that based on the density of the object, the metal could be a combination of iron and nickel or a heavy stainless steel. It is unlikely a satellite or spacecraft would contain metal that heavy and dense, Nelson said.

“In my 36 years of investigating meteorite calls, this looks like the real thing,” Nelson said.

Click here for the complete story.