IBJ Real Estate Weekly

	Tuesday, March 11, 2008
	New Penn Arts owner eyeing 8th purchase Chris Piazza, the 23-year-old entrepreneur who is buying up struggling-and sometimes dilapidated-apartment buildings in the Indianapolis area, has almost finished plans for his latest purchase, The Penn Arts Apartments at 16th and Pennsylvania streets. Piazza bought the 82-unit Penn Arts building from JAB Real Estate Investment Group LLC in January for $1.4 million. Now he'll spend another $3 million to whip the building into shape. "I've always had an entrepreneurial mindset," said Piazza, who bought and sold cars through high school.    Leases/leasing contracts - Indiana Mentor renewed its lease for 18,929 square feet at 8925 N. Meridian St. Halakar Real Estate represented the landlord, Equicor Cos. David Black and Cindy Clark of Grubb and Ellis Harding Dahm and Co. represented the tenant.
	- OmniSource Marketing Group Inc. has leased 5,154 square feet at 8945 N. Meridian St. Todd Maurer of Halakar Real Estate represented the tenant. The landlord, Equicor Cos., represented itself. - Sherwin Williams leased 4,000 square feet at 331 S. State Road 135 in Greenwood. Scot Courtney and David Simons of Grubb and Ellis Harding Dahm and Co. represented the landlord, Meridian Market Shoppes LLC. Tony Orlando of Thompson Thrift represented the tenant. - Verizon Wireless leased 3,500 square feet at 4525 Lafayette Road. Tom Doyle with Centre Properties represented Centre as landlord. David Simons of Grubb and Ellis Harding Dahm and Co. represented the tenant. - Aspen Dental has leased 3,200 square feet at 311 S. State Road 135 in Greenwood. Scot Courtney and David Simons of Grubb and Ellis Harding Dahm and Co. represented the landlord, Meridian Market Shoppes LLC. Mark Perlstein of Sitehawk Retail Real Estate represented the tenant. Financials/investments/stock sales The NAREIT composite index lost 3.85 percent in February, the fourth consecutive monthly decline. The NAREIT index is made up of about 200 publicly traded real estate investment trusts in such sectors as industrial, retail, mortgage, self-storage and residential. In comparison, the NASDAQ lost 4.95 percent last month and the Dow Jones industrials lost 3.04 percent. Indiana's REIT stocks performed as follows in February: Simon Property Group Inc. lost 11.3 percent, Duke Realty Corp. lost 4.1 percent and Kite Realty Group Trust lost 7.7 percent. Housing The pace of mortgage loan applications rose 3 percent last week from the prior week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Refinancings accounted for 52.4 percent of all applications, up from 52 percent the week before. Mortgage rates were down, with 30-year mortgages averaging 5.98 percent, down from 6.27 percent. Rates on 15-year loans averaged 5.26 percent, down from 5.77 percent.  Merrill Tower moving west Developer Stephen Alexander said he isn't fazed by a zoning setback for his $67 million West Merrill hotel and apartment tower. The Metropolitan Development Commission denied his request to vacate an alley for the 24-story project, so Alexander plans to move the project's proposed footprint about a block to the west, onto property he also owns. The tower, near Eli Lilly and Co.'s Faris Campus, would include first-floor retail, a parking garage, 40 apartments and a 225-room hotel. The proposal won rezoning approval March 5, but the MDC denied an alley vacation request and deadlocked on a skyplane variance. Alexander says the city needs to help facilitate projects that add density rather than obstructing them.
	Read the item above and more real estate conversation starters at Property Lines, IBJ's real estate blog. You can link to the blog, which is hosted by real estate beat reporter Cory Schouten, at www.ibj.com. Edited by Tracy Donhardt
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