| Asset-based lenders notice business boost
These aren't exactly banner days for many financial companies, as mortgage lenders close their doors, investment bankers hemorrhage red ink and credit-card firms grapple with rising delinquencies.
But there are a few bright spots in the finance arena, and asset-based lenders occupy one of them.
These firms make business loans secured by accounts receivable, inventories, equipment and other assets, though usually not real estate. .
PR pros smooth paths for developers
A new breed of public-relations experts is helping developers head off neighborhood dissent even before rumors that a project will block views, lower property values or snarl traffic sweep up and down the block. Professionals in this niche of community outreach may sit with a single resident on a Saturday morning at Starbucks, walk door to door with site plans in hand, make phone calls or even develop Web sites - all to make the details of a proposed project accessible and understandable to neighbors. "Most people are not very excited about a change and are concerned what it will do to impact them," says Susan Bitter Smith, who along with her husband Paul, runs Technical Solutions. Their neighborhood work on Grace Communities' proposal for a mixed-used project on the southwestern corner of Camelback Road and 44th Street paid off when local residents recently backed it while protesting two other proposals at the intersection.
Can A Computer Store Tech Look At Your Files?
The privacy issues are significant, and while he did a good thing in helping take this person down, he still should not have looked at a customers private files. (reply to this comment) (link to this comment) re: Trevlac by Tony on Dec 17th, 2007 @ 9:38pm No trevlac, Case not closed! While I agree that the discovery of child porn MUST be reported, the tech had no business "discovering" what was there. True, the guy's a sicko and needs to serve time but the tech should only have tested the DVD software with a DVD. I think the appeals court got it wrong. The tech didn't know there were video files on the PC, he was HOPING there were. He had to do a search for "*.avi", etc. It's "commercially acceptable" to use a DVD to test a DVD drive. I think the appeals court made it's ruling biased by the fact the slug had kiddie porn on the machine to begin with which is a poor application of law; But they are human after all and I can at least understand why they'd be willing to overlook the techs misconduct, but overall it was a bad call by the appeals court.
Consultants help to steer academic futures
Parents are apt to brag about their child's outstanding performance in school just a little and sometimes on a bumper sticker. They rarely talk about a child whose middle-school performance is sinking or whose behavior in high school turns suddenly scary. Families shut down, feel isolated and overwhelmed. Schools and family therapists across the Valley are directing more worried parents to "therapeutic educational consultants." .
See if you can guess who drives which vehicle
The Avalanche-Journal found six widely recognized individuals who were capable of putting words with the contours of metal and glass to explain their particular choice in a vehicle. Readers are invited to match the wheels with the person by means of their descriptions. Jot down your guess in the box to the right of their picture. Answers are on Page B2. City Councilman Floyd Price takes mostly the pragmatic explanation for his selection and leaves unspoken the impressive eye-appeal of the vehicle that he is most often seen driving when he roars past. Linda DeLeon, who also sits on the City Council, makes no apologies for the car she gave to herself as a kind of retirement gift in 2004. But she alludes to an aura of luxurious power when describing it.
Fans play waiting game for tickets
With a hotel room and a flight booked, all Mike Cameron needs is four Super Bowl tickets. So the Boston resident is waiting. He plans to make the ticket sellers sweat a little. "We usually wait it out," said Cameron, a die-hard Patriots fan who will arrive in Phoenix on Wednesday. "We've been to the last few Super Bowls. When the price goes down - and it usually does - then we will buy." .
Renaissance Square sold in a $270.9 million deal
A Houston-based real-estate firm has bought Renaissance Square, a downtown Phoenix landmark. The selling price was $270.9 million according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, making it the most expensive deal for a Valley office complex in more than a year.
Renaissance Square features two high-rise buildings with a total 965,508 square feet that are situated on a city block between Central Avenue and First Avenue.
The complex was bought by a subsidiary of Hines U.S. Core Office Fund, a limited partnership operated by real-estate firm Hines. A joint venture of Pauls Corp. and GE Asset Management sold the property.
Renaissance Square is 95 percent leased to tenants that include legal and accounting firms.
The Renaissance Square transaction eclipses the $176.8 million sale of Collier Center at 201 E.
Hypercom moving headquarters to Scottsdale Airpark
Fresh from a restructuring, Hypercom Corp., a major maker of the credit-card terminals consumers see in checkout lines, will move a slimmed-down corporate workforce to Scottsdale from Phoenix.
The new headquarters will include more than 200 administrative, legal, human-resources and marketing employees at the Scottsdale Airpark, Hypercom spokesman Peter Schuddekopf said.
Hypercom is currently headed by Philippe Tartavull, who is serving as president and chief operating officer, while the company conducts a search for a new chief executive. The former CEO, William Keiper, stepped down in July after two years on the job. .
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