There are cranes hanging over downtown Long Beach, with work underway or soon to start on multiple, multimillion-dollar mixed-use developments.

City officials and business leaders say a sort of renaissance is taking place, with new housing and retail soon to be available in the citys urban center. Michael Conway, the citys director of Economic and Property Development, said he is encouraged seeing construction crews at work, calling it a sign of a strengthening downtown marketplace. He added that the planned new Civic Center is going to be yet another boon to downtown development.

Among those major developments underway today, Long Beachs Development Services Department lists three major projects: The Current, The Edison and The Parc Broadway.

But besides those, smaller new development projects and adaptive reuses also are under way with much more on the horizon, promised Conway and Downtown Long Beach Associates President and CEO Kraig Kojian.

Development of the Sixth Street Lofts, for example, is turning what was once a real estate site left for dead into 30 loft apartments at 431 E. Sixth St. That project could be complete in early 2015.

New developments still in the entitlement phase include a proposal for 207 Seaside Way that would accommodate a five-story, 113-unit residential component over a two-story parking garage, among other features.

A proposal for 442 Ocean Blvd. is working its way through the process to make way for another five-story complex with 95 residential units over a two-story parking garage, among other amenities.

The former AMC movie theater at Pine Square is being transformed through adaptive reuse into 69 residential units. Other proposed adaptive reuses include: plans to reuse the Ocean Center historic office building as residential and retail/restaurant space at Pine Avenue and Ocean Boulevard; adapting the former Security Pacific Tower at 110 Pine Ave. into 118 residential units; among other projects.

While the construction does create jobs short term, the even better long-term benefits, Conway said, are a collateral effect of having more people and a different demographic living downtown, ultimately bringing in other new developments and retailers that the city hasnt had before.

The real multiplier here is the additional residential density we are going to have downtown, he said. Its still a bit of a tough market, and downtown has a somewhat challenging demographic. Its been a long plan and a long road to bring the downtown to its current status as a very popular and lively downtown. Twenty years ago, I couldnt say the same thing, but I think it is an extraordinary downtown and this development is a testament to its economic vitality.

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New High-Rises Develop In Downtown Long Beach

U.S. shopping-center owners are starting 2015 on an optimistic note thanks to a solid holiday season and rising rents throughout 2014.

Yet, given that retail vacancies remain near historically elevated levels, more bullish news for retail landlords likely will come at a glacial pace.

All in, last year was a good one for mall and strip-center owners. The average strip-center vacancy last year was 10.2%, the lowest annual percentage since 2008, according to new data from real-estate research firm Reis Inc. Average rents increased 2%, the largest increase since 2007, said Reis, which tracks the largest 77 markets.

At malls, the vacancy rate ticked up slightly to 8% in the fourth quarter from 7.9% in the third, due mostly to closures by Sears Holdings Corp.But vacancy remains down from the recent high of 9.4% set in the third quarter of 2011. Mall rental rates, meanwhile, rose for the 14th consecutive quarter, albeit by tiny measures in each case, to $40.66 per square foot per year, Reis said.

For a property type that has really struggled over the past few years, things are getting better, said Ryan Severino, senior economist at Reis. That portends improvement in 2015 and beyond.

Retailers and their landlords alike have sunny outlooks for several reasons. Holiday sales were strong. Thomson Reuters projects that the 76 retailers it tracks will post an average fourth-quarter gain in same-store sales of 1.8%, up from 0.7% for the final quarter of 2013.

Job growth has gained significant momentum in recent months, and wage growth is picking up, too. A potential windfall recently arrived for merchants in the steep decline of oil prices, which has freed shoppers to spend less on gas and more on retail goods.

If 2015 sees any material rise in income, and if energy prices remain where they are, you could see a real bump in spending in 2015, said Gene Spiegelman, vice chairman and head of retail services in North America for commercial brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.

OConnor Capital Partners LLC, a closely held builder and owner with 14 million square feet of shopping centers in the U.S. and Mexico, anticipates that its tenants will post an average sales gain of 2% to 2.5% for the fourth quarter from the year-earlier period. Thatd be as good a fourth quarter as weve had since 2011, OConnor Chairman and Chief Executive Glenn Rufrano said.

Mr. Rufrano said he noticed sales gains last quarter from OConnors tenants in athletics, accessories, electronics and home goods. But he said some apparel stores were struggling. Several flagship apparel chains have been reporting weak sales lately,including Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and American Apparel Inc.

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Shopping-Center Owners Start Year With Optimism as 4th-Quarter Rents Rise

US retail mall vacancies rose in the fourth quarter from the third, mainly due to the closure of some Sears Holdings Corp stores, according to real estate research firm Reis Inc.

Asking and effective rents for shopping centers increased slightly faster than the previous quarter, Reis said in a report on Tuesday.

Retail mall vacancies rose to 8 per cent in the fourth quarter from 7.9 per cent in the third quarter, marking the first quarterly increase since the third quarter of 2011, the company said.

Retailer Sears said in December it planned to close 235 stores in 2014, nearly double the projection of 130 made in August, in an attempt to return to profitability.

Asking and effective rents for shopping centers grew by 0.5 per cent this quarter. Asking rent had risen 0.4 per cent in the third quarter, while effective rents rose 0.5 per cent.

"Demand continues to rebound from a weak 2013, though it also remains at relatively low levels... (This) provides more evidence that the recovery is not yet accelerating," Severino said.

The national vacancy rate for neighborhood and community shopping centers declined by 10 basis points to 10.2 per cent during the fourth quarter, slightly improving from the third quarter, when the rate was unchanged.

Construction activity remained limited with only 1,752,000 square feet of new shopping center space completed during the fourth quarter. Shopping center space completed during the third quarter was 1,272,000 square feet.

Reis said accelerating pace of job creation, wage growth, and cheaper energy prices portend better times ahead.

"While we are still a number of years away from characterizing the retail real estate environment as 'strong', 2015 could certainly be a year of transition to a healthier market environment," Severino said.

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US retail mall vacancies rise in fourth quarter: Reis

Sandycombe Lodge has been placed on the English Heritage register of endangered historic structures. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

A house designed by the painter JMW Turner as a country home to share with his father will be saved from dereliction and opened permanently to the public through a 1.4m grant to be announced on Wednesday by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

We are just so excited, it is superb news this house is a national treasure, but it is in a sad, sad state, and if we had to get through another bad winter without knowing whether we could go ahead with restoration, it would be truly worrying, said Rosemary Vaux, of the Turner House Trust. The months of torrential rain last winter did terrible damage, and we were really fearful of the consequences if we had another prolonged spell of such bad weather.

The Grade II listed house, Sandycombe Lodge in Twickenham, west London, is the only known building designed by Turner. It was described by Vaux as a three-dimensional work of art. It was left by the last private owner to a trust, but its increasingly fragile condition meant that it was only open to the public one afternoon a month, and placed on the English Heritage register of endangered historic structures.

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The grant, with extra funding being raised by the trust, means that it will close this year and reopen in 2016 for 46 weeks of the year, with later features removed and the garden and interiors restored to their appearance in Turners day. The house had many features including distinctive tall narrow arches inspired by his friend Sir John Soane, the architect whose own much grander country home, Pitzhanger Manor, was only a few miles away in Ealing. Turner lived in Twickenham for part of the year from 1813 until 1826, producing many dazzling paintings of nearby stretches of the Thames, with his father as housekeeper and gardener. As portrayed in Mike Leighs film Mr Turner, father and son were devoted, though many visitors mistook the modestly dressed little man pottering around the garden with a wheelbarrow seen in one Turner drawing for a groundsman. He entertained friends to lavish picnics in the garden, which had colourful flower beds, a large pond full of fish and water lilies, and a weeping willow planted from a slip he took from the garden of another local celebrity, the poet Alexander Pope.

In 1826 Turner sold the house and moved his father back to his larger town house, studio and gallery in London. Although the house passed through many hands, and the fact that he designed it was forgotten, the connection with the artist was never forgotten locally and it was cherished on his account by a succession of owners. The narrow country lane is now a suburban street, with the house hemmed in by later buildings, but it is still recognisable from 19th century engravings made in Turners day. The interior was barely modernised even after being a second world war factory making goggles for aviators.

Turner kept the adjoining meadow for years, finally selling it for a handsome profit in 1848 to the railway company which was driving a new line through to Windsor.

In 1947 Professor Harold Livermore bought the surviving scrap of garden and the house which was in such poor state that there was talk of demolishing it. He carried out extensive research with his wife Ann on Turners time in Twickenham, campaigned to prevent development which would have damaged its setting, established the trust in 2005, and bequeathed the house on his death in 2010 along with an extensive collection of books and works of art.

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Turned out nice: artists home gets 1.4m rescue grant

Portrait photographer Mark Seliger has sold his Richard Neutra-designed house in Los Feliz for $4.52 million -- just above the asking price of $4.5 million.

Considered a prime example of Neutra's Midcentury Modern home designs, the 1949 Alpha Wirin House was restored to maintain its architectural integrity. Wood ceilings and built-in furniture grace the interiors.

The 2,262 square feet of living space contains family and living rooms, a dining area, an office/den, two bedrooms and three bathrooms. Balconies expand the living space outdoors.

Walls of glass allow views of the cityscape and surrounding hillsides.

The nearly three-quarter acre of grounds is planted with palms and succulents. Steps lead to a swimming pool below the two-story house.

Seligers portrait subjects have included President Obama, singer-songwriter Mick Jagger and Nirvanas Kurt Cobain. Seliger has shot covers for publications such as Rolling Stone and GQ.

He paid $1.575 million for the house more than a decade ago and worked with designer Mark Haddawy on the restoration.

Aaron Kirman of John Aaroe Group was the listing agent.

Twitter: @LATHotProperty

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Photographer Mark Seliger sells Richard Neutra-designed home

A remodeling project beginning Wednesday at the West Boulder Senior Center will do away with several of the meeting rooms at the back of the facility and replace them with human services offices.

The work, set to continue through March, will also include the application of fresh paint, lighting upgrades and the addition of soundproofing in efforts to improve the spaces available to seniors, according to the city.

Despite assurances that the project will not affect services such as Boulder Meals on Wheels, nor programs hosted by the center, 909 Arapahoe Ave., some local seniors are miffed that regular users were not consulted about the project. Furthermore, they are concerned about the lack of notice for the remodeling, formally announced in a news release Monday.

"They are doing this without consulting anybody or getting any senior input," Win Nolin, 83, said Tuesday.

Nolin, a former president of the Boulder Senior Advisory Committee, said he only heard about the remodeling project through word of mouth when attending a dinner event at the West Senior Center's Caf Classico last week. That led him to email the City Council on Saturday.

The message read, in part, "Our West Senior Center was built 35 years ago for serving the needs of our seniors and I think that our seniors need to have an input on any changes that are proposed to the center. Our seniors that have served others and helped build the community need to have a voice in these matters."

On Monday, Nolin said, he and some other seniors met with Betty Kilsdonk, Boulder's acting senior service manager, Human Services Director Karen Rahn and City Manager Jane Brautigam about their concerns. He described the meetings as "stalemates" that were not productive.

"They have decided what's best for the seniors, it seems to me," he said.

Kilsdonk on Tuesday acknowledged that public input was not sought on the remodeling work but said that is not uncommon for small-scale projects like this.

"This is a fairly routine remodel that the city does all the time," Kilsdonk said. "Though the press release came out earlier this week, city staff have been contacting customers since December who were using those (meeting) rooms and found new homes for their meetings."

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West Boulder Senior Center remodel begins as users decry lack of input

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Posted: Tuesday, January 6, 2015 6:01 pm

Lynchburg Roofing raises money for cancer patient Amy Trent newsadvance.com

Lynchburg Roofing is raising awareness and funds for Cullen Harris, a child fighting cancer.

Through the end of February, Lynchburg Roofing will give 5 percent of every new roof contract to Harris, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor at four months of age.

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Lynchburg Roofing raises money for cancer patient