Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

GRAND RAPIDS Perrigo Co. plc is seeking a 12-year incentive agreement estimated at $4.1 million in total property tax savings for its plans to relocate its North American headquarters to downtown.

The Grand Rapids City Commission set a Jan.12 public hearing to consider the agreement. The commission will consider an Industrial Development District for the project, as well as a 12-year Industrial Facilities Exemption Certificate and a 12-year New Personal Property Exemption Certificate. Perrigos new headquarters is planned at 430 Monroe Ave. NW, where it has committed to a 15-year lease.

The proposed Industrial Development District will include the footprint of the new building, which will have frontage on Ottawa Avenue and Michigan Street, as well as a seven-story parking deck.

Of the estimated $4.1 million in property tax savings, the citys share would be approximately $797,000 in property taxes. Under the proposed incentives, the city would receive about $1.1 million in new property taxes.

Factoring in property and income tax revenue from the $39 million investment and 150 new jobs in Grand Rapids, the city stands to receive $2.6 million over the 15-year period, Grand Rapids Economic Development Director Jeremiah Gracia told MiBiz.

The tax incentive hinges on Perrigo having 150 employees in downtown Grand Rapids within two years of the projects completion. About 100 will be existing Perrigo employees that will transfer to Grand Rapids, and about 50 will be newly created positions.

Perrigo announced plans to relocate to Grand Rapids Medical Mile on Oct. 27, the same day the Michigan Strategic Fund board approved a $2 million Michigan Business Development Program grant for the project. The MSF support is predicated on the anticipated creation of 170 jobs in Michigan.

Perrigos offices are planned for the eighth through tenth floors of the building, comprising 63,550 square feet of what will be a 127,460-square-foot building. The development will be located within Michigan State Universitys Grand Rapids Innovation Park.

Rockford Construction Co. is the contractor on the project, which is expected to start in February and be completed in May 2022.

Employees in the new office building will make wages ranging from $25.43-$53.30 per hour for roles including managerial, professional, technical and sales positions.

While Perrigo will keep its operations in Allegan, the company is also in the process of constructing a new $13 million Holland distribution center, which is expected to create 40 new jobs and be completed in March.

The 357,000-square-foot facility at 796 Interchange Drive will be the third time Perrigo has expanded in the Holland area in the last two years. Earlier this year the company invested $13.6 million to expand its facility in Holland Township with a 66,000-square-foot warehouse. In 2019, Perrigo expanded its facility at E. 64th St. in Holland with a $7 million expansion.

Perrigo continues to be an employer of choice, strengthening their North American base of operations along the lakeshore, and we are pleased to once again take part in their continued growth, Lakeshore Advantage President Jennifer Owens said in a statement.

The new facility will add to Perrigos robust distribution and manufacturing presence in the region, said Ron Janish, Perrigos executive vice president of global operations and supply chain.

This distribution center exemplifies our consumer self-care mindset and brings together finished goods from numerous product lines into one point of distribution, which will enable our customers to receive one comprehensive shipment from Perrigo, Janish said.

The city of Holland is supporting the new distribution center development with a 12-year Industrials Facilities Tax Exemption.

We are pleased that Perrigo chose to build its distribution center in Holland, increasing its operational footprint in the region with its manufacturing facilities in Allegan County and a North American corporate headquarters in Grand Rapids, said Holland City Manager Keith Van Beek. Our support for the distribution center helps maintain and expand a robust economy and quality jobs throughout West Michigan.

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Perrigo seeks $4.1M in tax incentives for planned GR headquarters; Holland expansion moves forward - MiBiz: West Michigan Business News

On a Sunday evening in late September, with wildfire smoke hanging in the air, a few dozen people gathered in the rooftop kitchen of a Hollywood apartment building called Treehouse for their weekly communal dinner.

The buildings co-founder and chief executive, Prophet Walker, stacked plates and cleaned up cutting boards behind the tiled kitchen island, while the buildings designer, Sean Knibb, manned the pans of turmeric chicken sizzling on the stove.

The rest of the residents drank wine and chatted as they waited to eat. A woman with the vibes of an Instagram astrologer waved hi at a man who seemed to leap from a Vineyard Vines catalog. One wall of the kitchen was open to the deck outside, but people were squeezed together at small tables. Nobody was wearing a mask.

It looked like a scene from the past, or from the future. These people werent friends, at least not before they moved in. They werent family, save a few parents with their children. They were co-livers, a building-sized pod in the time of COVID, in a housing experiment with grand ambitions.

Co-living isnt a new idea, or even a new target for tech money. Start-ups like Common, Bungalow and WeLive, the co-living division of the smoldering office-space Hindenburg WeWork, have been raising venture capital and carving up apartment buildings across the country in recent years. Most sell rooms to renters as a cheaper option, a nouveau-SRO with foosball in the laundry room and catered Taco Tuesdays on the patio.

Treehouse is taking a different tack. Walker and co-founder Joe Green, a tech entrepreneur in the Facebook orbit and big booster of psychedelic research, say they want to create the togetherness of intentional communities like co-ops, communes, or Burning Man without the anticapitalist politics or freegan cuisine. In an era when luxury is synonymous with isolation private jets, private islands, Uber Black versus Uber Pool theyre betting that real community can be packaged as a premium, an amenity that keeps atomization at bay as surely as heated floors banish cold feet.

From the outside, the five-story building on Carlton Way near the open cut of the 101 looks like any other upscale new construction sans serif font, little balconies, black-painted steel. But inside its walls, things look different, starting with a floor plan heavily tilted toward shared spaces.

The laundry/art room in the basement.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Rotating committees of residents determine which rental applicants get approved, and the process involves more checks of vibe than credit. Leases come with signed commitments to community values, and instead of simply showing up for scheduled events, residents are encouraged to create their own classes and shindigs for the rest of the building. Only 10% of the units are set aside as affordable for low-income tenants, but all are currently occupied by poets.

The rooms are pitched at the upper middle of the rental market in central L.A., with rents starting at $1,715 a month, plus a $210 fee to cover utilities, housekeeping, free coffee and Sunday dinners, yoga classes and other events.

Specifically, theyre pitched at people like Kimberlee Archer. When Archer left Facebook for a high-ranking job at Snap in May, the 38-year-old marketing executive could have rented an upscale pad with ocean views or found a spot up in the hills. But she wanted to live with other people, pandemic be damned. Before leaving Oakland, she googled coliving space.

A few weeks later, she moved into one of Treehouses units really just a bedroom and a private bathroom, furnished in the style of a cozy boutique hotel (Knibb also designed the Line Hotel in Koreatown).

Ive lived by myself, Ive lived with family members, Ive lived with roommates, Archer said. But after a career heavy on work travel, she realized she didnt need a lot of space she was used to living in a hotel room. What I enjoy is having really good conversations with people I dont work with.

A bedroom in Treehouse Hollywood.

(Treehouse)

She shares a kitchen with four other suitemates and shares the common spaces of the building with the rest of Treehouses 40-plus residents: Theres the lobby/cafe, laundry room/art studio, screening room/Japanese-themed bar, two-story library curated by the resident librarian, and on the roof, a garden, a deck, the communal kitchen, and yes, a little treehouse, wrapped around a 100-year-old olive tree shipped in from Sacramento.

The company views the Hollywood building as a beta test for its bigger plans: a network of Treehouses across Los Angeles, from Koreatown to Compton. A complex keyed toward families interested in co-life is already in the works in Leimert Park. Residents will be welcome to stop by any other Treehouse in the city for coffee or drinks on the roof when theyre in the neighborhood.

Walker and Green make an odd couple of utopian housing entrepreneurs. What brought them together was loneliness.

Walker grew up in Watts, broke someones jaw in a fight over a DiscMan, and went to Ironwood State Prison on an assault and robbery charge when he was 16. He got out and got into Loyola Marymount University, then worked on some of L.A.s splashiest real estate projects as a developer with Morley Builders, attempting a run for state Assembly in 2014 along the way.

Green grew up in Santa Monica and went to Harvard, where he found himself sharing a dorm with Mark Zuckerberg. He declined a chance to quit school to go work at the social network but managed to start a series of successful tech companies of his own. In 2013, he teamed up with Zuckerberg to start FWD.us, a lobbying shop that used tech money to push for immigration reform, among other issues.

By the time Green and Walker met in 2016, both had reached a similar conclusion: They had found success but felt more alone than ever.

I never experienced lack of community until I made money, Walker said. Growing up in Watts, he said, he felt like the child of everyone on the block. Prison, if anything, was an even more intense experience of closeness with his neighbors. Living in a hundred-person open dorm requires radical transparency literally theres no dividers between 15 toilets, Walker said. We needed each other to not go crazy.

After his run for office, he started thinking about how L.A. bred loneliness the skyrocketing rents, the neighbors who never met, the way that markets and neighborhoods in the city segregate people by race, class, age and interest.

For Green, loneliness struck when he was on a spiritual sabbatical following the self-described failure of his lobbying efforts. Alone with his thoughts, he realized he had been happier as a kid first in his Santa Monica neighborhood, with friends up and down the block, and then at Harvards Kirkland House, where undergrads lived in separate rooms but shared common space.

He began reading about the spread of loneliness in modern society, and was drawn to the work of Johann Hari, who argues in his book Lost Connections that leaving the multigenerational home and familiar neighborhood is a new phenomenon of the last 70 years, and that this isolation is to blame for increasing depression, anxiety, addiction and suicide.

In 2016, mutual friends introduced the pair at the opening of Locol, a burger stand in Watts started by celebrity chefs with the mission of bringing healthier fast food to low-income neighborhoods. Walker had helped build the restaurant with a construction crew drawn from the neighborhood, and he says he was looking for a new project that captured the same feeling of building community and using physical space to actually do so.

They hit it off, but Treehouse wasnt fully born until Green went on a silent meditation retreat a few months later. I spent several days being unable to get my mind off of a vision for this building, Green said. When he got back to San Francisco, he spoke with his friend Michael Birch, the tech millionaire behind the elite S.F. social club the Battery, who reintroduced Green to Walker. Soon, they started scouting out locations.

Unlike most co-living companies, which reconfigure existing apartment buildings, Walker and Green saw that they needed to build from the ground up to get the mix of public versus private space they wanted.

But the decision to start from scratch presented its own challenges. Banks typically finance real estate projects based on dollars per rentable square foot, a model that assumes that shared spaces in the building, such as stairwells and lobbies, are worthless. Green and Walker had trouble finding a lender willing to back their plan. It was, frankly, through some relationships and luck that we finally found a bank that was willing to do a construction loan, Walker said.

A number of prominent tech names have since bought into the vision, though Green is the largest financial backer. Alexis Ohanian, who started the online community Reddit, chipped in, as did L.A. investor Arlan Hamilton and Justin Kan, who co-founded the streaming platform Twitch.

By that Sunday in late September, it seemed like the vision was working, at least to a visitor, even in the face of the pandemic.

After Knibb introduced the meal squash blossoms, jeweled rice, chapulines and a big salad along with the chicken Elizabeth Williams, an Australian screenwriter, saw that a journalist had joined for the evening and immediately introduced herself.

Williams had moved into Treehouse after a few cripplingly lonely months in a Studio City apartment, after moving to the U.S. in 2019. She explained that she grew up in a close-knit neighborhood in Townsville, North Queensland, no locks on doors, the kids would just swarm around like bees, where her fondest memories were of neighborhood game nights and jam sessions. She was happy to pay extra for a built-in community.

Michele Esquivel, Treehouses lone inhabitant older than 50, sat eating squash blossoms and rice at a table with three building mates. Her 14-year-old daughter, Violeta, hung out at the next table over.

For years, Esquivel had wanted to move into the city from Orange County, where she worked as a nurse at Kaiser, mostly to help Violeta pursue her budding career as a slam poet. The closest place they had been able to afford was in Long Beach, until she heard about Treehouse earlier this year.

Now they live in a suite with three other poets, whose rooms make up the 10% of units that are affordable in Treehouse, which the building includes in exchange for denser zoning allowances. Esquivel said that it could feel like a retirement home for millennials from time to time, but she was surprised at how well it was working out.

I felt the vetting process was long and tedious, and they asked really odd questions, but I understand it now, Esquivel said. To maintain the vibe of the building, potential renters have to go through an extensive application process, with other renters serving on the application committee. Everyone has to sign a commitment to the buildings core values being kind, present, curious, candid and responsible as part of their lease.

Prophet Walker, left, and Joe Green in a communal space at Treehouse. Every Sunday, residents gather here for a shared meal.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

One question had been what she would bring to the table as a resident; she had picked her cooking and her massage therapy practice. Now she sets up her table on the roof deck and gives massage sessions to residents. Other Treehousers give fitness classes in the basement gym, or teach lessons on medicinal herbs in the rooftop garden. Every Sunday, a rotating group of residents get a $500 budget to cook or order family dinner for the whole building.

The building shares a Slack for internal announcements, which also plays host to the occasional call-out and heated conversation. To keep conflicts to a minimum, residents have set up a regular series of conversations, called Tree Talks, where the community values are often invoked to keep things kind and candid when residents are being less than responsible. A resident who washed their dogs clothes in one of the shared machines was a source of building-wide tension. Now, after a Tree Talk, a washer and dryer set is earmarked just for items that might have pet hair on them.

Esquivel said there were some initial issues with dish-doing and living room clutter within the poets suite, but the benefits have outweighed the rough patches. We would have never met anybody in these circles, Esquivel said, and especially for her daughter she thinks its been a wonderful experience, shes learning to cohabit with other people, other age groups.

A dissenting voice on the deck came from James Swiderski, who owns a solar energy company. He had always lived alone, and described his decision to move into Treehouse as a personal challenge. He planned to leave soon. Im glad I came, I dont regret it, Swiderski said. But it was an overstep for me, to be honest.

For Green, too, co-life has only been a temporary change of pace. When the pandemic first swept over California, he was staying in the spacious Beverly Hills house that his dad grew up in, which he said was in certain ways the peak of what Americans think they want. But Beverly Hills got lonely.

He moved into a room at Treehouse, where residents had created a building-wide bubble of viral trust after a few nervous weeks that had left the common areas mostly empty. Immediately, Green said he could feel his COVID isolation anxiety melt away. He could post on Slack and ten minutes later have a Settlers of Catan game going on the roof. It felt so much better, because I had people to be around. Still, after several weeks, he returned to his primary home in San Francisco.

Walker has no plans to leave. After the meal wound down and people began to filter back to their rooms, he finished doing the dishes, then plopped down in a booth, proud of the social feat he was in the process of pulling off: filling a building with strangers who were becoming friends, or at least fond acquaintances, against the head wind of a pandemic that has mostly driven Americans further into isolation.

Between its opening in fall 2019 and the beginning of the pandemic, Treehouse had rented only a third of its rooms. In the months since, the building has nearly filled up. The pandemic showed us if nothing else how important community and proximity is, Walker said. We have all these massive online communities, and thats like cool, cute, Walker said, but people in quarantine in New York and Italy still felt compelled to sing out their windows with their neighbors during the first lockdowns.

Walker reached for a painful memory from his teenage years in Watts to underscore the point: I watched my best friend get murdered in front of me, Walker said. That should be like a death knell to anyones psyche, but he credits the neighborhood with saving him.

The entire block came outside, Walker said, and then when they saw what happened, every single person, just about, hugged me, like youre gonna get through this, this sucks, but weve got you, and every day weve got you. His hope for Treehouse is that it can build that kind of neighborhood, one where everyone knows your name and comes together in tough times, but for people like him who left their neighborhoods behind.

And of course, he hopes that it can make a lot of money at the same time. It just so happens that through density arbitrage, through a host of laws, through real estate financials, the Treehouse business model is an incredible investment, Walker said. But truly, were trying to build a community.

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Treehouse is trying to cure L.A. loneliness with co-living - Los Angeles Times

PINELLAS PARK The tornado that tore through mid-Pinellas County on Wednesday was the most powerful to hit the area in nearly three decades.

That twister was officially classified as an F2 on the Fujita scale by the National Weather Service. Also known as the FujitaPearson scale, thats how meteorologists rate the intensity of tornadoes according to how much damage they inflict.

That means its the most powerful tornado to strike the county since the deadly 1992 tornadoes that touched down in Pinellas Park.

Two tornadoes, rated an F2 and an F3, hit the area on Oct. 3, 1992. They killed four people, injured 130 and destroyed or severely damaged hundreds of homes and mobile homes, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report. The Fujita scale changed in 2007, but those were still powerful tornadoes by any measure.

But there were no fatalities or injuries reported after Wednesdays tornado strike, which damaged businesses, tore up roofs, knocked down trees and cut off the power to up to 14,000 customers.

Spectrum Bay News 9 chief meteorologist Mike Clay said Thursday that the region is fortunate no one was killed or seriously injured. He noted that after damaging Seminole and Pinellas Park, the tornado then moved into the waters of Tampa Bay and passed near the Howard Frankland Bridge during rush hour.

Were very lucky that it didnt hit any cars on the Howard Frankland Bridge, he said. There were probably 80 cars on the bridge when it came by and just missed it.

Wednesdays tornado touched down at 3:49 p.m., generated peak winds of 125 mph and traveled 13 miles before it entered the bay.

By comparison, the strongest tornado that hit in 1992 had maximum winds of up to 206 mph and traveled a length of three miles.

The 1992 tornadoes were also notable for this: President George H. W. Bush made a campaign stop in Pinellas County just an hour before the tornadoes hit. Air Force One was able to take off just before things got bad.

Read the rest here:
The tornado that hit Pinellas was the most powerful in 28 years - Tampa Bay Times

The town of Nespelem, on the Colville Reservation, is about a dozen city blocks surrounded by hills speckled with snow in mid-November.

Gary Carden has owned and managed the towns only tavern for about 25 years.

When I drove up, Carden, 63, is waiting on a La-Z-Boy recliner on the taverns concrete front porch, with his dogs Sissy and Harold.

"Shes the older dog, and thats probably the best thing that happened to her is finding her a small buddy, 'cause hes so active and keeps her active," he told me.

Last June, Carden was sitting inside the tavern, by the wood stove that heats the place through the cold winters.

Hes normally active, not just running the tavern but riding horses and motorcycles but on this particular June day, he felt out of breath and exhausted.

"My sister came walking in," Carden told me, "and she says, 'God, brother, you don't look good. Do you want me to call the ambulance?'" He replied, "Yeah, I think you better. There's something wrong."

Carden said he thought he had heat exhaustion he had spent the day splitting wood with his nephew.

But it was Covid.

Since early March, the Colville tribal council has been doing their best to insulate their community in north-central Washington.

They arranged for meals to be dropped off at the homes of tribal elders. They closed the reservation to non-essential travel. And, when members tested positive for Covid, the council helped them isolate themselves from their families by providing portable toilets, mobile homes, and even hotel rooms as needed.

But borders are fluid, so even the tribes extensive precautions havent been enough to fully protect Colville members.

Despite all the steps the tribe took to keep Covid at bay, the reservation has had two big outbreaks: one in the summer, and one thats happening right now.

"We got hit so hard," said Larry Smith, a doctor on the reservation who runs two of its four clinics.

Smith said the tribe set up large tents at the very beginning of the pandemic, so health providers would have a place to treat Covid patients and to don protective gear before administering Covid tests.

He said part of the reason it was important to him to prevent outbreaks was that so many of his patients are at risk of bad outcomes if they contract Covid-19.

"Probably 80 percent of the people that I see have some risk factors whether its hypertension, diabetes, or autoimmune disease," Smith said.

Between the two big outbreaks and a steady trickle of cases, about 300 people on the Colville Reservation have had Covid. Three have died of it. Thats a big hit for a small community the Covid rate there is more than double the rate in King County.

Carden, the tavern owner, caught the virus during the first wave. When he tested positive, his doctor sent him to a hospital in Wenatchee about 100 miles away. He spent a week on a ventilator and more time in the ICU.

He said the hardest part was the isolation.

"I was even ready to give up," Carden said. "I even told them doctors, you know, 'Hey, I quit. Pull these tubes out.'"

Both big outbreaks on the Colville Reservation happened when case numbers were way up in surrounding communities.

Joel Boyd, the vice-chair of the Colville Tribal Council, said, when the virus is so prevalent all around the reservation, its just hard to keep it out.

"One of the biggest things that bothers people here on the reservation," he said, is that, "when you do go off-reservation, ... theres communities that almost pride themselves on not wearing masks, and its a serious danger.

Boyd said both outbreaks came from tribal members going places or visiting family or friends or receiving outside visitors.

The current outbreak was seeded when a group of 10 or so people from the Colville Reservation visited a bar or restaurant in a nearby town. That was in mid-November, right before Governor Jay Inslee re-closed all indoor dining in the state.

"It was the last weekend for these restaurants and bars to be open before the governor had closed them," Boyd remembered. "And so it was a packed location at the time, just because everyone was getting in their last little hurrah I guess you would call it. And unfortunately, that was all it took for us to get a nice little outbreak."

Boyd said, once one person on the reservation gets Covid, its hard to stem the spread, because so many tribal members live in multi-generational households.

"Once one family member gets it, there could be six other family members that end up being infected as well," he said. "It's hard to say where those other five people have gone or it spreads so rapidly."

Take the current outbreak, in a part of the reservation called Inchelium.

"In Inchelium, we had under 10 cases, and, in a matter of two days, we had over 40 cases," Boyd said.

Now, nearly a quarter of the five hundred people in that small community have either tested positive or are quarantined, awaiting results.

Boyd said, during this outbreak, the tribal council took a new step it hadnt tried last time to try to keep the virus from spreading too quickly across the reservation.

The council imposed a curfew, from nine every night to six the next morning.

The reason for that is that there had always been a lot of rules in place during the workday: Wear masks; check temperatures; stay six feet apart.

But the council had less control over what happened after work.

Boyd said hes hopeful the current outbreak might be the last.

"A lot of people that have got it recently theyre being pretty vocal about, you know, how they got it and that theyre sorry for spreading it and sorry for, you know, what theyve done," Boyd said. "You know, thats one of the heartbreaking things is that theres no way to go back. Im thankful that theyre sharing that to prevent it from happening again."

Back in the town of Nespelem, Gary Carden, who had Covid, shows off his tavern: a few pool tables, an easy chair next to the black woodstove.

"Its a small little ma and pa place," he said. "I sit there till somebody walks in," he added, gesturing at the easy chair. "A lot of the people now they come and get their deal and they leave."

No socializing these days, he said not with Covid.

Carden said, back when he was still in the hospital and he told his doctors he was ready to quit and wanted them to pull the tubes out, a young intern sat down by his bedside and gave him a pep talk.

"He says, 'Gary, dont give up,'" Carden remembered. "'Youve made it through the hard part. Youve got 20+ years still to go. Hang in there. Youve almost got it licked!'"

And lick it Carden did.

He had to go to physical therapy and re-learn how to walk. And, when he first got back home and re-opened his tavern, he used a walker to get around.

But, now, hes back on his feet, and can even ride his horse and motorcycle.

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A rural tribe tried to keep Covid at bay, but a last hurrah seeded an outbreak - KUOW News and Information

On a fall night in November 1990, college senior Amy Blount went out to havefun with her group of friends but it would tragically be her final night with them.

The group of college students went to St. Georges Tavern, a local hotspot near Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. Theywere having a good time when Kelly Brockman, Blount's roommate, decided to leave early because she wasnt feeling well. When she left, Blountwas spending time with her crush, Shawn Nolan.

However, when Brockman woke up the following morning,Blount had still not returned home andfailed to show up at her morning classes.Her friends initially assumedshe was still with Nolan, butwhen they asked himabout Blount, they were shocked by what they heard: Nolantold themhe andBlount had walked out to the coastline the night before at around 2 a.m. butgot into a fight while waiting for a taxi to take her home. When Blountbegan walking off by herself, Nolantook a cab home alone.

Upon hearing Blounthad been left to walk home alone in the middle of the night, Blounts roommates were immediately concerned andsuspicious of Nolan.

As much as Amy liked Shawn, I thought Shawn didnt seem like he was really too concerned, to be honest, Brockman told Oxygens Buried in the Backyard, airing Thursdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.

Brockmann reported Blountmissing to police, and investigatorslaunched a search for Blount, checking local hospitals for reports of any Jane Does who may have matched Blounts description and reaching out to local cab drivers. These first stepswent nowhere.

Sincethere was not yet any evidence of foul play, policecould not officially declareBlount a missing person, despite her friends beliefsomething bad may have happened to her.With no answers, Brockmanrealized it was time to call Blounts parents.

That was probably one of the toughest calls Ill ever make in my life, she recalled to producers.

The search for AmyBlount leads to numerous dead ends.

The following day, Blounts loved onesbegan searching for her around town, putting up missing persons flyers and forming search parties to scour the woods, but no one found anything. When days passed andBlount still had not materialized, authorities finally launched an official investigation into her disappearance, and the first thing they did was bring in Nolan, Blount's crush, for questioning.

When speaking to police, Nolangave a different story than the onehed given Blounts roommates: At the end of the night, when he was ready to go home, hed used a nearby payphone to call a taxi to take Blounthome, he said, but when he turned around after making the call, she was gone. Although he waited for awhile, he said she never reappeared, so when the cab arrived, hewent home.

Police reached out to the cab driver to verify Nolans alibi, and he confirmed hed picked Nolanup that night. He also said when he arrived, Nolan had been slumped over, asleep on a public bench.Most importantly, however? Nolanwas alone.

We knew that Shawn was the last person [Blount] was actually seen with, Steve Fricke, aninvestigator with the St. Augustine Police Department, told producers.

After Blounthad been missing for nearly 10days with no activity on her bank accounts authorities offered a $10,000 reward for information about Blounts disappearance, leading to an influx of tips. One such call came from a man named Timothy Gatchell, who told policeas soon as he saw Blounts face on the missing person poster, he recognized her as a young woman hed seen in the downtown area on the same night Blounthad disappeared.

Gatchell met with police in person and told themhed seenBlount approached by someone in an older-model car a Camaro or a Firebird and Blounthad spoken to what looked to be two people who were in the car before getting inside and leaving with them.

While police now had a promising lead, they were also suspicious of the person whod hand-delivered it to them, though they could not initially explain why.

You could call it police intuition, but there was just something that wasnt right about him, Fricke said.

Police convinced Gatchell to take a polygraph testand he passed. Their doubts assuaged, police followed up on the tip, searching for cars that matched the description, but after interviewing everyone they could find with a car of that type, they wereback to square one. They were no closer, it seemed, to finding Blount.

Weeks had passed, andBlounts family was struggling with having to celebrate Christmas without her.

There was no news, Blount's sister, Kim Blount Potter, told producers. I really felt numb.

A gruesome discovery leads to answers.

Weeks after Blounts disappearance, a man walking his dog on New Years Day 1991 on the outskirts of St. Augustine made a horrifying discovery. After the mans dog was attracted to a pile of logs and rocks in a deserted area, the man went to investigate, only to find what looked to be human bones.

He immediately called the authorities, who, upon their arrival, found a body that had been wrapped in a floral bedsheet and buried in a shallow grave.

I really started thinking that this truly could be Amy Blount, Mary Fagan, a detective with the St. Johns County Sheriff,told producers.

An official autopsy confirmed Fagan's hunch. Italso revealedBlount had been stabbed five times in the front of her body. Additionally, there were bruises on the left side of her head and on her left shoulder, suggestinga struggle had taken place prior to her death.

After authorities delivered the devastating news to Blounts loved ones, they were heartbroken to find their search had reached the worst possible conclusion.

It made me sick to my stomach, but there was a little bit of relief that I could start the grieving process, Brockman recalled. I could start mourning, really mourning, the loss that Im never gonna see my friend again.

As Blounts family and friends began to grieve, police continued the investigationby identifying the owner of the property on which Blountwas found. However, because that man was very cooperative with police, they soon ruled him out as a suspect and instead zeroed in on other possibilities: The property owner had rented out two mobile homes on that plot of landand he told police hed been having problems with one of the tenants a man named Timothy Gatchell.

The truth of what happened to Amy Blount finally emerges.

Investigators rushed to search Gatchells home, where they found a sheet that matched the kind that Blountwas found wrapped in as well as a long hair that was the color of Blount'scaught in a screw on a weight-lifting bench. Crime scene technicians also discoveredthere were traces of blood throughout the home.

Police also found a scrap of paper with the name "Toby" written on it and a phone number, leading them to a man who could help them finally fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. When contacted by police, this Tobyagreed to come in for questioning.

He told investigatorshe was with Gatchellon the night of Blounts disappearance and that the two of them had been out bar-hopping when they spottedBlount walking alone.Gatchell told Tobyto stop the car sohe couldtalk to her, and Tobywatched as Gatchell went to talk toBlount andled her back to the car. She got inside willingly, Tobysaid, and he drove them all to Gatchell'shouse. Once there, Gatchellbegan coming on to Blount, but Blountwasnt interested. At that point, Toby said, he went to the bathroom andleft the home without seeing either of them again.

Weeks later, after Toby realized the missing girl everyone was talking about was the same onetheyhad picked up that night, he confronted Gatchell, who claimed hed given Blounta ridedowntown and thensaw her talking to a couple of guys in a Camaro before he drove away. Toby pressed him to report what hed seen to the police, which prompted Gatchellto reach out to investigators and give them the tip regarding the old car.

At that point, authorities had heard enough: They rushed toGatchells home to take him into custody. He didnt resistand instead told officershed been expecting them.

Once at the station, Gatchell told the same story as Tobyand claimed hed given Blounta ride back into town using the property owners truck. Investigators immediately knew thenGatchell was lying: The truck in question had three flat tires.

With a little more coaxing from authorities, Gatchell slowly started to confess: He claimedhe andBlount had gotten into a fight andat some pointa knife had gotten got involved, but he wasnt sure because he may have blacked out. He said the next thing he knew, Blountwas lying on the floor with blood coming out of her mouth and the knife was in his hand.

He claimed hethen went outside, got a shovel, and dug a hole before going back inside, wrappingBlount up in a sheet, and carrying her outside, where he buried her body and said a prayer for her.

Gatchell was arrested for first-degree murder andstood trial in July 1991. In order to avoid the death penalty, he pled guilty and is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

For more information on this case and others like it, watch Buried in the Backyard on Oxygen on Thursdays at 8/7c or stream online any time at Oxygen.com.

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'Just Something That Wasnt Right About Him: Student's Killer First Masqueraded As A Witness - Oxygen

Almost 200,000 forgotten homes across the UK are being left behind in the governments digital revolution, unable to get broadband speeds deemed the minimum to meet a modern familys needs.

The telecoms regulator Ofcom has said that 190,000 mostly rural homes and offices, about 0.6% of all properties, still cannot access decent broadband speeds of at least 10Mbps.

This is the minimum speed deemed necessary to cope with modern needs, from downloading a film on Sky to streaming music or TV services from Netflix to Disney+.

Ofcoms annual Connected Nations report estimates that there are 119,000 premises in England that cannot get access to decent broadband. The figure is 34,000 in Scotland, 18,000 in Wales and 19,000 in Northern Ireland.

Last year the Commons environment, food and rural affairs select committee said rural inhabitants risked becoming second class citizens in the digital revolution, as people in urban areas benefit from next-generation broadband and 5G mobile.

Ofcoms latest report estimates that across England, Scotland and Wales more than 39,000 homes cannot get access to either a decent broadband service or good 4G mobile phone coverage indoors.

Addressing the UKs status as a global laggard in rolling out next-generation full-fibre broadband, making it available across the country by 2025 was a key promise of Boris Johnsons election manifesto. Since then, the government has watered down its ambitions to 85% coverage, including homes that can access similar gigabit speed technology via 5G network signals and copper wires as well as full fibre.

In the governments spending review last month, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said only 1.2bn of a 5bn fund to subsidise the rollout of gigabit broadband to the hardest to reach premises would now be made available over the next five years.

Ofcom revealed that 18% of UK homes, about 5m, now have the ability to get full fibre broadband, an 80% year-on-year increase. Nearly 8 m UK homes, 27% of the total, can now access gigabit speed broadband.

For millions of families this year, life during lockdown would have been even more difficult without reliable broadband to work, learn, play and see loved ones, said Lindsey Fussell, Ofcoms network and communications director. So its encouraging that future proof, gigabit broadband is now available in a quarter of homes.

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190,000 UK properties can't access broadband speeds to meet modern needs - The Guardian

Tiny homes are all the craze now, but theyre not simply a trend, it seems like they are here to stay. Sustainability and minimal and cleaner ways of living have never been more imperative. With the COVID-19 pandemic shaking the world up, everyone is now focused on making more conscious and smarter decisions. Could tiny homes be the space-saving and sustainable living solution that we all need? I do think so!

W2 Architectures revolutionary trailer design, Romotow, the name an amalgamation of room to move contains all the usual RV features but with an innovative 90-degree twist. With the press of a simple electric button, it swivels open, rotating at 90 degrees, to reveal an open synthetic teak deck, and 70% more living space.

Smaller Architects built this tiny home in Seoul, Korea. This four-story tall vertical tiny home is called Seroro which literally means vertically. The rooms have been stacked one on top of the other, with the first floor comprising of the living room and the common washroom. The ground floor functions as a parking lot, whereas the second floor houses the kitchen and the dining area, and the third floor includes the bedroom and a private washroom. Lastly, a dressing room with a bathtub is situated on the fourth floor. Quaint, compact, and spacious at the same time, dont you think?

Design Studio Andrs and Jos designed a mobile tiny house that aims to provide shelter to homeless people. Deemed as an urban domestic object by the designers themselves, Rodar could be a major source of relief to homeless people, providing them with a simple, minimal yet comfortable living space. Its structure and build are very similar to the ambulances found in many Latin American countries. The geometric, box-like compact home does look quite intriguing to me!

Room+ Design & Build renovated an old tiny house in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Featuring translucent glass blocks, the two-story home consists of a shop on the ground floor, and a minimal living space with two bedrooms on the upper floors. The glass facade allows natural light to continuously stream into the home, creating an open and relaxed space.

Fernando Mastrangelo designed a tiny house from salt, sand, and powdered glass in Times Square. Quite literally named Tiny House, the home is built from discarded and then recycled materials such as plastic and glass. The cave-like structure showcases an ombre effect on its outer facade, owing to the use of recycled plastic. Whereas glass was used to build the walls.

Dunkin Donuts and New Frontier Tiny Homes build a mobile tiny home that literally runs on discarded Dunkin Donuts coffee grounds! The transportable home is powered by a biofuel made up of 80 percent coffee oil extracted from 65,000 pounds of discarded coffee grounds. The home includes a cedar porch, a living room, multifunctional furniture, a fully functional kitchen, a comfy bunk bed, and beautiful wooden floors.

While Vancouver has quickly become one of the most expensive cities to live in, it is not densely populated and there are a lot of vacant spaces that can be put to better use Shifting Nests sustainable tiny homes is that use! This project wants to transform empty parking lots into a community with gardens and low-cost homes. The nests are a prefabricated housing solution consisting of plywood, metal cladding, and corrugated polycarbonate on a series of simple frames.

Cube Two is a 263-square-foot home that is designed for the future and smart living. This modern compact home is a prefabricated structure that already comes fitted with the latest home appliances that can all be controlled by an AI assistant named Canny. The exterior has smooth curved corners that give it a friendly vibe and the interior offers enough space for a family of four to live comfortably with two bedrooms and an open living area. To make it feel roomier, there is a skylight that runs across the ceiling and floods the space with natural light, and also provides a wonderful frame of the night sky.

One of my favorite things about tiny homes is the loft-style beds because they give you a little private cozy corner and that is exactly how the bedroom in Natura is set up. It has a multifunctional king-sized bed with plenty of storage under the frame. The bedroom also has a single large window that makes it more spacious and allows for a lot of natural light to flood your top floor. The space optimization goes beyond the bedroom, there are many built-in spaces for you to put the things you own like under the stairs as well as in the walls!

The Pacific Harbor is a tiny house built on a 30x8.5 triple axel Iron Eagle trailer compact, convenient, and classy. The interiors are kept light and breezy to manifest the feeling of spaciousness. The tiny home includes a downstairs flex area that can be turned into a bedroom or home office, a sleeping loft in the back, and stainless steel appliances in the kitchen.

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Tiny home setups that prove why micro-living will be the next big trend: Part 5 - Yanko Design

JOB TITLE: Architectural Designer or Job Captain, 0-6 years of experience

Fergus Garber Architects is a residential firm of 20 located in Palo Alto, California. Our practice focuses on custom high end single family homes, with an appreciation for sustainability. Please visit our website at https://fg-arch.com/

RESPONSIBILITIES:

SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

If you meet these qualifications, we encourage you to apply with your resume, cover letter, and portfolio of work to: applications@fg-arch.com

In order to be considered, at the top of your cover letter, please list responses to these questions:

1. Identify your first name and your last name.

(First name: X Last name: X)

2. Where did you graduate from, with what degree, and the year?

3. After graduating, how many years have you worked in a professional office? (Do not include internships while in school)

5. Do you require visa sponsorship in order to work? If so, please state which visa is needed?

4. Why would you like to work for FGA?

ABOUT FGA: Fergus Garber Architects (https://fg-arch.com/) is looking for new collaborators to join our design-oriented and quick paced office designing custom homes. FGA understands the importance of working on projects from inception to completion and strives to build successful design teams that foster an atmosphere of creative thought and professional development. Our award-winning work spans many styles and scales, and were looking for talented and well-rounded staff to join our team. We have an on-staff environmental engineer who provides guidance on current best practices for sustainability. We provide a high level of attention, management and environmental stewardship to residential clients that have a long term interest in their property. Our clients value our ability to understand them. We create beautiful homes in a range of architectural styles that both we and our clients are proud of. The essential qualities of good architecture: strong plans, good proportions, and high attention to detail are the foundation of our work.

Current Working Environment at FGA: FGA is located in Santa Clara County. Our employees are the most important aspect of our business and we value them as such. We closely follow the county regulations for COVID-19, including working from home. If and when the restrictions are lifted, we will likely utilize a hybrid format for attendance in the office and working from home, with employees working in the office a few days a week to allow for comradery and collaboration while still providing ample physical space for each individual. Employees with elevated health risks will not participate in our in-office work schedule. Once a vaccine is available, we hope to resume working from our office on a daily basis. In the meantime, we are utilizing online systems and tools to help emulate the open, collaborative studio conditions that we all enjoy. On occasion during shelter in place, project teams may still be required to visit active job sites (while following Covid regulations). If not currently in the Palo Alto area, applicants should intend to relocate here to be available for these types of engagements and hands-on learning opportunities.

WHY JOIN FGA?:

If you meet these qualifications, we encourage you to apply with your resume, cover letter, and portfolio of work to: applications@fg-arch.com

In order to be considered, at the top of your cover letter, please list responses to these questions:

1. Identify your first name and your last name.

(First name: X Last name: X)

2. Where did you graduate from, with what degree, and the year?

3. After graduating, how many years have you worked in a professional office? (Do not include internships while in school)

5. Do you require visa sponsorship in order to work? If so, please state which visa is needed?

4. Why would you like to work for FGA?

Excerpt from:
Fergus Garber Architects is hiring a Architectural Designer or Job Captain, 0-6 years of experience in Palo Alto, CA, US - Archinect

From modern farmhouse style to white kitchens: here are the interior design trends going out of ... [+] style in 2021.

2020 was a defining year for everything but especially the collective relationship we all have with our homes. Shutdowns due to the pandemic left many of us scrambling to create home offices, homeschooling spaces, and gyms, changing way we use our homes significantly.

Whether you are moving to a new home,renovatingyour current one, or planning DIY projectsfor the future, its important to choose an aesthetic thats as current as possible to help boost resale value. While overall, theres been an anything goes, approach to interior design in recent years and especially in 2020, these are the trends experts and interior designers predict will be going away in 2021.

Shiplap is shipping out.

We can take a breath of fresh air because the modern farmhouse look is finally on its way out to pasture. Part of the reason why many people are sick of this aesthetic, according to Kelley Mason, Manager of Creative and Content atLulu and Georgia, is that it has been overdone particularly in places like apartments where a modern farmhouse look isnt remotely organic, Shiplap wall treatments, barn doors, and other hallmarks of the modern farmhouse style are still beautiful but look clearly out of place in city apartments and suburban homes, she tells me.

But if you cant resist the urge to Joanna Gaines your Manhattan studio, Mason says to choose integrating rustic pieces that pair well with the space's decor. So when you inevitably encounter thatLive, Laugh, Lovesign, resist the urge to click add to cart.

White kitchens are on the way out.

Nancy Epstein, founder, and president ofArtistic Tiletells me, The high end of the market has moved away from the staid whites and man-made agglomerates that dominated design for the last decade, and is once more embracing the exotic, rare stones, and detailed patterns that have historically defined luxury tile and stone.

She recommends opting for breccias, richly veined marbles, and onyxes instead. These materials have an incredible history and are once again becoming focal points in the most sumptuously designed spaces.

As for the ever-popular and timeless carrara marble countertop, while a major part of the white kitchen trend, probably isnt going away, but many people are opting for other materials that provide a similar aesthetic instead. Interior designerCaitlin Scanlon recommends going with a man-made or engineered stone, but emphasizes the importance of choosing wisely There is such a big difference from line to line. Quartzite is a good compromise, she says. It is a product that in-between quartz and marble. It's not an aggregate like Caesarstone and its much more durable than marble.

And if you must have that marble backsplash, Scanlon recommends ceramic marble tiles as an alternative. It really looks like marble. It's gorgeous.

New floorplans will provide more privacy

While it looked like the appeal of the open floorplan was starting to fade at the beginning of 2020, during the pandemic many people learned the hard way that perhaps your kitchen, home office, great room, playroom, and living room shouldnt all be the same space. Lack of privacy ultimately becomes lack of function.

Now that we have had a taste of what it is like to work from home, while a partner is doing the same, or a child is attending school via zoom at the same time, open floor plans aren't as attractive as they used to be. The need for rooms with doors, windows, and some privacy will make a reappearance,Justina Blakeney, founder ofJungalowtells me.

But according to Danielle Blundell, Home Director ofApartment Therapy, if your home is currently an open concept, you shouldnt let that be a cause for concern. I don't think this is going to be an overnight change, but I think that the open plan concept is going away little by little. It started already and I think it's going to conclude starting with people adding room dividers, or bringing in a door or figuring out some sort of a solution to add privacy.

Eventually, more flexible and closed layouts will become the standard. It's just because people want that privacy, they want that little bit of separation. And sometimes it's good to have a door that you can close. Whether it's for containing a mess or just giving yourself that physical and audio separation from other things that are going on in your home.

Dining rooms aren't just for dining anymore.

Along the same lines, single purpose spaces and furnishings are also falling out of favor. Say goodbye to the temporarywork-from-the-couchway of life, Roxy Te Owens, founder and creative director ofSociety Socialtells me. When your home doubles as so many spaces, it's important to try and keep some level of separation for sanity! As many of us have adjusted to the new work from home reality, we've realized the importance of keeping a dedicated and organized work from home setup.

If you don't have a spare room to use, Owens suggests trying your best to get creative. Set up a desk vignette in the corner of your bedroom or transform a section of your dining table into a home office by adding a table lamp, your computer monitor, fresh flowers, and of course your favorite things. A pretty and dedicated space means more productivity, in our opinion.

Less mass more meaning

Much like fast fashion, the appeal of inexpensive furniture and accessories that arent made well enough to use for the long haul is on the decline. Our rooms now see daily multi-functional use, and people are customizing them to provide flexible and adaptive living spaces. The furnishings that create these spaces serve in different ways at different times, Bob Williams, President of Design atMitchell Gold + Bob Williamstells me.

Williams believes that opting for better pieces has a greater purpose beyond quality for the sake of longevity. Alongside their use, these pieces also carry intrinsic meaning. People are creating deeper relationships with the things they have in their rooms because so many more of lifes moments and memories are happening there. Purchasing is more intentional, and people are loving their rooms more because of it.

We'll be seeing less minimalism in 2021.

Move over Kim Kardashianinspired homesbecause less isnt more when theres a pandemic. The minimalist trend is on its way out and will give way to more layered, collected, and eclectic spaces. The sheer amount of time and the number of activities we have all been engaging in at home in 2020 makes it very difficult to adhere to an austere or sparsely filled home, says Blakeney.

Part of the reason why minimalism isnt a sustainable design choice is that the pandemic and frankly, Amazon have made maintaining that look an impossible chore thats no longer worthwhile. The amount of stuff we have accumulated in our homes requires smart storage solutions, but even those solutions are somewhat limited to the surface area in any given home, Blakeney explains.

Because it is impossible to live in a home where we leave nothing out, the gravitation towards a maximalist look will become the more functional choice in 2021. I think there was a trend for a couple of years for perfect shapes, ultra-sleek design, very modern and neat interiors. Now I can see a return to reality, explains Aurore Martial, interior designer and founder ofDomus Venus. Maybe its the COVID and the fact that we all went back to basics the past year. But, I feel there is an exodus from that perfect world to the profit of imperfection.

Martial suggests opting for a different look in 2021 by mixing old and new, going away from perfectly lacquered items to more matte finishes, chalk paint and waxed concretes on the wall all reminiscent of crafty, comforting times.

Entirely neutral spaces will fall out of favor in 2021.

With the maximalist look is coming back, it's easy to understand whyHomeGoodsStyle Expert and interior designer,Beth Diana Smithsays well nix neutrals in 2021.Design is about exploration, experimentation, and reflecting our personalities. So in 2021, we will continue to gravitate towards more color, visual interest, and playful design.

Instead, Smith suggests introducing color through bold statement decor pieces like ceramic vases and decorative boxes, along with art. [When Im] looking for inspiration, I head to one of my favorite stores, HomeGoods because I know I can always find unique, conversation pieces especially decor.

Similarly, Rachel Ashwell, founder ofShabby Chic, says it's time to call it quits with the grey-on-grey look. Without any textural elements, the all-gray look feels a bit too neutral, cold and outdated. This upcoming year will see vibrant, expressive colors come to the fore, whether in a monochromatic style or mixed and matched.

Keep nature real

2021 will see less plastic and man-made materials, more natural and organic materials, says Martial. Its all about sustainability and people will prefer stones, wood, natural fabrics, and natural coloring methods. It also means less faux flowers and plants. For those who cant bear the idea of taking care of plants, preserved flowers are the solution, its basically dried flowers that look fresh and last months! Its a big year for biophilic design!

Slipcovers are becoming obsolete in 2021.

Slipcovers arent anything new and as fabric technology advances, Dolley Frearson, co-founder ofHigh Fashion Homebelieves this type of furniture is becoming obsolete. With high-tech, stain-resistant fabrics such as Crypton available on most upholstery furniture, homeowners no longer need washable slipcovers, she says. These performance fabrics are so incredibly durable and they can resist all stains from foods, drinks, and other messes by kids and pets. It's a total game-changer.

Terrazzo is started to look dated.

For years, terrazzo tiles in bathrooms and kitchens have been a great way to create a fun, unique look. But according to Molly McDermott Walsh, Vice President of Marketing atSemihandmade, this aesthetic is starting to become dated. I never understood this trend and now understand my mothers frustration when trends from her childhood came back around in my generation. Sometimes trend cycles are based on beauty and true innovation and sometimes they come back for an ironic laugh.

The mid century modern look is a fading trend.

Mid century modern has become overplayed and overdone. Interior designerAlexander Dohertytells me that this aesthetic is now giving way to warmer, more interesting pieces.Im seeing a return from the brown furniture, mid-century modern aesthetic to the popular art deco design movement that moved into the 1930s and 1940s.

So what will we see instead? Design elements like vertical lines, sleek craftsmanship, bold geometric shapes, rich finishes, lacquered surfaces, and a rise in material investments like marble and burl wood give way to more sculptural elements that mimic the periods architecture. he says.

It's time to re-think color in 2021.

Barbara Karpf, founder, and president ofDecoratorsBestsays dark is done, at least for now. Dark colors are dramatic but they close in a space. Many people will continue to work remotely in 2021 and multi-purpose rooms are a necessity. Dark colors limit the usage of a space and without expert lighting, a dark room is less adaptable.

So unless you have a big home or a larger room, it is best to go with lighter colored furniture, accessories, and paint.

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Here Are The Interior Design Trends Going Away In 2021 - Forbes

Vision Real Estate and Design was founded by 17-year industry veteran Robyn Webb, an award-winning Orange County agent and certified interior designer.

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (PRWEB) December 16, 2020

OC Real Estate 411 today announced the launch of Vision Real Estate and Design in partnership with Side, the only real estate brokerage that exclusively partners with high-performing agents, teams, and independent brokerages to transform them into boutique brands and businesses. The alliance will ensure that Vision Real Estate and Design, which provides exclusive real estate and interior design services, is powered by the most advanced platform in the industry.

Vision Real Estate and Design was founded by 17-year industry veteran Robyn Webb, an award-winning Orange County agent and certified interior designer who offers a visionary approach to buying and selling homes. Webbs Design to Sell business model is the first of its kind, and listings typically sell for 20% more than those of competitors. Webb has assembled a team of compassionate, diligent, tech-savvy agents who provide outstanding customer care to clients from all walks of life. To date, the firm has handled over 290 transactions, completed 100 successful design-to-sell projects, and achieved $200 million in volume.

Partnering with Side will ensure Vision Real Estate and Design remains at the cutting edge of the evolving real estate market while allowing its agents to continue delivering premium services to their clients. Vision Real Estate and Design agents are fully supported by a one-of-a-kind premium brokerage platform, which provides transaction management, property marketing, lead generation, business growth opportunities, vendor management, and infrastructure solutions.

Ive worked for 17 years to build my brand, and with Side, my team and I receive the benefits of support of high-end technology without losing whats special about my brand, said Webb. Side doesnt want to change how I do business; rather, they embrace it.

Side is led by experienced industry professionals and world-class engineers who develop technology designed to improve agent productivity and enhance the client experience. Based on its belief that homeownership is a fundamental human right, Side is on a mission to improve the public good by providing top-performing real estate agents, teams, and indie brokerages with the best system, support, service, experience, and results.

About Vision Real Estate and DesignVision Real Estate and Design was established with the goal to change the way homes are bought and sold in California. Its groundbreaking design to sell business strategy incorporates model home-like staging and exclusive real estate services to achieve record-breaking results. Headquartered in Laguna Niguel, Vision Real Estate and Design works with buyers and sellers throughout Orange County. To learn more, visit http://www.californiavision.com.

About SideSide transforms high-performing agents, teams, and independent brokerages into successful businesses and boutique brands that are 100% agent-owned. Side exclusively partners with the best agents, empowering them with proprietary technology and a premier support team so they can be more productive, grow their business, and focus on serving their clients. Side is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit http://www.sideinc.com.

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Vision Real Estate and Design Partners with Side, Changing the Way Homes are Bought and Sold in Orange County - PR Web