Industry Spotlight
Daniel Rose Provides $5 Million to Fund Uli Daniel Rose Center
Real estate industry legend Daniel Rose has committed $5 million to the creation of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership, ULI announced on March 8 during the Institute's Spring Council Forum in Dallas.
The mission of the ULI Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership is to empower leaders in the public sector to envision, build and sustain successful 21st century communities by providing access to information, best practices, peer networks and other resources to foster creative, efficient and sustainable land use practices.
Rose's gift is among the largest individual contributions ever made to the Institute. Rose is chairman of New York City-based Rose Associates, Inc., which operates throughout the East Coast as developer and manager of over 30 million square feet of major office towers, commercial retail centers, mixed-use complexes and high-rise residential buildings.
Ashton Woods Homes Welcomes New VP of Sales
Ashton Woods Homes announced Daniel S. Gezella as vice president of sales for its Houston division.
Gezella recently won the 2008 Sales Manager of the Year Silver Award from the National Association of Home Builders' National Sales and Marketing Council. In 2006, he won the Texas Association of Builders' Texas Star Award for Sales Manager of the Year. He set sales records and earned numerous awards including the Greater Houston Builders Association's Million Dollar Sales Award for three consecutive years.
UDR Breaks Ground on Billion-Dollar Mixed-Use Development
Town of Addison Mayor Joe Chow, the Addison City Council, City Manager Ron Whitehead and other dignitaries were joined by key representatives from UDR to break ground on Vitruvian Park, the billion-dollar multifamily, retail and commercial development in Addison, Texas. In addition to being the largest development ever undertaken by major real estate developer UDR, Inc., the 99-acre development is also Addison's first major sustainable green initiative.
Vitruvian Park's new green initiative program was created by the Town of Addison and is the city's own hybrid of Energy Star and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards to maximize efficiency and minimize environmental impact. These standards will be included in all of the 5,500 dwelling units and 300,000 square-feet of office and retail space throughout Vitruvian Park.
The first phase is currently designed to feature 667 multifamily housing units and a 12-acre public park. Leasing is projected to begin by the end of 2009 with occupancy expected to be available at the beginning of 2010. The housing completed in the first phase is expected to provide about 875 new residents to Addison. All phases of Vitruvian Park are expected to be completed in 2017.
GBNT is Making Strides
The Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas announced that homebuilders are taking great strides to protect the planet and provide Texans with homes that use less electricity and water.
Homebuilders are helping to save valuable natural resources by building homes to meet the HBA's Green Built North Texas program (GBNT) standards. The program has established a climate-specific protocol that addresses six categories of construction including jobsite management, water efficiency, indoor air quality, energy efficiency, material usage and homeowner education.
GBNT has established a third-party verification process to confirm that homes are built to this exacting standard, which has paved the way for the Home Registry?the first of its kind in the nation. Home Energy Raters and certified engineering companies inspect each GBNT home, organize the necessary documentation and provide the HBA with the information needed to enter the home into the registry.
It is anticipated that over 3,000 verified homes could be placed in the GBNT home registry by the end of the year. The emission reductions achieved by 3,000 GBNT homes over a 30-year mortgage is estimated to be the equivalent of taking more than 30,000 cars off the road.
The water usage reduction attributable to 3,000 GBNT homes could save over a billion gallons of our region's vital water resources over the same 30-year period, enough to satisfy the lifetime water demand of over 60,000 people.
Operation Homefront Calls for Homebuilders
At the opening of the new home of Army Specialist Austin Johnson, the soldier recovering from his fifth IED explosion when his children were killed in a tragic car accident en route to visit him at the hospital, Operation Homefront called on mortgage lenders and homebuilders to sell entire neighborhoods of excess housing to wounded warriors as they return home.
According to Operation Homefront, there are currently more homeless Vietnam veterans than service members killed in that war and recent studies show that one in four homeless are veterans. Operation Homefront is concerned that a combination of health problems and the 18-month bureaucratic outprocessing for the wounded are driving current warriors into bankruptcy and ultimately homelessness.
USAA is financing the Johnson's new home with a 30-year mortgage with a 5.875 percent interest rate. Thanks to generous donations, Operation Homefront provided the down payment and a half-point in order to reduce the Johnson's interest rate.
After Operation Homefront put out the call for donations to assist the Johnson's, individual donors and the PGA Tour raised $79,000 to help with funeral expenses, relocation to San Antonio, a basic car and a memorial to the children at their school in El Paso. The event will mark the final donation: assistance in purchasing a new home in San Antonio so that Specialist Johnson can continue his recovery and the couple can begin a new life.
