Dirty Property

In many of the typical site investigations that I have mentioned before on this blog, we generally follow a phased approach to investigation, remediation, and ultimately closure. The first phase of investigation is known as a “Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA)”. While this title may not be too creative, it is an industry accepted [...]

[Read more →]

For this post, I thought I would continue on a subject that I began a couple of years ago on this blog: Regulatory FAQ ?????????Regulatory FAQ II and Definition of Terms Those posts described the basic steps associated with investigation of your standard corner retail gas station. For this post, let’s assume that you own [...]

[Read more →]

I have been asked to review a number of properties that are essentially raw land that has been graded and prepared for the development of tract homes. This has been going on essentially since November and December of 2008 when I posted the article about DR Horton selling off a number of their properties a [...]

[Read more →]

Commercial lending is a mess right now, that much is not news. It isn’t going to get any better for quite some time, that much is likely not news to you either; but it appears to be getting worse before it is getting better. I heard the other day that the majority of new loans [...]

[Read more →]

The U.S. House of Representative’s version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as the economic stimulus plan includes A number of programs directed toward the redevelopment of Brownfield sites.  The specific direction of these funds includes: • Superfund Hazardous Waste Cleanup: $800 million to clean up hazardous and toxic waste [...]

[Read more →]

The UCLA Anderson School of Business released it’s Commercial Real Estate forecast last week and the news is not very optimistic, but I suspect it is realistic.  Essentially, the report states that the markets are likely to adjust in 2010, but until that point, things will continue to be depressed. Allen Matkins/UCLA Anderson Forecast California [...]

[Read more →]

It appears as though Tesla Motors will be shopping for a brownfield site with an existing building for thier new Model S sedan plant.  The electric automaker had formerly planned to use a vacant property in Silicon Valley for the plant, but with the cost of construction rising, the demand for vehicles falling, and the [...]

[Read more →]

A few months ago I got the chance to facilitate two of the transactions described in the attached article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.  The environmental due diligence on raw land in outlying areas is a bit more straightforward process than, say an urban shopping center with a service station and dry cleaner, but is [...]

[Read more →]

>коли под наемas been quite some time since I have posted here, but that has been for good reason. I am happy to report that we have been busy around here despite the apparent slump in the economy. We have been so busy in fact that we are rushing to attempt to find people to [...]

[Read more →]

I just performed a Phase I ESA on some property in the Antellope Valley and found this book very useful as a reference for the geology of the area: Geology of California/Book and Geologic Map of California by Robert M. Norris and Robert W. Webb

[Read more →]