COLUMBUS PROVES A TIDY FIT FOR LENDER
(November 06, 2009)

A Maryland bank is expanding in Central Ohio and plans to hire 35 employees in the next three months. American Bank Holdings Inc., which runs a branch office in the Brewery District, has opened a mortgage lending operation in the Crosswoods development in north Columbus that will handle the bank’s national mortgage marketing and origination efforts. The 8,994-square-foot operation replaces a regional lending office on Long Street downtown. (click here to read more)

AS OFFICE VACANCY RATES CLIMB, TENANT’S POSITION STRENGTHENS
(May 06, 2009)

If there’s a silver lining in the frightening economy, it might be high office vacancy rates. The scene is tilting toward the tenant when it comes to negotiating for new space and early lease renewals.

“Tenants definitely have the upper hand right now,” said Matt Gregory, a broker for NAI Ohio Equities LLC in Columbus, which specializes in tenant and landlord representation. “With vacancy rates as high as they are, landlords are doing everything they can to entice a tenant to sign a lease in their building.” (click here to read more)

VACANT OFFICE BUILDINGS NOT AN EASY SELL IN ANY ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
(May 01, 2009)

Randy Stephens has been marketing a vacant office building in Worthington for three years. Getting someone to lease an empty building might be a challenge in any environment. In a recession, it’s close to impossible. These so-called “white elephants” – properties whose costs often exceed their usefulness – are sprinkled throughout Central Ohio. They can be found in Dublin, Worthington, Westerville and Columbus. (click here to read more)

PIZZUTI DIVISION LAUNCHES INTO SPACE WITH DEAL FOR NASA-FOCUSED PROJECT
(April 10, 2009)

A division of Columbus developer Pizzuti Cos. will serve as master developer of the planned Exploration Park at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Space Florida, a state agency, selected Pizzuti Solutions LLC this month to design, market and manage the research park and develop office and industrial buildings. The 60-acre first phase of Exploration Park will include eight buildings totaling 315,000 square feet, said Pizzuti Executive Vice President Jim Russell. The first 25,000- to 50,000-square-foot building, to be anchored by Space Florida, is expected to be built by early 2011. (click here to read more)

DEFINING CLASS: IT’S ALL RELATIVE
(March 06, 2009)

Last year, Columbus was in peril of having all its Class A buildings in Capitol Square wiped out. In the commercial real estate world, buildings are classed from A to C – the cream to the crumbs. Trouble is, defining what’s an “A” is like the Supreme Court defining obscenity. You know it when you see it, but it’s hard to describe. Listing services, brokers, developers each have their own standards. The Columbus Board of Realtors has a contract with Xceligent Inc. to run the Central Ohio Commercial Information Exchange, an electronic building and occupancy database that’s one of the two most used classification systems locally. (click here to read more)