ASBESTOS ROLL-OFF SERVICES: Signs of (One) Substantial Improvement In Caliber's Downtown Mesa Portfolio

Interior renovations are underway in only one of the eight vacant original historic commercial buildings here on Main Street before December 30, 2017. The buildings and properties were acquired in a number of holding companies established by then Arizona Senator Bob Worsley, registered at his home address in The Groves, qualifying in designations to be included in the federal Opportunity Zone program April 2018 - almost three years ago now.

Caliber’s $7.625 million purchase consists of eight historic buildings along Main Street between Country Club Drive and Center Street. 

All eight of the buildings Caliber purchased were built between 1910 and 1954. An aerial view shows the buildings that Caliber, The Wealth Development Company purchased and will redevelop in Mesa. They are outlined in red.

NOTE: ..."Last week, we met with wealthy people from Paradise Valley who want to invest in downtown Mesa based on what they hear is happening. Speaking of dollars – hard dollars, we – the group I am invested with – we have invested over $20 million already on a bet that downtown Mesa is ready for what’s next.”
Worsley concluded, “I just wanted to say one thing; we need this investment in ASU. We need this center in downtown Mesa.”
CH Mesa Holdings was registered on June 27, 2017 in Delaware. 
Maricopa County Recorder documents shows that CH Mesa Holdings, LLC, a registered limited liability corporation (File Number: 6458344) filed deeds for the following properties:

APN	Address	Last Deed Date
138-35-015	114 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201	10/03/2017
138-35-016 120	120 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201	10/03/2017
138-36-008A	18 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201	10/30/2017
138-36-012 48	48 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201	07/19/2017
138-42-022 155	155 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201	07/07/2017
138-42-030	137 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201	12/12/2017
138-55-004	202 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201	10/03/2017
138-55-009	206 W MAIN ST MESA, AZ 85201	10/03/2017

All of the above properties show a mailing address of 4320 E Brown Road, STE 110, Mesa, AZ 85205. Lyons Development LLC shares the Brown Road address with CH Mesa Holdings, LLC. 

According to the Arizona Corporation Commission, as of 2017, Worsley has been registered as a member of Lyons Development LLC.
Lyons Development LLC registered the following entities in 2017:

L21665169	LYONS DEVELOPMENT LLC	MESA 114 W MAIN LLC
L21757686	LYONS DEVELOPMENT LLC	MESA 137 W MAIN LLC
L21853908	LYONS DEVELOPMENT LLC	MESA 48 W MAIN LLC
L21638767	LYONS DEVELOPMENT LLC	MESA 155 W MAIN LLC
L21657535	LYONS DEVELOPMENT LLC	MESA 18 W MAIN LLC

Investment in, and re-development plans for, the nearly 100,000 square feet of historic urban buildings are important project components to the economic strengthening and downtown transformation efforts of Arizona’s third largest city. 
Caliber Development, a subsidiary of Caliber – The Wealth Development Company, will serve as design-general contractor.
Initial concepts for revitalization include, among others, a rooftop restaurant on The Newberry building.

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Opportunity Zone Tax Benefits

As part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted into law in December 2017, the Opportunity Zone statute (codified as Section 1400Z of the Tax Code) provides two main tax incentives designed to encourage investment in opportunity zones. First, the legislation allows for the deferral of gain to the extent that corresponding amounts are reinvested into one of more “qualified opportunity funds” (or QOFs).

 

Second, the legislation excludes from gross income the post-acquisition gains on investments in QOFs that are held for at least 10 years.

The Opportunity Zone legislation left a lot of questions unanswered regarding how to comply with the rules. This lack of guidance meant that taxpayers have been unwilling to make investments for fear that they would not be entitled to receive the favorable tax treatment that the legislation provides.
While the Proposed Regulations still leave some questions unanswered, they provide enough certainty to allow for prudent investment.

Proposed Regulations

The Proposed Regulations both describe and clarify the requirements that must be met by a taxpayer in order to defer the recognition of gains by investing in a QOF and provide rules for QOFs relating to self-certification and some of the ongoing requirements imposed on QOFs. . .

INFORMATION PLEASE: To qualify and be eligible as 'Opportunity Zones' OZ certain criteria are required. They sound nothing like the words vibrant and exciting used by city officials to describe what used-to-be the Central Business District before the 1970's: low income, chronically poor, blighted, neglected and under-developed
PRESS RELEASE

Caliber and Habitat Metro buy eight Arizona buildings for $7.5M

February 26, 2018 By Iris Dorbian

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Caliber – The Wealth Development Company, a real estate investment, development and management firm, and project partner, Habitat Metro, have purchased eight downtown buildings for $7.5 million on Main Street in Mesa, Arizona. 
(See other posts on this blog for more details)

 

 

 

The proposed regulations also provide that if at least 70 percent of the tangible business property owned or leased by a trade or business is qualified opportunity zone business property, the requirement that “substantially all” of such tangible business property is qualified opportunity zone business property can be satisfied if other requirements are met. If the tangible property is a building, the proposed regulations provide that “substantial improvement” is measured based only on the basis of the building (not of the underlying land).
In addition to the proposed regulations, Treasury and the IRS issued an additional piece of guidance to aid taxpayers in participating in the qualified Opportunity Zone incentive

Rev. Rul. 2018-29 provides guidance for taxpayers on the “original use” requirement for land purchased after 2017 in qualified opportunity zones.
They also released Form 8996, which investment vehicles will use to self-certify as QOFs.       
More information on Opportunity Zones, including answers to frequently-asked questions, is on the Tax Reform page of IRS.gov. The Tax Reform page will also feature updates on the implementation of this and other TCJA provisions.
Click here for complete list of Opportunity Zones.
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Here's a wider angle perspective behind 114 W Main Street

 

 

 and a sidewalk view of the boarded up storefront three doors west of Macdonald

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Reporter-At-Large: Jane Mayer On A Stress-Test For American Judicial System

The Nature of The Case: No previous President has been charged with a criminal offense. If Trump, who remains the Republican Party’s most popular potential Presidential candidate and who recently signalled interest in another run, is charged and convicted, he could end up serving a prison term instead of a second White House term.

CAUTION: “No one should be under the illusion that this is easy or a slam-dunk case.”

"If the case proceeds, some have argued, it won’t only be Trump on trial but the justice system itself. After the D.A. was granted access to his tax returns, Trump denounced what he called “ ‘head-hunting’ prosecutors” as “fascism, not justice.” In fact, according to Anne Applebaum, the author of “Twilight of Democracy,” the American justice system, by holding leaders and ordinary citizens equally accountable, protects democracy from fascism. The image of a former President facing prison may seem un-American. But she noted that, in other robust democracies, “it’s not uncommon for heads of state to be prosecuted.” She warned that the lesson from democracies under strain elsewhere around the world is that failing to lay down the law “is dangerous—it creates long-term feelings of impunity, and incentives for Trump and those around him to misbehave again.” Vance’s case against Trump may be less than perfect, but the alternative, she said, “is lawlessness." . . .

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Can Cyrus Vance, Jr., Nail Trump?

Insiders say that the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation has dramatically intensified since the former President left office. “It’s like night and day,” says one. According to another, “They mean business.”

By Jane Mayer

The New Yorker 

Published in the print edition of the March 22, 2021, issue, with the headline “Trump in the Crosshairs.”                                              "On February 22nd, in an office in White Plains, two lawyers handed over a hard drive to a Manhattan Assistant District Attorney, who, along with two investigators, had driven up from New York City in a heavy snowstorm. Although the exchange didn’t look momentous, it set in motion the next phase of one of the most significant legal showdowns in American history. Hours earlier, the Supreme Court had ordered former President Donald Trump to comply with a subpoena for nearly a decade’s worth of private financial records, including his tax returns

 

 

 

SUCKING OXYGEN OUT-OF-THE-ROOM: How City Manager Chris Brady Controls Communications > Mesa City Council Study Session Thu 03.11.2021

After a long-time 15 years on-the-job as the city's appointed (not elected) Chief Executive Officer it should be clear by now what Brady's strategies really are.

Yesterday's study session is a prime example, as presiding officer Hizzoner John Giles opens the session saying that there's been a lot of public comments and that he sees there are a number of presentations all ready. With noting that, and asking if any council district representatives want to remove other items from the Consent Agenda for March 18th - no requests - he hands the study session over to "Mr. Brady."

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Interesting article from 2016:

Do you suck out all oxygen out of the room, as a leader?

K V Rao, Singapore 7th Nov 2016

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-you-suck-out-all-oxygen-room-leader-learn-new-p-l-technique-rao

With all forms of uiquitous gadgets, iPhones, iPods personal computing devices that accompany leaders right through from boardrooms to toilets, from bed to constant and continuous distraction is the order of the day – and once you enter a meeting room its time to “suck up all the oxygen”!

Its good time to pause and reflect,

Learn the new P & L technique.

 

More ‘Sucking out oxygen out of a room,’[1] the expression vividly sums up how leaders dominate communication.

The importance of communication is over emphasized in management, however the perils of overdosed communication is understated and much worse, least understood. This has given to the rise of a new breed of leaders, who are exceptionally gifted – articulate, loquacious and irretrievably in love with their own voices. ! Leaders who end up talking too much, leave little oxygen for others.

Even in Q&A, interactive sessions, I have seen leaders who do it all by themselves, prod the questions, help re-articulate them, and then provide exceptionally long answers. There is no more oxygen left in the room! The audience is a transfixed fixture, meant to applaud periodically out of politeness.

Such sound-box leaders are fairly consistent i.e. they do the same in internal meetings as well as external meetings, with colleagues, employees, partners, and et all. Once they establish themselves, others realize quickly there is little oxygen left for them and remain quiet and often encourage the leaders to indulge in themselves.

The corporate world is the best place for leaders to dig their own graves, for there are piles of grave digging helpers always ready and over enthusiastic to assist you.

The moot point in here, it not to deflect from the need to be articulate and communicate well, but making communication a seriously effective bridge. I have seen exceptional leaders in my career and life who were the most effective communicators  

 

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