Lennar to borrow $1.7 billion from Chinese bank

Miami-based Lennar Corp. has gotten approval on $1.7 billion in loans from China Development Bank to fund the development and construction of two major projects in San Francisco, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The contract, set to close by Dec. 31 subject to various conditions, would mark the first U.S. loan by the big state-owned Chinese bank. One condition — tagged the “Chinese component”— is that China Railway Construction Corp. be included as a general contracting partner in the project, the person said.

Closing by year’s end is crucial because of new tax rules set to take effect, the person added.

The agreement, first reported in The Wall Street Journal, would provide funding for the first six years of what is envisioned to be a 20-year project.

The loan agreement, reached Dec. 7 after Lennar officials met in China with bank officials, provides for $1 billion in financing to a partnership led by Lennar to redevelop Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point, a site in southeast San Francisco spanning more than 700 acres, the person said. Plans for the mixed-use community call for nearly 12,000 residential units on the site. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2013.

Under the pact, the Chinese bank would provide another $700 million to a partnership of Lennar, Stockbridge Capital Group and Wilson Meany, a real estate investment and development firm, to redevelop Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Islands in San Francisco Bay. Some 8,000 units of housing are planned for the mixed-use project on 535 acres. The U.S. Navy is set to turn over the first parcel of land to the development company in late 2013.

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Parents of students at Broward school warned of Legionnaires’ Disease exposure

Parents of students at Olsen Middle School in Dania Beach were being informed on Tuesday that their children may have been exposed to someone diagnosed with Legionnaires’ Disease, Broward School District officials said.

The person with Legionnaires’ Disease was not a student, district spokeswoman Nadine Drew said. They did not say if the infected person was a teacher.

Automated ‘robo-calls’ were made to the telephones of Olsen Middle School parents that explained how the district was working with the Broward Health Department

To read the entire Sun Sentinel story click here.

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Bids galore for Sony Bldg.

Lois Weiss

BETWEEN THE BRICKS

Among the bidders lining up for the Sony Building at 550 Madison Ave. are two other companies with ties to Japan: the Rockefeller Group, owned by Mitsubishi Estate; and Mitsui Fudosan America.

Vornado Realty Trust and Boston Properties are among the suitors as well, according to Real Estate Alert, while we hear there are teams of pension funds and some high net worth individuals circling the iconic tower, also known as the Chippendale Building.

Locals throwing their hats into the ring include Harry Macklowe and Steven Witkoff, along with investors from the Middle East and Israel, China, Russia and Europe.

According to Real Estate Alert, offers to the marketers — Douglas Harmon and his team at Eastdil Secured — are coming in at more than $850 million and, depending on Sony’s leaseback terms, could top $1 billion.

No one returned requests for comment.

***

When we were last upstairs at Windows of the World in the North Tower for a Building Congress luncheon on April 30, 2001, we went outside to the observatory and stood in awe of the enormous antenna.

The next time we saw the antenna, on Aug. 11, 2006, it was inside the artifact hanger at JFK — burnt, bent and in pieces. One of those pieces will be on display at the 9/11 Museum, according to a spokesperson.

Yesterday, we spent a chilly morning in the Durst Organization’s water taxi trailing a barge ferrying nine of the 18 new antenna pieces from the Port of Newark to Pier 25 near Battery Park City.

It was amazing to see the barge, pushed by the able tugboat Ann Moran, move past the Statue of Liberty with the Empire State Building and the otherwise topped-out 1 World Trade Center and 4 World Trade Center in the background.

We could feel the excitement in the harbor as lucky tourist boats and the Staten Island ferry floated by while every helicopter, tugboat and Coast Guard boat buzzed the area for a look.

The antenna pieces will be lifted one a day, weather permitting, to the top of 1 World Trade Center until the 408 foot-tall mast reaches the sky at nearly 1,776 feet — give or take an inch or so.

***

Besides the altruistic reasons for getting people back in their homes as soon as possible, the city is pushing hard for repairs on Sandy-damaged homes and buildings because the taxable status date is coming up on Saturday, Jan. 5.

To ensure your valuation is lowered for the Jan. 15 tentative property-tax roll, you can find a new form online at the Finance Department to document the damage and mail it to the agency. Finance says it is also using damage found by the Department of Buildings and aerial photography.

Assessors will also take walk-ins at the outer-borough offices, Dec. 18 through Dec. 20, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with later hours to be announced. Bring clear photos of the damage, plus insurance and FEMA documents.

The agency will also consider this information through Feb. 1 for Classes 1 and 2, and until April 15 for Class 4. The final roll is published on May 25.

To maintain your legal rights, you must also file a formal application with Finance for correction by the Tax Commission by Friday, March 1 for all but Class 1 homes, which have until March 15.

Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has introduced a bill that would allow owners whose homes have lost at least half their value due to Sandy to apply for property-tax assessment reductions according to a sliding scale.

For a 100 percent loss, the taxable assessed value would be reduced to zero — but don’t forget that vacant land also has a value and is taxed.

Additionally, the city council has just passed a law to give red-tagged homes and apartment buildings deemed unsafe until April 1 to pay their second-half tax bills without any interest.

But remember, you will then have two bills to pay at that time for both January and April.

***

The building known as the King of Greene at 72-76 Greene St. between Spring and Broome streets sold last night for $41.5 million. The price equates to $1,186 a square foot for the 35,000 square-foot building.

New owner L3 Capital buys retail, but sources said this is the three partners’ biggest city bet so far and is based on finding a new anchor for the temporary Apple store that is now vacant. There are also some offices and rent-stabilized residential tenants.

The sole broker, Adelaide Polsinelli of Eastern Consolidated, declined comment.

Lois@BetweentheBricks.com

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With spam, it’s better not to give or receive

Q. Recently I’ve been unable to send emails from my home email address. In addition, my incoming email contains several notices of undeliverable emails that I didn’t send that are addressed to people I don’t know. I suspect that my computer is infected by some malicious software and is being used to send spam email — and that those that are undeliverable are being returned. What should I do?

Joseph Campbell Burnsville, Minn.

I agree that your PC has been taken over by hackers and is being used to send spam.

The fact that you aren’t able to send emails from your home account supports this theory, since it indicates that your Internet service provider believes you are spamming and has temporarily blocked your ability to send email to anyone.

I suggest you download and run the free version of security program Malwarebytes (go to www.tinyurl.com/cwbd73f and click “free download.”) If that doesn’t work, try Windows System Restore to eliminate recently installed software (see www.tinyurl.com/y9q9apj and www.tinyurl.com/ykgps6.) Then call your Internet service provider; explain what happened and what you’ve done to fix it. If your PC is clean, you’ll be allowed to send email again.Q. I’ve recently received a lot of spam, including some that appear to be from people I know — except that the messages come from the wrong email address. How does a spammer use a familiar name with a fake email address and send it to me?

Also, is there a way to find out the identity of the people who send spam emails? I’ve read that the email address of the sender is not always accurate.

Ginger Bramlett Rockwall, Texas

The bogus email that appeared to be from your friend, but came from the wrong email address, is from a spammer who is trying to trick you into opening the email.

Why did this happen? Your friend’s email may have been hacked and his or her address book stolen, providing the spammer with a host of addresses where an email bearing your friend’s name might be opened by the recipient.

It’s hard to find out who actually sent spam, because originating email addresses are easy to fake.

I suggest you send these emails to your spam filter so that you and others may be spared at least some spam in the future. In addition, your Internet service provider allows you to block spam that comes from a specific domain name — the part of the email address that follows the symbol, such as Yahoo.com. See www.tinyurl.com/cxmq4m7.

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Grant will help Miami-Dade communities become more age-friendly

Thanks to a national grant aimed at helping communities prepare for an increasingly graying population, Miami-Dade will launch a series of programs to make neighborhoods more age-friendly.

The Pfizer Foundation along with Grantmakers in Aging , a national association of funding groups, have awarded a $150,000 grant to the Health Foundation of South Florida. The Health Foundation, in turn, will contribute an additional $30,000 to the effort while working with five local partners to target improvements in transportation, community design, park programs and older adult employment.

Peter Wood, the foundation’s vice president of community and investment, says the eight-month grant is an acknowledgement of his organization’s already established efforts to make Miami-Dade a welcoming place to grow old. Since 2008, the foundation’s Healthy Aging Regional Collaborative Initiative has spent $7.5 million to increase the region’s attention to healthy aging. Several programs — from chronic disease self-management classes to physical activity initiatives at parks — have encouraged 22,000 older adults to stay healthy and fit, according to the foundation.

As part of the grant, the Health Foundation will partner with the Alliance for Aging, Miami-Dade parks, the county’s Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, ReServe Miami (an organization that matches older professionals with nonprofits that need them) and the Urban Health Partnership.

“This grant will help us build on what we’ve already started,” Wood said. “We can now work with partners to help older adults age in place, which is what they prefer, close to family.”

The Health Foundation is one of only five foundations receiving one of the grants. Other agencies include nonprofits in Atlanta, Indiana, the Kansas City area and Phoenix. Each group is expected to come up with a percentage of matching funds.

In the past few years, as America has grown older, more non-profits and government agencies have focused on making communities accessible to older adults to help them stay at home instead of in nursing homes or long-term facilities. Efforts usually involve physical changes in living spaces and public spaces, such as making public transportation more accessible and designing homes and neighborhoods for an older population. Other initiatives have included creating cultural and outdoor activities and volunteering options for older adults.

But elder advocates warn that cities are not doing enough to prepare for the challenges —and opportunities — of this silver tsunami. Forty million people are 65 and older in the U.S. today and that number is projected to more than double to 89 million by 2050, as the giant baby boomer generation ages and people live longer. More than 800,000 residents of Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties are 60 and over.

“A larger portion of our society is going to be composed of older adults,” says Martha Pelaez, director of the foundation’s Healthy Aging Initiative and a consultant on aging. “We have to prepare, and this grant allows us to look at the bigger picture.”

The grant will go toward:

• Reviewing the countywide master plan to make it safer for older adults to age in place, including planning for age-friendly land use and community design.

•  Helping develop an action plan with the county parks department to meet the specialized needs of older adults in specific communities. The county has identified a dozen parks to offer programs, including a Walk for Life fitness program, a self-directed FitZone and Vita Course Exercise routine that incorporates equipment at each park and health and fitness workshops.

•  Encouraging employers to increase hiring, retaining and training older adults. This will include workshops to identify how the skills and experience of older adults can meet the needs of local large businesses.

•  Developing “mobility planning” by designing more biking, walking and public transit options at the neighborhood level for older adults.

The Health Foundation has teamed up with other local organizations before to promote healthy aging. The foundation and county park system brought fitness programs to parks including a Walk with Ease Program and a bilingual Matter of Balance class to help reduce falls.

In tough times, says Kevin Kirwin, assistant director of operations for the park system, “the development and implementation of the programs would not be possible without the Pfizer grant and the partnership with the Health Foundation.”

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Massive HP conference draws 10,000 attendees to ogle products, speakers, presentations

By Suzy Hansen

More than 10,000 customers, partners and attendees flocked to the Hewlett-Packard Discover conference in Frankfurt, Germany, this week to learn about HP’s latest products, exchange ideas, swap business cards and basically examine whether HP can improve the way their companies are run. The event was held at Messe Frankfurt, one of the world’s largest trade exhibition sites.

CEO Meg Whitman acknowledged in her speech on Tuesday that HP has gone through some rough times this past year. HP’s stock price has been nearly halved during her tenure. Whitman, however, pointed out that HP has $ 120 billion in revenue and is the 10th-largest company in the United States. In Q4, HP has generated $ 4.1 billion in cash flow.

“We are the No. 1 or No. 2 provider in almost every market,” Whitman told the crowd in Frankfurt.

Whitman emphasized  executives’ increasing concerns about security and said that it will be addressed by “a new approach”: HP’s security portfolio, with Autonomy and Vertica, which helps “analyze and understand the context of these events.” Executive Vice President of Enterprise Dave Donatelli spoke about converged infrastructure, or bringing together server, network and storage; their software-defined data centers; and their new servers, which “change the way servers have been defined.” George Kadifa, executive vice president of software, said 94 of the top 100 companies use HP software. HP is the sixth-largest software company in the world, with 16,000 employees in 70 countries, Kadifa added.

Also at the conference was Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks and an old friend of Whitman’s from their Disney days, who roused the crowd with a fun speech about his long relationship with HP. Katzenberg showed an old video of himself onstage with a lion, which nearly mauled him. This time, he appeared onstage with a guy in a lion suit. The lesson was to learn from past mistakes and move on.

“If I am smart enough to say ‘scalable multicorps processing,’ I am smart enough to not put myself onstage with a real lion again,” he joked.

The Discover conference is a key vehicle for HP to show off products it’s offering in the coming year. Among them were the latest ProLiant and Integrity servers, the 3PAR StoreServ 7000 and the StoreAll and StoreOnce storage systems. At the HP Labs section of the conference, attendees could learn about the cloud infrastructure or test HP’s new ElitePad 900.

Throughout the three-day event, which saw attendance grow by 30 percent this year, attendees wandered the enormous halls, milling around displays, watching videos, listening to speeches and participating in workshops. People gathered on clustered couches and chatted with new acquaintances, frequently stopping to plug in their various devices and recharge themselves with coffee. With people coming from all over the world, you could hear many languages spoken, from Arabic to French to the most bewildering of them all: the language of technology. Despite the large crowds, it was hard not to notice there were very few women among the thousands in attendance. In fact, when asked about this phenomenon, one female HP employee said, “Trust me, you aren’t the first person who has come up to me asking about this.”

Indeed, the Discover conference was like a forest of men in suits. The few women stood out like rays of sunlight. 

Regardless of their presence at this conference, women are making big strides in information technology. Among the leaders are HP CEO Whitman, who also led eBay; Carly Fiorina, who ran HP before Whitman; Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer; and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Were the women at the Discover conference surprised by the low female turnout?

“No, for IT this is standard,” said Stefanie, a 30-year-old product manager from Germany. “Many are afraid of all the technical stuff, and you have to prove that you are capable of it. You get more women in retail and distribution but not in high-tech areas, at least not in Europe. In America there are more women in management positions and in general.”

Americans might assume that Europe, with its generous social programs that include free daycare, enables more women to ascend the corporate ladder. But that still doesn’t mean that a woman trying to balance a high-tech career and a family is always accepted in European society.

“There is still a lot of emphasis on the family,” Stefanie said. “It’s easier to move up in the U.S., where there is a culture of ‘having it all.’ It’s quite a fight to get there here.”

Still, the IT industry might seem inhospitable to women. Could this male-dominated profession be male-dominant because women have a hard time breaking in?

Stefanie disagreed. “No, they actually like working with women,” she said. “They want to.”

One male conference attendee, who asked not to be named, was less certain.

“There’s a lot of ego and testosterone,” he said. “It can’t be easy” for women.

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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AutoNation: Back in the fast lane with expansion, higher sales

Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.

The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.

In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.

“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.

No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.

Tough times

To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.

Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .

The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.

“We are in the right industry at the right time,” Jackson said during an interview. “The recovery in new vehicle sales is being driven by replacement demand,” added Jackson, who has 42 years of experience in the auto business. “The average age of the light vehicle fleet in the country has increased to 11 years, and even though cars and trucks last longer today, they can’t go on forever. About 12 to 13 million vehicles are scrapped every year and need to be replaced.”

Other factors are contributing to stronger demand for vehicles. “The population is growing, interest rates are low, there is ample credit available and manufacturers are producing a wide range of new models that offer attractive styling, power and greatly improved gas mileage,” said Jackson, who took over as AutoNation’s CEO in 1999. “Auto financing is more available than it has been in recent years. A little known fact is that people are more likely to default on a mortgage than on a vehicle loan.”

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U-Haul chase suspect appears in Miami-Dade court on Sunday

The suspect arrested in connection with Friday’s chase through the streets of Miami-Dade in a rental U-Haul truck appeared in front of judge Sunday morning.

Darrell Conyers, 45, made his first appearance in bond court.

Conyers faces a number of charges including grand theft, fraud and resisting arrest with violence.

During the hearing, the judge noted that the only charge before her was driving with a suspended license. For that she set bond at $2,000. Conyers will return to bond court at a later time for the additional charges.

Conyers was scheduled to appear in court on Saturday but was unable to do so because he was still in the hospital being treated for injuries he sustained at the end of the chase which apparently started as an attempted robbery at a tool shop on South Dixie Highway.

For 45-minutes the U-Haul truck weaved in and out of city streets, jumping on and off the Palmetto Expressway and headed in different directions along Southwest Eighth Street and Flagler Street.

The chase finally came to an end 12:45 p.m. next to Miami Senior High in Little Havana on Flagler Street and 26th Avenue.

When officers moved in to apprehend the driver, an unidentified Miami-Dade Police officer was injured when he was pinned between the U-Haul truck and a police vehicle. He was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he was treated for a broken leg.

Another Miami officer cut his hand from broken glass. Police say that happened when officers had to break the glass on the U-Haul truck to get the suspect out of it.

Police said Conyers has had previous run-ins with the law and has convictions for firearm violations, fleeing police and carjacking.

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Singer Jenni Rivera Feared Dead in Plane Crash

The remains of a private plane carrying singer Jenni Rivera have been found in Mexico with no survivors following a suspected crash. 

Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, Mexico's Secretary of Communications and Transportation, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that, on Sunday, officials found the remains of an airplane that was carrying the Mexican-American superstar and her entourage who were traveling from Monterrey to Toluca, Mexico.

Video: Remembering the Tragic Loss of Aaliyah

The small jet had been carrying seven passengers (Rivera included) and lost radio contact with the airport a few minutes after departing in the early hours of the morning following a concert, reports THR.

The singer's father and brother later confirmed to Telemundo that Rivera died in the crash.

With the sad news, Latin artists all over the world took to Twitter to express their heartbreak.

Gloria Estefan mourns, "Our deepest sympathy to the family & fans of @jennirivera & those that accompanied her on what was to be her last voyage. Rest in peace."

Ricky Martin says, "This is sad. A bit in shock. Much peace to your family." (Translated from Spanish)

Eva Longoria writes, "My heart breaks for the loss of Jenni Rivera & everyone on the plane. My prayers go out to her family. We lost a legend today."

William Levy tweets, "My heart goes out to the families. I wish them all the strength in the world." (Translated from Spanish)

Paulina Rubio mourns, "My friend! Why? There is no consolation. God help me!" (Translated from Spanish)

Pitbull writes, "I highly respected #JenniRivera 4 being a gr8 performer but more then tht being real & gr8 example 4 us all que dios la bendiga &may she RIP"

Rivera, 43, was currently a featured coach on The Voice Mexico. A California native, the singer earned several Latin Grammy nominations and recently signed on to star in an American sitcom with ABC titled Jenni.

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Business briefs

Robust China

China’s factory output and retail sales topped forecasts last month in signs that an economic recovery is accelerating, improvements that may pare a jobless rate newly estimated at almost double the official figure. Industrial production climbed 10.1 percent in November and retail sales jumped 14.9 percent.

Euro furor

Europe’s banks are calling for a review of tougher financial regulations on the eve of their adoption as the region sinks into a recession, dimming prospects of raising $621 billion in capital needed to meet the rules. Meanwhile, Greece is reported to be near a buyback of sovereign debt that will unlock aid from the IMF and the EU, a Greek official said.

Set-top set-to

Arris Group of Suwanee, Ga., and UK-based Pace Plc have made the most compelling bids for Google’s Motorola Home Business, which sells set-top boxes and equipment to cable-television providers, a source said.

Cheaper gas

The average price for regular gasoline fell 9.62 cents in the past three weeks to $3.3766 a gallon, according to a national survey.

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