Broad, High billboards to go live

The Times Square-like multimedia billboards at the corner of Broad and High streets in Columbus are ready for their own countdown.

Developer Casto, Mayor Michael B. Coleman and billboard designer Orange Barrel Media are scheduled to light the downtown project at 5 p.m. Thursday. When the complex at the corner opens in early January, stock tickers and advertisements on the billboards will be a visual anchor for the $22 million retail, office and residential development.

The displays, which cost about $2.6 million, have clinched seven ad sponsors. Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc., Kroger Co., AT&T Inc. and Ohio State University Medical Center signed on in the summer. Nationwide Financial Services Inc., television station WCMH and Huntington Bancshares Inc. reached agreements earlier, leaving one ad spot unsold.

Tenants secured for the development's retail and office space include the Original SoupMan, Cafe Lola, television station WCMH and Paul Werth Associates Inc., a public affairs agency.

The project's street-level retail and office space has about 9,000 square feet.

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source: bizjournals.com

City picks three neighborhoods for blight attack in '08

The city of Cincinnati's Neighborhood Enhancement Program has chosen three neighborhoods where it will focus on cleaning up blight in 2008.

City Manager Milton Dohoney announced Wednesday that the initiative will target Clifton Heights/University Heights/Fairview, Westwood and Evanston in the coming year.

The neighborhoods were chosen through an analysis of building code violations, vacant buildings, disorder and drug calls to the police, drug arrest, graffiti and other indicators.

City services and volunteers will target each neighborhood for a 90-day effort that will include building code enforcement; "cooling down" crime hot spots; cleaning streets, vacant lots and sidewalks; beautifying public areas; and engaging property owners and residents.

U.S. Bank Cincinnati Market President Jim Schwab announced that the bank will contribute $3,000 in seed money to each neighborhood for the program. It will also be part of a new effort to encourage donations for the program, he said in a news release.

Donations can be made to any of the three neighborhoods, or the program as a whole, at any Cincinnati-area U.S. Bank (NYSE: USB) branch, Schwab said.

The program is also looking for corporate and community volunteers to help with beautification efforts in the neighborhoods.

The three neighborhoods chosen for 2007: Price Hill, Avondale and Northside, saw decreases in blight of 16 percent, 12 percent and 17 percent, respectively, according to the release.

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source: bizjournals.com

Loan losses to hit Fifth Third in 4Q

Fifth Third Bancorp joined the line of banks warning Wall Street about the damage the mortgage crisis will wreak on their bottom line.

The bank said in a Tuesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it will take a $275 million provision for loan and lease losses, nearly double the $140 million provision it took last quarter to cover bad loans.

That will knock fourth-quarter earnings per share down to the range 24 cents to 27 cents, the bank said, with full-year earnings per share in the $2.19 to $2.22 range.

Analysts, on average, had expected fourth-quarter earnings per share of 65 cents, and $2.71 for full-year 2007.

The news caused Fifth Third's stock to fall 58 cents, or more than 2 percent, to $25.99 in late morning trading Wednesday. The stock has been in a downtrend and fallen 37 percent this year. It's down 63 percent since March 2002.

Losses in home equity loans are the primary causes for the higher provision, Fifth Third said in the filing. Commercial construction and commercial mortgage loans also contributed.

The news isn't a complete surprise. A Goldman Sachs analyst had said last month that Fifth Third was among a handful of banks most at risk for losses in its home equity loan portfolio.

R-G Crown, a Florida bank that Fifth Third acquired last month, also contributed to the bad loans. Fifth Third said R-G Crown's bad loans will account for $37 million of Fifth Third's nonperforming assets in the fourth quarter, or 5 percent of the expected 49 percent increase in nonperforming assets. Those are mostly in commercial loans.

Separately, Fifth Third also said it will hike its fourth-quarter cash dividend by 10 percent to 44 cents per share. That, combined with the decline in Fifth Third's stock this year, has moved its indicated dividend yield to 6.8 percent. That's more than triple the S&P 500's 1.9 percent rate and ranked 11th among all stocks in the S&P 500.

Cincinnati-based Fifth Third (NASDAQ: FITB) is the Tri-State's largest bank and among the nation's 15 largest banks, with $104 billion in assets.

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source: bizjournals.com

Lights on for now at Bartlett Building

The Bartlett building still had gas and electricity Wednesday, after tenants apparently took matters into their own hands.

Duke Energy had given notice Tuesday that it planned to shut off the utilities at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday because the building's owners hadn't been paying the bill.

Tom Steele, vice president and CFO for financial firm Bartlett & Co., which has offices in the building, said the law firm Strauss & Troy is representing the tenants, and working with Duke on a more permanent solution.

"The intent is to contract directly with Duke to keep the utilities going so each tenant would pay their share directly to Duke," Steele said in a phone interview. "We pay and have paid the owner. They are supposed to funnel it to Duke. Our intent is to skip that step, pay direct and pay less rent. We are more than hopeful that is going to be successful."

The building's owner and manager, Chicago-based Sterling Phoenix Development and Carnegie Realty Partners have run into financial problems and, tenants said, have been neglecting the building.

Carnegie Realty Partners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago on Nov. 16 with assets less than $10,000 and liabilities topping $1 million. Duke Energy Corp. was listed as a creditor in the petition.

In May, the Chicago Tribune reported that Sterling Phoenix CEO John Thomas had served as a federal mole for at least a year, tracking fraud in the financing of large commercial real estate deals. He had been convicted of federal business fraud in New York in 2004.

Sterling Phoenix purchased the Bartlett Building for $8.2 million in March 2006 from two partnerships, the 36 East Fourth Street Investors and the Fourth Street Limited Partners. At the time, the new owners planned a $4 million renovation, including an upscale restaurant in the building's grand ballroom.

In September, the firm notified the 18-story building's 30 tenants that it was in talks with a global hotel operator for a possible conversion of the building. Since then, those tenants have searched for new homes.

American Airlines, which operates a reservation center with more than 400 employees, is the largest tenant. The airline said in October that it planned to close the center by September 2008.

Local real estate brokers say the tenants have dealt with poor management of the building since the 2006 sale. Many restrooms are out of service and the building's HVAC system does not operate at appropriate levels.

"It's an unfortunate situation for everybody involved," said Peter Snow, a Colliers Turley Martin Tucker broker working with several of the tenants in their search for new office space.

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source: bizjournals.com

RGM takes on 33,000 SF at Chase Tower

A new 33,000-square-foot lease will help a local trading firm more than double its size and essentially fill a downtown office tower.

Austin-based RGM Advisors LLC plans to move into its new space at the Chase Tower next year once finish-out is complete. The investment management firm, which applies scientific methods and computing power to trading, currently occupies about 13,000 square feet in the Whole Foods corporate headquarters building at Sixth Street and Lamar Boulevard.

The new deal accounts for the last remaining large block of space at Chase Tower, which was purchased in a joint venture between Endeavor Real Estate Group LLC and Triple Net Properties LLC of Santa Ana, Calif. in June 2006. Since the purchase, Austin-based Endeavor has worked to reposition the property, managing to raise occupancy from 72 percent to 96 percent with the signing of this latest lease. Earlier this year, Austin-based engineering firm Bury+Partners Inc. leased 55,000 square feet in the building at 221 West Sixth Street.

Aquila Commercial's Sloan Spaeth, Jay Lamy, and Jennifer Baur represented RGM in the deal.

RGM will take over the space in two blocks over the next year to match the company's needs and minimize unnecessary cost.

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source: bizjournals.com