Indian Real Estate Sector Cautious about Expansion

It’s at the cusp of a recovery, but India’s usually aggressive real estate sector is being cautious about expansions this time. Excesses by large realty firms—such as aggressive land buying, massive projects with long gestation periods, and venturing into new territories such as power and logistics—as well as the downturn had pushed the sector into a deep slump in 2009.

Now, as growth returns, developers are ordering feasibility studies before launching projects, entering into strategic tie-ups for raw material and labour, appointing project management consultants, and outsourcing construction work for quicker delivery, say property consultants.

Such measures are fairly new for a sector dominated by family-run businesses. “Builders are back with a bang,” said Aditi Vijaykar, executive director (residential) at Cushman and Wakefield India, a property advisory. “They want to try out new locations for projects and are trying to test market a product before launching it.” DLF Ltd, India’s largest developer by market value, said it will not buy land in 2010-11 or launch projects until it has regulatory approvals.

Its working capital model will depend on cash flow from pre-sales, customer advances and bank debt. “It is difficult to stop speculative buying, but a system like one home per family is required,” DLF executive director Rajeev Talwar said. “The chances of end users exiting projects are less because property investments are usually a lifelong affair for them.”


Mumbai-based DB Realty Ltd, which has aggressive plans in suburban Pune, is conducting feasibility studies on the sizes and pricing of homes to ensure the right profile for its projects. Consultants said this was rarely done earlier. Shahid Balwa, managing director of DB Realty, did not respond to queries.


Also, realty firms that are raising money though initial public offerings (IPOs) are aiming to use the funds for ongoing and proposed projects or to retire debt, said J.C. Sharma, MD of Bangalore-based Sobha Developers Ltd. The firms are monetizing land banks and reworking sales strategies to reach a larger clientele, he said. “This is very different from what realty IPOs in 2006 and 2007, including Sobha, did. That time, everyone was raising money only to buy more land,” added Sharma.



In February, Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), the country’s third largest developer by market value, announced a 1.2 million sq. ft slum redevelopment project valued at Rs2,000 crore. HDIL, which had turned its focus from slum projects to residential development last year, has big-ticket launches coming up this year.

It plans to launch another two or three slum projects in the next six-seven months. Hari Pandey, assistant vice-president (finance) at HDIL, said execution has become crucial for the firm. If pre-sales account for more than half the units of a residential project within three months of its launch, it has a high chance of being self-funded, he said.



“We are outsourcing about 80% of construction work to contractors, which we would do ourselves earlier. This is for speedy delivery as we are also scaling up our plans,” Pandey added. Developers are also looking at special purpose vehicles or joint ventures instead of purchasing land outright. Parsvnath Developers Ltd is looking at a month-on-month delivery target for faster completion. The company wants to construct around 45 million sq. ft of space in the next 24 months, and build around 1.25 million sq. ft in the last quarter.



The company has outsourced construction and appointed a project management consultant to keep a check on the work, as well as tied up with vendors for long-term supply of key materials. “We are also looking at a project-on-project basis of funding either through debt or private equity (PE) channels,” said Pradeep Jain, chairman of Parsvnath Developers. PE investors are also enforcing some good practices. Ramesh Jogani, MD and chief executive of Indiareit Fund Advisors Pvt. Ltd, said developers need to ensure their projects are rational in profile. “Even in residential projects, what is the need to build 30-40 storeyed towers which take five-six years to finish?” asked Jogani. “One needs to travel the middle path and offer mid-range products which assure quality.”

Micro-blogging - Breaking News for Real Estate

Pat Kitano, over at Transparent RE, posted about micro-blogging for real estate. Micro-blogging is being defined as immediate posting of breaking news, with little or no delay using Twitter and other immediate posting sites.


Pat mentions the delay in RSS feeds, as they are dependent upon the subscriber's reader, and how often it requests to be updated. He also differentiates between the two types of blogging, as one is much more immediate than the other, allowing a real estate professional to release "breaking news" type items for immediate display, say on a Twitter page. As Twitter feeds can also be displayed on other networking sites, such as Facebook, this would create an instantaneous, or close to it, breaking real estate news service some people would like.


I'm not sure how many real estate professionals actually have enough "breaking news" type of items to release in this way, or how many people actually would want to get them, but some may choose to receive them as text messages or in other ways that are very immediate in nature. Here are two ways to get this done:


* Immediate WordPress Post to Twitter - Using the Birdfeeder plugin, I've tested and a post is immediately fed to Twitter from a WordPress blog. However, unless you want all of your posts to go out immediately, this plugin won't help. It doesn't allow selecting posts for immediate release to your Twitter account. If it's truly "breaking news" you want to treat this way, you could have a blog set up just for these releases, thus all posts would apply.

* A 5 to 30 Minute Release - I know of one way to get blog posts to Twitter in 5 to 30 minutes. I use Twitterfeed, which takes my RSS feed and sends the posts to Twitter. Twitterfeed will check your feed every 30 minutes (sorry no quicker), and send the post to Twitter.

* I have found most getting there in under 30 minutes, many in five or so. If it's been 25 minutes since the last check, and I hit the publish button, then the post will get there faster. I send all of my posts there, but you could create a category just for "breaking news," and use that category to feed a special Twitter account just for this purpose. I think that I don't have any news that can't wait a half hour.


Think about whether you really have information that will have enhanced value if immediately delivered. If not, you may risk losing followers who find that your "breaking news" isn't useful news.

Home sales 27% higher in 4th quarter over last year

Home sales posted strong gains in the fourth quarter and prices rose in nearly 45% of U.S. metropolitan areas compared with a year earlier, more evidence of an improving climate in housing.


Bolstered by low interest rates and a first-time home buyers tax credit, existing-home sales rocketed 27.2% from the fourth quarter of 2008 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.03 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.


The national median price for an existing single-family home was $172,900, or 4.1% below the median price in fourth-quarter 2008. That was the smallest price decline in more than two years.


Prices rose in 67 out of 151 metro areas in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier. Only 30 areas had annual price increases in the third quarter.


Sixteen areas had double-digit increases last quarter, led by Saginaw, Mich., up 53.5% to a median of $67,400.


"There's a growing body of evidence that the housing market has stabilized. The question is how quickly can it recover and will we bump along at the bottom for a couple of months?" says Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group. "In the first couple of months of 2010, we should see a healthy turnaround."


Baumohl says the combination of low interest rates and tax credits for qualifying home buyers should lure buyers, further stabilizing prices and boosting sales.


But the market could falter once the tax credit expires April 30 and if interest rates begin to climb later this year as many economists expect.


The credit is worth up to $8,000 for first-time buyers and up to $6,500 for repeat buyers. But they must have purchase contracts signed by April 30 and close by June 30.


The national average mortgage rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan fell to 4.97% this week, down from 5.01% a week ago, Freddie Mac reported Thursday.


But foreclosures are expected to climb, which could further depress prices. Foreclosure filings were reported on 315,716 properties in January, 15% more than a year ago, RealtyTrac reported Thursday.


"It's premature to say the coast is clear. The housing credit really played a role in juicing up sales," says Mark Zandi at Moody's Economy.com. "We're closer to the end of the downturn than the beginning, but we're not there yet."

Real Estate Firms Concerned Over Diminishing NRI Interest in Indian Property

Apart from biting cold weather of the capital, lack of enthusiasm among overseas Indians to buy properties in India has further dampened spirits of some of the realty firms, as well as around half a dozen banks, which put up impressive stalls outside the venue of the recently concluded Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) at Vigyan Bhavan. Of course, realty firms were trying to woo the ‘pravasis’ to buy their products while banks were ready to clear their home loans, then and there. But, both got a rude shock. In a way, it was a departure from earlier PBD meets when a large number of NRIs used to book their properties in various parts of the country.


So, what went wrong this time round; why aren’t the NRIs taking any interests in the upcoming projects of realty firms? Are they facing a financial crunch? After taking to several NRIs at the meet, one thing has clearly emerged - that a reallife version of “Khosla ka ghosla” is being played out with an increasing number of NRIs. A furious Naresh Chopra, a NRI from America, said that he had booked one flat in Gurgaon in a project of a very well-known realty player. He had also been paying whatever money the realty firm was asking of him. Despite that, there was no progress on the project. The realty firm failed to deliver the flat to him, which they promised to hand over almost a year ago. While narrating his tale, he also said he would take up this matter with Vayalar Ravi, overseas Indian affairs minister.


Complaints of real estate deals going sour, illegal encroachment and unauthorized occupation of properties have flooded the officials of ministry of overseas Indian affairs during this PBD. Property dispute is one of the most common complaints by NRIs. They are unable to protect their property due to long absences or lack of awareness of laws, Vayalar Ravi admitted. Moreover, some realty firms are not delivering them their flats on time. The largest number of complaints is from major real estate markets like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore , and also from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab. The nature of the complaints are mainly over protection of properties that have been forcibly occupied or encroached, disputes relating to division of property or inheritance, and cases where investors have been cheated by real estate developers.


Though there was a session on property disputes at the PBD, only assurances were given to harassed overseas Indians by officials. Navin Raheja, CMD of Raheja group, who had a stall at the PBD venue, admitted that the NRI response was rather cold. “They seem to be reluctant to invest here as some unscrupulous developers have duped them of their money by not delivering projects at all, or in some cases, projects have got inordinately delayed as well. These factors have contributed towards a comparative lack of interest on part of overseas Indians,” he admits.


R K Arora, CMD of Supertech group, admits that NRIs are buying fewer properties now as compared to two-three years ago. “They buy properties in the range of Rs 60 lakhs to Rs 80 lakhs. They buy properties for purely investment purpose. There is hardly any emotional factor that is involved. As and when they get good appreciation on their properties , they dispose it off,” he says.

After not-so-great response from NRIs last year, at the PBD held in Chennai , realty advisory Century 21 India did not put up its stall in Delhi this time. Sanjay Singh, marketing director of Century 21 India, says that NRIs can again start buying properties in India provided authorities ensure that their interests are not compromised. “It is also not true that they are not buying properties here at all. They are still buying , but not in a big way. My advice to them would be to stick to metros and major cities only, as Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities still face uncertainty on the oversupply situation,” says Sanjay. Samir Jasuja, CMD of PropEquity, has a word of caution.


“They must see to it that they invest with developers with a proven track record and not be taken in by glitzy ads or aggressive media campaigns,” he says. According to him, unlike the general perception, NRIs do not invest in properties in a big way. “Indian realty market would not crash if they desert it. There are basically two types of NRIs who invest in realty market. One, those who buy property from a purely commercial angle. Two, those who send money from some European country or US to their parents or close relatives to buy properties. In both cases, the number is not that really big,” he says.


Chandrasekhar Tiwari, an eminent scholar on Indian diaspora affairs, says that perhaps only those NRIs are buying properties in India who have migrated to other countries during the last 25 yeas or so. They are still very much close to their roots. “I am pretty sure that those who had shifted before 25 years or so are not buying properties. Only the first generation NRIs are coming back to India. All stakeholders should see to it that NRIs keep their ties with India intact. We should create a situation which is ideal for them so that they keep on investing here,” feels Tiwari. Ashish Jindal, regional head (North) at Knight Frank India Pvt Ltd, says that the current situation is right for NRIs to enter the market as the market has started its upward movement and prices would definitely harden over the next few months.


Experts also say that NRIs have always been active in the Indian real estate sector. They have always bought into built up units in major cities or purchased land in their ancestral city or town. The global boom till 2007 witnessed a lot of investment by NRIs in India . The global recession, which also hit India majorly, saw some NRIs scout Indian cities for distressed assets sale. An officer of Punjab National Bank admitted that there were not many NRIs looking for home loan from them during PBD. “As economic slowdown has also badly hurt them, it is possible that when things started looking up again, they would start to buy properties here,” he says. Till recently, NRIs from the US, the UK, Canada and Gulf were the cynosure of realty sector. Among NRIs settled or working in these countries, Punjabis and Malayalis used to buy properties in a big way, every year, in all the major parts of the country. It is a well-known fact that Malayalis and Punjabis have migrated in hordes over the years. Some of them are also buying commercial space.


Samy Velu, a leader of the Malaysian Indian Congress and former minister in his adopted country, said that the purpose of PBD would be defeated if the government only looks at the dollars part of overseas Indians and fails to address their genuine woes and issues. He was referring to the speech of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the PBD in which he urged NRIs to invest in India.

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Florida Court Decision Could Impact Builders and Bank Foreclosure Processes

A ground-breaking South Florida court decision has paved the way to a legal solution for condominium and homeowners associations to address the under-reported but highly commonplace practice of banks stalling their foreclosures.

Banks may engage in this tactic in an effort to delay taking title to financially upside down units and avoiding payment of past due assessments and legal fees due to associations. The new legal approach puts an end to this practice and is poised to dramatically strengthen the financial health of communities throughout the state of Florida.

From the firm that innovated "blanket receiverships" last year, now Association Law Group (ALG) has created the "reverse foreclosure" procedure in cases where an association has already acquired title to the property by its own foreclosure, but the bank’s foreclosure action is still pending or stalled. Under ALG’s new reverse foreclosure procedure, the association intentionally admits, in response to the bank’s foreclosure lawsuit, that the bank is entitled to take title to the financially upside down unit immediately.

Under such procedure, the association knowingly waives its right of redemption and its right to a foreclosure sale, requests the court to grant a partial summary judgment against the association immediately, and further requests that the court direct the Clerk of Court to issue a certificate of title to the bank immediately, thereby making the bank the owner immediately and responsible for the association dues.

Attorney Ben Solomon of Association Law Group explains, "ALG’s reverse foreclosure procedure will finally help associations force banks to take title to financially upside down units much faster than ever before. This innovative new legal strategy holds banks accountable for paying their fair share of assessments and significantly reduces the amount of bad debt incurred by such associations." ALG’s new reverse foreclosure procedure cuts down on the bank’s opportunity to stall such foreclosure proceedings for an additional six months to a year or more (by intentionally delaying the setting of hearings, taking advantage of prolonged sale dates, etc.) because it forces the bank to take title to the upside down unit much quicker than usual because both parties agree they are immediately entitled to the property.
Stalling by the bank typically adds to the amount of bad debt write offs an association eventually incurs when the bank finally does foreclose because by statute the bank is only obligated to pay the lesser of 12 months of past due assessments or 1% of the original mortgage for an HOA or 6 months of assessments or 1% for condos. The balance of past due assessments is then typically written off as bad debt and becomes a common expense to be paid by the rest of the unit owners.


This landmark case, HSBC Bank USA, et al. vs. Keys Gate Community Association, Inc., A Florida Non Profit Corporation, et al., was decided on January 12th in the 11th Judicial Circuit of Miami-Dade County. ALG represented Keys Gate Community Association, Inc. (Keys Gate), a homeowners association in Miami-Dade County with over 3,000 homes.

In this precedential case, Keys Gate was awarded a partial final summary judgment of foreclosure against itself and in favor of HSBC Bank USA. As a part of that judgment, Keys Gate waived its right to public sale and requested a certificate of title be issued directly and immediately to the bank. Pursuant to the judgment, the Clerk of Court issued a certificate of title to HSBC the same day making the bank immediately liable for the payment of past due assessments and legal fees.


Based on the issuance of the certificate of title, the bank also was required to pay all current assessments as they become due. This new legal strategy saved Keys Gate a minimum of eight months or more of bad debt write offs because the association did not have to wait for the bank to get a foreclosure judgment, schedule a foreclosure sale, and sell the property at public auction. Importantly, this case sheds light on a little known banking practice that has been paralyzing homeowner and condominium associations across Florida -- namely that banks are significantly stalling their foreclosures to avoid paying the liabilities to the applicable association. This particular bank foreclosure case had been pending since 2007.


Specifically, in this case, Keys Gate filed and foreclosed its own claim of lien on the property and acquired title to the property through its own foreclosure sale back in April of 2007. The bank filed its foreclosure against the property in June of 2007 and through repeated stall tactics has still failed to complete the same for more than two and a half years. As a last resort, in November of 2009, ALG initiated its first reverse foreclosure procedure and moved the bank's foreclosure case forward by setting a hearing for summary judgment against its client Keys Gate. ALG then asked the court to issue a partial summary judgment in favor of the bank and to immediately grant the bank's request to take title to the unit as stated in its foreclosure complaint.
As part of such reverse foreclosure, Keys Gate waived its rights to the property and, as the current unit owner, waived its right to public sale. The motion was granted and the Clerk of Court issued a certificate of title the same day transferring ownership of the property to the bank. The certificate of title then triggered HSBC Bank's requirement to pay its share of past due assessments, legal fees, court costs, and all assessments going forward. The bank's claim as to the other defendants is still pending.


The practice of banks delaying in foreclosure proceedings is not uncommon but it has a severe detrimental impact upon associations. Under the current law, a bank is not liable for condominium or homeowners associations' assessments until it takes title. As such, once a foreclosure is filed by a bank, there is little incentive for it to complete such foreclosure and take title to the unit until it has a buyer for the property or is otherwise ready to take responsibility for the liabilities associated with the property. It is this critical step in the process where banks have delayed -- sometimes for years -- to avoid having to pay assessments.
Every month of delay equals another month of potential bad debt write off for an association. Until now, associations were left to fall further into debt and were powerless to encourage the banks to complete their foreclosures and collect back assessments. Some judges have tried to make banks liable for assessments if they did not aggressively pursue the foreclosure by granting a motion to compel, but that attempt to hold the banks accountable was recently ruled invalid by the Third District Court of Appeal.


ALG's innovative new legal strategy of reverse foreclosure has been enthusiastically endorsed by the Clerk of Court as another method to reduce their backlog of foreclosure sales. ALG has already been successful in implementing its "reverse foreclosure" procedure in both Miami-Dade and Broward counties and has plans to file dozens more in the upcoming months in multiple other counties.

Building Permits and Inspections

Building Permits and Inspections - Necessary For Your Protection
Probably the most intimidating part of building your own house is the permit process. Not only do the requirements vary from township to township, but at times the decisions made seem so subjective that we find ourselves seething in frustration. However, permits and inspections are a necessary step, and they are in place predominately for your protection.

Ask any earthquake victim in Iran. Because I am concerned here with new construction, I won't go into the permits required for renovation; that's another story. In a new development, the buyer usually doesn't have to think about permits; the builder takes care of all the details. With independent projects, you may end up engaging a contractor who hires all the sub- contractors and takes care of the permits.

This makes life infinitely easier for the buyer, but you'll pay for that convenience. In rural areas, because township officials are usually volunteers, they tend to work only one or two hours a week, and often after five o'clock. If you miss their time, you'll probably have to wait another week. This could run your builder ragged and cause unwelcome delays.


If you decide to get the permits yourself, the first thing you want to do is go to the township office and acquire their Code Requirements for Single Family Dwellings, and also their Building Permit Requirement Checklist (or whatever they call these documents).

The Code Requirements will cover everything from smoke detectors to egress windows, from stair requirements to insulation, from foundations to chimneys and anything in between. It wouldn't hurt to send a copy to your log home manufacturer, just in case. The Building Permit checklist, though more simply worded, will be the most important document to familiarize yourself with. If even one of these items are unchecked, you won't get that permit that day!


Once you start the process, you come to realize that the Construction Permit is the most important, the most sought-after, and the most critical objective in your immediate scope. Without it, you cannot even break ground. Since everything ties together, the township wants to make sure you have your "ducks in a row" before they "permit" you to start. There will usually be a one-year time limit to the permit or a six-month time limit if construction is stopped in the middle.

You should budget about $1500-$2000 for your average building permit, unless there unusual circumstances attached to your project (wetlands delineation, variances, etc.).


Here is what may be acquired to qualify for the building permit:

1. TAX CERTIFICATION: This document is to verify the ownership of the land and that payments are current.

2. TWO SETS OF SEALED BUILDING PLANS: What they want is an Architect's or Building Engineer's stamp on the plans that come from the home manufacturer. Do not assume that the plans will come pre-stamped. Not all manufacturers have the ability to apply a seal from every state. Included in the building plan will probably be a separate foundation plan, since most log homes do not provide a foundation as part of the building. If there is a separate foundation plan, it too will need to be stamped by a qualified engineer or architect.

3. SIGNED, SEALED ELECTRIC PERMIT APPLICATION: Don't expect the log home manufacturer to provide electrical drawings. Once you hire an electrician, you'll have to sit down with him and determine where you are putting your outlets, light switches and fixtures. Local code will determine how close together your outlets will go. Do yourself a favor and put in many more outlets than you think you will need; retrofitting could be unsightly. Also, plan on twice as many light fixtures than a standard home - wood sucks up light like a sponge. While you are at it, it helps to include your cable wires, phone wires and CAT5 in every room; even though you may not think you'll need it. Once you move into the house, you may change a room's usage from your original conception - we did, and regretted our shortsightedness.

4. SIGNED, SEALED PLUMBING PERMIT APPLICATION: This is another set of drawings that will not come from the home manufacturer. You and the plumber must figure out where the fixtures are going, and if you live in the country remember that the plumbing needs to hook into your septic. (This permit is separate from the septic design permit).

5. APPROVED COUNTY SEPTIC DESIGN: The septic design comes from the local civil engineer. The permit application comes from the township, but the septic approval came from the county. HVAC DIAGRAM: Showing where your ductwork is going.

6. DRIVEWAY PERMIT: In some cases, this comes from the Director of Public Works.
7. STATE WELL PERMIT and TOWNSHIP WELL PERMIT (if you are digging your own well): If there is a drought going on, they might put a hold on new well permits, which will put a hold on the whole project. So get it as quickly as possible.

8. PLOT PLAN AND ZONING APPROVAL: The Plot Plan will come from the local civil engineer. This is not the same as a survey, which will be required by the mortgage company. The plot plan shows the location of the house, driveway, well and septic as well as the perimeter of the building envelope.

9. WATER TABLE INVESTIGATION these are the big ones. You might have local wetland delineation issues, easements or setbacks to worry about. Once you get that Construction Permit, treat yourself to a celebratory dinner. You'll have earned it! The Construction Permit needs to be prominently displayed on the job site. You also need to keep one of those sealed sets of building plans on site at all times, just in case you get a surprise visit from an inspector. Hopefully by now you will have made friends with the township inspector, because he's going to have a big say in the ease or difficulty of your project.

10. ON REPORT: This will help you determine whether you can dig a basement, or do you need to raise the house up?


The inspections are all spelled out and will be required at each step in the process before you can move on. This could cause a delay of one to several days (not counting bad weather), so think ahead - but not too far ahead.

The first inspection will come pretty quick. When your excavator digs the hole for your foundation, the township may inspect the bottom of the footing trenches before placement of footings. If you are using a Superior Walls precast foundation system, there will be no footings so this inspection will be unnecessary.

However, the footings for your deck and porches will need to be inspected. There will be a foundation inspection before the backfill is shoveled in. The big inspection will be the framing inspection. This must be done before the insulation is added. Then, there will be an inspection for the plumbing, the electrical panel and wiring, the septic or sewer service, then insulation.

At the end of the project, there will be a final inspection before issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy; the inspector will look at the finishing work, the smoke detectors, fixtures, etc. There may be other inspections in between, depending on the township. Unless you are acting as your own general contractor, inspections should not concern you, except that if something fails the whole project grinds to a halt.

If you are the Homeowner Builder, you will probably be arranging the inspections yourself, and it helps to know what the township is looking for.

Benjamin Bratt Exits the Village

SELLER: Benjamin Bratt and Talisa Soto

LOCATION: New York City, NY

PRICE: $2,500,000

SIZE: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms


YOUR MAMAS NOTES:

We read with great interest today on the always informative City File that actor Benjamin Bratt and his model/actress/stay at home mommy wife Talisa Soto sold their lofty apartment in the Village for $2,500,000.


Your Mama carries a warm spot in our cold heart for Mister Bratt. See kiddies, once upon a time, back when Your Mama was still hawking high priced home furnishings to scads of rich and famous people, we did a bit o' bizness with Benjamin Bratt. Besides being much taller and far more dee-lishusly juicy in real life than on the boob-toob, he was just so incredibly nice and refreshingly free of any of those annoyingly entitled and haughty airs famous people sometimes put on when they're dealing with the help. And, make no mistake butter beans, we were definitely the help, nothing but a shop sitter in a good pair of shooz charging large sums of money to a parade of black Amex cards. Yes, we may have owned the shop, but we were still just a lowly shop sitter to most of the famous folks we dealt with.


Anyhoo, the very bizzy actor recently finished up a long, long, long run on Law & Order. Since then he's made just one appearance on an episode of Modern Family–one of the better new sitcoms as far as Your Mama and our friend Chow-lee are concerned–but previous to and concurrently with his run on Law & Order, Mister Bratt appeared in tee-vee programs such as The Cleaner and E-Ring, and also worked his beautiful light brown skinned stuff in films like Blood in Blood Out, Miss Congeniality, Traffic and Piñero. We can't honestly say we've seen any of those programs or films besides Traffic, but we adore Mister Bratt anyway.


Property records show that Mister Bratt and Miz Soto scooped up their 7th floor apartment in September of 2003. Unfortunately Your Mama doesn't have any idea what they paid for the 3 bedroom and 2 pooper place, which carries monthly maintenance costs of $2,443.


The airy and open plan main living space has hardwood floors, a 13-foot ceiling and tall and wide windows on two walls. What it does not have, as evidenced by the through window air-conditioner, is a central heat and air system. Your Mama would have gladly suffered through such an inconvenience during our many years in Noo York City in exchange for a direct and dramatic view of the Empire State Building and a 900 square foot living/dining area that is, quite frankly, more than twice the size of most 1-bedroom apartments in the Village.


Technically, as per the listing, there are three bedrooms, but one of them was used by Mister Bratt and Miz Soto as an office/library. Besides, given that there's not actually a closet in there, it's not really, legally, a bedroom anyway. None the less, we love that narrow space with the shelves that go to the ceiling and the wee reading room tucked back into a quite corner. The one switch up we'd make in here is to haul in and hang that capiz shell chandelier in the living room, which is dwarfed by the voluminous space into the library, and where it would have an lovely over-sized appeal. Then we'd take that lovely little green glass pendant and put it in the reading nook along with a couple of very cozy chairs and little else. Your Mama can think of few luxuries we'd love more than to have a wee room with some natural light whose only purpose was to provide a comfortable and serene spot to read.


The kitchen, oddly shaped and with a column right in the damn middle, is separated from the main living space by a mahogany breakfast bar–at least we think it's mahogany–and the white cabinets with a raised panel give it a slight country house thing going on. We don't care for that country house in the city look and we're quite sure we'd smack right into that pole over and over and over again, particularly after a we get a few cocktails in us. And when don't we have a few cocktails in us, you know what Your Mama is saying?


The two bedrooms that function like bedrooms are tucked back up into the back of the apartment and the master bedroom includes a nice big dressing room and a pooper with two gigantic windows, an exhibitionists dream.


Mister Bratt hails from good ol' San Francisco where until 2007 he and the Missus owned a residence on Page Street in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood. However, that's been sold and we read somewhere but can not confirm that Missus Bratt–and we presume Mister Bratt and their two shorties–lives somewhere in hills above Los Angeles in a house without swimming pool. Wherever they live, it's not on West 13th Street in New York City.

It’s likely closing time for these chains in 2010

Tight-fisted consumers, plunging sales and shuttered stores. That was pretty much the retail story during the bulk of 2008 and 2009, when a drab market brought the headaches of overcapacity, liquidity problems (in some cases) and a round of consolidation.


Will 2010 be better? To a degree. A lot of excess inventory has been drawn down, aligning supply with demand. Analysts hold up Starbucks, Foot Locker and Jones Apparel as healthy companies that are getting healthier because they've been smart enough to rid themselves of excess by shutting down locations.


Most economic forecasters are anticipating a modest recovery this year. That, combined with consumers' voluntary rationing during the last two years, could spike demand for more goods. Industry economic consultant Retail Forward, part of Kantar Retail, forecasts 1.5 percent to 2 percent sales growth during the first half of 2010, with a pickup to 3 percent or more during the second half. That's promising but still below pre-recession levels.

Revival in real estate could come as a boon for float glass industry

When major sectors in the economy do well, it augurs well for several ancillary industries that depend on them. A case in point is the Rs
5,500-crore Indian glass industry, which has shown good growth in the past few quarters driven by an uptick in demand from user-industries such as infrastructure, construction, automobiles, food processing, beverages, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, among others. The past four quarters have seen a steady growth in the fortunes of glass companies —with some of them swinging to profit.


For the industry, FY09 was not particularly favourable. During the first half, when demand was relatively buoyant, companies faced soaring prices of key inputs. And during the second half, when commodity prices stabilised, demand stagnated due to the economic slowdown.


In FY2010, with economy coming back on track and input costs remaining benign, the industry is again witnessing a revival as reflected by the improving financials.


Robust growth in automobiles, infrastructure, liquor & other beverages, boom in building and construction have enabled the companies in the glass sector to post healthy results over the past four trailing quarters.


Hindusthan National Glass, the market leader in packaging glass, has reported 4% Y-o-Y increase in its revenues and flat growth in profit. With its prime customers in food processing, liquor and pharmaceutical industry registering growth in volumes, the company is already seeing signs of recovery in demand. It’s expecting to close the fiscal with a 75% increase in profit and more than 20% increase in revenues.

Asahi India Glass, a major supplier of float and sheet glass to the auto industry, has posted a 8% growth in its consolidated net sales over the past four trailing quarters and significantly reduced its loss to Rs 5.5 crore against Rs 58.3 crore a year ago. With auto sales growing at a healthy pace, the prospects for this company also are bright.


Piramal Glass, an export-oriented specialty glass player, has started showing signs of recovery and swung to reporting profits since the past two quarters. Catering to the packaging needs of the fast-growing cosmetics and perfumery sector, the company is steadily gaining market share in the overseas market on account of being a low-cost manufacturer. With crude oil prices remaining stable over the past couple of quarters, the industry has seen an expansion in the operating profit margins.


With stability on the cost side and good outlook on the demand side, the packaging glass segment has good prospects. The float glass segment, with its primary use in the real estate industry, is seeing good demand pick-up from the residential real estate segment. With commercial real estate sector showing signs of revival, the prospects of float glass industry are likely to improve over the next few quarters.

East Hampton Launches CPF Website To Provide Transparency

East Hampton - East Hampton's Department of Land Acquisition, the division that manages the Community Preservation Fund (CPF), will be launching a new website on Friday in an attempt to provide increased transparency and accountability to one of the most controversial town offices.


The site, which will be accessible through the town's website (www.town.east-hampton.ny.us) by choosing the "Departments" tab and finding the Department of Land Acquisition, seeks to provide East Hampton's resident will access to the department's budget, the meeting schedule and minutes of the CPF Committee, which rates potential properties for acquisition and sets priorities for stewardship and management, graphs of the monthly revenues that fuel the fund through a two percent tax on real estate transactions and the state and town legislation that created the fund, as well as information on the acquisition process.


Visitors to the site can also see photographs of properties purchased through the CPF (organized by hamlet) and the restoration efforts that have gone into maintaining the town's open spaces.


The website is in its first iteration, according to Department Director Scott Wilson, and should be set to go as soon as the Town Board signs off on it. "The key word is 'Transparency,'" CPF Committee chairman Tim Brenneman asserted, voicing his approval of the site and its goals. Both the committee and the department are hopeful that this first step will help bridge the gap between bureaucracy and the people.