The Next Shoe to Drop
Posted on April 8, 2009 in Arizona Law Regarding Business and Real EstateIn 1988, one of my first legal projects was to get a bank from Colorado off the back of a local developer who had built a shopping center. It turns out the bank was fearful that Arizona was about to enter a bad season in commercial real estate, the only problem was the developer was really not in default. The judge slammed the bank & by the time we cut a settlement deal with them, the market had really corrected. They should have waited and played fair. Declaring bogus defaults hurt them.
Now, the next shoe is about to drop because of commercial loan resets. Commercial landlords continue to lose office & retail tenants at an accelerating pace, indicating that the industry’s troubles are worsening.
The amount of occupied space in U.S. shopping centers and malls declined a net 8.7 million square feet in the first quarter of 2009, according to real-estate-research company Reis Inc. The amount of occupied space lost in that one quarter was more than the total amount of space retailers gave back to landlords in all of 2008 and any other year in recent history, according to Reis. It makes 1988 look like a cake walk. If you need help dealing with the ever changing real estate market give the Scottsdale law firm of William A. Miller a call at 602-319-6899.
Sandals to Sandals in 3 Generations
Posted on March 16, 2009 in Arizona Law Regarding Business DisputesAs a real estate lawyer working in Paradise Valley and Scottsdale for over 20 years, I have seen scores of families ship-wrecked by money. ‘Around the world, inherited wealth is hard to preserve, says an article from Intelligent Life, a quarterly published by one of my favorite journals The Economist:
Families that preserve their wealth over the generations are rare. The fact that the first generation makes it, the second husbands it and the third blows it is so widespread that it reflects reality. Some say, “clogs to clogs in three generations”—a northern English saying—has its equivalent in many other languages: Erwerben, Vererben, Verderben (earn it, bequeath it, burn it) in Germany; “from the stables to the stars and back in three generations” in Italy; and my favorite “from sandals to sandals in three generations” in China.
I once had a Trust fund client show up to Court in a $2,500.00 double breasted Italian blazer with white pressed Armani pants and I am not kidding- sandals. I could hear his grandfather roll over in his grave.
We have significant real world experience at the real estate and commercial law at the Firm of William A. Miller in Scottsdale, Arizona. We also have been helping families set up Estate plans to minimize the above sandals problem for the last 15 years. Give us a call at 480-948-3095 to see if we can help. If nothing else, make your kids work. That will solve 95% of the sandal problem.
A Fraud is a Fraud by any Other Name
Posted on December 15, 2008 in Arizona Law Regarding Business and Real Estate
An affinity fraud is one in which a member of a religious or ethnic group, works over members of that same group. It can be a church or high school booster club. At the Scottsdale, Arizona based real estate and litigation law firm of William A. Miller we have seen this happen over and over again. In the Madoff fraud, it was the Jewish community. Investigators dug through financial records at Bernard Madoff’s investment firm as the list of victims of his alleged Ponzi scheme widened to include real-estate magnate Mortimer Zuckerman, the foundation of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, Sen. Frank Lautenberg and a charity of movie director Steven Spielberg. Talk about the powerful.
The Madoff scandal reverberated around the world, with banks including Spain’s Grupo Santander and France’s BNP Paribas saying on Sunday that their clients and shareholders together face billions of euros of losses. At the Miller law firm in Phoenix, Arizona we often tell even well heeled clients to remember what your dad told you, ‘if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.’