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Real Estate News News From the World Of Real Estate
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By Adam D. Krauss Fosters Daily Democrat
akrauss@fosters.com
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
DOVER — This much is clear: Granite Staters gamble and some pump millions into casinos across New England. But that information makes up a sliver of what’s being considered by Gov. John Lynch’s Gaming Study Commission.
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From our friends at The Eagle Tribune
ATKINSON — A company seeking to install three cell phone antennas on a tower is suing the town for stalling the proposal and then denying the project all together.
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From our friends at The Union Leader
HOOKSETT – An Ocean State Job Lot is coming to town this spring, filling part of the vacant former Walmart store on Route 3.
Mark Pearlman, chief executive officer for Ocean State, said the Rhode Island-based discount store will occupy one-third of the old Walmart space and employ about 50 people.
"I think we’ll probably be able to get it open in April," Pearlman said.
According to the company’s Web site, the first Ocean State Job Lot opened in 1977 in North Kingstown, RI, as a "closeout company," specializing in selling items that were overstocked by manufacturers and needed to be re-sold at a lower price. The idea caught on and Ocean State now operates 93 stores in all six New England states and New York, including seven in New Hampshire.
"We’ve been doing business in New Hampshire for a while and we’re looking forward to making new friends in New Hampshire," Pearlman said in a phone interview yesterday.
Pearlman said Ocean State is looking to expand in New Hampshire after opening a store in Portsmouth on Dec. 1 that’s been "very well received."
►Ocean State Job Lot Web site.
"I think the economy has really helped us, not hurt us," he said. "People are looking to stretch their dollar as much as possible."
The Hooksett store will be just like any other Ocean State Job Lot, according to Pearlman, selling everything from winter clothing to food and pet supplies that may differ in brand name from week to week, depending on which product is cheaper to purchase at wholesale.
"We try to get people the best buys we can," he said. "Sometimes the products are of moderate quality, sometimes they’re fancy. It could be pigs’ knuckles or a bottle of Perrier."
Town officials said a sign company has requested through the planning board to place a 174-square-foot Ocean State Job Lot sign on the front of the building and is scheduled for a public hearing Jan. 11.
Barlow Signs, which is creating the sign, is requesting a variance for a larger sign than a town ordinance allows. However, the proposed Ocean State sign will be smaller than the former Walmart sign, which was created before the ordinance was established.
Construction has not begun at the Hooksett site, but Pearlman said it will start soon.
"We’ve got some people out there now taking a look at everything," he said. "It was a large Walmart so they’ll be quite a few things to handle. We want to make sure we get everything right with the building and fire inspectors."
As of late last week, the town’s building department said Ocean State had not submitted formal construction plans.
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More than half a megawatt of solar and wind power could be generated at homes throughout New Hampshire due to a rebate program designed to spread alternative energy.
Since July 1, the state has received 229 applications from households for the rebates, totaling about $1.2 million. Most of them – 194 – were for solar panels, and the rest were for small-scale wind turbines.
“We anticipate that through the end of our first year of operation we’ll be able to meet all of the demand for residential application,” said Jack Ruderman, director of the state’s Sustainable Energy Division. “If you’re a homeowner and you want to get a system, you’re in great shape. After July (of 2010, when the program must be renewed), it’s harder to predict.”
The total installed capacity of the applications is 641 kilowatts, or more than half a megawatt.
This is tiny by utility standards: A small power plant has a capacity of 15 megawatts, or 23 times the total of all these applications, while a big one like Public Service of New Hampshire’s Merrimack Valley plant in Bow can generate almost 800 times as much electricity.
On the other hand, it is a huge expansion of the amount of the state’s “distributed power,” a term for electricity generated at the site it is used rather than by large, centralized power plants. Aside from the pollution benefits of coming from solar or wind power rather than burning fossil fuels, this electricity can reduce the need to build more power lines to carry power from power plants.
These are different from large-scale alternative energy programs like the 25-megawatt Lempster Mountain wind farm or the 51-kilowatt solar array that PSNH placed on its Manchester headquarters.
In the Nashua region, 15 applications had been turned in by mid-December, totaling 44 kilowatts; all but one are for solar panels. They are requesting $73,000 in rebates, roughly one-fifth of the total $378,000 cost of the projects.
Requests for applications came in from all over the state – from Nashua to Newfields, Lyndeborough to Laconia, Pelham to Portsmouth.
Facilities ranged in cost from $3,600 (a tiny, 960-watt solar system in Gorham) to $52,422 (a wind tower in Orange).
Most applicants will receive the maximum rebate of $6,000, although no rebate could be more than half the installed cost.
Money for the rebates comes from the state’s renewable portfolio standard, which gets money from the state’s utilities, mostly through what are called alternative compliance payments.
The total amount collected is about $4.5 million, so there’s more than enough to cover all home rebates, Ruderman said.
That money also will be used for future commercial rebate programs, which are going to be far more expensive, and perhaps even projects contracted out by the Sustainable Energy Division.
This program is separate from money collected by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a unique cap-and-trade system in which utilities and others bid at auction for the right to release carbon dioxide.
The latest quarterly auction of carbon dioxide allowances held by RGGI saw prices continuing to fall, as a recession-driven lack of electricity demand reduces the need for them.
New Hampshire has announced plans to spend about $9 million of the money collected from RGGI, most of it to pay for home-weatherization programs.
RGGI involves 10 Northeastern states. The four quarterly auctions have collected $494 million total so far for all states, but the price collected at each auction has fallen and in December was almost at the statutory minimum of $1.80 per ton of CO2 released.
The Obama administration has expressed interest in developing a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases over the entire country. Europe has had a similar program for several years, although RGGI is stricter in many ways.
David Brooks can be reached at 594-5831 or dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com.
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From our friends at Realtor.com
Remodeling and decorating trends in 2010 are likely to reflect the fact that many home owners are settling in for the long haul.
Here are some ideas for updating homes and gardens from decorators and leading real estate practitioners: (more…)
Tags: Real Estate News
From our friends at Realtor.com
Existing-home sales rose again in November as first-time buyers rushed to close sales before the original Nov. 30 deadline for the recently extended and expanded tax credit, according to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. (more…)
From our friends at New Hampshire Business Review
Housing authority set to build
25-unit project clears final hurdle
By MADDIE HANNA
Monitor staff
December 21, 2009 – 7:11 am
With $5.3 million in tax credits and loans, the Concord Housing Authority expects to soon begin developing 25 units of workforce housing on Parmenter Road. (more…)
From our friends at Realtor.com
Home building rose 8.9 percent in November to an annualized rate of 574,000, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Wednesday. (more…)
From our friends at New Hampshire Business Review
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
The number of New Hampshire homes sold in November rose a whopping 70 percent compared to a year ago, according to the New Hampshire Association of Realtors. (more…)
From our friends at Realtor.com
The think-tank Center for American Progress is questioning the premise that a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is the best option for homebuyers. (more…)
