May 2012

By Diana Dessy

At the corner of Rancho Vistoso Boulevard and Vistoso Commerce Loop sits a little piece of land with a lot of potential.  This 15-acre industrial zoned property is directly across the street from Sanofi, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, and a short walk to leading tissue diagnostics company Ventana–Roche in Innovation Park, the bioscience corridor of Oro Valley.

When Rodger Ford, founder of AlphaGraphics and Anthem Equity Group, purchased this land in 2006, he envisioned a campus of high-tech “colleges” for research & development, bioscience, laser labs, and medical device manufacturing, as well as cutting-edge office space for the businesses that support these industries.  It would be a campus for innovative companies: Innovation Campus.

Although the sluggish economy over the last few years postponed the ground-breaking on the 160,000 square foot campus of 14 buildings, during this time Oro Valley continued to grow its Intellectual Capital.  What is the Intellectual Capital of a community?  The valuable asset of businesses who employ bright minds, bring higher paying jobs and boost local revenues.  These engineers and innovators attract other businesses to the community as well, and these companies find it mutually beneficial to be located near each other.  

We believe the opportunity to be next door to Ventana-Roche and Sanofi will create demand for the “shovel-ready” Innovation Campus to start construction as the market strengthens and credit-worthy tenants are moving ahead.  With buildings that are available for lease instead of purchase-only, this campus is an ideal location for businesses to incubate and grow, and for the companies who are relocating to southern Arizona and want to be in the midst of Intellectual Capital.

Although many professionals are able to office remotely, the need for modern brick and mortar will continue to exist for companies that need space for sizable equipment and labs.  They need high ceilings and an abundance of electrical capacity. They need meeting areas of various sizes for team members to collaborate on projects.   For neighboring companies in a multi-tenant campus environment, the convenience in collaboration can result in new partnerships and emerging technologies.

From Mr. Ford’s experience as owner / CEO of AlphaGraphics and as CEO of SynCardia Systems, the manufacturer of the Total Artificial Heart, he knows about the culture of innovation, and how to improve the productivity of a team.  Employers need to provide an environment for well-being and convenience, where workers don’t mind spending long hours. Producing results often requires going beyond 9 to 5.

What conveniences could better serve the Intellectual Capital at Innovation Campus?  We envision a property with:

• Advanced telecommunications and wireless infrastructure throughout the Campus
• Two fully-equipped meeting centers for 24 hour conferencing world-wide
• Outdoor collaborative seating areas with views of Pusch Ridge
• Concierge services such as administrative and printing services; travel, transportation, and executive housing arrangements; meal delivery, dry-cleaning and mobile auto-detail
• Eco-friendly transportation options including electric vehicle charging stations, a nearby Park and Ride, and a shared bicycle “Ride and Drop” system

This is not your father’s business park.  For more information on Innovation Campus and Anthem Equity Group, please visit our website:  www.anthemequity.com

May 7, 2012.

Oro Valley “will continue to be a gemstone of Southern Arizona,” outgoing Town Councilman Barry Gillaspie told an audience of more than 50 at the April breakfast meeting of the Greater Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce.

“Oro Valley will continue to thrive,” said Gillaspie, who is completing eight years on the town council that followed eight years on the planning and zoning commission. “We have a destination people want to be in.”

As he prepares to leave office, Gillaspie urged Oro Valley to “stay focused on the basics,” with attention to roads, public safety and responsiveness. The community has high-quality employers who form the cornerstone of its economic development strategy. “Time is on our side,” he said, adding that a quality community can foster the sort of “cyber economic development” emerging in the Information Age.

Oro Valley must continue its political maturation, he continued. “I have confidence in the council, and the new council,” to set the example for citizens on how civic discourse should take place, Gillaspie said. “We need to move from confrontation to participation, largely with regard to our citizens.”

The community must continue to address land use and infill of development, and to figure out how to create revenue to run government.  Because state government shares less revenue per capita with counties than it does cities and towns, Gillaspie urged further annexation of unincorporated areas.

“We’re being drained by Maricopa County, folks,” Gillaspie said. In all regards, “we must try our best to manage our own destiny. We’re really a well-run town,” one recognized nationally as “a premier community in Arizona.”

Tuesday, 01 May 2012 07:11 AM

By Dan Weil

The U.S. housing market appears to have hit bottom, but hasn’t staged much of a rebound yet, making this period “a prolonged bottom,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

“A full-fledged recovery is still years off for many housing markets — as well as for millions of people who purchased homes or took cash out during the bubble,” the Journal reports.

On the plus side, new home construction should increase 24 percent this year from 2011’s record low, according to Zelman & Associates.

Sales of new and previously-owned homes also are showing gains in terms of units sold….. However home prices continue to slide, but at a slower rate than before.

The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index dropped 3.5 percent in February from a year earlier, the smallest drop since February 2011.

Probably the biggest problem for the market is foreclosures that loom ahead. Banks owned about 450,000 properties as of March 31, but there were another 2 million loans in some stage of foreclosure.

“That’ll be like a ball and chain,” Mark Fleming, chief economist at CoreLogic, tells the Journal. “It won’t prevent a recovery, but it could drag it out over several years.”

Others see a long, hard slog for housing too.

“Mortgage rates are very, very low, but you really need to see strong job growth,” Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James, tells Bloomberg. “It’s still a very long way to go before we get a full recovery.”

HTWR Positive Panel Vote – What It Means

Shares of HeartWare International Inc., based in Framingham, Mass., company closed Thursday April 26, 2012 at $77.52 up $8.25 from the previous close of April 24. HeartWare (HTWR) trading was halted April 25, the day of the FDA panel.

In briefing documents published online earlier in the week, FDA reviewers raised a number of questions about the safety of the device. Previous studies of HeartWare found a link to a high rate of blood clots, and the analyst wrote that “Considering the prior uncertainties over how the panel would interpret the stroke/thrombosis rates … we believe today’s outcome was close to a ‘best-case-scenario’ for HeartWare.” Experts feel the device will receive approval in the third quarter, as long as HeartWare and the FDA agree on a suitable design for post-approval studies.

The FDA is not required to follow the panels’ recommendations, but it usually does. The Advisory Committee’s recommendation, while not binding, will be considered by the FDA in its review of the Premarket Approval (PMA) application that HeartWare submitted for the HeartWare® Ventricular Assist System in December 2010.

The HeartWare (HTWR) HVAD competes with the Thoratec (THOR) HeartMate II and also competes with MicroMed (Private) and their device the HeartAssist5. The HeartMate enjoys a full PMA approval and it is expected that the MicroMed HeartAssist5 will soon enter a Bridge to Transplant trial in the USA. The HeartAssist5 has full CE approval in Europe.

SynCardia Systems has received a Humanitarian Use Device (HUD) designation for its total artificial heart to be used for destination therapy. While the system was already FDA approved for bridging the period to transplant, the designation means it can now also be used in end-stage heart failure patients not eligible for cardiac transplantation as a permanent solution for the rest of their lives. According to the company this group comprises up to 4,000 U.S. patients each year.

The SynCardia replaces both ventricles, weighs 160 grams and has a cardiac output of up to 9.5 L/min. The SynCardia artificial heart originally received FDA approval in 2004 as a bridge to transplant and, impressively, has already supported one patient for almost four years prior to transplantation.  

The 13.5-pound driver substitutes the old 400-pound driver that kept patients hospital-bound. One hurdle still remains though, before patients can go home with the device, as the Freedom driver itself is still an investigational device currently undergoing an FDA-approved Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) clinical study.

SynCardia – Artificial Heart – Smaller Is Better

Arizona leads nation with the most home foreclosures, taking over Nevada’s long-held record. 3,600 AZ homes foreclosed in March 2012

The Associated Press | Arizona Daily Star
April 12, 2012

PHOENIX — Arizona has broken Nevada’s 62-month streak as the foreclosure capital of the nation.

The state’s foreclosure rate in March actually dropped, but Nevada’s dropped more. California kept its third-place ranking.

Banks repossessed nearly 3,600 Arizona homes last month, data released Thursday by foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac shows.

More than 5,900 homeowners received a notice of default, the first step in the foreclosure process. In all, that’s a 40 percent drop in foreclosure activity.

One in every 106 housing units in Arizona had a foreclosure filing in the first three months of 2010. That’s actually down 4 percent from the previous quarter and 41 percent lower than a year earlier.

Nevada’s foreclosure activity fell about 8 percent between February and March, and dropped nearly 70 percent year-over-year.

TUCSON, Ariz., April 12, 2012

SynCardia Systems, Inc. ( www.syncardia.com ), manufacturer of the world’s first and only FDA, Health Canada and CE (Europe) approved Total Artificial Heart, announced today that the FDA has approved a Humanitarian Use Device (HUD) designation for the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart to be used for destination therapy in addition to its current PMA approval as a bridge to transplant.

“This is a huge milestone that with approval of our HDE, will allow the Total Artificial Heart to save the lives of up to 4,000 U.S. patients each year who are not eligible for transplant,” said Michael Garippa, SynCardia Chairman/CEO/President.

The FDA approval letter of the HUD request designates the Total Artificial Heart for use in U.S. patients “at risk of imminent death from non-reversible biventricular heart failure who are not eligible for cardiac transplant and have a body surface area (BSA) of greater-than or equal to 1.7m2.” SynCardia is now preparing a Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) to submit to the FDA….the last step in the process.

“Historically, the Total Artificial Heart had been limited to temporary use because U.S. patients couldn’t leave the hospital with the 400-pound driver,” said Garippa. “However, the new 13.5-pound Freedom® portable driver* has leveled the playing field in mechanical circulatory support. By making patient discharge possible, the Freedom driver has made the Total Artificial Heart a viable option to support patients for the rest of their lives while allowing hospitals to make the best choice for each individual patient based on their medical needs.”

Originally used as a permanent replacement heart, the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart received FDA approval in 2004 as a bridge to transplant for transplant-eligible patients dying from end-stage biventricular heart failure. Currently, the longest a patient has been supported with the Total Artificial Heart is 1,374 days (almost four years) prior to receiving his heart transplant.

During 30 years of use, the valves in the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart have never failed. The diaphragm has a failure rate of less than 1% over more than 1,000 implants (2,000+ diaphragms).

*The Freedom portable driver is the world’s first wearable power supply for SynCardia’s Total Artificial Heart. It is CE approved for use in Europe and undergoing an FDA-approved Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) clinical study in the U.S.

CAUTION – The Freedom® portable driver is an investigational device, limited by United States law to investigational use.

About the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart

SynCardia Systems, Inc. (Tucson, AZ) is the privately-held manufacturer of the world’s first and only FDA, Health Canada and CE approved Total Artificial Heart. Originally used as a permanent replacement heart, SynCardia’s Total Artificial Heart is currently approved as a bridge to transplant for people dying from end-stage biventricular heart failure. There have been more than 1,000 implants of the Total Artificial Heart, accounting for more than 250 patient years of life.

Similar to a heart transplant, SynCardia’s Total Artificial Heart replaces both failing heart ventricles and the four heart valves, eliminating the symptoms and source of end-stage biventricular failure. Unlike a donor heart, the Total Artificial Heart is immediately available at SynCardia Certified Centers and does not require expensive anti-rejection medication, which can cause subsequent complications. It is the only device that provides immediate, safe blood flow of up to 9.5 liters per minute through both ventricles. This high volume of safe blood flow helps speed the recovery of vital organs, helping make the patient a better transplant candidate.

SynCardia Ranked #20 Among World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies

In March 2011, Fast Company magazine ranked SynCardia #20 in its annual list of the “World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” for “giving mobility to artificial heart recipients.” Weighing 13.5 pounds, SynCardia’s Freedom® portable driver is the world’s first wearable driver designed to power the Total Artificial Heart both inside and outside the hospital. The Freedom driver is CE approved for use in Europe and undergoing an FDA-approved Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) clinical study in the U.S.

  “the resurgence in foreclosures this year, combined with excess    inventory of unsold, bank-owned homes will contribute to a 3.7 percent national decline in prices before the market hits bottom in 2013 and stays there until 2016″

Nick Carey: by Nick Careym GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio | Wed Apr 4, 2012 7:09pm EDT

(Reuters) – Half a decade into the deepest U.S. housing crisis since the 1930s, many Americans are hoping the crisis is finally nearing its end. House sales are picking up across most of the country, the plunge in prices is slowing and attempts by lenders to claim back properties from struggling borrowers dropped by more than a third in 2011, hitting a four-year low.

But a painful part two of the slump looks set to unfold: Many more U.S. homeowners face the prospect of losing their homes this year as banks pick up the pace of foreclosures.

“We are right back where we were two years ago. I would put money on 2012 being a bigger year for foreclosures than 2010,” said Mark Seifert, executive director of Empowering & Strengthening Ohio’s People a counseling group with 10 offices in Ohio.

“Last year was an anomaly, and not in a good way,” he said.

In 2011, the “robo-signing” scandal, in which foreclosure documents were signed without properly reviewing individual cases, prompted banks to hold back on new foreclosures pending a settlement.

Five major banks eventually struck that settlement with 49 U.S. states in February. Signs are growing the pace of foreclosures is picking up again, something housing experts predict will again weigh on home prices before any sustained recovery can occur.

Mortgage servicing provider Lender Processing Services reported in early March that U.S. foreclosure starts jumped 28 percent in January.

More conclusive national data is not yet available. But watchdog group, 4closurefraud.org which helped uncover the “robo-signing” scandal, says it has turned up evidence of a large rise in new foreclosures between March 1 and 24 by three big banks in Palm Beach County in Florida, one of the states hit hardest by the housing crash

Although foreclosure starts were 50 percent or more lower than for the same period in 2010, those begun by Deutsche Bank were up 47 percent from 2011. Those of Wells Fargo’s rose 68 percent and Bank of America’s, including BAC Home Loans Servicing, jumped nearly seven-fold — 251 starts versus 37 in the same period in 2011. Bank of America said it does not comment on data provided by other sources. Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank did not comment.

Housing experts say localized warning signs of a new wave of foreclosure are likely to be replicated across much of the United States.

Online foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac estimated that while foreclosures dropped slightly nationwide in February from January and from February 2011, they rose in 21 states and jumped sharply in cities like Tampa (64 percent), Chicago (43 percent) and Miami (53 percent).

RealtyTrac CEO Brandon Moore said the “numbers point to a gradually rising foreclosure tide as some of the barriers that have been holding back foreclosures are removed.”

One big difference to the early years of the housing crisis, which was dominated by Americans saddled with the most toxic subprime products — with high interest rates where banks asked for no money down or no proof of income — is that today it’s mostly Americans with ordinary mortgages whose ability to meet payment have been hit by the hard economic times.

“The subprime stuff is long gone,” said Michael Redman, founder of 4closurefraud.org. “Now the folks being affected are hardworking, everyday Americans struggling because of the economy.”

“HARD TO CATCH UP”

Until December 2010, Daniel Burns, 52, had spent his working life in the trucking industry as a long-haul driver and manager. When daily loads at the small family business where he worked tailed off, he lost his job.

Unable to cover his mortgage, Burns received a grant from a government fund using money repaid from the 2008 bank bailout. That grant is due to expire in early 2013 and Burns is holding out on hopeful comments from his former employer that he might get his job back if the economy recovers.

“If things don’t pick up, I will be out on the street,” he said, staring from his living room window at two abandoned houses over the road in the middle-class Cleveland suburb of Garfield Heights, the noise of traffic from a nearby Interstate highway filling the street.

Underscoring the uncertainty of his situation, Burns’ cell phone rings and a pre-recorded message announces that his unemployment benefits are due to be cut off in April.

A bit further up the shore of Lake Erie, Cristal Fell, who works night shifts entering data for a trucking company in Toledo, has fallen behind on her mortgage a second time because her ex-husband lost his job and her overtime was cut.

“Once you get behind it’s so hard to catch up,” she said.

Fell, a mother of four, hopes the economy will gather enough speed to help her avoid any risk of losing her home. Her ex-husband has found a new job and she is getting more overtime, so she hopes she can catch up on her mortgage by the fall.

Burns and Fell are the new face of the U.S. housing crisis: Middle class, suburban or rural with a conventional 30-year fixed mortgage at a reasonable interest rate, but unemployed or underemployed. Although the national unemployment rate has fallen to 8.3 percent from its peak of 10 percent in October 2009, nearly 13 million Americans remain jobless, meaning many are struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments.

Real estate company Zillow Inc. says more than one in four American homeowners were “under water” or owed more than their homes were worth in the fourth quarter of 2011. The crisis has wiped out some $7 trillion in U.S. household wealth.

“We’re seeing more people coming through who have good loans with reasonable interest rates,” said Ed Jacob, executive director of non-profit lender Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago Inc., which provides foreclosure counseling. “But in many households only one person works now instead of two, or they had their hours cut.”

“The answer to the housing crisis now is job creation.”

EARLY SIGNS OF UPTICK?

Zillow expects the resurgence in foreclosures this year, combined with excess inventory of unsold, bank-owned homes will contribute to a 3.7 percent national decline in prices before the market hits bottom in 2013 and stays there until 2016.

“The hangover from this crisis will far outlast the party of the boom years,” said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries.

Getting through the remaining foreclosures and dealing with the resulting flood of homes on the market in the wake of the bank settlement is a necessary part of the healing process for the U.S. housing market, he added.

According to leading broker dealer Amherst Securities, some 9.5 million homes are still at risk of default and in February it said it expected to see the uptick in foreclosures start to hit in March and April.

There is other evidence that many of the foreclosures that did not happen in 2011 will happen this year.

A January report by the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project in New York found that in the first half of 2011 the number of 90-day pre-foreclosure notices in New York City outnumbered court foreclosure actions by a ratio of 14 to one, indicating that while proceedings were initiated against many homeowners, they were left incomplete.

“Now the banks have a settlement, foreclosure numbers for 2012 are going to be high,” said NEDAP co-director Josh Zinner.

A recent survey by the California Reinvestment Coalition, an umbrella group of nearly 300 non-profit groups in the state, of member agencies found 75 percent of respondents expected increased demand for their foreclosure prevention services in 2012 but more than a third had to scale back services because of funding cuts.

“Funding is a major concern given what our members expect for this year,” said associate director Kevin Stein.

All this has non-profits intensifying calls for the Federal Housing Finance Agency to drop its opposition to allowing the government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac it regulates to reduce principal for underwater homeowners.

Principal reduction involves reducing the amount borrowers owe in order to make a loan modification affordable for struggling homeowners. Republicans and the FHFA oppose principal reduction because of the risk of “moral hazard”- that homeowners who do not need help will seek to abuse largesse and have their mortgages reduced too.

ESOP in Ohio engages in “hits” on Chase branches — they say Chase is the least accommodating major bank when it comes to working with struggling homeowners — where they try to hand letters to bank mangers calling on chief executive Jamie Dimon to lobby FHFA head Edward DeMarco for principal reductions. A Chase spokeswoman said the bank has made “extensive efforts” to work with homeowners, helping 775,000 borrowers stay in their homes since early 2009, avoiding foreclosure “more than twice as often as we have had to foreclose.” Housing groups like ESOP maintain, as they have throughout the housing crisis, that unless the FHFA embraces widespread principal reduction, many more under water borrowers face losing their homes.

“Until banks engage in meaningful principal reduction as a matter of course,” ESOP’s Seifert said after a recent protest at a Chase branch in Cleveland, “this crisis will not end.”