Archive for August 27th, 2007
By Christelyn Karazin
CORONA, Calif (Reuters) - Bhaviesh and Varsha Shah bought their dream home in a new development east of Los Angeles two years ago, planted flowers around an emerald lawn and picked out wicker furniture for sitting outside on cool afternoons.
Today the view from their porch is a street pocked with boarded windows and dead lawns — homes now repossessed after buyers failed to make mounting mortgage payments.
The Shahs live on a street with 10 large homes of 3,000 square feet or more, four of them now in foreclosure.
Although they are surviving the mortgage meltdown, their dream development — like many in this arid corner of Southern California known as the Inland Empire — is an early casualty.
“We’re not surprised. We had a feeling it was coming,” said Varsha Shah.
They found out which way the wind was blowing about a year ago when several families moved into some of the homes and never bothered to water the grass or pick up beer cans. Unlike the Shahs, they didn’t seem to be in Towne Square and its 49 Spanish-style and 1920s-inspired Craftsman homes for the long haul.
The Inland Empire, 50 miles east of Los Angeles, was a latecomer to the housing boom in California as buyers squeezed out of high-price coastal Los Angeles and Orange counties found large homes going up on the region’s vast supply of vacant land.
And it has been one of the most hard hit by foreclosures.
The Inland Empire’s combined Riverside and San Bernardino counties reported the fourth highest number of foreclosure filings of any of the nation’s 229 largest metro areas in July, behind Atlanta, Los Angeles and Detroit, according to market tracker RealtyTrac.
OWNERS GO ‘UPSIDE DOWN’
Survivors of Towne Square find themselves not only with unsightly, empty properties next door, but also with home values plummeting amid the fire sales on foreclosed homes.
So selling and moving to a better neighborhood is not much of an option because many owe more on their mortgage than they would get for the sale — what the industry calls “upside down.”
And real estate agents note that California’s market is likely to rebound as it has in the past, underpinned by high population growth.
“Everything goes in cycles. I think we’ll be OK if people don’t panic,” said Patricia Patton, who has been a real estate agent in the area for over 14 years.
Joe and Mary Gordon don’t feel much like sticking around, but have little choice.
They bought an approximately 4,000 square-foot (371 sq meter) home on the street behind the Shahs for $741,000, thinking it would be their last home after moving from Orange County, just west of the Inland Empire.
Two homes on the Gordon’s street are going through foreclosure and one of them, comparable in size to theirs, is being offered by the bank for $550,000.
The Gordons fear they will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity. “We have no recourse. We’ll have to live here eight to ten years before we get our equity back,” said Joe.
Bob Taylor, president of the development’s homeowners association, said his family thought about moving, but with the installation of a pool and landscaping, they didn’t think they would break even after the market turned south.
The frustrated families stuck in Towne Square are critical of the developer Centex Corp. for failing to exclude investors and scammers who bought 14 to 17 of the 49 homes in what was billed as a “family centered executive development.”
“Centex has discouraged speculative investments in our primary-home neighborhoods,” Eric Bruner, Centex’s director of public relations, told Reuters in response to homeowners’ complaints.
CHARLES MANSON
The families believe the investors were not just people flipping houses for a quick profit, but also a group of scammers taking advantage of lax lending rules that permitted 100 percent financing with no money down and minimal documentation.
For the Gordons and Taylors, these are the people who ruined the neighborhood by using their homes like revolving night clubs, cramming cars into the cul de sacs and threatening neighbors who complained.
The Corona Police Department said it was called about neighborhood disturbances on Towne Square’s Summerset St., where the Shahs live, 35 times in 2006. The street that runs parallel, Springfield Circle received 28 complaints.
“How did we feel? Sick!” Joe Gordon yelled, throwing up his hands. “We’d go to work, then just come in the house and hide. You never knew what was going to happen.”
Now, many of the investors have disappeared and their homes have gone into foreclosure.
Despite the bad days spent in Towne Square, Bob Taylor said his family of six is here to stay and even optimistic that nice, responsible neighbors will eventually move into the foreclosed homes.
“After what we’ve been through for the past two years — short of Charlie Manson moving in — it can’t be any worse,” he said, referring to the famous American murderer.
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August 27th, 2007
LONDON, (IranMania) - Design and production of smart furniture for movie theaters were successfully tested in the presence of the head of Artistic Center (affiliated to Islamic Propagation Organization) and a number of artists from East Azarbaijan province by the Think-tank for Inventors and Innovators, IRNA reported.
According to IRNA, it is the first invention of Tabriz Think-tank for Inventors and Innovators. Saeed Abachizadeh and Amir Mehdi Dokhanchi contributed to producing smart cinema furniture.
Head of East Azarbaijan Artistic Center, Najafi, said that following the establishment of the Think-tank for Inventors and Innovators, the smart furniture was designed to simulate the conditions in movie theaters. He termed this invention a great achievement for the cinema industry.
?Movie theaters are not as attractive as they were before and should undergo changes,? Najafi said.
He expressed hope that smart cinema furniture will lead to the development of theater and film industries.
August 27th, 2007
By Ervin Dyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Mr. John F. “Jack” McGowan was a self-made businessman who left the steel mills as a young man and built a career in the furniture business, helping to transform Roomful Express into one of the top furniture companies in the country.
Mr. McGowan, of Harmony, died at UPMC Montefiore of complications from lung cancer. He was 64.
He grew up in New Brighton and graduated in 1960 from New Brighton High School. His father worked in the steel mills and for awhile so did Mr. McGowan, who never went to college.
He hated the job and went into independent sales, where he walked door-to-door hawking fire alarms and other goods.
Of course, in the 1960s, fire alarms were before their time and he wasn’t very successful.
By 1970, he was selling sewing machines, stereos and other electronics for RH Kuhn Co., then a wholesale distributor. Two years later, he became a vice president with the company and, by 1973, helped its founder transition the company from a wholesale distributor to a retail furniture store chain.
Founded on the North Side in 1958, Roomful Express Furniture first operated as Freight Liquidators Furniture and had a tradition of operating bare-boned establishments.
But in 2000, under what has been described as Mr. McGowan’s persistent leadership and marketing influence, the company changed its name and the way it did business.
Mr. McGowan pushed for upgraded television advertising and improved color circulars, which helped to double the company’s sales, making it one of the nation’s top furniture retailers.
“Jack was a driven leader who saw our business through good times and bad,” said Michael Kuhn, president and chair of the board of RH Kuhn Co. “His consistent management of our business, in many ways, made it what it is today.”
Mr. McGowan enjoyed golf, photography and the computer. For the past six years at Christmas he composed a hardbound book of photography and presented it to family as gifts.
He is survived by his wife, Margaret Williams McGowan; a daughter, Jill Camardese of Crescent; and sons John Jr., of Center; and Brad of Kennedy; a sister Dawna Greco of New Brighton and seven grandchildren.
Visitation is today from 7 to 9 p.m. and tomorrow from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at Boylan Funeral Home, 324 E. Grandview Ave., Zelienople, where a funeral is to be held Wednesday at 10 a.m.
August 27th, 2007
By: Furniture World Magazine
Eclipse International announced that it will be attending the Highpoint Market in October 2007. The Eclipse exhibit will be located in the Plaza Suites, 1st Floor Bedding Center.
Eclipse International is a bedding manufacturing cooperative, using manufacturing and marketing expertise to develop scientifically advanced bedding systems.
In May 2000, Stuart Carlitz, President of Bedding Industries of America and Mattress Development Company, acquired Eclipse and all intellectual properties and began licensing it around the world.
Mr Carlitz noted that, “The mission of Eclipse is to provide ongoing research, product development, patented design and marketing innovation to develop unparalleled sleep products for healthy sleep.” Eclipse markets the patented Spinal Zone, Spinal Zone 2, Lumbar Zone, Allergy Free, and LifEdge perimeter support systems.
August 27th, 2007
Will produce bedding for five western states
HINSDALE, Ill. — Top 10 bedding maker Comfort Solutions has signed E.S. Kluft & Co. of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., as its licensee for Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah, effective Jan. 1.
The new licensee also makes the high-end Aireloom and Kluft Royal Standard lines.
Earl Kluft, founder of the company bearing his name, is known for his expertise with high-end bedding and is widely acknowledged as a master of the fit and finishing of mattresses.
“Having a company of this caliber join our organization is a tremendous asset,” said Dave Roberts, president and chief operating officer of Comfort Solutions. “Earl Kluft and his team have exceptional talent and experience, and will help us grow the Comfort Solutions brands not only in the West but globally.”
Kluft said, “We have watched the growth and development over the past five years of Comfort Solutions and believe they are the up-and-coming company, with tremendous opportunity. The synergies between what they have and what we can do will make this venture very successful.”
Kluft hasn’t been affiliated with a licensing group since he left Spring Air several years ago.
Current plans call for the Aireloom and Kluft brands, which Kluft described “as an independent, tightly controlled entity,” to remain independent of Comfort Solutions.
The alliance will allow both companies to maximize mutual opportunities in the United States and overseas, Roberts said, and will give Comfort Solutions a much stronger presence in the West, particularly in California.
August 27th, 2007
Will show new contemporary collection
LENOIR, N.C. — Hammary Furniture is rolling out a new retail display format for a contemporary style occasional and casual dining collection set to launch this market.
The 40-piece Modern Hammary collection includes cocktail, end and accent tables as well as dining pieces, a low profile room divider and a sofa, chair and ottoman. Finishes are black, ash and merlot.
The retail presentation was designed in conjunction with the Connie Post Cos., which specialize in the development and design of retail display and merchandising concepts. It comes in 200- and 500-square-foot formats and includes signage that complements the contemporary styling of the group, which is geared toward younger consumers and others who occupy smaller living spaces.
“This focuses on doing a lot of business in a small square footage,” said Randy Huff, Hammary vice president of sales. “It is conducive to selling because people can come in and pick out items they want.”
The group features a variety of items and price points ranging from a $179 glass top cocktail to a $1,400 two-piece home entertainment console with wine storage.
Other signature pieces include a $249 cocktail and a short profile room divider on casters that retails for $399.
Many of the items are sized to fit into smaller homes. For instance, one cocktail is 44 inches long compared with the usual 50 inches. The group also has a 36-inch round cocktail, compared to the normal 38- to 40-inch range.
“There is a real premium here on scale, function and price point,” Huff said, noting that this is the first time Hammary has launched such a merchandising concept for retailers.
He said retailers who saw the presentation at this week’s premarket here liked the concept. The official rollout occurs at the High Point Market, which opens Oct. 1.
August 27th, 2007
More than 320 guests tour Chicago lakefront
CHICAGO — More than 320 home furnishings industry executives enjoyed a scenic tour of this city’s lakefront during the annual Midwest Dinner Cruise, a benefit for the City of Hope.
The event, which included dinner, music and dancing, raised more than $180,000 for the medical center’s research and treatment programs.
Among the attendees was John Disa, president and CEO of Wheeling, Ill.-based retailer Wickes Furniture, who will be honored in October with one of the City of Hope’s Spirit of Life Awards. Nearly 100 Wickes employees joined him.
Also representing sponsors at the event were David Milgrom of DMSI and Ted Wecker of Sea Products/Skyline Furniture. Jena Hall of Aspenhome and Roger Murray of Simmons, who serve as presidents of the City of Hope’s National Home Furnishings Industry Chapter, also attended.
August 27th, 2007