National ASLA Award for Pacific Cannery Lofts

The American Society of Landscape Architects has awarded Pacific Cannery Lofts with a national honor award. The beautiful gardens and outside rooms were conceptualized, designed and created by Miller Company Landscape Architects based in San Francisco, Ca. under the creative eye of Jeff Miller pictured here on the right. If you live at PCL you walk through these masterpieces everyday providing a sense of calm when coming home from work, or a place to unwind and chat with neighbors right outside your door. Courtyard and outside rooms have been an important feature of Holliday Development housing since the early 1990's starting with the Clocktower in San Francisco and the Emeryville Warehouse. If you want to read more about the award, grab your computer and sit in one of the three large green courtyards at PCL and surf the following link.

Moving? It's time for new appliances.

California has been allocated $35.2 million in federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to participate in the State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program (SEEARP). The California Energy Commission will administer the SEEARP that will provide rebates to consumers for purchasing qualified home appliances during the rebate period.

The rebate program will:

• Save energy by replacing inefficient appliances with more efficient ones.
• Make rebates for efficient appliances available to residential consumers.
• Leverage the ARRA funds with existing rebate programs and partnerships.
• Keep administrative costs low while meeting the federal monitoring and evaluation requirements.
• Provide state and national rebate tracking and accountability.
• Use current ENERGY STAR® consumer education and outreach materials.

Two Important Details

The program begins on Earth Day, April 22, 2010, and continues at most through May 23, 2010, but rebates will only be available as long as the rebate funds last. R ebates are first-come, first-serve and will be processed as received until funds are depleted. When funds run out, no more rebates will be issued, so act now!

The rebates are available to all California residential consumers who 1) Purchase a new, qualified appliance model in-store at a California retail location during the rebate period (April 22, 2010 - May 23, 2010); 2) Recycle an old appliance of the same type through a Certified Appliance Recycler; and 3) Submit the required rebate application materials no more than 30 days after the date of purchase of the new model.

Other Consumer Rebates and Incentives

If you are looking for consumer rebates and incentives available now, please visit the Flex your Power website.

Short window for triple credits

 

Some changes in the 2010 Tax Credit for New Home / First-Time Buyer since my April 1st posting titled “Timing is everything!” are:

• Applications must be faxed after escrow closes.
• Taxpayers may apply for the tax credits if they have entered into a contract before May 1, 2010, as long as escrow closes on or after May 1, 2010.
• If a taxpayer is allocated $10,000 for the New Home Credit, the $100 million cap for the New Home Credit will only be reduced by $7,000. If a taxpayer is allocated $10,000 for the First-Time Buyer Credit, the $100 million cap for the First-Time Buyer Credit will only be reduced by $5,700. The 70 and 57 percent reductions do not impact the amount that can be claimed by the taxpayer.
• A first-time buyer is any individual (and the individual’s spouse/RDP, if married on the date of purchase) who did not have an ownership interest in a principal residence, either in or out of California, during the preceding 3 year period ending on the date of the purchase of the qualified principal residence. If the buyer is married on the date of purchase and either the buyer or the buyer's spouse/RDP had an ownership interest in a principal residence during the preceding 3 year period, the buyer does not qualify for the First-Time Buyer Credit even if the spouse/RDP is not going to be on title.
• They accept applications by fax only beginning May 1, 2010.
•  Do not use the 2009 application. We will post more information by May 1, 2010.
•  A reservation will "hold the taxpayer's place in line" until 2 weeks after escrow closes.

For more information call 510.250.1800 or email info@pclofts.com

Article: Short window for triple credits at Pacific Cannery Lofts

For the latest Tax credit information, go to Franchise Tax Board website  at http://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/new_home_credit.shtml

Be sure to check this page often. They add updates as they become available.

Call for Volunteers!

For the past few of years Holliday Development (HD) and Cannon Constructors have paired up to sponsor and work on a house in need for Rebuilding Together Oakland. This year is not different.

On Saturday, April 24th 2010 from 8:00am-4:00pm HD and Cannon will be painting, planting, laying flooring, and doing electrical work at the house located at 2443 12th Ave, Oakland.

If you are still feeling the Earth Day spirit come out and join the HD staff, family and friends. Upon arrival, look for Ken (Cannon Constructors) and say “I am here to help Holliday Development!”

Gateway Park planned at base of new Bay Bridge East Span

As John King, Chronicle Urban Design Writer reported in his March 1st article titled, Big ideas sought for Oakland Bay Bridge Park, “There's no design and no budget - yet. The public process is only now getting under way."

In February, Oakland, Emeryville and greater Bay Area community members were invited to a public workshop to help plan Gateway Park planned at the base of the new Bay Bridge East Span. The next public workshop will be held in June 2 2010, 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at 111 Grand Avenue, Oakland.

Gateway Park will provide a new landscape at the entrance to Oakland and the East Bay. It will be a place of history, grandeur, and inspiration and will offer a departure point for pedestrians and bicyclists traveling to Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island. The proposed park is envisioned to draw visitors from the Bay Area and around the world.

Gateway Park has many potential uses, such as: inclusion of a museum, space for recreational sports, public art, or simply as a place to relax.

Design ideas are beginning to be developed, but there is still time for you to tell us what you would like to see at Gateway Park.

To view the February workshop materials and other information, please visit BayBridgeGatewayPark.org.

If you have an interest in weighing in on the deisgn of Gateway Park, complete their on-line survey by April 19th 30th, 2010.

On April 9th, Prescott Circus Theatre presents...

Timing is everything!

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation AB 183 to extend and expand the homebuyer tax credit. Authored by Assembly member Anna Caballero (D-Salinas) and Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), this tax credit will provide up to $10,000 to Californians who are buying their first home or purchasing a brand new home.

This legislation, part of the Governor’s larger California Jobs Initiative, will play a key role in getting our economy moving again by encouraging home ownership and stimulating job creation.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stated:

“I have been up and down the state pushing this important housing bill that will get people off the fence and into homes… “

Some home buyers in California could get both federal and state tax credits worth up to $18,000 if they time their purchase just right over the next three months.

Want Both?

• Both credits require you to buy the home as your primary residence.
• Both define a first-time buyer as someone who has not owned a home in the three years prior to purchase.
• To get both credits you must be in contract on or before April 30 and close between May 1 and June 30 - and meet all other requirements. For more information contact info@pclofts.com
• Buyers who are already in contract and want to postpone their closing need to get the seller and lender to agree.

Federal credit:

• The credit is 10 percent of the purchase price,
• up to a maximum credit of $8,000 for first-time home buyers or
• $6,500 for longtime homeowners who buy a replacement home.
• Either type of buyer can purchase a new or existing home.
• Buyers will be able to claim the federal credit when they file their tax return (or amend the prior year's return).
• This credit is refundable: The full amount will be paid out, even if you have zero federal tax liability or the credit is bigger than your federal tax.
• You cannot get the federal credit if your income is too high or the home was purchased after Nov. 6, 2009, and cost more than $800,000.

State credit:

• The credit is the lesser of 5 percent of the purchase price or $10,000.
• First-time buyers can purchase a new or existing home but repeat buyers can only purchase a new home that has never been occupied.
• The California credit is spread over three years, up to $3,333 per year.
• It is not refundable: If you owe less than $3,333 in one (or more) of those years, you lose the difference that year. Even if you owed $3,333 before you owned a house, you might owe less after because of all the new tax deductions.
• No income or purchase-price limits. Buyers who fall below the income limits for the federal credit might not owe enough California tax to get the full benefit of the state credit.
• You must close escrow between May 1 and either Dec. 31 or whenever the money set aside for the program runs out, whichever comes first.
• The money is likely to run out long before Dec. 31.
• You can reserve a state credit for new construction by entering into a binding contract between May 1 and Dec. 31 and closing before Aug. 1, 2011. People who do this won't get the federal credit because they entered a contract after April 30.

Buyers should consult a well-informed tax person and make sure they understand both credits.

NEWS: Prescott-Oakland Point expanded transit options

Improved and Expanded Transit Options

According to AC Transit, starting March 28th 2010, the Prescott-Oakland Point neighborhood will have improved and expanded bus services to augment the numerous transit options available.

For example AC Transit Bus Line 26 (which replaced Line 13) will be GPS enabled, have peak hour runtimes of 15 minutes apart, off peak 30 minutes apart, starting 5:56am ending 12.58am (westbound) and starting 5:22 am, ending 12:22 am (eastbound) from the 12th and wood street bus stop.

Line 26 connects commuters to four (MacArthur, West Oakland, Downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt) different BART stations providing access to Temescal Restaurants, Marcus Book Store, Emery-Go Round, East Bay Bridge Retail, Oakland City Hall, Old Oakland, Oakland Downtown, Oakland City Center, Oakland Chinatown, Laney College, Oakland Museum and Lake Merritt.

For those in the Prescott-Oakland Point neighborhood wanting to go to West Oakland BART, Temescal Restaurants, Marcus Book Store, Emery-Go Round, East Bay Bridge Retail, you would take the Line 26 with the "MacArthur BART" station end destination.

For those in the Prescott-Oakland Point neighborhood wanting to go to Oakland City Hall, Old Oakland, Oakland Downtown, Oakland City Center, Oakland Chinatown, Laney College, Oakland Museum and Lake Merritt, you would take the Line 26 with the "Lake Merritt BART" station end destination.

The Bus Line 31 (which replaces the Line 19) offers similar options with links to Emeryville Amtrak station, Emery Bay Public Market, Bay Street Center, East Bay Bridge Center, Emery-Go-Round, West Oakland BART, Jack London Gateway Center, 12th Street BART, Alameda Marina Center, College of Alameda.

Ease of Use

With AC Transit buses now GPS enabled, commuters using NextBus will have the ability to see “real-time data” using maps, which depict connections and times using the home computer, laptops and smart phones while providing more efficient use of both personal and business time and certainty in transit options.

The Prescott-Oakland Point neighborhood located on the Western periphery of Oakland, with its many transit options, is slowly becoming the unofficial epicenter of the Bay Area and proves the relevance of “Location Efficiency.”