Saturday, February 25, 2012

Who owns 75 River St, 95060?

75 River St belonged to Washington Mutual, then to WMRP Delaware, a Washington Mutual, Inc. subsidiary, and on 10/05/1999 became the property of Barry Swenson, Associates 1, 701 North First St, San Jose, CA 95112.
http://clerkrecorder.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/RealEstate/SearchResults.aspx

On the assessor's forms, taxes are to be paid by Thomson Property Tax Services which has an address in Carlsbad, CA and which seems to now be this company
http://fasttax.thomson.com/solutions/property-tax/property-tax-us/ . 

The Treasurer's office staff says tax payee is Realty Associates 1, Houston, TX – I have no information on them – this could be verified, explored.

Last year's taxes were $40K. Current assessment is $3.4 M
http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/ASR/asrval.asp?apn=005-052-32
Instrument # 1999-0064936
http://clerkrecorder.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/RealEstate/SearchResults.aspx
(APN = Assessor's Parcel Number)

Green Valley Corporation (doing business as Barry Swenson) 
http://www.clerkrecordersearch.org/
777 N First St 5th Fl , Lee Ann Woodard is contact name
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=37622615

Estimates show Barry Swenson Builder employs 100 to 249 people and has an annual revenue of $20 to 50 million
http://www.manta.com/g/mtkjs75/lee-ann-woodard

C Barron Swenson
http://www.corporationwiki.com/California/San-Jose/green-valley-corporation/39657754.aspx

Google finds nothing on Associates 1, the assessors office records are not properly synchronized – search for 'associate' - 1 and lower case i and neither are all connected in the files
http://clerkrecorder.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/RealEstate/SearchResults.aspx

Paul C, at the 2/26 GA, described to me how Coast Commercial was absorbed eventually by Wells Fargo. So far I've not been able to verify that Swenson leased this space to Coast Commercial. And I don't understand then the connection to WA Mutual between 82 and 99 and then when Swenson purchased, between 99 and 2004?
Coast Commercial Bank, was founded locally in February of 1982. Coast Commercial Bank merged with Greater Bay Bank on February 24, 2004. The new owners allowed Coast Commercial Bank to keep the same sign and letterhead. Hence, not many people noticed the change.

Greater Bay Bank
With the purchase of Coast Commercial Bank, the total number of branches for Greater Bay Bank rose to 41. Greater Bay Bank operated as Coast Commercial Bank in Santa Cruz County. Greater Bay Bank operated under other names such as Mid-Peninsula Bank, Bank of Petaluma, Golden Gate Bank, Peninsula Bank of Commerce, Mount Diablo National Bank and Santa Clara Valley National Bank.

Greater Bay Bank merged with Wells Fargo Bank on March 15, 2008. https://www.wellsfargo.com/jump/greaterbaybank
The Coast Commercial Bank branches were to become branches of Wells Fargo Bank. Where there was a nearby branch of Wells Fargo Bank, (Aptos, Capitola and Downtown Santa Cruz) they sold the Coast Commercial Bank location.

75 River St has been the home for six different financial companies from 1966-2008.

http://www.scruzwiki.org/Coast_Commercial_Bank
 
Would a title search show more information?

Barry Swenson is a private company, so I don't think the original lease arrangement between him and Coast Commercial is public.

But Wells Fargo is a public company so when they took over the lease, the information becomes public, at least to their investors. NYSE:WFC. Their annual reports are online, they have some long term leases, about 1% of their operations. http://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDFArchive/wfc2010.pdf

Wells Fargo home office is in San Francisco, a shareholder could probably go there in person and research. It would help to have an accountant who knew what to look for. At this point I think the impact on Wells Fargo's balance sheet is small and pursuing this avenue might not be fruitful for us locally.

I do wonder if the lessor has standing in the context of damages, that might even be in the lease, and maybe the lease agreement is something to be asked for in relation to the court cases.
Local Wells Fargo officials have stated that Wells Fargo leases this building and has full control and responsibility for the property and building. The damage assessment estimate was made by an employee of Wells Fargo, a local property manager.  (There is a source for this; I don't yet know if that document is public.)

Also who is the insurer, what is the amount of the claim, who documents the damage …  It's likely that the tenant is financially responsible for
all maintenance and damage repair for the term of the lease.  Is it possible that the insurer requires that the insuree pursue all paths to recoup losses before the insurer will pay?  Is it possible that is why the Wells Fargo personnel are insistent that charges be filed?  Is it possible that the insurer links back to AIG, banks, bailouts?  Is there a way to follow that up?  A link between tax dollars via bailout and tax dollars via zealous and expensive law enforcement - all this out of local pockets?
Does it matter who pays the utilities? Is that information available from PG&E?

And I haven't connected the company that actually paid the property taxes back to anyone.

I don't know how to find out how long the building has been vacant, what attempts have been made to repurpose it, what the tax consequences are to the current status.
Do fact check.
Please comment.
And please attribute when you share.
Thanks,
Sylvia

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Comments - failing the captcha

I can't prove I'm not a robot!

I just tried to add a comment to a post without logging in - I failed the visual captcha a bunch of times and I failed the audio captcha a bunch of times too - do they want Friday or friday, for or four, ...  Anyhow, if you are trying to comment, thanks, ...So far no one has succeeded.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Prescription Solutions

My health insurer encourages me to use online services and order a 90 day supply of medication. I like that too. They remind me by phone/snail/and email when I'm running out. I don't like that so much. When the doctor's office faxes, the insurer bills me by mail, and then I have to phone to charge to my credit card. Because the doctor isn't authorized to charge to my credit card (I guess that's OK) and the online system has no provision for defaulting to charge to the card on file. So there is this nifty electronic system that requires me to take an extra step and either snail a check or phone.

Last week the insurer held up a delivery.  I phoned to ask why, had the hold cleared up, asked that my file be annotated to always charge to the credit card on file. 

The prescription then came very quickly.  And the package included seven single sided photocopied pages of caveats. 

And an invoice, unpaid.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Hope

Hope is the subjunctive and thus speaks to “irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred (Wikipedia)”; or “desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help (FreeDictionary).”  Hope is fantasy, delusion, avoidance, procrastination, ...

Friday, February 3, 2012

The remarks I never gave

I am here to bookend two decades of Rama Khalsa's support for people who experience moods swings, fear, voices and visions.  20 years ago she hired the county's first consumer specialist and made sure two dozen of us were able to attend a national alternatives conference in Berkeley. That led to the founding of the Mental Health Client Action Network. And last year Rama made sure Santa Cruz applied for a federal transformation grant which has created Second Story, our voluntary short-stay house run by and for people with lived experience of psychiatric disability.

Rama Khalsa met the challenge of holding to a vision of health while walking the political middle way. She was an early adopter of health technology - The Santa Cruz Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) is the longest running successful Health Information Exchange (HIE) in the United States. In addition to electronic networks, she was in charge during the construction of Building K, El Dorado Center, and now a Psychiatric Facility. Rama leaves us a legacy of both bytes and buildings It's a privilege to share a few of her many gifts to our county. 
 
Thank you, Rama