Just 2 1/2 years ago, the doors were ready to close on Cuba Memorial Hospital.

 

The hospital on the hill overlooking the Allegany County village of 1,600 had a stairwell going to nowhere because it had spent its borrowed construction money to pay its regular bills. The beds in its acute-care unit were only half-full, and the accountants figured the hospital had enough money left to operate for 10 days.

 

"We were so close to going away," said Andrew Boser, the hospital's chief executive officer. But the hospital defied an almost inexorable trend over the past several decades that has seen hospitals close in places such as Batavia, Salamanca, Albion, Jamestown and Olean. Unlike many hospitals serving rural areas and small cities, Cuba Memorial survived.

The Plaza Hotel has a new owner and a new outlook on life.

 

Tower Investments, LLC, a Woodland, Calif.-based real estate investment firm, acquired the downtown Sioux City hotel late last year from Criimie Mae, a Maryland-based lending institution.  Tower emerged with the 12-story hotel after making a winning bid in a nationwide auction that closed in December.

 

Tower, which added its first hotel in an inventory of over 100 investment properties nationwide, appointed GF Management of Moorestown, N.J., to manage the day-to-day operations and spearhead a major restoration of the hotel, which had fallen on hard times in recent years.  GF Management is a division of GF Hotels, which previously managed the Plaza. Paul Curley stayed on as the Plaza's general manager.

 

Eastman Kodak Co. has sold its Riverwood campus in Henrietta to a California real estate firm.

 

The sale price includes the 381,000-square foot building and about 150 acres, said Kodak spokesman James Blamphin.  The transaction closed Friday.

 

Officials for the buyer, Tower Investments of Woodland Calif., did not return calls for comment.

A Woodland, Calif.-based real estate investment firm that acquired the Plaza Hotel last week wants to turn the downtown Sioux City property into a Clarion, a high-end national chain, the Plaza's general manager said Thursday.

 

Paul Curley said Tower Investments, LLC, the Plaza's new owner, is talking with Choice Hotels about a Clarion Flag.  Choice Hotels owns a number of lodging franchises, including Comfort Inn, EconoLodge and Rodeway Inn, but Clarion is the firm's "top-of-the-line, full-service" brand.

 

Curley said Tower Investments also intends to extensively renovate the 12-story hotel, which has fallen on hard times in recent years.  Last week, Criimie Mae, the Maryland-based lending institution that wound up with the hotel a few years back after the previous owner could no longer make its mortgage payments, accepted Tower Investments' offer.  The sale closed Wednesday.

City officials in Mendota say the sale of 62 lots in a once-troubled subdivision will lead to the construction of much-needed housing.  "There is definitely a need for housing," said Mendota City Council Member Joseph Riofrio. "Mendota has become a place where single-family residences have become minihotels with 20 to 30 people living in them."

 

Central Development of San Jose bought Hacienda Gardens subdivision north of the city from Tower Investment of Woodland for $1.3 million.  Central Development plans to build homes that will be priced from $120,000 to $130,000, said Darrell Souza of Sperry Van Ness.  Souza represented Central Development and Tower Investments.

The city has been working on a solution that would allow a subdivision to be developed after lying vacant for over 10 years.

 

The 150-unit subdivision runs northeast of Grand Avenue behind the county buildings on Table Mountain Boulevard and along the west side of the Feather River in Oroville.  Many of the lots, some overlooking the river, have already been developed with sidewalks, curbs and gutters.

 

However, the subdivision has more liens and assessments against it thatn the property is worth.  The city has been working with Tower Investments to solve the problem.

What do they say about patience having its virtues?  The defaulted City of Pittsburg A.D. No. 88-3 (Builders Industrial Park) Bonds that have appeared on our WatchList pages for a decade are being paid off, including past-due principal and interest.  The last debt service payment had been made on Sept. 2, 1993.  (Not much has changed in the meantime-the state had a budget crisis then, it has one now.)

 

There is a big caveat.  Pittsburg Equities, LLC, which has bought the bonds through tender offers as part of a workout plan, holds $1.775 million of the remaining debt.  So it's the biggest holder that will get paid off.  A recent notice said other bondholders own $155,000 of the principal maturing from 1994 to 2002.  They were getting paid an aggregate $275,511.11 once delinquent accrued interest was included from Sept. 1993 to June 12, 2003.  Another $275,000 of bonds due from this September to 2009 also were getting $222,062.50 of delinquent interest.  Funds are also being set aside to make an optional redemption call on September 2, 2003, at 103 percent.  If holders have questions, call Marissa Segismundo at U.S. Bank N.A., (213) 533-8743.

 

The city of Tehachapi is anticipating to sign a purchase agreement for the Curry Highlands Mello-Roos Community Facilities District with Tower Tehachapi, LLC on July 1.  Curry Highlands, which is adjacent to the Blair Ranch residential development, is the last of the three Tehachapi Mello-Roos districts purchased by Tower.  The other districts are located in Capital Hills and the Summit area.

 

Initially, the Mello-Rood bonds were used to help landowners raise funds for infrastructure improvements and new facilities.  When the landowners passed the bond issue, they voted t tax themselves and property owners in the Mello-Roos districts or to sell the bonds to general funds for development improvements.  However, upon passing the bond issue, if the landowners default on their taxes, it's the city's responsibility to foreclose to protect bondholders.

The defaulted $2.1 million Wheatland CFD No. 1 Special Tax Bond (1990) finally are producing enough fodder for an update.  As we noted in April and in an earlier edition, the area around Sacramento has boomed (though sure to slow a bit with the economy), but not boomed quite enough to help Wheatland's district.

 

An affiliate of Tower Investment Inc.-a company we've mentioned before because it has scooped up delinquent land in other districts to seek development opportunities-recently acquired two major Wheatland parcels that have been behind on special tax payments for almost a decade.  Tower may meet its obligations on the land by turning in bonds it acquired in the secondary market, a district release said.