Columbus Dispatch and Business First: Developer of failed Ibiza condo project files for bankruptcy

Columbus Dispatch Story is here

Among those Apex Realty owes: 60 prospective buyers

Thursday, April 28, 2011 10:27 AM

By Jim Weiker

The Columbus Dispatch

Apex Realty Enterprises, the developer of the failed Ibiza condominium project in the Short North, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The company, which also developed the Dakota condominium building in the Short North and owns nightclubs and restaurants, cited assets between $1 million and $10 million and debts between $10 million and $50 million.

Apex listed as its largest debt $5.1 million to the Community Loan Fund, which loaned the company money to get started on the project, which was to have been the Short North's larges condominium project, with 135 condominiums in two 11-story towers on the corner of High Street and Hubbard Avenue.

The company also owes Berardi & Partners architectural firm $503,312, along with several other service providers. In addition, Apex owes about $1 million to an estimated 60 people who put down deposits for condominiums that were never built.

About 20 of those would-be buyers have sued the company and its principals, Raymond Brown, Michael Council and Rajesh Lahoti.

The partners unveiled Ibiza in 2006 as "the embodiment of an idealized city life." Among the planned amenities were a roof-deck pool, concierge service, attached parking and a fitness center.

Less than two years, later, they started taking deposits for the units, which sold for $159,999 to $1,549,999. Most buyers placed 5 percent down on their units.

But by the end of 2008, as the housing market further eroded, the project's largest proposed lender, Huntington Bank, lost interest in the project. Apex and its sister company, Arms Properties, continued to look for suitors but none came forth.

Last summer, Apex announced that it was working with investors to convert the project to apartments, but that plan also fell through, and last month, Columbus Schiff Capital Group took over control of the site.

jweiker@dispatch.com

The Business First Story is here

Developer of failed Ibiza project in Short North seeks bankruptcy protection

Business First - by Brian R. Ball

Date: Thursday, April 28, 2011, 2:16pm EDT - Last Modified: Thursday, April 28, 2011, 2:42pm EDT

Related:

Commercial Real Estate, Bankruptcies

Mounting bills and lawsuits have the developer of the failed Ibiza condominium project seeking protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court – just as would-be buyers were scheduled to begin giving sworn statements for lawsuits seeking return of their deposits.

Apex Realty Enterprises LLC, an affiliate of the Short North’s RMRW Ltd. development firm, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday in Columbus, listing liabilities $10 million to $50 million and assets of less than $10 million.

The filing comes 15 months after the developer abandoned plans to build 135 condos in an 11-story tower and attempted to convert the project into apartments.

Apex Realty principals declined to comment on the filing through an email from their Columbus attorney, Myron Terlecky. Columbus attorney Brian Laliberte, who represents several buyers trying to get deposits back, said the filing came the day before the first depositions in 10 lawsuits were due to begin.

“It’s a clear attempt to avoid answering for the fraud we allege they committed,” Laliberte wrote in an email to Columbus Business First.

Columbus investor Michael Schiff last month announced plans to buy the project’s $4.8 million mortgage from the Finance Fund, a lender that uses federal tax credits to spur investment in distressed “new markets” such as urban neighborhoods.

That transaction has not closed, according to public records. Schiff did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The Finance Fund’s Community Loan Fund New Markets II LLC affiliate is listed in the bankruptcy filing as a $5.1 million creditor, with $3.1 million of that considered secured debt. Unsecured creditors include the Columbus architectural firm of http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifBerardi & Partners Inc. at $503,312. That debt is listed as “contingent” and “disputed” in the filing.

A full schedule of secured debts was not filed. Among those expected to be in the list is $550,000 in past due property taxes, late fees and other penalties that the Franklin County Treasurer’s office has sought through two actions in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

---

The other story is here

Ibiza condo project

Short North developer files for bankruptcy

Friday, April 29, 2011 03:08 AM

By Jim Weiker

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Apex Realty Enterprises built a string of Short North condominiums, but the company was undone by a project that never got off the ground.

Apex filed for bankruptcy this week, after failing to build its most ambitious project: the proposed 11-story Ibiza condominiums at N. High Street and Hubbard Avenue. The company listed assets of between $1 million and $10 million and debts of more than $10 million in its filings.

Creditors, including 60 people who put an estimated $1 million down on condominiums that were never built, will now take their case to bankruptcy court.

An attorney representing Ibiza investors also will continue to press his fraud case against the company, but now before a bankruptcy judge.

"The bankruptcy petition really only changes the forum in which we're going to pursue Apex and its partners and employees," said Brian Laliberte, who represents 17 clients who put down deposits on the project. "Our claims remain the same. We believe fraud occurred in the Ibiza development."

Apex and its sister company, ARMS Properties, unveiled Ibiza in 2006. It was the largest project tackled by Apex's four partners - Raymond Brown, Michael Council, Rajesh Lahoti and Wilbur Ischie - who also developed the Dakota and several smaller condominium projects.

Ibiza was to be a residential gem in the Short North: 135 condominiums in a gleaming tower with a roof-deck pool, concierge service, attached parking and a fitness center.

In early 2008, as the Columbus condominium market started its decline, the developer began taking 5percent deposits for the units, which sold for $159,999 to $1,549,999.

Laliberte's clients contend that Apex partners continued to accept deposits and present the condos as successful even though they knew the project had lost funding and would not proceed.

In an exhibit filed in one of his cases against Apex, Laliberte included a January 2010 email exchange between Council and Brown discussing how to respond to a client demanding his money back.

According to the filing, Brown wrote, "We should work on replies tomorrow."

Council responded: "Yes! We need a standard reply. We need to talk to (attorney) Tom Allen or someone as now we are going to start lying."

Laliberte said he thinks the principals of Apex and its related companies enriched themselves at the expense of condo investors.

Calls to Apex and ARMS offices went unanswered yesterday. Myron Terlecky, a Columbus lawyer who represents Apex in the bankruptcy filing, declined to comment.

After funding for the condominiums collapsed, Apex sought investors to convert the project into apartments. That effort failed as well, and last month, Columbus developer Schiff Capital Group took control of the site.

In addition to its condominium developments, Apex and its related entities have interests in several nearby properties including the Union Cafe, 782 N. High St.; Havana, 862 N. High; Axis Nightclub, 775 N. High; and commercial buildings in the 800 block of N. High.

Apex listed as its largest debt $5.1 million to the Community Loan Fund, a Columbus-based nonprofit group that helps fund projects in low-income areas. Other creditors include Berardi & Partners architectural firm ($503,312), Walker Parking Consultants ($97,591), the Simon Group Limited Partnership ($74,750) and Ruscilli Construction Co. ($40,000).

jweiker@dispatch.com

USA Today: Home prices falling in most major cities

The story is here

By Derek Kravitz, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Home prices are falling in most major U.S. cities, and at least 10 major markets are at their lowest point since the housing bubble burst.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city index, released Tuesday, shows price declines in 19 cities from January to February. The index fell for the seventh straight month. Prices fell at a faster rate in 11 markets in February compared with the previous month.

High unemployment, stricter lending rules and fears that prices will fall further are among the reasons why few people are buying and selling homes. A record number of foreclosures are forcing down home prices in most metro areas, and prices are expected to keep falling through this year.

"There is evidence that potential sellers are holding their properties off the market, waiting for housing prices to stop falling," said Bricklin Dwyer, an analyst at BNP Paribas.

• STORY: Consumer Confidence Index rises in April

• STORY: Study: Underwater homeowners who walk are more credit savvy

Detroit was the only market to show a monthly gain, although the Motor City is one of five cities where home prices are now below their January 2000 levels.

Prices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Seattle and Tampa are all at their lowest point since 2006 or 2007, at the height of the housing boom. The cities with the steepest declines from January were Minneapolis, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami.

In many depressed markets, a significant percentage of buyers are really investors and private equity firms looking to cash in on cheap real estate.

The housing sector is struggling even while much of the economy is recovering slowly but steadily. Some of the worst declines in home prices are in cities hit hardest by unemployment and foreclosures.

Foreclosures are expected to rise to 1.2 million this year as many banks revisit thousands of foreclosure cases, spurred into action by federal regulators who have ordered top-to-bottom reviews of how foreclosures were carried out over the past two years.

"It's hard to sell when buyers have the leverage and foreclosures continue to create a gap between distressed sale prices and non-distressed sale prices," said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse Securities. More than 90% of homeowners say it's a bad time to sell their home, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers.

The Case-Shiller index measures sales of select homes in those cities compared to January 2000. For each of the 20 metro areas it studies, the index provides an updated three-month moving average price. By measuring the sales price of the same homes over time, the index attempts to gauge true market values.

Case-Shiller home price index

Metro area	Feb. 2011 index	Chg. from Jan.	Chg. From 2010
Atlanta	99.47	-0.5%	-5.8%
Boston	149.86	-1.5%	-1.0%
Charlotte	110.21	-1.2%	-5.0%
Chicago	113.26	-2.2%	-7.6%
Cleveland	98.59	-0.8%	-2.9%
Dallas	113.86	-0.2%	-1.2%
Denver	121.26	-1.2%	-2.6%
Detroit	67.97	1.0%	-3.7%
Las Vegas	98.28	-1.0%	-5.0%
L.A.	168.25	-1.0%	-2.1%
Miami	138.44	-2.0%	-6.2%
Minneapolis	109.93	-3.1%	-8.3%
New York	165.19	-0.5%	-3.1%
Phoenix	100.81	-0.7%	-8.4%
Portland	133.66	-1.6%	-7.0%
San Diego	155.05	-1.3%	-1.8%
S. Francisco	129.96	-2.6%	-3.5%
Seattle	132.85	-1.9%	-7.5%
Tampa	128.38	-1.2%	-6.0%
Washington	181.33	-0.1%	2.7%
Composite	139.27	-1.1%	-3.3%
Source: Standard & Poor's and Fiserv The indexes have a base value of 100 in January 2000; so a current index of 150 equals a 50% appreciation since January 2000 for a typical home in the metro area.

Columbus Dispatch: Neighbors may get more notice at street-sweeping time

The story is here

Neighbors may get more notice at street-sweeping time

Friday, April 22, 2011 03:05 AM

By Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Columbus is working on a plan to notify neighborhoods earlier when street-sweeping crews are due.

Streets in some neighborhoods, such as German Village, Italian Village, Harrison West and those near Ohio State University, are swept each month and have signs posted listing the days when people need to move their cars. But others don't have the signs.

Such is the case on E. Oakland Avenue, where a street sweeper went through on April 8.

The city notified the news media the day before that streets in the University District would be swept. Roger Deal came across the notice on the Dispatch website that night, but that didn't give him and other leaders of the Northwood Park neighborhood time to tell residents to move their cars.

So he watched the sweeper run down the middle of the street, unable to reach the leaves and debris along the curb.

"They really didn't clean anything," Deal said. "It's a waste of time, a waste of tax dollars. We get no benefit at all."

The city's public-service director, Mark Kelsey, has asked his staff to develop a plan to notify neighborhoods earlier, said Patti Austin, planning and operations administrator in the city's traffic division.

Officials might work closer with area commissions and civic associations to get the word out, she said.

Northwood Park leaders were particularly unhappy because this likely is the only time their streets will be swept this year. In the past, the city also has cleaned the streets during Ohio State's spring break or in June after most students are gone, when fewer cars were parked on the streets.

Resident Don Newton would call the city to work out a date, giving neighbors time to post signs and distribute fliers to let people know what day their street would be swept.

But this year, Austin said, city crews are tied up fixing potholes and 60 miles of alleys, and the city has fewer workers and equipment for sweeping.

The city's 311 call center didn't receive any complaints from other neighborhoods, public service spokesman Rick Tilton said.

mferenchik@dispatch.com

Columbus Dispatch: Crews set to clean up pigeons' mess on Neil below I-670

The link is here

The Watch: Crews set to clean up pigeons' mess on Neil below I-670

Tuesday, April 19, 2011 03:06 AM

By Collin Binkley

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The scenic strolls that Christopher Jones frequently takes through his Columbus neighborhood turn sour when he passes beneath I-670 on Neil Avenue.

Jones said he has to watch his step for dead pigeons and waste from the flocks on the underpass above. He wondered who is responsible for cleaning the sidewalks and replacing lights that don't work.

"It just doesn't seem like anybody goes under there and tries to clean it out," said Jones, a retiree who lives in Victorian Village. "It's just bothered me. I figured here in the spring they would come out and clean up."

The underpass rafters, where the pigeons roost, and its walls are kept up by the Ohio Department of Transportation, but the sidewalk and road are the charge of city workers, said Columbus Public Service spokesman Rick Tilton.

City crews clean that area at least once a year, and workers fixing potholes or sweeping streets report dead animals that need to be removed from roads and sidewalks.

Tilton said a crew was scheduled to power-wash the sidewalks and remove dead animals last night.

ODOT spokeswoman Nancy Burton said the department will begin its spring cleaning in May, which includes power-washing the underpass walls. The department also will see whether lights need to be replaced.

cbinkley@dispatch.com

Columbus Dispatch: Maronda Homes files for Chapter 11

The story is here

Wednesday, April 20, 2011 03:06 AM

By Jim Weiker

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Maronda Homes, central Ohio's third-largest homebuilder, has filed for bankruptcy.

The company's primary operations - Maronda Homes, based outside Pittsburgh, Maronda Homes of Ohio and Maronda Homes of Cincinnati - filed for Chapter 11 protection on Monday.

Maronda Homes of Ohio, which oversees the company's central Ohio operations, cited assets and liabilities between $100million and $500million.

In the filings, Maronda asked that the court allow it to use cash collateral to continue operations while it resolved a dispute with its lenders.

Maronda said it owes about $98million on a $210million line of credit held by 14 financial institutions led by Bank of America and Wells Fargo but also including Huntington National Bank, PNC Bank, Fifth Third and KeyBank.

Maronda accuses its lenders of insisting on changing the terms of its financial agreement, substantially raising the cost of the borrowing to Maronda. The homebuilder said it renegotiated an agreement that all lenders agreed to except Huntington, leaving it no choice but bankruptcy.

Maronda, which has built homes since 1972, specializes in modestly priced homes targeted at first-time buyers. The company has for years been the area's third-largest homebuilder behind M/I Homes and Dominion. Last year, Maronda sold 137 homes in central Ohio, at an average price of $165,900, according to Binns Real Estate.

The company did not return a call seeking comment, but it said in its filing that it had begun to recover from the slump when its problems with lenders arose.

"Like every homebuilder in the United States, Maronda suffered a serious downturn in its business when the mortgage lending crisis rippled through the home construction industry beginning in 2007-2008," it stated in court filings.

"Unlike many other homebuilders which did not survive, however, Maronda was able to weather the consequences of the industry downturn ... Maronda's business has survived and begun to show signs of improvement: March 2011 was the best sales month for Maronda since the 2009 federally subsidized buyer tax credit expired."

Maronda of Ohio listed 20 unsecured creditors, many of them based in central Ohio. Among the companies owed money are DR Grading & Excavation in Grove City; Majestic Drywall Services of Columbus; Strait & Lamp Lumber Co. of Hebron; and Gale Insulation in Columbus.

jweiker@dispatch.com

Central Ohio Home Sales Growing

Central Ohio home sales growing

(April 20, 2011) Central Ohio home sales in March outpaced the previous month by almost 32 percent bringing the total number of homes sold during the first quarter of 2011 to 3,678 according to the Columbus Board of REALTORS®.

The 1,487 homes sold last month was 31.8 percent higher than the previous month’s sales of 1,128. Year to date sales of 3,678 lag 2010 by 7.9 percent, but are still 6.9 percent ahead of the 2,178 homes sold in the first quarter of 2009.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we still have to keep in mind that 2010 home sales were significantly impacted by the second set of home buyer tax credits, offers Rick Benjamin, 2011 President of the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. “By comparison, March closings are actually 9.3 percent higher than homes closed in March of 2009 when the first round of tax credits was available.”

In addition, 2,512 homes were put in contract last month touting an 11.5 percent increase over the 2,252 contracted sales in March of 2010.

Homes in central Ohio this year have sold for an average of $143,773, down 3.7 percent from the average sale price in 2010, but up 3.8 percent from the average sale price in 2009. The average price of a home sold in March was $144,975, up 2.1 percent from the previous month ($140,770).

The number of homes listed for sale last month (3,886) dropped almost 22 percent from the previous year (4,972) bringing the total inventory of homes available for sale in central Ohio to 14,370, down 22.3 percent from one year ago. “Home sales follow the simple economic concept of supply and demand,” adds Benjamin. “When the supply is higher than the demand, the product, in this case a home, is subject to sell for less. So a decrease in inventory is a positive for our market.”

“The other positive is, of course, last month’s drop in unemployment to 7.6 percent - the lowest point since January 2009.”

There were 2,280 homes listed for sale in Franklin County last month. The surrounding counties of Delaware and Licking saw 316 and 302 new listings respectively.

Click here to view the March sortable housing market report by area.

Click here to view the entire central Ohio Local Market Update.

The Columbus Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service (MLS) serves all of Franklin, Delaware, Fayette, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Union Counties and parts of Champagne, Clark, Hocking, Licking, Fairfield, Knox, Logan, Marion, Muskingham, Perry and Ross Counties.

For more information about the central Ohio housing market, visit www.ColumbusRealtors.com/stats

To view commercial properties for sale or lease in central Ohio, visit www.COCIE.org.

To view residential properties for sale, visit www.terrypenrod.com.

Business First: Short North home shops banding together

Business First - by Dan Eaton

Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 12:33pm EDT

Story is here: Short North home shops banding together | Business First

The Short North’s furniture and home decor retailers knew they had a budding shopping district, but now they’re making it official. Fourteen stores in the niche have pooled their resources to create Home On High, a joint marketing effort to promote the diverse home goods offerings in the area.

“There’s a lot going on here,” Tim Friar, owner of Grid Furnishings, said. “We should be talking about it in a different way rather than individually.”

Grid is one of six new furniture and furnishings businesses to have opened in the area in the past year. The mix includes stores selling new and consigned furniture and home goods in a variety of styles from antique to modern.

The initial focus of Home on High is promoting Sunday shopping, which Friar said is one of the best sales days for several of the retailers.

“The Short North is easier to navigate on a Sunday,” Friar said. “We obviously love people coming down any time in the week, but Sunday is a great day to start with. People are able to go out and leisurely look around.”

Each of the 14 stores is contributing financially to the marketing effort, which will include some advertising, promotions and the creation of a local shopping guide.

Friar said they are working on a promotion for May designed to get customers into the shops of all 14 participants. Shoppers would collect a stamp for each store visited and completed entries would go into a drawing for gift certificates or other prizes.

---

Columbus Dispatch: Arena District growing less reliant on sports teams

The story is here

Clippers up to bat, but neighborhood scoring own runs

Saturday, April 16, 2011 03:06 AM

By Marla Matzer Rose and Tracy Turner

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Columbus Clippers baseball is back, something that will be welcomed today by fans of the game and the Arena District businesses that cater to them.

Bars and restaurants will be glad to get a new influx of customers following a Blue Jackets hockey season that came to a disappointing end a week ago when the team failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

But baseball isn't the only boost the maturing district is getting. Office buildings are filling up and new ones are on the way, while housing options also are on the rise.

"It's been a huge boost to the area. It can't be considered anything else but a benefit," Don Antrim said as he walked to his office about lunchtime. "I'm in the Arena District all the time, if not at work, then at its restaurants.

"I think it's great for Columbus and a strong draw to bring people down here."

Arena District developer Nationwide Realty Investors recently announced plans to build a headquarters for Columbia Gas to open in 2014, bringing 650 more workers to Nationwide Boulevard and Neil Avenue.

The district also will gain a few hundred more residents this year, thanks to Nationwide's nearly completed Flats on Vine apartment complex. Nationwide's 250-unit Arena Crossing apartments, built several years ago, have remained fully leased, said Brian Ellis, president of Nationwide Realty Investors.

"We probably have more interest in office space in the Arena District now as we ever have," Ellis said. "More than anything else, office workers drive activity in the Arena District. The bulk of people (patronizing businesses) come from the more than 5,000 office workers we have in the Arena District now."

With the number of office workers and full-time residents on the rise, the Arena District isn't as dependent on sporting and other events as before. But even so, there's no doubt they remain very important.

With hockey gone, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant has noticed a drop in business, said Emily Schwamburger, assistant general manager.

But bar and restaurant operators are encouraged because more people who get to know the district through an event are returning on nights when nothing big is scheduled.

"Once people get down here, they see what's out here, and we get them to come back," Schwamburger said. "We're picking up more business."

Since the opening in 2009 of Huntington Park, which seats 10,000, the added traffic from baseball fans and those who attend the park's concert series has been "huge," said Adam Lantis, general manager of Boston's The Gourmet Pizza restaurant.

Business at Boston's, one of the closer restaurants to the park, has doubled as a result, with new and repeat customers. It also helps if the Clippers, now the Cleveland Indians' triple-A affiliate, are winning.

"The better (the Clippers) do, the more people come out," Lantis said.

Being in the Arena District alone doesn't guarantee success. This week, Arena District staple O'Shaughnessy's Public House was closed by the state because of tax problems.

Ellis said Nationwide expects a new tenant in the space by the end of summer. Nationwide's partner in the Arena District, owning a 20percent stake, is Capitol Square, the real-estate arm of The Dispatch Printing Company, publisher of The Dispatch.

Another important market for Arena District venues is the meeting and convention business. That should increase with the completion of the new convention-center hotel, Columbus Hilton Downtown, at Nationwide Boulevard and High Street next year.

The Arena District is a big selling point for groups looking to meet in Columbus, said Brian Ross, vice president of sales for Experience Columbus, the city's convention and visitors bureau.

"The Arena District is within walking distance for many of the groups staying and meeting here, and it's an energetic, diverse place," Ross said. "The added residential population is important, too. When groups come in to visit, they want to see the locals supporting the businesses. They may wonder what's going on if a place seems dead during the week."

Caitlin Davis said she spends weekends in the district even when there are no hockey or baseball games or other special events.

The draw: restaurants and bars that are "good places to hang out for happy hour with your girlfriends," the London resident and Downtown worker said as she sat on a bench near the jumbo TV screen on Nationwide Boulevard.

"I'm down here all the time," she said.

mrose@dispatch.com

tturner@dispatch.com

Terry offers his clients and friends 10% off at Lowe's

Whether you are buying, selling or just looking around, I can send you a coupon via email or regular mail for 10% off at any Lowe's Home Improvement Store. The coupon is worth up to $1,000.

All I need is your name, address, city, state, zip code and email address. My contact information is here

It arrives via email in 3-5 business days. If you choose regular mail, it arrives in 5-10 business days.

The coupon expires 30 days after you receive it.

Just contact me via, phone, email or text.

USA Today: Urban centers draw more young, educated adults

1. The story is here

Educated 20- and 30-somethings are flocking to live downtown in the USA's largest cities — even urban centers that are losing population.

In more than two-thirds of the nation's 51 largest cities, the young, college-educated population in the past decade grew twice as fast within 3 miles of the urban center as in the rest of the metropolitan area — up an average 26% compared with 13% in other parts.

Even in Detroit, where the population shrank by 25% since 2000, downtown added 2,000 young and educated residents during that time, up 59% , according to analysis of Census data by Impresa Inc., an economic consulting firm.

"This is a real glimmer of hope," says Carol Coletta, head of CEOs for Cities, a non-profit consortium of city leaders that commissioned the research. "Clearly, the next generation of Americans is looking for different kinds of lifestyles — walkable, art, culture, entertainment."

In Cleveland, which lost 17% of its population, downtown added 1,300 college-educated people ages 25 to 34, up 49%.

"It tells us we've been on the right track," says David Egner, president and CEO of Detroit's Hudson-Webber Foundation. Three anchor institutions —Wayne State University, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit Medical Center — recently launched "15 by 15," a campaign to bring 15,000 young, educated people to the downtown area by 2015.

Among the lures are cash incentives: a $25,000 forgivable loan to buy (need to stay at least five years) downtown or $3,500 on a two-year lease.

• COLORADO: Urban areas outpace rural spots

• REBUILDING: Parks take over downtown freeways

• CENSUS 2010: Population, trends from your area

Preference for urban living among young adults — especially the well-educated — has increased sharply, data show:

•In 2000, young adults with a four-year degree were about 61% more likely to live in close-in urban neighborhoods than their less-educated counterparts. Now, they are about 94% more likely.

•In five metropolitan areas — Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Washington — about two-thirds of young adults who live in the city center have at least a four-year college degree. Less than a third of the nation's 25- to 34-year-olds do.

"This is no longer anecdotal," Coletta says. "Every metro area has good suburbs, but if you don't have a strong downtown and close-in neighborhoods, then you're not offering a choice that many of them are seeking. Offering that choice is a real competitive advantage for cities."

Young populations

Gain from 2000 to 2009 in 25- to 34-year-olds who have a four-year degree or higher and live within 3 miles of a metro area's central business district:

(Columbus, Ohio

4,032.9

45%)

Atlanta	9,722.2	61%
Austin	3,725.6	24%
Baltimore	8,625.0	66%
Birmingham, Ala.	-601.0	-12%
Boston	20,558.0	40%
Buffalo	1,101.1	27%
Charlotte	2,180.1	34%
Chicago	15,886.6	33%
Cincinnati	2,000.9	28%
Cleveland	1,301.7	49%
Columbus, Ohio	4,032.9	45%
Dallas	5,080.6	56%
Denver	5,236.9	25%
Detroit	1,967.6	59%
Hartford, Conn.	426.6	8%
Houston	6,518.9	62%
Indianapolis	2,669.6	83%
Jacksonville	610.8	41%
Kansas City, Mo.-Kan.	1,300.3	50%
Las Vegas	304.4	19%
Los Angeles	5,695.2	55%
Louisville	443.8	10%
Memphis	964.5	26%
Miami	4,378.2	68%
Milwaukee	3,655.7	38%
Minneapolis	4,268.8	23%
Nashville	1,936.7	41%
New Orleans	-2,220.8	-24%
New York	26,125.9	13%
Oklahoma City	106.2	5%
Orlando	1,692.5	28%
Philadelphia	16,032.2	57%
Phoenix	306.5	14%
Pittsburgh	3,154.9	40%
Portland, Ore.	4,083.3	22%
Providence	3,484.3	38%
Raleigh, N.C.	1,670.8	28%
Richmond, Va.	1,058.5	16%
Riverside, Calif.	1,572.8	65%
Rochester, N.Y.	809.8	8%
Sacramento	2,053.6	28%
St. Louis	2,699.6	87%
Salt Lake City	1,903.0	21%
San Antonio	146.7	7%
San Diego	5,638.4	54%
San Francisco	3,809.3	5%
San Jose	1,201.4	10%
Seattle	5,696.4	24%
Tampa	974.2	21%
Virginia Beach	566.7	15%
Washington	13,610.2	31%

Source: Analysis of data from 2000 Census and 2005-2009 American Community Survey by Impresa for CEOs for Cities