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RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE: Alain Pinel wins condo-hotel contract in Napa; SR green ordinance takes shape

San Francisco-based Alain Pinel Realtors has moved its North Bay headquarters from St. Helena to downtown Napa after winning a contract to sell all of the remaining hotel-condo units at the Westin Verasa Napa Residences.

The company moved this month into a new, 3,000-square foot office at 1141 First St. According to Timothy Murray, Alain Pinel’s vice president and regional manager for San Francisco and the North Bay, the condo-hotel deal includes about 40 unsold units out of a total 160.

Alain Pinel is also seeking a separate contract to be the permanent broker for re-sale of the units once the project is complete. If the company gets the deal, Mr. Murray said it will open a permanent sales office inside of the hotel.

The brokerage entered the North Bay market this spring when it acquired San Francisco-based Ritchie Hallanan Real Estate. Alain Pinel will return to St. Helena in a different location, and is actively looking for new locations in Marin and Sonoma counties, Mr. Murray said.

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The Santa Rosa City Council is just weeks away from voting on a new, mandatory green-building ordinance for residential construction.

The ordinance is expected to require new residential projects to reach at least 50 points on the 2007 GreenPoint Rated system, which is overseen by the Berkeley nonprofit Build-it-Green.

The new rating system is similar to the 2005 version used by cities such as Windsor, but it includes a new requirement that projects exceed California’s Title 24 energy-efficiency requirements by 15 percent. That provision is estimated to cost about $1 per square foot, according to Dick Dowd, an owner and vice president of Pinnacle Homes and chairman of an advisory committee created by the council to develop the ordinance.

The advisory committee, whose membership includes environmentalists and representatives of the building and real estate industries, will vote on its recommended ordinance on Nov. 28.

According to Mr. Dowd, the major aspects of the ordinance have already been defined by the city council, but the committee will debate issues including the type of exemptions that could be given to projects already in the planning stages.

The new ordinance would apply to all projects that do not yet have a building permit and will likely take effect between April 30 and June 30, according to Mr. Dowd.

Next year, a committee will take up the question of a separate commercial ordinance, about which it is expected to make a preliminary recommendation in June.

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The California Association of Realtors gave the green light last month to a proposal to create a statewide multiple listings service for properties. The proposal is aimed at streamlining Realtors’ access to property listings data, but it is controversial because it threatens the existence of established local and regional MLSs.

Participation in the new system will be voluntary for the MLSs. Those that do get involved will have two options.

“An existing multiple listing service could chose to abandon their current operations and join the statewide MLS and just fold their operations into the statewide MLS, or they could choose to merely transfer their data into the statewide MLS,” said broker Mike Silva, owner of Napa-based Morgan Lane Real Estate and a member of a working group appointed by CAR to design the new statewide MLS.

According to Mr. Silva, existing MLSs could still generate revenue by servicing the new statewide system.

The working group is expected to release detailed recommendations about data standards, servicing agreements, rules and governance for the new system in January.

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New urbanist developer Orrin Thiessen has submitted his first official proposal for an 8.6-acre project in downtown Forestville. The proposal includes 59 residential units, 24,100 square feet of commercial space, an 18-room boutique hotel and a town square with an amphitheater on three separate parcels.

Mr. Thiessen specializes in pedestrian-oriented mixed-use projects and has reshaped downtowns in North Bay cities such as Graton and Windsor. Earlier this year, his company started demolition work of a closed school in downtown Occidential, which it plans to transform into a nine-acre residential and office development.

Mr. Thiessen’s application for the Forestville project is still incomplete, pending new studies of traffic, archaeology and noise, according to the Sonoma County Permit and Resource Management Department.

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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new law last month making it illegal to pressure home appraisers into inflating their estimates of home prices.

The law, introduced as SB 223 by State Sen. Michael Machado, D-Linden, took effect immediately.

“There’s always pressure for the loan agents to say ‘we really need this to come in at this amount otherwise we wont be able to make the loan,’” said John Fluhman, an appraiser and reviewer with Churton & Associates, which has offices in San Francisco and Santa Rosa.

The governor also signed a separate bill sponsored by Sen. Machado, SB 385, which requires California lenders to apply federal guidance to nontraditional and subprime loans. That law takes effect in January.

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Submit items for this column to William Jason at 707-579-2900 ext. 225, wjason@busjrnl.com or fax 707-579-8475.