Select Editors’ Weekly News Roundup March 10 – March 14
For the second week in a row, the actions of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) figured in the roster of Connect CRE’s five most-read stories over the past week. This time, the report was regional rather than national, and the story was our most widely viewed during the time period.
DOGE Terminates a Dozen Federal Leases in Oregonreported that IRS national offices in Salem, Bend and Medford were among those that have been canceled. Separately from the lease terminations, there’s also a DOGE-driven plan to sell off hundreds of surplus government-owned properties, mainly in the office sector, and 10 of those are located in Oregon. Or more accurately, 10 Oregon building were on a roster of surplus properties that was posted to the General Services Administration website and subsequently taken down.
Two of the past week’s top five stories originated in Oregon’s neighbor to the south, and more specifically in coastal towns in the southern part of that state. The IPA Capital Markets division of Marcus & Millichap arranged a refinancing for an Orange County development site, a deal we reported in Huntington Beach Redevelopment Project Secures $61M Refi.
Although IPA Capital Markets didn’t identify the borrower, the description of the project matches that of a redevelopment that Connect CRE reported this past September. The Magnolia Tank Farm plan approved last year calls for 200 single-family homes, affordable rental apartments and a 215-key hotel.
Farther south along the California coast, CBRE negotiated the sale of approximately 68 acres in north San Diego County. That deal ran under the headline Oceanside Acreage Will Support Mixed-Use Development and was our third most-read story for the week.
In common with the Huntington Beach deal, the Oceanside transaction revolved around redevelopment plans. However, the latter is not quite as far along as the Huntington Beach scenario; CBRE’s Matt Carlson noted that bringing it to fruition will entail “navigating the complexities of rezoning.”
The past week’s top five included one national story. Industry Groups Urge Opposition to Cap on Business Property Tax Deductionsreported a letter signed by 17 national real estate organizations to members of two key Congressional committees urging them to oppose any proposal to cap or eliminate the deductibility of state and local business property taxes. The proposal has been made by some lawmakers as a possible revenue offset for the tax and fiscal package that Congress is working on.
Such a cap “would cause self-inflicted injury to the U.S. economy, including unnecessary job losses, higher rents for families and individuals, and other inflationary pressures,” said Jeffrey DeBoer, president and CEO of the Real Estate Roundtable.
In fifth place among the top five was another regional story, this one reporting the first acquisition of 2025 by Alturas Capital Partners. We reported the sale of Montesa Plaza in Tucson in East Tucson Retail Center Trades for $14.2M.
The 97% occupied center is anchored not by a grocery tenant, as in so many other retail acquisitions Connect CRE has reported in recent years, but by a multi-screen movie theater. A vacant pad site was included with the sale.