THE BIG BANG

They are going to have a blast by the Los Angeles Harbor in San Pedro on Sunday.
Get up before the sun if you want to see it live.
Explosives experts plan to implode the former Pacific Trade Center to make way for the Vue, which will be the seaside city's largest high rise condo complex.
Also its first high rise residence.
And it will be the first implosion in the City of Angeles in 10 years (if you don't count the administration of former Mayor James Hahn. His sister, Janice, represents San Pedro on the City Council).
The 12-story center has been vacant for 10 years.
The 121,966 square foot center was built in 1964.
According to a news release touting the event, “five pounds of explosives strategically placed in selected supporting areas� will bring down the building.
“When discharged, the explosives will allow gravity to pull down the building in a controlled manner.�
Maybe.
In any event, this Galaxy Commercial Holdings LLC can start construction once the rubble is cleared. The Vue is a $175 million project with 318 units.
It's the largest development on the waterfront in Old Town San Pedro and the building had the second most successful sales launch in Southern California history, hitting more than $100 million in sales in two days, according to the developer.
The Bottom Line: An implosion to herald a new housing project is interesting timing since the housing market seems to be imploding.

THE BIG DEAL
Broadreach Capital Partners, a Palo Alto-based private equity firm that invests in commercial real estate, made a big play today, paying $209 million for an 18-building portfolio in Southern California.
It was sold by The Shidler Group, in partnership with Angelo, Gordon & Co.
Shidler acquired the portfolio in late 2004 for $138.5 million and invested more than $6 million in improvements.
The buildings have 165 tenets and are 82 percent occupied.
"There is a tremendous amount of demand for well-located, high-quality office properties. With the continuous flow of capital into the commercial real estate sector, we felt the timing to be opportune to sell into a very strong investment market and to prune our portfolio of select assets as part of our capital recycling program," said Matt Root, a partner in The Shidler Group.
Tenets include Catellus Development, the City of Los Angeles, California Department of Motor Vehicles, USA Today and Verizon.
The buildings are in nine projects.
Ten of the buildings are in the Los Angeles area.
One is Glendale Corporate Center, a 111,072 square foot building at 425 Corporate Street in Glendale.
The Shidler Group is a national real estate organization that actively acquires commercial real estate for its own account. It currently owns and operates over 8 million square feet of commercial property throughout Texas, Arizona, Hawaii and Southern California. Since its founding in 1972, The Shidler Group and its affiliates have facilitated the acquisition of over 145 million square feet of commercial property.

THE BIG PICTURE
Susquehanna Financial Group homebuilding analyst Stephen East offers the following take on The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index released this morning (Monday).
The PHSI was up versus last month and better than consensus expectations.
“ Net, the flattening picture of the slowdown continued in June for the PHSI - a big positive in our mind. As far as future reports go, August looks to have the toughest comparisons to last year, consequently that report should go a long way toward telling us where this housing market is in its transition,� East wrote in an e-mail.
He believes a decline of 9.6 percent is a very manageable drop and all else being equal, investors should feel relieved by this latest data point.
Here's what caught his eye.
The South region was up 2.5 percent monthly and is now only down 4.8 percent annually.
The West region fell an annual 14.2 percent and it was flat monthly.
“Stabilization in the West will be key for the builders and it looks like we are seeing that occur. However, the upcoming August to October time frame will be difficult for the West region given strong activity there in '05.�
While that is not necessarily the case for the South, as Y/Y comps generally look reasonable with only August being more difficult.
The PHSI measures contracts signed for existing single family and multi-family homes, but there is no breakout between the two types.