Paige Rausch

One of the greatest contemporary artist has joined the Angels... Milton Robert "Bob" Rauschenberg passed at his Captiva home last night, May 12, 2008.

Born Milton Rauschenberg in 1925 in Port Arthur, Texas, and raised a Christian fundamentalist, Rauschenberg wanted to be a minister but gave it up because his church banned dancing.

"I was considered slow," he once said "While my classmates were reading their textbooks, I drew in the margins."

He was drafted into the U.S. Navy during World War II and knew little about art until a chance visit to an art museum where he saw his first painting at age 18. He drew portraits of his fellow sailors for them to send home. When his time in the service was up, Rauschenberg used the GI. Bill to pay his tuition at art school.

Milton Rauschenberg changed his name to Bob in 1947, in a bus station in Kansas City in the middle of the night, choosing his new moniker after " making up his mind that the first person who asked him his name, he would say ‘Bob,' and if that person believed him, it would be Bob from then on." The man who took the ordinary name had not made upon his decision as a reaction to an ordinary life.

He studied painting at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1947. He later took his studies to Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he studied under master Josef Albers, and alongside contemporary artists such as choreographer Merce Cunningham and musician John Cage. He also studied at the Art Students League in New York City.

Rauschenberg first paintings in the early 1950s comprised a series of all-white and all-black surfaces under laid with wrinkled newspaper. In later works he began making art from what others would consider junk — old soda bottles, traffic barricades, and stuffed birds and calling them "combine" paintings.

One of Rauschenberg's first and most famous combines was entitled "Monogram," a 1959 work consisting of a stuffed angora goat, a tire, a police barrier, the heel of a shoe, a tennis ball, and paint. In Bantam (1954), the juxtaposition of Judy Garland, a gay popular icon, with a photo of the Yankees, a group of masculine men, may reflect tension within the artist. Also interesting formally and perhaps symbolically is the literal piece of gauze glued over Ms. Garland's photograph. While this item may simply be another random element in the formal construction of this collection of objects, I much prefer to think that he is playing with his audience, pasting an obvious allusion (to those familiar anyway) onto his picture under the guise of randomness.

By the mid-1950s, he was also designing sets and costumes for dance companies and window displays for Tiffany and Bonwit Teller.

A painter, photographer, printmaker, choreographer, onstage performer, set designer and, in later years, even a composer, Mr. Rauschenberg defied the traditional idea that an artist stick to one medium or style.

"I like things that are almost souvenirs of a creation, as opposed to being an artwork," he said in a 1997 Harper's Bazaar interview, "because the process is more interesting than completing the stuff."

His own thoughts on death:

"I don't ever want to go," he told Harper's Bazaar in 1997 when asked of his own death. "I don't have a sense of great reality about the next world; my feet are too ugly to wear those golden slippers. But I'm working on my fear of it. And my fear is that something interesting will happen, and I'll miss it. I'm curious, It's very rewarding. I'm still discovering things every day."

If a mans worth is determined by making a difference or leaving this earth a better place then when you arrived...he was a wealthy man whose graciousness provided for many Abused Women and Family through, the Abuse Council and Treatment Center in Ft. Myers, and the creation of the Edison Community College Rauschenberg Museum to name just a few.

The below is an interview with Charlie Rose and Bob Rauschenberg, it begins at about 28 minutes. I suggest if you have time taking a break and listen. The wisdom of this man will change you, and in closing I offer my prayers to his son, Christopher, his family, Darryl Pottorf and the collection of Beautiful friends who he loved so much!

I'd like to point out the Lee County was the Number 1 County in Florida for Population Growth during 2006-2007.

Lee County had a Population increase of 20,475 bringing us to a total of 590,564 in Lee County, a 3.6 percent increase, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, with Broward seeing a decrease just under 1 percent.

Lee's growth topped Pasco, the next fastest-growing county, by more than 3,600. And Lee's trend also was opposite of two neighboring counties: Charlotte for the second year in a row saw a decrease in population of 233; Collier's population increased 2,672, less than 1 percent.

Overall, the state grew by 1.1 percent during this time, to 18,251,243 from 18,057,508.

Pending sales for Lee County in the month of January registered in at 565; pending sales for February weighed in at 983 and totaled 1,050 through March 4, an increase of 86 percent over 33 days. Basically, in the last 60 days we've experienced a significant pick up in sales throughout Florida, and that's encouraging.

Markets cycles are NORMAL and ours will rebound...The silver lining is that regardless of market conditions, there have always been opportunities in Southwest Florida real estate.

It's just a matter of identifying, recognizing and capitalizing on them.

To predict the market's future based on what's happened in the past, one must examine all of the below methods and then draw some conclusions about where the market is heading.

The most meaningful analysis and relevant comparisons will take into account an entire market, based on units of comparison that are standard in the commercial industry. Although various capitalization methods may be used in calculating the value of income-generating real estate, here are the ones that are frequently used and widely accepted:

• Income Stream. Income producing property sales prices should not be evaluated according to price per square foot. While that might provide an appropriate appraisal of user-owned property, it should not be used as the basis of valuation when comparing income-generating assets. Income streams are what make income-producing properties different from owner/end-user real estate.

Determining value based on income is fairly straightforward. Typically, the process is simply a matter of analyzing basic data (such as income and expenses) and comparing it as a ratio to price.

The decision to purchase is based on the likelihood that the income stream will either remain in place or grow. In other words, commercial investors are buying because of the future economic benefits that the income-generating asset is expected to provide.

• Percentages. As part of the income approach to value, investors may also compare common percentage relationships to the standard for the area (provided the information is available). Because this approach applies only to income-producing properties, it can provide an apples-to-apples approach to identifying market value. For example, how do the subject property's expenses as a percentage of gross income compare to similar properties in proximity?

• Cap Rate. To compare a shopping center that's fully leased with one that's vacant is flawed and misleading. Although it would be appropriate to look at a vacant space on a per-square-foot basis, the value of an occupied, rented commercial building must be calculated in terms of a multiple of its income. In our industry, that's known as a capitalization, or "cap" rate.

Capitalization is defined as the process of converting an income stream into value. For example, if I pay X number of dollars for a leased building that's producing X number of dollars in rent and I make an income-to-price ratio, that number would be the property's rate of capitalization, or cap rate.

Cap rates are this market's most popular method used to determine where income-producing real estate is valued today. When comparing cap rates in 2006 vs. 2007, my firm found values were stable to slightly down. That's why I was surprised and disappointed that cap rates were never discussed during the commercial real estate portion of the presentation.

• Cash-on-Cash. The cash-on-cash method looks at the return one receives on the cash one invests.

• Internal Rate of Return. This is the rate of return on capital that is, or could be, generated by an income-producing asset during a specific period of ownership. Often, this method is used to measure profitability after income taxes, much like an after-tax equity yield rate.

• Discounted Cash-Flow Analysis. This set of procedures specifies the quantity, variability, timing and duration of periodic income and discounts it to a present value at a specific yield rate.

The County Commissioners in Charlotte County gave Syd Kitson and Partners 30 days to review their new plan for the proposed downtown area of Port Charlotte.

Mr. Kitson now wants to buy just 40 of the 870 acres of land the company was supposed to buy from Charlotte County.

Don't forget that Kitson is also the "Genius" behind the Babcock Ranch Deal-94,000 acres of pristine land that will be turned into a new city of over 50,000 people....it's been challenged by the state and Lee County due to issues with Transportation Impacts.

One point I want to everyone to grasp....This is going to be a major loss on profitability and may harm the success of the project?

Can you imagine the carrying cost on that project?

Don't you wonder what the Board at Morgan Stanley and the Pension funds they represent are feeling like about now. It's on a larger scale then what some individuals are facing in this challenging economy, but make NO mistake this is going to hurt!

Back to the Murdock Village deal.... The county has already invested $105 million dollars to purchase the land for Murdock Village through eminent domain. The interest is costing the county $14 thousand dollars each day. Nice for the Tax payers of Charlotte to know they are paying that kind of money out! Just think what that kind of money could be used for...School teachers, Police and Fire, mental health care, etc.

"I can't see the county accepting Kitson's offer," says Commissioner Tom Moore. "It's not enough money or enough land for the people of Charlotte County."

We'll I hope this gives everyone a healthy does of what poor planning and lack of due dilligence is going to do in Charlotte County and the Morgan Stanley Kitson Group!

November 2007 Oct 2007 to Nov 2007 Nov 2006 to Nov 2007

Total Valuation $66,316,181 -$135,849,305 -67.2% -$145,774,446 -68.7%

Single Family $25,538,798 -$9,421,151 -26.9% -$90,340,283 -78.0%

Multi-Family $3,266,175 -$92,611,350 -96.6% -$11,900,825 -78.5%

Commercial $37,511,208 -$33,816,804 -47.4% -$43,533,338 -53.7%

Visitors 282,679 -7,038 -2.4%

Expenditures $194,007,923 $40,516,293 26.4%

Civilian Labor Force 296,640 1,194 0.4% 8,216 2.8%
Employed 280,761 1,080 0.4% 876 0.3%
Unemployed 15,879 114 0.7% 7,340 86.0%
Unemployment Rate 5.4% 0.1% 2.4%
Initial Claims for Unemployment 2,348 -380 -13.9% 1,172 99.7%

Source: LEE COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

Almost seems unbelievable to say that we ended the year with a total of 10,700 Lis Pendens Cases being filed in Lee County.

For the year, there were 7,324 single-family foreclosures, which is equal to 4 percent of the county’s 180,305 single-family homes. The other 3,376 filings are made up of "other" property types like vacant lots and commercial properties.

Cape Coral was Ground Zero, where 4,858 were filed — almost half the total.

Lehigh Acres followed coming in second with 2,684.

In a way, Cape Coral was a victim of its own success as prices surged in the boom that ended in late 2005, said Bob Knight, president of the Lee Building Industry Association and co-owner of Paul Homes, which builds houses mainly in the city. The city’s waterfront lots will also help it come back when the market recovers, he said. “Water has such value. This is when somewhere like Lehigh Acres struggles a bit. Where’s the amenity, who’s going to come out of it quicker?”

Do you have your area's tally on Lis Pendens Filings-Foreclosures?

How do you compare statistically to Lee County, FL?