Throughout his career, Ron Barness and his wife Daron were extremely (and still are) focused on giving back to the community. Before the series of lawsuits that former investors attempted to bring against Barness took place, he and his wife were running the Barness Family Foundation, which gave millions to a variety of organizations in need of monetary support.
Even though all of the lawsuits against Ron Barness have finally been dismissed, Barness lost most everything he had (through his business and personally). He is working now to re-build his business so that he’ll once again be able to continue his mission of giving back to community organizations and causes in need.
After all investor lawsuits are dismissed against Ron Barness, former owner of Retail Brokers, Inc., is forced to start over in the retail market
PHOENIX – (July 15, 2010) – Retail Property Management, LLC, a new property management company for commercial retail spaces has recently opened in Phoenix by former owner of Retail Brokers, Inc. (RBI), Ron Barness.
Retail Property Management, LLC currently manages three shopping centers in the Phoenix metro area, and is owned and run single handedly by Barness.
Barness, former principal of commercial real estate companies, Retail Brokers, Inc. and Barness Papas Investments, was the target in a handful of investor and lender lawsuits that were filed when the Phoenix real estate market took a turn for the worse. All but one of the investor lawsuits have been dismissed in Maricopa County Superior Court; the last remaining investor complaint is anticipated to be dismissed as it finishes working its way through the court system.
The three shopping centers that Barness is currently managing under Retail Property Management, LLC are owned by investors who worked with Barness previously at RBI and who have stood by his side throughout the lawsuits.
“It has been a devastating ride that has taken everything I have made for myself out from under me and my family, but more than 99% of the investors I have worked with over the years have stood by my side, believing that I have done the best I could do,” said Barness.
Barness is currently focusing his efforts for the new company only in Arizona.
Barness Donation Furthers Progress of Kids Museum
Published: June 16, 2006 – Jewish News Online
One day, months from now, children across the Valley will be able to visit a museum in Phoenix devoted solely to them.
Construction is under way for the Children’s Museum of Phoenix, which will be located at Seventh and Van Buren streets and is scheduled to open in late 2007.
In April, the Daron and Ron Barness Family Foundation announced their own contribution to the project: a $1 million donation.
The gift “enables us to focus on what we need to do, which is make the best possible museum,” says Deborah Gilpin, the museum’s president and CEO. “When we get a gift of this magnitude, it just makes a huge difference in how we can move forward.
The idea for the museum was born in 1998; the founding board of directors formed a nonprofit organization in 1999. In 2001, Phoenix voters approved Proposition 6, which gave $10.5 million to the museum to purchase and renovate the historic Monroe School building. The next few years were spent raising funds, doing research on museums around the country, brainstorming and holding events for children in the community.
In 2005, the museum came to the attention of the Barness foundation.
For the Barnesses, the impetus to get involved was twofold.
“Daron and I are very concerned about children and our community’s ability to provide opportunities to young people in order for them to be able to fulfill their potential,” Ron Barness says. “So when we find projects that speak to creating better opportunities for children, we always look at those very closely.”
Also, “we believe as members of this community that Phoenix has an opportunity to become on of the great American cities in the 21st century.”
“Along those lines, we see that our city, as great as it can become, is the only major city in the United States without a children’s museum.”
Gilpin says the exhibit team, which includes an early childhood educator, an elementary school art teacher and a museum education director, visited about 50 children’s museums around the country to gather ideas.
The museum, when completed, will be geared toward children up to 8 years of age. The exhibits will be hands-on, and many will be arts-based. There will be a room of building blocks, a café where children can make their own meals, art projects to work on and much more.
“We expect to have about 300,000 visitors a year, but that’s probably a low estimate,” Gilpin says. “Children’s museums are the most highly visited of all kinds of museums. It’s probably because kids like to come back. They want to visit the things that they love and do it again, and then they want to try something new, too.”
Both Gilpin and Barness say the museum will be a huge asset to the community.
“We think it’ll have a tremendous impact,” says Barness. “Number one, we think it’ll help young children in their development and their educational process. Number two, we think it’ll help the psyche of the city as it strives to rise up to this level of greatness as we build a museum that will be a crown jewel of our city.”
Gilpin says “People who grow up and go to museums were typically museum-goers as children. But children’s museums are the place where the status-quo has changed; you may be a family who never goes to museums, but you’ll take your child to one of these, and it changes the future of that family.
Arizona Economic Outlook 2007
Featuring Ron Barness, principal of Barness Papas Investments & Retail Brokers, Inc. (RBI)
Elliott Pollack said that the Valley is expected to create 80,000 jobs in 2006, and 60,000 in 2007. As many as 130,000 people will move to metropolitan Phoenix this year.
On housing, the article quotes RL Brown as saying “I thought we would have seen the housing market stabilize by now. Now home builders have a surplus and no lines at their sales offices. Reality set in for them a month ago.”
On commercial, it quotes Pete Bolton of CB Richard Ellis as saying “We need more industrial space. Until we get it, the Valley will lose more jobs as companies go where there’s space.”
More than 8 million square feet of warehouse space is under construction in metro Phoenix. About 3 million square feet of office space will go up in the Valley this year.
On the retail end, Ron Barness of Retail Brokers, Inc. stated that “it wasn’t long ago that high-end East Coast retailers weren’t interested in Phoenix. The opposite is true now.”
The Valley retail vacancy rate is 5 percent, lower than it’s ever been. Currently, 6.6 million square feet of retail space is under construction in the Valley.
Phoenix Economic Outlook 2007:
Featuring Ron Barness, featured presented about the Phoenix commercial market
Growth, commercial real estate prop up economy; Could ease slowdown in housing, employment
By: Catherine Reagor and Chad Graham
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 22, 2006 12:00 AM
How is the Valley’s economy doing?
Jobs and residential real estate growth have roughly returned to normal. Still, it can feel like a slump because last year was so unusually frenzied.
The state’s strong suits continue to be population growth and capital spending, especially in the now-booming commercial real estate market. If those two categories can pick up the slack, there could be less chance of a mild recession next year.
Here are other findings from Thursday’s 2007 Economic Outlook sponsored by the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce:
Economy
“The Valley’s economy is in the seventh-inning stretch. It’s late in the game. There’s a recession in the future, but not now,” said Elliott Pollack of the economic consulting firm Elliott D. Pollack & Co.
• Almost 80,000 new jobs are expected to be created Valley-wide in 2006, and 60,000 in 2007.
• As many as 130,000 people will move to metropolitan Phoenix this year.
• Consumer and construction spending is expected to slow.
• U.S. residential spending compared with the overall gross domestic product is the highest it has been since the 1940s.
Housing
“I thought we would have seen the housing market stabilize by now,” said Valley housing analyst RL Brown. “Now home builders have a surplus and no lines at their sales offices. Reality set in for them a month ago.”
• The typical price of a new Valley home climbed from $225,000 to $300,000 last year.
• Single-family housing permits were down 45 percent in August compared with a year ago.
• For the first eight months of 2006, home permits are down 23 percent from 2005’s record pace.
• There are 47,000 homes for sale Valley-wide, more than double the listings from a year ago.
Commercial real estate
“We need more industrial space. Until we get it, the Valley will lose more jobs as companies go where there’s space,” said Pete Bolton, senior managing director of CB Richard Ellis. “We won’t overbuild. Banks and the commercial market learned their lessons last time.”
• More than 8 million square feet of warehouse space is under construction in metropolitan Phoenix. Half of that is spec space without a signed tenant to move into it.
• About 3 million square feet of office space will go up Valley-wide this year.
Retail
“It wasn’t long ago that high-end East Coast retailers weren’t interested in Phoenix,” said Ron Barness of Retail Brokers Inc. “The opposite is true now.”
• The Valley’s retail vacancy is 5 percent, lower than it’s ever been.
• Currently, there’s 6.6 million square feet of retail space under construction in metropolitan Phoenix.
Oct 1, 2007
By Ron Barness, principal of RBI and Barness Papas Investments and Ron Finkel, Senior Managing Director/Designated Broker of RBI
Although the housing market in the metro-Phoenix area seems to be gradually leveling off from its unprecedented recent growth, the retail real estate market continues to thrive as it has for the past few years. For the most part, the commercial real estate market seems to follow the overall performance of the economy, but is always a bit behind. The retail market has not yet (and most likely will not) hit the extreme highs that the Phoenix residential market hit last year, so it seems to be a relatively safe predication that it will not hit any major low points, either.
Phoenix continues to be a hub for retail development, especially with the revitalization of downtown Phoenix, in the Copper Square district, and with the massive expansion efforts and new growth in the West Valley. Copper Square will soon house some of the most high-end retail in the state, combining a wide mixture of entertainment, restaurants, shopping and more. As these new retailers join the established downtown area, most will have to adapt their traditional store layouts for the smaller spaces that are available downtown, which could have an effect on leasing.
Scottsdale’s downtown area is also being revamped with a $1 billion facelift. The area continues to be one of the Valley’s strongest retail markets, with more than 220,000 square feet of new shops at the Scottsdale Waterfront, most of which have already opened for business or will open before the end of 2006.
Additional retail growth has been sustained due to the ongoing and aggressive freeway expansions around the Valley. Retail is popping up everywhere alongside freeways and freeway exists, specifically in the West Valley. This is evidenced through projects such as Westcor’s Prasada and Estrella Falls. Prasada is a 4,200 acre master-planned community with an 800-acre commercial core and more than three million square feet of retail space, located near the intersection of the Loop 303 and US 60, and Estrella Falls is a 300-acre mixed-use development off the Loop 303. These projects join the new Glendale Arena at Westgate City Center in Glendale, which adds a whole new lot of retail development to the West Valley.
Rental rates for retail space will continue to rise, ranging from single-digit lows of $5 per square-foot to highs of $40 per square-foot in select submarkets, as more high-end retailers continue to break into the market. Vacancy rates are currently just below five percent.
Lifestyle, open-air centers, mixed-use and transit-oriented developments still continue to be the focus of developers. Transit-oriented development is playing an integral role in the retail redevelopment of downtown Phoenix as the Central Phoenix/East Valley light rail transit corridor shapes up to open in December 2008.
Smaller-anchored retail centers are thriving as well. Lesser-known groceries, fitness centers and hardware stores have become key players in neighborhood centers. Ace Hardware, for instance, has leased 120,000 square feet of space year-to-date throughout Phoenix, and has plans to expand further in the near future.
The massive increases in the Valley’s population combined with a strong economic forecast in 2007 indicates that retail development will continue to be a driving force throughout the year.