Michael's Blog

Floridian Investment Group Buys Rights to Alameda's Lagoons. 

Mar 27, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. (Mar. 27, 2008) - Floridian Investment Group has acquired the water rights to the lagoon system in Alameda, California.

"Beginning in the first quarter of 2009, our group will be raising alligators in the lagoons.  The West Coast operations will supply zoos, aquariums and theme parks with alligators" said Joe Kingly of The Floridian Investment Group.

"The salt water lagoons are ideal for raising these reptiles" said Kingly. "The constant flushing of the system to and from the bay makes it one of the best locations we have found yet"

Keep your pets and small children away

Kingly warns residents along the lagoon system to be careful when in their backyards barbecuing. "It's just asking for trouble" said Joe Kingly.  Keep your pets and small children away from the water and there shouldn't be any problems because the alligators really prefer the water.

The Alameda Citizen's Advisory council sold the water rights to the Floridian Investment Group to help the City of Alameda pay for it's ailing school system. April Ha of the Alameda Citizen's Council stated at the meeting on March 1st "This may also help reduce the school overcrowding issue".

A visitor center will be constructed along Otis Drive across from the Alameda Towne Center.

About Floridian Investment Group Floridian Investment Group, a member of Global Organic Ocean Farming(NYSE: GOOF) family of companies, is the world's largest alligator related business, as measured by the number of alligators currently being raised.  Floridian Investment Group is headquartered in Orlando, Florida, and is supported by more than 1,200 employees globally.

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Media Contact:
Joe Kingly  - Manager, Corporate Communications 
Floridan Investment Group 
(510) 334-7800
mailto:Joe.Kingly@AlamedaAligatorfarms.com

Happy April Fool's Day

If you're looking for a great place to eat in San Leandro's downtown plaza area.  Try Tequila Grill, it's a mexican restaurant for lunch and dinner.  For Breakfast it's an all american good food diner.  There is some mexican overflow on the breakfast menu and that's really a great thing.

I have the Huevos Divorciados with rice and beans and flour tortillas.  MMMMM yummy.  This dish comes with both Red and Green Enchilada sauce over eggs and tortillas.  I order my eggs scrambled because I am not too much of a fan of mixxing the yoke with the two sauces.

The servers Chuy, Luis and Fatima are friendly and like family to all the customers.

My group of diners on Sunday mornings have been eating at the same table for about 10 years now.  The restaurant has changed hands recently and was called Dino's International a few years back. 

It's located in the building that was the Old Chuckburgers Diner on East 14th Street just a few doors South of the Estudillo Avenue intersection. Free parking is available at the back of the building in the city parking lot.

The news came down today at the office meeting.

The Alameda office of Prudential California Realty will be merged with the Grand Lake Oakland office next month. The Alameda office will soon be closed down.

This leaves lots of uncertainties with the team here at this office.  I for one like this location and it's the main reason I chose to work out of this office.  It's modern, clean and in a great area.

I was not happy with the other office because of the need for pay parking and a much older and inefficient building.  Dare I say stodgy?

Well, dust myself off and pick myself up and start all over again.

Life gives you lemons, make lemon cream pie.

After having spent the last several months, since September 07. I am now  close to my first sale.  I have this investor from my farm area that is looking for a fixer-upper project house.  I found one yesterday on the MLS, printed out the client report and dropped it off in his mail box last evening.

He excitedly called me and said that he wanted to see it.  He works in the area and wanted to drive by the place this morning on his way to work.  He liked it.

I saw the building personally this morning also.  It has great potential.  Now the next step is for the client to get with his family and the family trust and get some funds together.  His trust money and along with financing from a lender and we should be doing an offer on this property very soon.

I am getting excited.  It seems that each day is getting better and better. whooo hoooo

Well folks, I have mixed feelings about this.  The historic home designed by William Raymond Yelland located on Alma Place in Oakland went pending today.  I had been holding open houses to find buyers every Sunday from October until March.

Built in 1925 in the Lakeshore Highlands tract, the home sits high on the upslope lots at what was the intersection of Chatham Road and Alma Place.

The home has a classic Yelland Normandy flair that he was famous for.  A two car garage is located in the basement level, cut into the upslope.  The two cars park tandem with a single car width door.

Above the garage is a terrace entrance porch.  Handcrafted obelisks grace the corners.  Along the first floor is a random stacked brick pattern.  Bricks arch around the entrance door which is quarter-sawn oak.  The side gate features a classic yelland element  a startled cat. Shutters along each side of the front window have a chickadee design.

The second floor is in two sections on the left is a classic stepped down gable with dovecotes and the right side is a nice Tudor with half timbering.

When you enter the home you are in an entrance hall. A door immediately to the right goes down to the basement. Next to the basement door but still on the right hand side is the entrance to the hallway. Straight ahead is the door to the laundry room, kitchen and breakfast nook area of the home.  Along the left wall is a coat closet.

Turning down the hallway and straight ahead you see a staircase starting with two steps to the a landing.  The landing goes right and makes a u-turn to mimick the basement stairs below.  To the left opens up the living room.

Now facing into the living room, to the right is the wall containing the french inspired fireplace with it's hood going up to the ceiling and with built-in book cases on each side.  Directly across the way are the french doors to the patio, an artwork niche and the opening to the dining room.  To the left is another set of built-in bookcases on either side of an artwork niche.

In the dining room, ahead are two built-in angled arched top china hutches surrounding two double hung picture windows to the back yard. The right wall contain patio doors to the same patio off the living area.  The left wall contains a swinging door to the kitchen. The upper portion of the door contains a 4 lite glass window.

In the kitchen the sink is along the far wall and toward the left side of the room.  The right side of the room is the breakfast nook with nice old style oak panelling.  Along the left most wall is a counter leading toward the refridgerator and a doorway to the laundry and half bath.  The far right wall in the nook area contains a patio door to the backyard again.  The laundry room door connects back to the entrance hall and we have now completed a loop around the living, dining room and kitchen walls.

Going upstairs.  At the top of the stairs are three closets built into the contours of the roof line of the front protruding gables.  The master bedroom is on the right. Straight ahead is the second bedroom. The left side of the hallway contains the bathroom and the first bedroom.

The two bedrooms share an outdoor sleeping porch in the left rear most corner of the second floor.  Each bedroom contains large walk-in closets with mirror panels in the center panel of these single panel doors.

This went pending on the same day when I had some clients interested in making an offer.  My clients were out done by the winning bid.

NEXT

If you read my blog yesterday, you know that I have a new challenge ahead.  I have a strong grasp on my gratitude rock and putting out good vibes to the universe that I need to have my mother cured of her newest aliment .

Well, I had opened an envelope from a pen company that contained a free pen sample for marketing... Yahoo, the secret gave me a pen.... What was more of a gift was the bubble wrap that surrounded the pen.

A shout out to pens.com

I had fun talking with our office administrator Dani about bubble wrap as therapy for stress relief.  POP, POP, POP  Bubble wrap as stress therapy.  I popped each and every little bubble.  It felt great.

So it got me to thinking.  Please send me some bubble wrap and I can take it to the infusion room at the Eden Medical Center Oncologist (Castro Valley, Ca) and let the patients POP, POP, POP away their stress.

So I am putting it out to the universe....send me some bubble wrap for cancer patients.

Michael Greenslade

Agent Prudential California Realty  660-A Central Avenue Alameda California.  Please small manageable amounts of bubble wrap.  I would not be able to handle 3 foot diameter rolls of bubble wrap.

Okay,

Where do I start.  If you've been following my blog you will have noticed that on January 27th my father passed away from respiratory failure and cardiac failure.

My mother has been battling colon cancer and was in remission.  Keyword he is was.  We saw her oncologist for the results of her recent PT/Cat Scan.  It turns out not to be good.  We are going to be having to go for some more additional chemotherapy.

So, I have blocked out all Wednesdays on my calendar for her treatments.  This will be the third round of this chemotherapy.  We have learned so much from the last rounds.

Dehydration is a very big nasty enemy in this fight.  Her appetite is also something that we have to tackle. The doctor promises us that this medicine will be gentler on her.

I am dusting off my gratitude rock, getting one for mother and we will lick this thing and give her a great life when we see the other end of this trial and tribulation.

So, how do I turn this temporary bad situation into a something to do with real estate.  Well A while ago I blogged about taking care of the care givers.  Well, now is my chance.   Every Wednesday at 9:00 am till noon I will be sharing time with the other care givers while their loved ones are getting their infusions.  So every Wednesday morning now I will be in Castro Valley at Eden Medical Center

My S.O.I. will be growing.  I am sure that in some cases these poor souls will be needing to liquidate some estates.

I could stop by with some chicken soup and drop it by for them on occasion.  I will be able to give out the gift cards for dinners to the care givers to give them the breathers that they really could use.....does anybody have a good chicken soup recipe for cancer patients?

So what's in my future?  Who knows, I may forsee selling my home in the near future and moving into mother's house which is just down the street.  I could always rent it out to my neice Lindsay and her friends. 

When Life gives you lemons make Lemonade.

on June 30th 2006 Cedarfair Corp purchased Paramount Parks including our local Great America theme park in Santa Clara California.

Cedarfair, a very good theme park company purchased the rather mediocre Paramount Parks.  I am glad to see Cedarfair take over Great America.  On the West coast Cedarfair has owned Knott's Berry Farm for many years and has done a smashing job on that park.  In the Midwest, the flagship park Cedar Point Park is one of the best ride parks in the country.

Paramount Parks systematically dismantled everything that was a theme at Great America.  Gone are all the themes of Hometown Square, County Fair, Yankee Harbor, Yukon Territory and Orleans Place.  Paramount slowly began to install rides tied to Paramount movies as a cross promotional tool.  It did not work.  Invertigo the coaster in County Fair area was tied into the Face-Off movie with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage.  Top Gun was added to Orleans Place to tie in with the Tom Cruise movie.  The Drop Zone tower in County Fair is tied in with some obscure skydiving movie with Patrick Swayze.  Then there's Survivor the ride.  The action 3-D theater that took up most of what was Yankee Harbor became the Days of Thunder movie ride. 

Then there's just the neglect that Paramount tossed into the works. The Stealth flying coaster only lasted a season or two and was quickly yanked out of Great America and relocated to Paramount's Carrowinds park and rebranded with Star Trek's Borg assimulator.  The train that once ran around the park on the berm that was meant to keep out outside visual intrusions into the park was removed.  The berm quickly followed.  The Hypersonic XL ride was supposed to be installed at Great America but once again ended up at another Paramount Park Kings Dominion in Virginia.

Thankfully Cedarfair and their people value a good entertainment experience.  I now have hope that the bay area will get a park that is of higher quality.

On a side bar note.  The San Francisco 49er's are eyeing the Great America parking lot as the location for their new stadium.

The heck with the parking lot.   I say drop the new stadium right dead center of the great america park, salvage what ever rides they can and start from scratch with entirely new themes.  My concept would be to have open public pedestrian avenues leading to the stadium.  This avenue would be open year round even when the park is closed.  with Hotels, restaurants and shops.  The avenue should start at Tasman Avenue and work towards the center of the park encounter the stadium and turn toward Great America Parkway. Parking garages could be built to bring in close in parking.

One of the new themes could be SPORTS CENTRAL featuring sports themed rides attractions and shops.  An ENTERTAINMENT CENTRAL could be another theme based around concerts that could be hosted at the new stadium.

COASTAL BOARDWALK could be another theme for classic coasters and such (salvaging many existing rides).

WATEROPOLIS could be the "Crocodile Dundee's Boomerang Bay" water park from the existing park salvaged and relaid out.

Marriott's Great America started out in 1976 as a very nicely laid out family theme park.  Once Great America was sold it became butchered up.  The Great America Park in Gurnee Illinios suffered a better fate when it was sold to the Six Flags theme park group.  The themes were left pretty much intact from the original marriott days and even expaned upon with a wild west area that was planned but never built at the Santa Clara counterpart.

I will work on a sketch of what I am talking about in a new layout.