Medical real estate firms planning merger

Two longtime medical office real estate firms plan to merge.

Ensemble Real Estate Services and DevMan Co., both specializing in medical office development, have been involved in nearly every hospital campus in the Valley and many physician-owned medical office buildings. The merged company will be Ensemble DevMan of Arizona.

The combined portfolio of the two companies will include 124 properties totaling more than 5.4 million square feet of space in four states. The firm will employ 110 people. The merger will be completed Nov. 1.

Select projects in development by the two firms include:

Banner Ironwood Medical Office Building, a 36,000-square-foot medical office building on the campus of Banner Ironwood Medical Center in Pinal County.

Canyon Crossings, a 35,000-square-foot retail and professional plaza across from Banner Gateway Medical Center in Gilbert.

PRIMESTAFF MOVING

PrimeStaff, a specialized health care recruiting and staffing firm, will moveto Chaparral Business Center V at 5301 N. Pima Road in Scottsdale.

The lease is for 64 months.

Located at the northwest corner of Chaparral Road and Loop 101, Chaparral Business Center V is registered with the U.S. Green Building Council.

FORECLOSURE HELP SLIPS

Industry measures to keep homeowners out of foreclosure have slipped, according to the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, a group of state attorneys general and state banking regulators working to prevent home foreclosures.

This week, the group issued its third Analysis of Subprime Mortgage Servicing Performance, based on data collected from subprime mortgage servicers from February through May. The report said nearly eight out of 10 seriously delinquent homeowners are not on track for any loan workout or loss mitigation help to avoid foreclosure, a higher percentage than the group found in its April report.

The report says the number of loans on track for a loan modification has declined "precipitously" in recent months. The mortgage industry's failure to develop systematic approaches to prevent foreclosures has spurred declines in property values and further increased expected losses on mortgage loan portfolios," according to the report.

All of the group's reports are available online at www.csbs.org/content/navigationmenu/home/stforeclosuremain.htm.