For contractors itching to erect some buildings, the best opportunities last year were in multi-family residential.

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Its core business remains homebuilding, which deals with the construction and sale of homes that include single-family attached and detached homes and multi-level residential buildings.

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Farkas says CarCharging has more than 40 strategic partnerships across multiple business sectors, including multi-family residential and commercial properties, parking garages, shopping malls, retail and municipal parking locations.

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The CaliforniaFIRST program, run by Oakland-based Renewable Funding for the California Statewide Communities Development Authority ( CSCDA), is available to owners of office, multi-family residential (5 or more units), retail, industrial, and agriculture properties in 14 counties and 126 cities.

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Coming in early 2014 is the 154-room Alt Griffin hotel, which will be part of the largest multi-use real estate project in town (expected to combine residential, shopping and dining outlets in the blossoming Griffin district).

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The bank attracts deposits and originates and purchases one to four family residential mortgage loans, commercial real estate loans and multi-family property loans.

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New laws allow for zones on virgin sites that range upwards from a minimum of 10 hectares (24 acres) for businesses such as software and bio-technology, to 1, 000 hectares for multi-sector zones that might involve more than one developer and would include residential areas, hospitals, shopping centres and other amenities.

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Erskine is principal of The Erskine Company LLC, a strategic advisory firm located in Worcester, Massachusetts, that offers expertise in the management of unique family assets, including multi-million dollar family businesses, numismatics collections, fine art and Americana collections, commercial and residential real estate holdings, and family compounds.

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