Category: Money & Investments

Concrete Equities Investor Meeting June 17th

I just got word via email that there’s a meeting for all Concrete Equities investors:

“There is a general meeting being held for “ALL” investors in Concrete Equities projects, including the Mexico Properties. It is very important that you attend this meeting being held:

Wednesday June 17, 2009 – 7PM
Southside Victory Village
6402 1A ST SW

We are now starting to receive emails from El Golfo investors asking “what is being done”, how does our investment stand”. To this end we have formed a Mexico steering committee and alligned ourselves with the Calgary Buildings Steering Committee.”

If you can be there, you should be there.

Calgary Herald: “Judge sides with Concrete Equities, makes appointment in dispute with disgruntled investors”

“A judge has sided with Concrete Equities in its application to appoint Ernst and Young as an interim receiver in a dispute with a group of disgruntled investors in five downtown buildings. By doing so, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Barbara Romaine rejected the investors bid, at least temporarily, to have Concrete, a Calgary-based commercial real estate fund, replaced as general partner of the buildings that were placed under receivership earlier this spring. “I had hoped by this decision to enable the receiver to work on getting financial information to the limited partners as quickly as can be done,” said Romaine. The judge left the door open for the limited partners to argue on the issue of whether its choice of a new general partner should be named. That is scheduled for June 24.” – Calgary Herald, June 9th, 2009

Well that’s not good news – I know virtually nothing about the law in this area, but it’s rather curious to me that the judge wouldn’t allow us (the Limited Partners) to change the General Partner (Concrete Equities) to a new General Partner. I was under the impression that was our legal right, but apparently the judge didn’t think so. The judge said that she didn’t think we (the Limited Partners) had enough financial information about the buildings to make an informed decisions. That’s true, we don’t – but that’s solely because Concrete Equities is refusing to turn over the financial information to us. So why not order Concrete Equities to turn over the records and let us go our seperate ways? Concrete Equities doesn’t own these properties, we do. What a mess.

A Status Update From Concrete Equities

Although this isn’t relevant to most readers of this blog, I feel it’s important that I chronicle the events that are happening now with Concrete Equities – because it doesn’t look like anyone else has a blog on which they are doing so. My intention isn’t to turn this into a “Concrete Equities Blog”, but since I have a rather large chunk of money invested with these guys, I think you can understand why this issue is important for me to track.

This morning I received an update from the President of Concrete Equities Inc., via email. If you’re an investor with Concrete Equities, please take the time to read through this discussion thread (UPDATE: it has since been deleted, but Google’s cached version has some of the info) – you’ll learn a great deal about your investment and the status of is. That thread is also where they announce meetings of investors. As for this message from the President of Concrete Equities, it’s hard for me to separate fact from fiction. I think the financials will reveal the truth in time.  This is a long message – the first section is about the Mexico investment, of which we have a unit in Santa Clara, and the remainder of the email is about the Calgary investments (we have the Castleridge investment).

Dear El Golfo (Santa Clara) Investor,

At this time, our firm would like to update you on current developments on this particular project.  El Golfo de Santa Clara region remains viable for future tourist development.  Being the first point of beachfront on the Sea of Cortez along the coastal highway in the state of Sonora it is developing into a great drive-to destination for Americans.  When the project began, the coastal highway was under construction and the international airport was being conceptualized.   Since that time the coastal highway is near completion and the international airport to service El Golfo de Santa Clara and the Puerto Puenasco (Rockypoint) area is well underway.  Also please keep in mind that your investment is a solid, equity based land hold with no mortgage or debt position on your asset. Continue reading A Status Update From Concrete Equities

News Stories on Concrete Equities Protest

On Monday, June the 1st, over 200 investors who gave their money to Concrete Equities took to the street to protest what the company has done. I wasn’t able to be a part of it, but I applaud all those who were there fighting for our collective investments. Today, June 4th, Concrete Equities is being challenged in court by the lawyer representing the investors. We’ll see what happens – my understanding is that even though three of the five groups of limited partners have legally voted out Concrete Equities and put a new General Partner in their place, Concrete Equities is refusing to accept the results of the vote and turn over the required control.

Here’s a round-up of some of the media coverage the protest received, and some photos from people who were there.

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“A commercial investment dispute spilled onto a downtown street yesterday as more than 200 investors protested in front of the head office of the company at the centre of the dispute.”
– Calgary Metro News Story

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“The trouble started in March when Concrete Equites, as general partner, asked the limited partners to sell all of their real estate to a new company in exchange for company shares. The limited partners didn’t bite and they say they then ousted concrete as general partner in 3 of the 5 partnerships but Concrete did not cede control and instead filed papers in bankruptcy court asking that a receiver be appointed. Now investors can only watch as this drama plays out in court.”
– CTV News Story

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“A group of disgruntled investors will head to court this week in a bid to regain control of their properties from Concrete Equities, a Calgary-based commercial real estate fund. More than 200 people protested outside the company’s offices Monday, demanding three years’ worth of financial statements related to the ownership of five buildings downtown that were placed under receivership earlier this spring….Mitrovic said the properties, which include the SNC Lavalin building downtown, were intentionally placed under bankruptcy protection in a desperate bid to prevent the installation of a new general partner in accordance with a series of votes that won the overwhelming approval of investors.”
– Calgary Herald Story

A few more pictures of the protest after the break. Continue reading News Stories on Concrete Equities Protest

Concrete Equities Admits To Breaching Alberta Securities Laws

Well check this out – looks like I should have been checking up on Concrete Equities late last year:

“CALGARY, Dec. 23 /CNW/ – The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) has concluded a settlement with Concrete Equities Executive Club Inc. regarding allegations that it breached Alberta securities laws. As of June 2, 2008, Concrete Equities Executive Club promoted and sold Class B shares to 18 Alberta investors, raising $1,620,000. Concrete Equities Executive Club admitted it breached Alberta securities laws when it engaged in an illegal distribution by distributing its Class B shares to 13 of these investors without a prospectus and without being registered to trade in them. Concrete Equities Executive Club paid $80,000 to settle the allegations and $2,000 toward investigation costs. In addition, Concrete Equities Executive Club has offered to recind and refund all investors who purchased its Class B shares and has undertaken to refund the investments of the 13 unqualified Alberta investors.”

A word to all investors: always do research on the companies you invest with, and the people who run them. Especially the people who run them!

UPDATE: I found a CTV News story on this.

Limited Partners Fight for control of Concrete Equities Investments

This press release was sent out by the group of volunteers who are leading the charge on reclaiming our properties from Concrete Equities.

Limited Partners Fight for control of Concrete Equities Investments

Calgary, Alberta Canada, June 1st, 2009 – The ten member Steering Committee and supporting Limited Partners of five (05) commercial investment properties in the Calgary area met today to raise awareness to potential investors to business practices being conducted by Concrete Equities.

The group of investors represent a minimum individual investment ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 and are comprised of individuals from several demographics, including pensioners and people that rely on the distributions from the investments for their income. The net portfolio is valued at approximately $300 million CDN. Continue reading Limited Partners Fight for control of Concrete Equities Investments

Global TV Story About Concrete Equities

Until the truth comes out about Concrete Equities, this is about the hardest that the news media can be on them, but it should be more than enough to give potential investors significant pause. If you’re an investor with Concrete Equities and you don’t know what’s going on, you need to read this discussion thread. If you need to contact in touch with the person on point for your property, please email me and I’ll connect you.

New Thoughts Media Corporate Site Launched

All I asked for was a couple of logo changes and minor layout tweaked, but the very talented Darius Wey instead created a new corporate home page for Thoughts Media Inc. It looks awesome! Thanks Darius!

Apple Thoughts Now Live

I figured I’d just re-publish my welcome message, so here it is:

“I’m thrilled to announce the launch of the fifth Thoughts Media site: Apple Thoughts. It’s been almost two years since we launched our last site (Zune Thoughts), and I’m really excited to be expanding our network with another great site. Why an Apple site? For the past three years or so, I’ve been watching the “Apple tide” rising. By that, I mean the overall impact that Apple has in the market – and I mean real impact, not the mainstream media fawning and hype that accompanies every new product Apple releases. The number of people I know that have switched to Macs is staggering – the painful launch of Vista certainly didn’t help things, but Apple is making tremendous gains in the market. Earlier this year, 40% of all notebooks sold at retail over $1000 USD were Macbooks, and who can forget this picture? The iPhone? Game-changing. Not the right phone everyone, and definitely over-hyped, but it changed the whole landscape of smartphones and what people expect from them. The Apple tide is rising, and as someone who makes a living online, it would be a poor decision for me to ignore that fact.

Now I know what some of you may be thinking: an Apple enthusiast site? From the guy who really doesn’t seem to like Apple very much, and has been known to be quite critical of Apple, iPods, and Steve Jobs in particular? Well, here’s the second announcement: Apple Thoughts is the first Thoughts Media franchise site. By that I mean that I will not be in charge of running it: Thoughts Media Inc. provides the server, back-end infrastructure, and monetization support, while the franchisee provides 100% of the editorial content and community management. I’ve tapped a very talented, opinionated, passionate, Apple-lovin’ guy to be the Executive Editor of Apple Thoughts. His name some of you will doubtless recognize: Vincent Ferrari. Vincent has been a member of the Thoughts Media community for a number of years, and was on the Digital Home Thoughts review team for a time. He’s got the right kind of personality to be a fantastic Executive Editor, and if I ever need an AOL account cancelled, I know exactly who to call.

Here’s a special request to everyone reading this: if you use a Mac, an iPhone, or any product made by Apple, please make a commitment to this new community. Starting a community is tough work – it’s a classic chicken-and-egg scenario where, when someone comes to a Web site with sparse comments and empty forums, they think “Oh, I won’t make this community my home, there’s no one here”. So I’m asking all of you Mac-usin’, iPhone-totin’ types to read, comment, contribute, share, help, and above all grow the Apple Thoughts community. My hope is that by this time next year, Apple Thoughts will have a vibrant, passionate, helpful community of Apple fans. We need you.

Please join me in welcoming Apple Thoughts!”

Oh, and I’ll add this from a forum post I made since some people seem to be freaking out that I launched an Apple-focus site, even if I’m not the one running it:

“I don’t own an iPhone, I don’t own a Mac, and I don’t own any Apple product now that my wife’s iPod Shuffle broke (which didn’t surprise me, but let’s not get into that ). But I’m not going to be writing here on Apple Thoughts other than perhaps commenting in the forums like everyone else – I’m not even a member of the Apple Thoughts editorial team! I won’t be writing reviews or news posts. So from an editorial perspective, I remain completely focused on Windows Mobile, Windows Vista, the Zune, and overall Windows ecosystem. I’m still a Windows fan, and you can expect the editorial coverage on the other sites to remain the same. I’m super excited about Windows Mobile 7, Windows 7 (just got my beta invite!), and I remain firmly committed to the Windows world.”

TomTom to World: No Maps For You!

Know what’s bad for business? When a customer comes to your Web site three days in a row, looking to buy something you sell, and all three days he sees the same page saying that the online store is closed.

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I’m heading to Japan in six days, and I wanted to find out if I could get a map for my TomTom GPS unit – and TomTom is giving me the finger. Ironically, I found torrent listings for the map – is that what it’s going to come down to? If the store isn’t open for the customer, he has to get a “hot” version of the product? Idiotic. TomTom, get it together!