1031 completed

The San Diego office of Colliers International announced the completion of a 1031 tax deferred exchange that started in San Diego and ended in Texas.

The Texas transaction was the sale of a 14,820-square-foot building in Midland for $6.4 million.

The property is leased to Walgreens under a 25-year lease with 23 years remaining.

John Busse, senior vice president of Colliers' San Diego office, located the Texas property for the client, Brentcrest Associates, a California limited partnership, to complete the 1031.

The exchange began in June with the Colliers team, including Jon Busse, John Gross, Evan McDonald and Derek Hulse, marketing and selling for $10.15 million the four-building, 152,513-square-foot Centerpoint Tech Center on Kenamar Court in San Diego for Brentcrest.

Mammoth tooth pulled

(AP) -- A crane operator has pulled a mammoth tooth during excavation for a California transit center.

Experts say the 10-inch-long brown, black and beige tooth, which was broken in two and missing a chunk, belongs to a woolly mammoth that roamed the San Francisco region some 10 million to 15 million years ago.

Paleontologist Jim Allen told the San Francisco Chronicle that the downtown find on Monday is significant.

He said the tooth is in remarkable condition with the enamel still intact, and has not deteriorated to the point of most fossils.

A crane operator digging down 200 feet unearthed the tooth at the massive Transbay Transit Center construction site.

Equinix REIT

(AP) -- Shares of Redwood City-based Equinix surged to their highest level in more than 11 years in morning trading on Thursday as the data center operator's board approved plans to convert to a real estate investment trust.

“We are committed to creating long-term shareholder value. The REIT structure supports this objective and positions us to achieve profitable, strategic growth domestically and internationally,” Executive Chairman Peter Van Camp said.

He said if it's successful in its conversion it expects to be able to claim REIT status for tax-related purposes starting Jan. 1, 2015.

CEO Steve Smith said that by converting to a REIT Equinix (Nasdaq: Equinix) will be able to become more competitive, as many of its peers operate as REITs.

The company anticipates taking on about $50 million to $80 million in costs to support the conversion process. It foresees additional annual compliance costs of approximately $5 million to $10 million if the conversion goes through.

Weevil import

(AP) -- Customs officers have found an elephant weevil in a shipping container of Australian oranges at the Port of Los Angeles.

It's the first time the agriculture pest, which attack wine crops and fruit trees, has been found in the United States.

Los Angeles customs director Todd Brown told the Los Angeles Times that the elephant weevil would seriously impact California's wine industry if undetected.

The weevil was found Aug. 30 in a container of oranges shipped from Australia.

The shipment, bound for Florida, was fumigated and released on its way on Friday.

Nevada foreclosure

(AP) -- Nevada's foreclosure rate is fifth in the nation after big drops in activity compared with last year.

RealtyTrac reported Thursday that Nevada's August foreclosure rate is up 3 percent from July, but down nearly 70 percent from the same time last year.

That somewhat reflects national foreclosure numbers, which saw a 1 percent increase from July but a 15 percent drop since last August.

One in every 402 properties in Nevada saw some sort of foreclosure filing last month.

That rate fell behind Illinois, Florida, California and Arizona.

The state's rate has been declining as lenders adjust to a state law requiring more paperwork to launch a foreclosure. That law took effect in October and dramatically slowed Nevada foreclosure activity.

Alaska wetlands fill

(AP) -- A proposed 36-mile Alaska Railroad extension to Port McKenzie in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough has cleared a regulatory hurdle.

The Army Corps of Engineers on Monday issued a permit allowing the railroad to fill in nearly 96 acres of wetlands for the line that will start near Houston and run south to the port across Cook Inlet from Anchorage.

The project is a joint effort between the state-owned railroad and the Mat-Su Borough.

Borough transportation manager Brad Sworts said Wednesday the permit is an important step that will allow contractor Bristol Construction Services to complete the first five miles of embankment work north of the port.

“We're expecting they'll finish mid-next summer,” he said. The entire line is projected to be complete in 2016.

Critics say the rail line and the port itself are expensive propositions based on speculative commercial prospects.

The projected cost of the state-funded rail line is $272 million. The total footprint for the line is 758.5 acres.

Contamination removal

(AP) -- The federal government will spend more than $28 million to remove 428 tons of lead-contaminated soil from yards in Jefferson County, south of St. Louis.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced the funding Wednesday, estimating that about 800 residential properties will require remediation.

Sampling has found widespread lead contamination in the flood plain of the Big River, which begins at Leadwood and runs to the Meramec River confluence near Eureka.

Excavated soil will be taken in covered trucks to a landfill in nearby Washington County.

Officials believe the soil was contaminated by old mine workings.

Elevator falls, kills

(AP) -- A platform elevator at a construction site in southern China has dropped 30 floors in a free fall, killing 19 workers.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the accident happened Thursday in Wuhan city in Hubei province.

A government notice posted by local Wuhan newspapers on their official microblogging sites said the elevator fell 328 feet.

It said the municipal government is halting all construction in Wuhan for security checks.

Work safety is a big problem in China, where regulations are routinely ignored.

Although the government said it is taking measures to reduce fatalities, more than 75,500 people died in work-related accidents last year, according to the State Administration of Work Safety.

$100M railroad

(AP) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is giving the impoverished Central Asian nation of Tajikistan $100 million to rebuild road links with bitter rival neighbor Uzbekistan.

ADB's Tajikistan office said Thursday that the highway would form part of a 6,200-mile road network connecting Western Europe and Russia to the Middle East and South Asia.

The dilapidated 70-mile Aini-Penjikent road in Tajikistan lies along a section of the ancient Silk Route that once brought a flourishing trade to Central Asia.

The work will rebuild the road up to Uzbekistan's border.

Ties between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have soured over sharp differences on how to share natural resources.