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The landlord at Eastland Mall has told its tenants they must vacate the shopping center by June 30.

The landlord, LNR Partners Inc. of Miami, says the mall’s owners have been unable to find a buyer for the property, and the property is now in foreclosure, according to a letter delivered to store owners Friday.

“It is understood that the lender or any other party that acquires title to Eastland Mall at foreclosure will close the mall,” the letter states. “We regret that this action is necessary, but given the present economic environment, we have no other option.”

The mall, which has operated at Central Avenue and Sharon Amity Road since 1975, has struggled in recent years to attract and maintain tenants. It is the Charlotte region’s fifth-largest shopping center, measuring nearly 1.1 million square feet.

“We will continue to serve the tenants and the customers until June 30,” says Christine Vigneault, general manager of Eastland Mall.

Last year, the city of Charlotte had options to purchase the former Belk Inc. and Dillard’s Inc. anchor spaces as part of a plan to redevelop the property. But, after a rezoning hearing, the City Council directed the city staff to “take no further action” on the mall.

Discussions about buying the struggling property pegged acquisition costs for the mall, its anchors stores and surrounding parcels at up to $50 million, according to sources familiar with those talks.

In October, the real estate investment trust that owned the core of the retail center — but not its four anchor-store spaces — handed the property back to its lender. Ohio-based Glimcher Realty Trust (NYSE:GRT) had a $42 million loan on the property.

The real estate investment trust’s mortgage was diced up and sold off as commercial mortgage-backed securities long ago.

The mall is now under the control of a holding company overseen by LNR.

LNR, the special servicer on the loan, is owned by private-equity fund Cerberus Capital Management.

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Hawaii’s gas prices remain flat from last week at an average of $3.53 a gallon, according to the AAA Hawaii Weekend Gas Watch.

Gas prices for Hawaii metro areas on Thursday were as follows:

• In Honolulu, regular unleaded sold for $3.43 a gallon, one cent higher than last week and $1.06 higher than a year ago.

• In Hilo on the Big Island, regular unleaded sold for $3.56 a gallon, two cents more than last week and $1.07 more than last year.

• In Wailuku, Maui, gas was $3 no faxing pay day loans.90 a gallon, up three cents from a week ago and $1.23 more than last year.

“Last week, oil prices surged to 18-month highs above $87 per barrel,” said AAA Hawaii’s Acting Branch Manager Chris Olvera. “The jump in prices was largely due to investor optimism on the pace of the economic recovery starting to show up in some sectors.”

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Falls Church security contractor DynCorp International Inc. has agreed to be acquired by private investment firm Cerberus Capital Management LP for $1.5 billion.

Terms of the proposed transaction call for Cerberus to pay $17.55 in cash for each share of DynCorp International common stock, approximately $988 million in cash based on the approximately 56.29 million shares of stock outstanding. Assumption of debt would make up the balance of the purchase price.

The cash price of $17.55 for DynCorp shares (NYSE: DCP) is a 49 premium to its closing price Friday of $11.75 per share. DynCorp went public in May 2006 at $15 a share. The stock reached its peak in Jan. 2008 when it traded at $27.58.

As a security contractor, DynCorp has been active player in U.S. security missions around the globe, especially Iraq. In its latest profit report, DynCorp earned $20.3 million, or 36 cents per share, on revenue of $915 billion.

The acquisition by Cerberus has been approved by DynCorp’s board of directors and recommended to shareholders, but is contingent on approved by a DynCorp shareholder vote.

DynCorp has the opportunity to get more from a sale. The acquisition agreement gives DynCorp 28 days to solicit alternative proposals from third parties and the company said Monday it intended to consider any such proposals. But at least one big block of owners think the Cerberus offer is good enough to take. Affiliates of Veritas Capital FundManagement LLC, which hold nearly 35 percent of DynCorp International shares, have agreed to vote in favor of the transaction.

Assuming the deal is approved by shareholders and government regulators, both firms expect the transaction to close in the third or fourth quarter of 2010. After that, DynCorp would become a private company wholly-owned by Cerberus.

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The Phoenix Suns, Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix Coyotes drew about the same number of fans to their winning home games Wednesday. The difference is that the Coyotes and Suns sold out their stadiums while the D-backs filled 36 percent of Chase Field’s 48,650 seats.

The D-backs drew 17,673 fans for their win over the San Diego Padres. The Suns sold out the 18,400-seat US Airways Center next door in their win over the San Antonio Spurs and the Coyotes sold all 17,100 tickets in their final regular season home game in Glendale against the Nashville Predators.

The Coyotes started the National Hockey League season with poor attendance, but have seen a boost of late qualifying for the NHL playoffs for the first time since 2002. Both the Suns and Coyotes are headed to the playoffs while the D-backs have just started their 2010 baseball season.

The recession-induced pullback in consumer spending has been a challenge for ticket sales. The Arizona Cardinals are in their off season but are renewing season tickets for the next football campaign.

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In the rich tradition of April Fool’s Day pranks, Google has renamed itself after Topeka, Kan., accompanied by an absurd explanation from the company’s chief.

On Thursday morning, the company’s home page was titled "Topeka" instead of "Google," although still in its distinctive blue-red-yellow-green font.

Why? Because in March, Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten announced that he was informally changing the name of his town to "Google," just for one month. He told CNN that he was doing it for "fun." This is Google’s tit-for-tat explanation, according to its official blog, posted by CEO Eric Schmidt.

"Whatever the outcome, the conclusion is clear: we aren’t in Google anymore," blogs Schmidt.

April Fool’s Day carries a long tradition for pranks and punks, which affect every aspect of life, from the school yard to the board room. Since the advent of the Internet, companies and individuals have gotten inundated with funky e-mails making wild claims, on this day in particular.

Google has made a name for itself as one of the more proactive pranksters in the business world. Every year on April 1, the company tries to punk its followers with a new prank.

Past pranks

The naughtiness stems back to 2000, when Google claimed that its "MentalPlex" could read your mind through your computer screen, allowing users to conduct searches on sheer brain power.

"With MentalPlex, you just project a mental picture of what you want to find," explained Google, in its 2000 posting, accompanied by a hypnotic spiral.

Last year, Google claimed its site was featuring the world’s first 3D browser, but this was just another case of April Fool’s bunk.

The strange tradition of April Fools’ mass media pranks goes back to 1957, when the BBC broadcast a weird and untrue television segment about Swiss farmers harvesting spaghetti from trees.

Naturally, many of the viewers mistakenly thought the BBC story was real. 

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Employment dropped in nearly all of the 334 largest U.S. counties from September 2008 to September 2009, and Kansas City-area counties didn’t escape the declines.

Clay County took the greatest local hit, with employment falling 5.7 percent, or 86,600 jobs, according to figures the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Thursday. Johnson County trailed close behind, with employment diving 5.6 percent, or 299,400 jobs. Jackson County experienced a decline of 4.4 percent, or 353,100 jobs. Wyandotte County saw a drop of 2.7 percent, or 78,800 jobs, which was the 35th-best showing in the nation.

See the complete report here.

None of the drops were as severe as in Elkhart County, Ind., where employment fell 14.5 percent during the period, mostly because of manufacturing job losses.

The greatest gain came in Yakima County, Wash., where employment rose 1.7 percent.

The nation’s average weekly wage slid 0.1 percent during the third quarter of 2009, the first year-to-year drop in three quarters and one of only five drops since 1978. Average financial activities wages fell 2.3 percent; average manufacturing wages fell 0.2 percent. Wage changes ranged from a 6.6 percent gain in Bell County, Texas, to a 13.2 percent loss in Rutherford, Tenn.

Here’s how the Kansas City-area counties stacked up in terms of average weekly wage and the percent change year to year:

• Clay County, $785, up 2.7 percent

• Jackson County, $858, up 0.7 percent

• Johnson County, $858, down 0.9 percent

• Wyandotte County, $812, down 2.2 percent

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SanTan Village, the outdoor open-air shopping mall in Gilbert, is hosting an Italian street painting festival April 10-11.

Called ‘Bella Strada,” the event features more than 150 artists that will chalk the "streets" of the center with their artistic visions. In addition, there will be live music, performances and other amenities to create a festival-like atmosphere. Children also will have an opportunity to draw their own masterpieces on the pavement.

From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, restaurants across the San Tan center will put on Restaurante di SanTan, an event that features a range of samplings online pay day loans. Tickets to that portion of the event cost $10 per person or $8 each for a family of four. Access to the arts and music is free.

Proceeds will benefit Save the Family, a Mesa-based nonprofit that provides housing and other services to families with children.

For more, visit www.santanvillage.com or www.savethefamily.org.

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