181Jul 28, 2020
www.bisnow.com reported today that New York City brokers do not feel very confident in the current and future state of the real estate market, and in a Real Estate Board of New York Broker Confidence report released yesterday averaged 1.94 out of 10 this quarter. “In their general written comments about the market, brokers cited…Read More→
182Jul 17, 2020
I attended a webinar this week with office specialists from JLL, C&W, Cresa and Newmark Knight Frank, representing San Francisco, the Peninsula, the East Bay and Silicon Valley. In San Francisco for the most part when March hit, the world just stopped. Nothing was happening, and tenants only did what they had to do. Along…Read More→
183Jul 16, 2020
First off, I am in no way an expert in this but just an office broker who has spent many decades representing office tenants in their space needs. However, I have been doing a lot of reading and researching. If your building has openable windows, great, let the outside fresh air in. Most newer buildings…Read More→
184Jul 15, 2020
In an article today in GlobeSt.com, a recent survey by Gensler found that only 12% of workers want to work full-time from home and 70% said they want to spend most of their week in the office. “Meetings, socializing and impromptu face-to-face interactions with colleagues were ranked as the top reasons people wanted to head…Read More→
185Jul 13, 2020
In my morning paper the headline read “249 experts agree: Virus lingers in the air indoors”. This got me to thinking how safe are office spaces in today’s pandemic environment? Asia has been repopulating many of its corporate offices months before the U.S. and I couldn’t find any reports one way or the other. There…Read More→
186Jul 8, 2020
Reported in TechCrunch this past week: 63% of the startups surveyed by Founders Forum with Tech Crunch said they would re-open in 1-3 or 3-6 months, regardless of when the government told them it was safe to do so. A small number have re-opened their offices, 10% have closed their offices permanently and many said…Read More→
187Jul 7, 2020
The Society of Office and Industrial Realtors (SIOR), of which I have been a proud member for over thirty years, interviews top brokers on a variety of issues and publishes these interviews. Neil Dailey, SIOR, office broker with McGraw Commercial Properties in Tulsa, Oklahoma, stated this about the new view of office buildings: “I also…Read More→
188Jul 6, 2020
Nikkei Asian Review just reported that Fujitsu will cut their office space in Japan in half over the next three years. Teleworking will be made a standard practice, and Fujitsu has introduced a policy that will limit the number of employees in the office at any one time to just a quarter to its total….Read More→
189Jul 3, 2020
Triple-net real estate investment owners often take a lower rate of return, sometimes in the 5-7% annual range, with increases every five years, long 20-30 year leases, credit tenants or strong franchises just to protect their investment. Many of these investments are absolute triple-net, which covers the owner. If a hurricane tears down the building…Read More→
190Jul 2, 2020
Real Capital Analytics, which tracks national commercial real estate sales, reported on June 25, 2020 that May sales volume was down 79% year over year. Industrial was the best performer category (only down 70%), office volumes were down 82% and apartments were down 81%. Retail dropped 83%, and all of the above looked comparatively strong…Read More→
191Jul 1, 2020
There have been a number of reports, both regionally as well as nationally, that predict corporations will begin leasing suburban office space to accomplish several goals. First, they need to increase employee separation during the pandemic, and it is much cheaper to lease space in the suburbs to accomplish this. Secondly, companies that are above…Read More→
192Jul 1, 2020
San Francisco has over 4.5 million square feet of available office space for sublease, and some brokers are predicting that this may cause direct office space rents to drop by as much as 10-20%. The Covid-19 is not the only reason for this spike in available space. There were a number of new office projects…Read More→
193Jun 29, 2020
In National Real Estate Investor June 2020 Elaine Misonzhnik writes on page 3, “The virus might be with us indefinitely. (The World Health Organization has predicted it might take up to five years to get it under control.) And to declare the end of cities, decide that everyone should work and learn from home permanently…Read More→
194Jun 20, 2020
To quote Michael Tannenbaum, CFO of BREX, “Think of the office as a perk what you offer…when you start to think of it has a perk, you can start to say, are we getting the value out of this office relative to other things we can be offering?”. I have to totally disagree with this…Read More→
195Feb 20, 2020
Published in the National Real Estate Investor January/February 2020, Jim Costello, SVP of Real Capital predicts industrial will continue growing at double digit rates, many investors and lenders will continue to hate retail, and suggests caution when taking on debt. ”There’s an ugliness of politics entering the investment process in the year ahead. We will…Read More→
196Feb 19, 2020
75 percent of people also note that working in a more collaborative environment would make them happier
197Feb 12, 2020
California commercial real estate is expected to expand in 2022, according to the UCLA Anderson Forecast survey. The developers surveyed felt that 2020 would see a slight slowdown. The panelists were optimistic about industrial and multi-family, and in general pessimistic about retail. The only impediment to multi-family was the lack of qualified labor and resulting…Read More→
198Jan 27, 2020
“declining oil prices hurting the Russian and Middle-Eastern zillionaires”
199Jan 16, 2020
Concord Weapons Station Reuse Project City of Walnut Creek New Developments City of San Ramon Current Project List Colliers Retail Report Fall/Winter 2019 Colliers Oakland Office Report Q3 2019 Colliers Oakland Industrial Report Q3 2019 Colliers San Francisco – Peninsula Report Q3 2019 Colliers Pleasanton – Tri-Valley Industrial Report Q3 2019 Colliers Pleasanton – Tri-Valley…Read More→
200Jan 10, 2020
Bloomberg News Banks around the world are unveiling the biggest round of job cuts in four years as they slash costs to weather a slowing economy and adapt to digital technology. The 2019 cuts bring the total for the last six years to more than 425,000. In fact, the actual amount is probably higher because…Read More→
201Jan 9, 2020
The verdict may still be out regarding open space plans and whether GenZ and Millennials truly value this concept, but there are other office aspects that do seem to find consensus. While an Inc.com writer recently called open-plan offices “the dumbest management fad of all time” (SUIR Report Fall 2019), they welcome transparency and connectedness…Read More→
202Jan 9, 2020
Over 9,800 retail stores closed in 2019
203Aug 8, 2019
In National Real Estate Investor, July 12019, there was a report on the biggest flex office space markets in the country, with Regus and WeWork dominating. Manhattan reported 13.5 million square feet with 30% annual growth, Los Angeles, 4.2 million with 15% annual growth, and in 6th place San Francisco with 2.8 million feet and…Read More→
204Jul 22, 2019
Again and again, companies that can choose to locate to regions where there is plenty of low-cost office and research space, and where the cost of a new house is ridiculously cheap (i.e. under $250,000 for a decent home in a decent neighborhood) companies still choose to locate in the Bay. Autonomous vehicle firm Aurora…Read More→
205Jul 5, 2019
Governor Gavin Newsom “recently criticized Tennessee, which is an increasingly popular destination for Bay Area businesses and residents. “I see that we’re CEO magazines ‘worst place in America to do business’ and yet our GDP growth outperforms every one of those other states they highlight,” Newsome said, citing California’s strong economic growth averaging 3.8% in…Read More→
206Jul 3, 2019
Commercial building rooftops – Meet The Jetsons! Most of you may be too young to remember the cartoon show back in 1962/1963 where everyone was getting to places in their personal flying cars. Now Uber Elevate is planning a flying car business to use rooftop skyports to pick up and drop off passengers. With a…Read More→
207Jun 25, 2019
The first inside page of the May/June 2019 Business Facilities magazine was an ad for Michigan Economic, “The startup culture in Michigan is like no other.” For sure, if you want very affordable housing, which according to Zillow, the median rent price is $850 and median home sales is $350,000. Here in the overpriced and…Read More→
208Jun 19, 2019
A recent article in the May 31, 2019 San Francisco Business Times reports that three years ago 34% of those surveyed said they may leave the Bay Area in a few years, the following year that figure increased to 46% and now 49% feel that way. However, 74% said the Bay Area is a good…Read More→
209Jun 11, 2019
In an article titled “Wealthy Millennials are leaving these states – and moving to these instead,” I had fully expected to see California at the top of the list of states folks were fleeing from, but was surprised! Based on data provided by the IRS from the 2015 to 2016 tax year, a June 2019…Read More→
210Nov 14, 2018
First time since the Great Recession that I’ve heard multiple commercial real estate brokers broach the possibility of an upcoming real estate “crash”. In my opinion, crash is too harsh, but with rising interest rates, cap rates (price divided by net income) will also go up, resulting in property values going down. A number of…Read More→
211Sep 7, 2018
A recent Harvard Business School study of two Fortune 500 companies found that a cubicle-free workplace without private offices actually forces less face-to-face and more e-mailing and instant messaging. Employees have headphones on to drown out distracting noise. “There’s a natural human desire for privacy, and when we don’t have privacy, we find ways of…Read More→
212Aug 31, 2018
A number of the major commercial brokerage companies reported a spike in the cost of office tenant improvements. In some regions the tenant improvement costs are rising much faster than the rental rates. Increases from 10 to 21% are hammering office landlords. “Key factors affecting the sudden rise in TI allowances include: 1) a significant…Read More→
213Aug 29, 2018
I am so glad we’re building new freeways and additional Transbay bridges and BART tunnels … NOT! Yet there is a huge push to build hundreds of thousands of new homes in the Bay Area to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of new tech jobs. In just one submarket, San Francisco’s Central South of Market…Read More→
214Aug 27, 2018
Does giving tax breaks and / or subsidies to corporations to entice them to relocate to your community work? There has been a number of reports out that basically state, “Financial incentives do not spur economic activity!” Claims are made that construction jobs, local investment in the community, of course, new jobs … While these…Read More→
215Aug 24, 2018
One of the best components of the workplace to invest in is the lunchroom / breakroom. This is where almost all of the employees go at some point in the day, and making this an energizing and enticing place to visit for all age groups and job functions is key: Mix and match furniture heights…Read More→
216Aug 22, 2018
How will autonomous cars affect how your employees commute, what impact on your building’s garage and what other impacts on the way we do business? It is happening faster than you think. “By the end of this year, Waymo plans to launch the world’s first commercial ride-sharing service in the Phoenix metro area using…Read More→
217Aug 21, 2018
At the recent Commercial Real Estate Allen Matkin’s / UCLA’s forecast, for California and overall, office space has reached the peak for this cycle with office rates as high as they will be for the foreseeable future. Warehouses are hot and for the East Bay, San Joaquin and Sacramento counties will remain sizzling for the…Read More→
218Aug 8, 2018
I recently saw one of the futures of office space, a Mercedes Benz with four seats facing each other around a small conference table, driverless, of course, so you can have meetings while on the way to more meetings. https://artplusmarketing.com/the-future-of-self-driving-cars-ux-augmented-reality-office-cars-and-more-50a134f152e7
219Aug 1, 2018
“Of the Bay Area residents who are still here, nearly half of those surveyed recently said they plan to move out of the region in the next few years, according to a poll released in June by the Bay Area Council.” (Bay Area News Group, July 15, 2018) Folks are leaving in droves, selling their…Read More→
220Jul 25, 2018
Not sure if this is a signal of a change in office market conditions or just a coincidence, but recently out here in the burbs of Contra Costa we have had a flurry of office building open houses and promotions. Breakfast open houses, luncheons, and we’ll see how long this trend continues. However, if prospects…Read More→
221Jul 25, 2018
49% of Baby Boomers are confident they can move up in their housing in the San Francisco Bay Area (I thought these slightly older folks were downsizing?), 38% of Gen Xers had the same confidence, but 74% of Millennials living in the Greater Bay Area are considering moving, but may have to move away from…Read More→
222Jul 19, 2018
There is an industry organization for co-working operations, professionals, asset owners, service providers and investors called the Global Workspace Association. There are over 14,000 shared workspaces in the world today and for the Unites States there are 20 companies that have five or more locations. Landlords are looking more at various partnerships with the major…Read More→
223Jul 18, 2018
by Odette Pollar Time Management Systems Question: I am going to start a business from my home, but I am worried about being taken seriously by my customers. Answer: More and more people are working from home and hence it does not carry the same stigma it once did. Before going “official”, particularly in a condominium…Read More→
224Jul 18, 2018
Home Depot will be taking 50 of its stores and installing 1,000 solar panels on each roof, which is expected to reduce electricity by 30-35%, and six of these will use Tesla Power packs to store and dispatch additional power. (Buildings, October 1, 2017)
225Jul 12, 2018
A recent quote by Fiona Grandi, National leader of strategic investments with the big CPA firm KPMG caused me to think, how will this impact our future office space demand? “Five years ago the big push was to go paperless. Today the push is to be automated.” When we went paperless we needed a lot…Read More→