1Dec 15, 2021
If the San Francisco Bay Area were it’s own country, it would be ranked #19 in the world in terms of largest economy. Recent major corporate expansions in this region have bolstered this well-deserved reputation. LinkedIn just expanded its Sunnyvale headquarters by committing to a number of new office buildings to be developed. Meta, formerly…Read More→
2Jul 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→
3Jun 17, 2020
The Society of Industrial and Office Brokers (SIOR), the elite national organization of the top office and industrial brokers in the country, just surveyed their membership. One SIOR commented he has seen rent discounts of between 10 and 13 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that during the last three down cycles rents ended…Read More→
4Jun 10, 2020
Apartment rent collections nationwide which were in the 90+% range the past few months appears to have sunk to the 82% level. Retail rent collections reported in the 25% range. At some point this will impact the banking and financial sectors when landlords cannot pay their mortgages without sufficient rents coming in. Will this lead…Read More→
5May 28, 2020
Salesforce, with 9,000 employees in three San Francisco office towers, will have temperature scans on every floor, mandatory masks, six-foot separations, hand sanitizers everywhere and cleaning throughout the day. Work areas and conference rooms will be at half-capacity or less and employees will arrive at staggered times. The Bay Area Council surveyed 123 companies last…Read More→
6May 18, 2020
As this issue is in print, it was prepared well before COVID-19 came on the horizon, but was just recently distributed. One big headline read “Regardless of where you fit into the commercial real estate system, or what asset class(es) you work with, one thing is for sure: 2020 will be a year to remember!”…Read More→
7May 14, 2020
Twitter just announced to its 1,000 San Francisco office employees that if they wanted to continue working from home, they could on a permanent basis. What will happen to Twitter’s very cool downtown HQ remains to be seen. The San Francisco Business Times also interviewed a number of smaller 2,000-4,000 square foot office users in…Read More→
8May 11, 2020
Miriam Hall of Bisnow reported yesterday that Vornado Realty Trust said two-thirds of delinquent tenants were credit-worthy, ‘but businesses are hurting and the future is uncertain’.” Vornado collated 90% of office rents and 53% of retail rents in April and May looks to be similar. Office occupancy is currently 5%. Vice-Chairman David Greenbaum said “I…Read More→
9May 5, 2020
Bisnow just reported a study by CoreNet, which is the corporate real estate directors organization, that based on a survey conducted between April 22 and April 27, 2020, polling its 11,000 person membership, 69% of corporate real estate professionals said their company would take less real estate after spending time working from home. Another survey…Read More→
10May 4, 2020
Nationwide Insurance said it will permanently exit most buildings outside its four main campuses and move those associates to permanent remote-working status. I wonder what will happen to those employees who live with small children, roommates, or don’t have adequate quiet working space…I’m also wondering how many other major office users are considering this same…Read More→
11Apr 21, 2020
The other day I attended an excellent Zoom meeting and here are the highlights. A number of California counties are using e-recording while their offices are closed to the public. The original documents must be in the escrow officer hands while the documents for recording are transmitted electronically. Submissions are routinely kicked back if the…Read More→
12Apr 20, 2020
Colliers just published a report where they believe there will be minimal impact on the office tenants and the office market. CBRE came out with another report that said it may take a year after the economy rebounds for the commercial real estate market to get back to normal. Globest.com had an interesting article where most…Read More→
13Apr 17, 2020
According to a new McKinesey & Co report, the pandemic will force commercial real estate to make significant structural changes. Open office layout and densification trends may reverse, and there may be changes in building codes and regulations relating to how many square feet each employee is allotted. CRE companies may intensify a move toward…Read More→
14Apr 16, 2020
Yesterday I was on a webinar with Larry Heard, CEO, and Chip Clarke, President and here are the highlights…the office industry will come out of this COVID-19 fine, but there will be a period of transition and adjustment. It won’t be business as usual. Working from home seemed to turn out fine for many of us, but…Read More→
15Apr 15, 2020
Bisnow April 8, 2020 reports that 22.7 million of the 45.8 million total rental units are owned by mom-and-pop individual investors and many of these use their tenants rent to pay their property taxes and mortgages. If they don’t’ have Freddie or Fannie loans, without Federal assistance in mandating the lenders give owners some type…Read More→
16Apr 13, 2020
First, it is important to keep in mind a win-win collaborative negotiation and at almost all costs to avoid litigation and the court system. Tenant asks for three months’ rent relief; Landlord compromises and accepts 50% rent for three months with no repayment. Tenant asks for three months’ rent relief; Landlord accepts 50% rent for…Read More→
17Apr 9, 2020
Over the past week I have been on a number of commercial real estate podcasts and webinars, trying to learn what is happening and will happen to our commercial real estate market in the United States. Here are a few nuggets I have picked up. One international real estate company interviewed a number of their…Read More→
18Apr 8, 2020
According to Bloomberg News April 1, 2020, WeWork is asking landlords to cuts its rent by 30%, in some cases offering revenue-sharing agreements. Early indications are landlords are reluctant. As of June 30, 2019, WeWork is on the hook for $47 billion in lease liabilities.
19Apr 7, 2020
Greg Kraut, the co-founder and CEO of New York-based KPG Funds, in Commercial Observer April 2, 202, stated ‘The commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market has essentially collapsed and the broader $20 trillion commercial real estate market is on the verge of collapse as well. We still have time to prevent this catastrophic event, but we need…Read More→
20Nov 13, 2019
Having been through a number of economic booms and then downturns I like to be alert to early warning signs of an impending office slow-down in one of the hottest office markets in the US, San Francisco. We don’t have to worry about a suburban slow-down as Contra Costa and the Tri-Valley never took off…Read More→
21Nov 12, 2019
A new startup called MainStreet entices employees frustrated by the high costs of the Bay Area by paying them $10,000 to relocate to a less expensive locale like Salt Lake City or Sacramento, they keep their tech jobs and work remotely from A co-working location where 20 people from 7 or 8 different companies may…Read More→
22Oct 31, 2019
“We’ve been debating for a couple of years about what impact new FASB rules would have on our business,” says Adam Kaduce, SIOR, a Senior Vice President at R+R Realty Group in West Des Moines (office leasing business). “Frankly, we’ve seen very little FASB related influence on how people are looking at real estate. It’s…Read More→
23Oct 30, 2019
What, haven’t you heard about the Bay Area’s outrageous cost of housing and California’s crazy high tax structure? You could expand anywhere in the United States, go where the average price of a decent home is $250,000 or less, which might be just the down payment in the Bay Area! Then again, if you were…Read More→
24Oct 29, 2019
WeWork has 528 locations in 111 cities in 29 countries as of June 2019. Before its valuation collapsed from 48 billion to 20 billion during the past month, it had identified 280 additional cities as targets. In 2018 it lost 1.6 billion and the first six months of 2019 it lost $690 million. “Landlords have…Read More→
25Oct 25, 2019
I recently attended a presentation on Cybersecurity and Smart Buildings, and I was blown away by the many potential benefits (and one major concern) in this emerging industry. The experts giving the presentation included executive David Colby from Schneider Electric SE (a $29B Fortune 500 multi-national manufacturer of HVAC and IoT hardware); a cybersecurity expert,…Read More→
26Oct 22, 2019
I just attended the annual SIOR Conference in Portland (Society of Office and Industrial Realtors) an international group of 3,300 commercial brokers who have to take a lot of classes and document they are in the top few percent of the nation’s commercial real estate experts. I’ve been a member for 34 years and it…Read More→
27Oct 14, 2019
“Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a publicly broadcast Q & A with employees that his company is looking elsewhere for growth because of the Bay Area’s housing and traffic issues. The infrastructure here is really tapped. Housing prices are way up. Traffic is bad.” “Facebook’s largest locations outside of the Bay Area are Seattle,…Read More→
28Oct 11, 2019
I was just mailed a marketing piece from the California Madera County, Economic Development Commission, and a few interesting facts: In 1990 California’s population was only 29,950,000 and now it is 39,927,000, a 10 million growth in less than 30 years! No wonder our housing hasn’t caught up. The average home price in 2018 in…Read More→
29Oct 9, 2019
What was that old saying regarding killing the golden goose that laid the golden eggs? Sure you get one solid gold geese feast but that is it for a future supply of golden eggs! The San Francisco Planning Commission just okayed a plan to raise office fees by 143%! Fees would go from $69.90 per…Read More→
30Oct 4, 2019
According to Asia Now: The China Edition, Matthew Asia’s 2019 report, among Chinese millennials 88% shop online more than once a week, there are 1 billion smartphone connections in China, 98.6% of internet users accessed the web via a mobile device, their middle class was 4% urban population in 2000 and in 2018 was up…Read More→
31Aug 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→
32Aug 2, 2019
In the San Francisco Bay Area, office tenant improvement costs have gone through the roof. A few years ago, new carpeting and paint was $6-8/sf, now $12-15/sf. Second generation space could be remodeled for $20-25/rsf just five years ago but now $50-60/rsf is required just to move a few walls, life-safety, Title 24 and minor…Read More→
33Jul 22, 2019
Using sensors and the new software analytics are helping companies to cut their office space by 30% or more. Microsoft used this and “this has meant significant financial savings and it could mean Microsoft can make further consolidations that save it tens of millions of dollars.” Bisnow.com July 2019
34Jul 15, 2019
According to a new 2019 National Office Absorption report just out by CoStar, net absorption is down 26% Midwest, 18% South, 9% in the West, but up 2% in the Northeast. No reasons for this given perhaps continued increases in productivity, corporate downsizing and offshoring/outsourcing? Here in the Bay Area, especially San Francisco, companies are…Read More→
35Jul 9, 2019
San Francisco may finally begin to run out of office space as there are more than 8.1 million square feet of office space being proposed, but with the office cap on new construction of 2.1 million square feet, there finally may be an exodus to the East Bay! Along the I-680 and Tri-Valley we have…Read More→
36Jul 8, 2019
Yes, the Bay Area has a severe housing shortage. Here is an example of why: “Almost 400 projects in the city (San Francisco) comprising 36,909 units have been approved for over two years but haven’t started construction, according to the planning department. Of those, 6,095 are affordable. Developers point fingers directly at local impact fees…Read More→
37Jul 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→
38Jun 27, 2019
If you are an office user evaluating different office buildings and want a quick way to see how the building is maintained, check out the restrooms and stairwells in smaller Class A and all sizes in Class B office buildings as this is where spider webs, dirty floors, and lack of dusting can show up. …Read More→
39Jun 25, 2019
“LED’s are one of the fastest ways to reduce energy consumed by buildings…The study notes that adding networked lighting controls to LED installation boosts energy savings by an average of 47% beyond savings from LED’s alone.” Buildings June 2019
40Jun 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→
41Jun 14, 2019
Lisa Picard, CEO of EQ Office, describes co-working spaces as “the three F’s…fast, flexible and fun.” WeWork has introduced WeLive, a co-living concept with existing facilities. RISE by We, a gym and super-spa concept, and WeGrow, a kindergarten program for children ages two through five at $36,000 annually, per child. (Ouch!) “New co-working operators tend…Read More→
42Jun 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→
43Feb 1, 2017
A few weeks ago, I gave a Forecast 2017 presentation at Scott’s Walnut Creek restaurant. Bottom line is we are in a great shape for the most part, with the San Francisco office market still robust. Annual full-service rents range is from $75 to $110/square foot, and tech sublease space gets snatched up by other…Read More→