Posted on December 12, 2017

The Forums provide a unique opportunity for members to openly discuss project challenges, business opportunities and lessons-learned in a confidential and non-competitive setting. Over time, fellow members become a trusted circle of advisors.

The National Forums are an excellent way to become involved, stay in touch and develop new connections with key industry leaders.

The application period for the National Forums is now open. Create an account and apply using our online tool — applications are due by February 2, 2018. Notification of appointment will be emailed and followed by letter.

Posted on December 11, 2017

Written by Susan M. Phillips

Want to predict the next real estate correction? When more than a quarter of all commercial real estate job openings are in property and asset management and acquisitions and development decline to less than 10 percent of all real estate jobs, it is a sign that the foot is coming off the gas pedal.

The third quarter saw overall commercial real estate jobs follow the U.S. job market and decline slightly, yet property and asset management jobs were up significantly, says the SelectLeaders Job Barometer. “Real estate asset prices have surpassed their prior 2007 highs, and employers are pulling back on growth-oriented hiring and instead building out their property and asset management capacity,” said Dr. David Funk, SelectLeaders chief economist, noting, “our Employment Cycle model is not yet predicting a correction, and cautious optimism could continue to rule the day but clearly there is a move to property management and corporate real estate hiring.”

Click here to read the full article.

Posted on December 8, 2017

NAIOP's legislative team is committed to keeping you informed throughout this historic tax reform legislative process with progress updates and what the legislation means for the commercial real estate development industry.

The Senate has taken a significant step toward achieving comprehensive tax reform by passing its version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This week, the House and Senate will meet in conference to iron out the differences between the two versions.

Both the Senate and House versions of the bill include matters important to our industry, including:

• Maintaining Section 1031 like-kind exchanges for real estate.
• Maintaining the deductibility of interest on debt for those involved in real property trades or businesses, including CRE development.
• Preserving capital gains tax treatment of carried interest for real estate practitioners, but requiring that assets be held for three years or more. Senate amendments that would have eliminated capital gains treatment for carried interests completely were defeated.
• Reducing corporate tax rates to 20 percent from the current 35 percent, not taking effect until 2019 in the Senate proposal.
• Limiting state and local taxes deductions to property tax and capping it at $10,000; the original Senate proposal would have eliminated it completely.
• Doubling the estate and gift tax exemption levels (with inflation adjustments) from the current $5.49 million for individuals or $10.98 million for married couples.  The Senate version would not completely repeal the estate tax; the House version phases it out entirely by 2024.

While the Senate amended its original version to bring it more in line with provisions included in the House bill, several important differences remain, including:  

Posted on December 6, 2017

Join REBIC for an exclusive conversation with Mick Mulvaney (Director of the White House, Office of Management and Budget and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), who will discuss the President’s vision for federal Tax and Regulatory Reform, and how it will impact the Real Estate Industry.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018
8:00-9:30am
Quail Hollow Club
3700 Gleneagles Rd, Charlotte

Cost is $25, breakfast will be served.

Click here to register.

Posted on December 1, 2017

Boxed Wholesale believes self-driving carts can be used to navigate through warehouses and pick products, according to an article in DigitalCommerce360.com. Boxed, a web-only merchant that sells primarily household goods, initially plans to use fully automated carts to shuttle goods between picking and packing human warehouse workers. “Long term, we’re aiming to expand the functionality of the vehicles to complete other warehouse tasks that can be made more efficient,” says Will Fong, the retailer’s chief technology officer. “For example, rather than sending a human to restock a picking zone with paper towels, the vehicle could soon be able to recognize the need to replenish the product and complete the task, all without humans needing to get involved.” A Boxed in-house team of two engineers developed the autonomous cart in 90 days. Boxed first added the carts to its warehouse in Union, New Jersey, and plans to add them to fulfillment centers in Dallas, Las Vegas and Atlanta.

Posted on November 30, 2017

A recent article in Bloomberg Technology, What Life is Like Inside WeWork’s Communal Housing Project, profiled WeLive apartment living to see if the shared common space apartments could reinvent rental housing the same way WeWork has changed office space. WeLive provides fully furnished apartments in the same building as WeWork’s shared office spaces. In the common areas, residents can “cook dinner in an expansive kitchen, shoot pool in the laundry room or get neighborly over free WeWork-provided cocktails on the seventh-floor roof terrace.”

WeLive debuted last year in Washington, D.C., and New York and was expected to have almost three dozen WeLive locations by the end of 2017, but still has only the two original locations. Tenants have been slow to lease, according to the article, because the apartments are as expensive as similar studio units on the market and the communal “dorm for adults” aspect is not appealing to everyone. Those interviewed for the story appreciated the networking and instant social life WeLive provides but several conceded that their units were temporary places to call home until they found something that felt more permanent.

Posted on November 29, 2017

According to Dodge Data & Analytics’ 2018 Construction Outlook, construction starts will climb 3 percent to $765 billion in 2018. The growth of the construction industry will continue into 2018, but some product types, such as multifamily housing and hotels, will see less activity. Single-family housing, office building, warehouse, transportation terminal, school and health care facility construction will continue to grow during 2018.

“Overall, the year 2018 is likely to show some construction project types register gains while other project types settle back, with the end result being a 3% increase for total construction starts. By major sector, gains are predicted for residential building, up 4%; and nonresidential building, up 2%; while nonbuilding construction stabilizes after two years of decline,” stated Robert Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics. He predicts single-family housing construction starts will receive a modest boost from post-hurricane rebuilding efforts in Texas and Florida.

Posted on November 28, 2017

Release Date: Fall 2017

Download the Fall 2017 NAIOP Sentiment Index Report. 

About the NAIOP Sentiment Index

The NAIOP Sentiment Index is designed to predict general conditions in the commercial real estate industry over the next 12 months. The forecast is not based on an analysis of historical data, but rather it represents the outlook of commercial real estate developers, owners, and investors. These NAIOP members are asked to respond to questions based on their ongoing work, including projects in their pipelines. For more information, see Understanding the Index.

Click here to read more.

Posted on November 27, 2017

According to an article in the Denver Post, downtown Denver is about 5 degrees hotter than surrounding areas in the summer due to the heat radiating from concrete rooftops and pavement. Denver ranks third in the country for the severity of the “urban heat island” effect — described as a phenomenon that increases air conditioning use and worsens air quality.

Citing a solution, the Denver Green Roof Initiative placed an initiative on the November 7 ballot, which recently passed, that will require buildings 25,000 square feet and over, constructed after January 1, 2018, to cover at least 20 percent of their roofs with gardens or solar panels. Denver joins San Francisco, New York, London, and Paris in cities around the world with similar requirements.

Realtors, contractors, and builders opposed the initiative, citing a rise in construction and housing costs as their primary concern. The Green Roof Initiative estimates a green roof will cost about $15 more per square foot than a traditional roof but will pay for itself in six years.

Posted on November 22, 2017

By Roger Heerema

A fresh-air, 28th-floor amenity lounge has transformed a Chicago office tower.

EXPANSIVE CITY views might be the greatest advantage offered by an upper floor of a downtown high-rise. But once you turn your back to the windows, it’s easy to forget that you’re in the center of a bustling city. You could be on any floor of any office building, anywhere.

That’s not the case at 200 West Jackson, a recently redeveloped building in downtown Chicago. On the 28th floor of this office tower, windows open during warm weather months to bring in fresh air and the sounds of the city below. This full sensory experience creates an inviting and comfortable atmosphere for a hospitality lounge, where building tenants socialize, collaborate and recharge.

Click here to read more.

Posted on November 21, 2017

NAIOP and the Greater Workspace Association convened with great success last week in Brooklyn, with close to 400 attendees gathering to talk all things office real estate: from co-working to design to demand to tech and beyond. Want to see what you missed? Check out the presentations, with more content being added here daily. Read More

Posted on November 20, 2017

Tapping into financial and property data can allow commercial real estate companies to save both time and money; using real-time performance analytics, for example, can help optimize operating expenses. As the volume of data across the globe increases at a staggering rate, meanwhile, the data center industry faces critical questions about cybersecurity and data management.

• Next Wave of CRE Tech: Harnessing Data to Unlock Value 
  Commercial real estate is coming to terms with the critical need for data-driven organizations, teams and results, reports Waypoint. The current tech landscape enables financial data to be aggregated into a single, company-wide system of record rather than compiling disparate data from separate, siloed systems. How organizations leverage and analyze the data is what will ultimately provide the competitive edge they need to rise above the rest.
• Four Ways the Cloud is Forever Changing Data Center Real Estate
  The future of data center real estate is looking more global and automated, according to JLL research, helping the data center industry become more efficient and keep up with the surging amount of data being generated by corporations, entertainment companies, and personal devices. Combined with the growth of cloud computing, these trends mean that the industry is facing important questions about cybersecurity, data sovereignty, and digital content consumption.

Posted on November 17, 2017

Date: December 5, 2017
Day/Time: 2-3 p.m.
Location: Your Office
Format: Webinar

The Advantage Series is an exclusive member benefit, delivering expert insights to help you make informed business decisions.

Get the inside track on upcoming opportunities in the office sector with Dr. Josh Harris of the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate and well-known industry economist Dr. Mark Dotzour. Together, they will provide insights and data from the new NAIOP Office Space Demand Forecast, identify linkages between overall economic activity and the demand for office real estate, and engage in a live Q&A session with attendees.

Register Online

Posted on November 16, 2017

To create destinations that captivate shoppers beyond mere retail purchases, owners have dramatically transformed malls by investing more than $8 billion in renovations over the last three years. JLL’s new report, A New Mall Rises, explores 90 super regional and regional malls that are currently undergoing or have gone through a significant renovation during that time period.

“Malls must respond to changing shopper preferences with laser focus and evolve their purpose through redevelopments to be relevant,” said John Lambert, director of retail development for JLL. “Many of the 90 properties we looked at are elevating their role beyond purely shopping and becoming destinations for dining out and entertainment, community activities and even lodging and residential.”

 The capital improvement upgrades fell into five main categories:

• Forty-one percent of malls added food and beverage options, and of those, 55 percent also added entertainment offerings.
• Forty-three percent of malls are adding non-retail uses including multifamily, office, hotels, call centers, schools, distribution centers and/or medical facilities.
• Twenty percent of malls are dedicating space to the community including open green spaces and kid-friendly play areas.
• Ninety-four percent of malls are getting a makeover through common area improvements, rebranding and/or making tenant upgrades.
• Twenty-two percent of malls are de-malling the space or demolishing it for the highest and best use in the community.

Posted on November 16, 2017

Last Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee released draft tax reform legislation that they will move through committee later this week. The Senate bill was released after the House Ways and Means Committee passed its version of tax reform earlier that day.

The Senate draft differs in some aspects from the initial House version, which NAIOP President and CEO Thomas Bisacquino detailed last week in terms of its impact on the commercial real estate industry. Overall, both bills continue taxing commercial real estate development and investment on an economic basis, recognizing the long-term, capital-intensive nature of the industry.

Importantly, both bills would preserve the use of 1031 exchanges and continue the deductibility of business interest expense for the commercial real estate industry. Both would also lower corporate tax rates to 20 percent. Under the Senate bill, however, the rate reduction would be delayed until 2019. Some other differences of note for commercial real estate include:

Posted on November 15, 2017

The U.S. commercial real estate industry ecosystem is changing at a rapid rate due to new forms of technology (e.g., artificial intelligence, smart cities, mobility improvements, sensors) and demographic changes in the workforce, according to Deloitte’s Commercial Real Estate Outlook 2018. The report urges the real estate industry to embrace these changes even though they might represent uncertainty.

The key, according to the report, is to close the gap between technological changes and business productivity over the next 12-18 months by prioritizing the following themes:

• Accelerate business: Unlock the value for REITs by examining their corporate governance and communication strategies, optimizing property portfolios and reassessing public status.
• Avail alternative capital options: Traditional commercial real estate companies can engage with fintech startups for sharable solutions, diversified funding sources and investment purposes.
• Augment productivity: Companies should embrace robotics and cognitive automation to improve productivity in data collection, management and analysis.
• Advance talent and culture: The commercial real estate industry is facing a talent shortage and must be agile, innovative and collaborative to attract new employees.

Posted on November 14, 2017

Written by Champaign Williams

Technology is transforming the investment sales process. 

Ten-X Commercial Division Managing Director Yan Khamish said though technology can never replace brokers in the investment sales process, it can cast a wider net and help investment brokers, buyers and sellers close more deals faster. 

Posted on November 13, 2017

Miss CRE's premier event? We've got you covered with the conference session recordings, recaps and news coverage you need on the CRE.Converge resources page.

Click here to read more.

Posted on November 8, 2017

A Charlotte architecture and interiors firm has finalized its merger with Progressive AE.

ai Design Group, which announced the merger last summer, has formally adopted its new name of Progressive AE, effective today. The merger will result in expanded service lines in the Charlotte market, including new engineering services. The local leadership team of principals Wes Jones, Kim Marks (NAIOP Charlotte member) and Ryan Doherty will remain intact, according to Progressive AE, with Jones serving as managing principal of the Charlotte office and Marks appointed as the firm-wide workplace practice leader.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Charlotte is the second office for Progressive AE, which is based in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Posted on November 3, 2017

House leaders took a significant step forward with tax reform efforts on Thursday with the release of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, H.R.1, which includes an expansive set of proposed changes to the corporate and individual tax system.

As promised in my previous messages to you on this topic, our legislative team and I are committed to keeping you informed on tax reform developments affecting the commercial real estate industry. In this proposal:

• Section 1031 like-kind exchanges are preserved for real estate.
• Current tax treatment of carried interest is preserved.
• Deductibility of interest on debt is maintained for those involved in real property trades or businesses, including commercial real estate development.
• Current eight individual tax brackets are condensed into four brackets: 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and 39.6 percent. The top rate of 39.6 percent would apply to income levels of more than $500,000 for an individual and $1 million for couples.
• Corporate tax rates are reduced from the current 35 percent to 20 percent.
• Pass-through businesses (such as partnerships and limited liability companies) will pay a new, lower top rate of 25 percent on their business income, subject to certain restrictions.
• Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) is eliminated.
• Estate tax threshold is doubled (from the current $11.2 million for married couples), and phased out entirely by 2024. The step-up in cost basis on assets is retained.
• Deduction for state and local taxes limited only to property tax and capped at $10,000. (Currently, state and local income and sales taxes can also be deducted.).
• The Historic Preservation Tax Credit and New Markets Tax Credit are discontinued, with transition periods provided. As legislation moves forward in the House and Senate, NAIOP will advocate for the continuation of these important incentives.

Starting next Monday, the House Ways & Means Committee will begin marking up the legislation. The president has expressed his desire to accelerate tax reform and sign a bill before the end of the year.