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The white pages are heading into retirement, as regulators in New York, Pennsylvania and Florida have approved Verizon Communications Inc.’s wish to no longer distribute residential phone books. According to phone companies, the majority of people now look up numbers on the internet instead of consulting the bulky book.  “Anyone who doesn’t have access to […]

Noted Chicago architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s famous maxim “Less is more” should apply to ambitious plans for revamping Chicago’s Navy Pier, the city’s top tourist destination.  Writing in the Chicago Tribune, architectural critic Blair Kamin says “The good news about the latest vision for the pier is that it discards the excesses of […]

Although millions of Americans are paying their under water mortgages on time – sometimes with difficulty — it still could prove to be a source of trouble.  Because home prices are stagnant, many owners are using their hard-earned dollars to pay the mortgage and less on consumer spending.  In the long term, that is not […]

That eye-catching new building in Miami Beach is not an avant garde hotel but a unique twist on the utilitarian parking garage, with retail on the first floor. Officially known as 1111 Lincoln Road, the garage designed by the Swiss architectural firm of Herzog & de Meuron has seven exposed concrete slabs supported – at […]

At age 75, mega-billionaire and Chairman of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., Warren Biffett has likely selected the person who will succeed him when he eventually retires.  The chosen one – who will head a holding company that owns such diverse businesses as Geico and Dairy Queen — is said to be 39-year-old Todd Combs, currently […]

Eight Chicago taverns – all built more than a century ago by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company and which bear the brewer’s signature globe logo – may be given landmark status by the City Council.  The former brewery-tied houses were built in the Queen Anne or Baroque styles and “convey important aspects of the ethnic, […]

Mortgage rates have hit a record low.  According to Freddie Mac, rates for 30-year mortgages fell to 4.27 percent from 4.32 percent in just one week.  At the same time, safe-haven government debt is more appealing to investors than ever, according to a Freddie Mac survey. The low rates may be a sign that housing […]

Two years after the global financial meltdown and collapse of Lehman Brothers, world leaders seem to have reached an impasse over crucial proposals designed to prevent the same devastating scenario from occurring in the future.  The stalemate is so serious that there may be little chance that needed changes will be made. Executives at the […]

Two significant threats to the economy are receding, although the recovery still has a long way to go. One of the threats was the specter of deflation – which has not occurred since the 1930s – now belied by the 0.3 percent inflation rate reported for August, and driven primarily by rising food and energy […]

Who’s right about the state of the economy and commercial real estate – the bulls or the bears?  Robert Knakal, chairman of New York-based Massey Knakal Realty Services, weighs both sides to help us cut through the mixed messages. In a recent interview for the Alter NOW Podcasts, Knakal noted that the bulls like to […]