Articles About Office

Washington, D.C. office leasing is on the upswing for the first time in a year.  Not surprisingly for the District, the rise in leasing activity is driven primarily by expanding federal agencies. A study by CB Richard Ellis of fourth quarter leasing activity showed that the private sector is again leasing space they had subleased […]

London has overtaken Washington, D.C., as the preferred city for commercial real estate investment,  primarily because investors believe that prices have bottomed out and the time to get into that market is now. The British capital has overtaken the previous favorites of Washington, D.C., and New York, according to a survey conducted by the Association […]

Foreign banks, American private equity firms and a leading Chinese sovereign wealth fund have been investing in commercial real estate in the United States in the hope that interest rates stay low. This increasing interest from investors could be a sign that the market is experiencing some stabilization.  According to Bob Steers, co-chairman of Cohen […]

By 2015, green buildings could constitute approximately half of all commercial space, according to a study by Good Energies, Inc., a New York venture capital firm.  Although sustainable initiatives were perceived as a niche market just 10 years ago, developers now realize that going green in new and renovation projects is not as expensive as […]

Commercial real estate will begin its long-awaited recovery in late 2011 or 2012, according to the fourth-quarter Korpacz Real Estate Investor Survey, which questioned more than 100 real estate investors, including REITs, pension funds, private equity firms and insurance and mortgage companies.  Confirmation is provided by a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey, which notes that Washington policymakers are […]

I was recently asked to comment on CB Richard Ellis’ recent “EIG State Incentives Ranking Report”  as an Certified Economic Developer who has been practicing in Illinois for nearly 30 years. Click on the link and take a look at the map and state rankings list that’s generated.  Illinois, Indiana and Iowa are marked “competitive.” […]

The commercial bond market may be opening up slightly as Bank of America (BofA) prepares to sell $460 million worth of bonds collateralized by properties owned by Fortress Investment Group. The bonds that BofA is arranging are ineligible for TALF, another positive sign that the commercial mortgage market might finally be showing signs of improvement. […]

Don’t waste a good crisis.  Right now is a great time to sit down and rethink and reinvent how we look at real estate and the workplace.  That’s the opinion of R. J. Brennan, Associate and Director of Workplace Strategies at IA Interior Architects in Chicago and former president of the Chicago Chapter of CoreNet […]

The Western European commercial real estate bright spot is the activity by German investors, according to the latest Global Capital Trends report from Real Capital Analytics (RCA).  “In April, the Germans raised a half billion Euros — approximately $690 million – for their open-ended funds.  That is in addition to the billion Euros raised in […]

New accounting standards calling for property to be marked to market,  and changes in lease accounting rules will strongly impact balance sheets, income statements and the general financial outlook of American companies. Unfortunately, many corporations are not ready to deal with the changes, according to a new report from CB Richard Ellis.  The mark-to-market requirement […]