Editorial IREM Luncheon Thursday OCT 7th

Editorial IREM Luncheon Thursday
October 7, 2010

At the IREM Houston luncheon, Dr. Richard Murray, Ph. D. gave his valuable insight on Houston’s changing demographics and future. Dr. Murray covered topics concerning the commercial real estate community. He addressed Proposition I to political campaign funding. Furthermore, he provided a fact-based and historical approach to speculate the outcome of the mid-term elections.

“About seventy percent of Houstonians vote straight party,” Dr. Murray noted. He mentioned that no single party will gain a dominant position from the upcoming elections. The Democrats were successful in passing major bills and legislation however, continuing this theme is highly unlikely for either party in the next term. Proposition I, doubtful to pass, is losing momentum because of the taxing for school districts, churches and other tax exempt entities.

left-to-right

Frank Staats – IREM Houston President - Crescent Real Estate Equities

Dr. Richard Murray – Speaker, An Insider’s View of How the Election Will Affect You!

Mary Butler- IREM Houston President Elect – Granite Properties

GreenPainters U.S. launch happy hour at New Living

GreenPainters U.S. launch happy hour at New Living on September 29th, 2010

I stopped into New Living to check out a local sustainability initiative. At REDNews we have committed to educating all sides of sustainability within our publication. REDNews’ GREENews will include information about Energy Star/LEED Certified properties and eco-friendly products and services available to the community.

 

New Living has formed GreenPainters U.S., an initiative to educate and certify "Green Painters" in how to work with sustainable coatings and how to green their business techniques. At this launch party, I ran into Steven Stelzer the program director of the Green Building Resource Center (GBRC). The city endorsed GBRC displays a wide array of eco-friendly products and methods geared towards educating the public in sustainable design components for their homes and businesses. New Living is a product/service donor of the GBRC.

Houston Solar Tour OCT 2, 2010

Houston Solar Tour 
October 2, 2010

The Solar Social was an opportunity to meet and greet those with a similar passion for renewable energy choices. The venue sat in front of the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at The University of Houston. Geared towards education, the event hosted several booths with well connected individuals of the Houston sustainability movement. The fun wasn't over at noon. In fact, it just it was just beginning as the attendees boarded the appropriate buses to go view actual commercial and residential solar PV systems of the Houston area.

Left to right:
Heather Smith -USGBC EP Chair
Lisa Lin -USGBC EP Chair Elect
Maria Pesantez -USGBC EP Green Films Coordinator
Laura Spanjian -City of Houston, Director of Sustainability

Changes to the Historic Ordinance , Houston

Lee Girard asked me to pass along this information.

We have about a week to effect the city council vote on the proposed new Historic Ordinance. We are planning an organizational meeting for our supporters and would like for you to attend and bring your concerned neighbors.

Time: Thursday, October 30, 6:30 PM

Place: Better Homes and Gardens, Anderson Properties, 741 E 11th Street

It is likely that we are going to have to collect a large number of petition signatures in a short amount of time, so it is key that we are organized.
As you may know, the city, specifically Ms. Lovell, promised the Heights a re-vote. They are reneging on that promise and now mandating that we get 25% of homeowners in each district to sign a petition indicating they want a re-vote. Further, this has to be accomplished in 15 days! The city has also indicated that they will not give us that required form ahead of time, so we will really only have 15 days. This will be a challenge in larger districts. Of course, that is the intent. There are a number of city council members who agree that this is unfair. Those Council Members are putting pressure on Ms. Lovell to make some changes. We need to keep this in front of them and at the top of their Agenda. Outraged constituents also give political cover to the Council people who are supporting our cause.

It is URGENT at this point that we make our voices heard to City Council.

We have five major points that we are fighting for:
.
1. Every existing Historic District be resurveyed with 67% of owners and land area for approval to become a protected historic district

2. New districts will be created with 67% of owners and land area for approval to become a protected historic district

3. That all design guidelines must be developed for each neighborhood and presented to the neighborhoods before the vote takes place

4. That there be a mechanism/process for all Protected Districts to pursue withdrawal as a Historic District after the first year of designation is complete

5. That when a district completes the process for withdrawal from protected status it goes directly to council for reconsideration not a non-elected official or Commission

We need to have as many people driving these points home to council as is possible! Please email and call council and the Mayor. Go to our web site for contact information - ResponsibleHistoricPreservation.org.

What else can you do?
Plan to speak at City Council on Tuesday, October 5 at 2:00. You will need to call the city secretary at 832-393-1100 to make your appointment to speak. You can call the day before or by 11:00 the day of the meeting to reserve your spot. We are planning to have a lot of people speaking, so you will probably only be able to get a one-minute spot to speak. That makes it easy. Our main point is a resurvey for all districts is the only fair way to handle this. If you want to get up and say one sentence, that’s it. It has been made very clear to us that the number of people speaking at council sways the vote. I know the time is inconvenient and we all have jobs. It is really quite important to look Council in the eye and tell them you care about about your property rights.

Mary Wassef
Realtor, ABR, CLHMS
Keller Williams Realty- The Heights

REDNews Advisory Board Appreciation Party

We changed the format of our Advisory Board meeting and turned it into a party Thursday night, September 30th at Grotto.

Kevin Dalrymple with Clay & Co, Jim Carney with REDNews, Liz Westcott-Brown with Tarantino, Beth Young and Henry Hagendorf with Grubb & Ellis. Thomas Boran with REDNews, Angela Sandoval and Marisol Varate with Tarantino, Suzanne Page-Pryde with Page-Pryde Properties and Peggy Rougeou with Tarantino

Ginger Wheless with REDNews, Ed Taravella with Taracorp, Jim Carney with REDNews and Peggy Rougeou with Tarantino

Women in The Fast Lane of Real Estate

Wednesday, September 29th, The Greater Houston Women's Chamber of Commerce put on a "Business Style (Fashion) Show at the Riverway Omni before a crowd in excess of 500. Beth Wolff with Beth Wolff Realtors and Beth Young with Grubb & Ellis were Co-Chairs and were joined by 24 top real estate producers as models.

Style Show MC's Stephen Skoda with M Penner and Beth Young with Grubb & Ellis

Raquel and Andrew Segal and Lee Girard

Henry and Haley Hagendorf

Dawn Landry and Robert Kramp

Westchase District's 15th Anniversary Party at Rio Ranch

Westchase District's 15th Anniversary Party at Rio Ranch, Thursday September 23rd, 2010

Two founding members of Westchase District: Jim Murphy and Paul McDonald

Attendees at Westchase Anniversary Party

County Proclamation of Westchase Day September 23rd

Ft Bend Society of Real estate Breakfast and O'Connor Office Forecast Luncheon

Ft Bend Society of Real estate Breakfast Tuesday/21


Bob Graff, Missouri City, Dr John Novak, Curtice Commercial/Colliers and Jim Cockrill, Coldwell Banker United

O'Connor Office Forecast Luncheon Wed 9/22

Paul Frazier, Brookfield Properties, Laura Van Ness, Central Houston and Brad Fricks with Stream Realty

Melanie Fregoe Edmundson with Phase Eng, Jim Murphy, Westchase District and Kathleen O'Connor with O'Connor and Assoc.

Paul Frazier feels that the next 3 quarters will be flat or uncertain for CBD market then we could see a bump in gross rental rates to over the current $34. He noted that 67% of Class A space in CBD was built between 1970 and 1984.

Brad Fricks sees recovery in most office markets in 2011 when quite a few leases are up for renewal with The Energy Corridor expected to recover by mid 2011 with Westchase and CBD to follow. The Galleria is now in recovery phase with forecasts of 1 to 3 new buildings projected.

Houston BOMA Tuesday August 31st, 2010

Can You Implement Changes At Your Property to Encourage a Greener Environment?


The answer is yes and a panel of experts including Morris Chen, Dave Johnson and Andre Lehr gave many examples of low cost and no cost items to make your buildings more Eco friendly at the BOMA sponsored event yesterday. In additions to citing methods for implementing programs, many examples of the return on investment for property owners were given.

Andre Lehr, Morris Chen, Dave Johnson and Chuck Moore

Laura Spanjian, Director, Mayor’s Office of Sustainability with The City of Houston announced that the City is implementing a Houston Green Office Challenge. The purpose of the Green Office Challenge is to help participants achieve strategies that reduce energy, waste and water usage and will ultimately reduce overhead costs to owners. Plus the City of Houston will also be providing funds to support these initiatives. Watch for their official announcement next Tuesday!

Laura Spanjian

View the complete video of this event here.

RERAlliance Financial Reform Luncheon

Financial Reform was the topic of the Luncheon that RERAlliance presented Tuesday August 31st. The well attended event offered some fresh faces and comments concerning the "Roadblocks to Commercial Real Estate Recovery".

Phil Lewis with RERAlliance led the discussion which included John Heasley with the Texas Bankers Association and Julie Cripe with OmniBank.

John Heasley

Julie Cripe

 According to John; 95% of the mortgage loans in the past 3 to 4 years would never had been made if not for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Julie says that Commercial Real Estate is out of favor in DC where housing is a "Sacred Cow" and small business is seen as an economy booster. So that leaves out CRE.
The still unanswered question that came from the audience was: "Publicly banks say they are lending but my loan officer says no".

View the complete video of this event here.

Ted Jones at ACRP/SIOR August 26th, 2010

Ted Jones with Stewart Title was the featured speaker this morning, August 26th. His message on the new business model for the 2011 economy is pretty simple. It's Adapt, Mitigate, Migrate or Die.

Brian Cogburn with Hyde Park Investments, Reid Wilson with Wilson, Cribbs & Goren and John Duffie with Nelson Duffie Interests

Once again; it's a good thing this is Texas. Real estate values in Houston are basically twice as good as the US averages. This also looks like the best buying opportunity since 1988/1989. And best bets are land and hotels.

                 Marty McAdams with McAdams Associates and Melanie Fregoe Edmundson with Phase Engineering

O'Connor Retail Forecast Wednesday August 18th, 2010

Kathy Riggs and Kathleen O'Connor both with O'Connor and Associates and Speaker John McFarlin with Coldwell Banker Commercial United
John McFarlin with Coldwell Banker Commercial United is neither economist nor a retail expert but he gave a great presentation today at the O'Connor Retail Forecast Luncheon. John is an ex football coach who knows how to prepare for the upcoming opposition and in this case it's the retail economy.
Where is Retail going? It's going to the Internet and the brick & mortar will more and more be turning into discount and outlet locations. For example: Macy's is devoting it's entire capital expenditure budget to e commerce. They expect a return of $5.50 for each $1.00 allocated. Target will be expanding 350 of its stores to feature groceries. The major drugstores are doing the same thing. They want to be convenient one-stop-shops.

ULI Houston Tuesday August 17th 2010

ULI held a panel discussion Tuesday entitled "Real Estate Rx--expert diagnosis for properties in distress". The panel was moderated by Fred Caldwell with Caldwell Companies and included: Fred Balda with Hillwood Residential; Russell Ingrum, Exec. Vice President, Investment Properties, Institutional Group CBRE Capital Markets; Jeff Majewski, Exec. Managing Dir., Grubb & Ellis and Tim Williamson with Wells Fargo Bank. The panel mirrored most recent expert opinions in that the worst is behind us, 2010 is much better than 2009 and thank god we live in Texas. Tim Williamson offered some hope for developers and investors looking for project funding. To the surprise of many he announced that Wells Fargo is increasing it's commercial real estate exsposure and is agressively lending money.

David Hightower with Wolff Companies, Jim Casey with CBRE and Rusty Tamlyn with HFF

HRBC Commissioner Jerry Eversole

Commissioner Jerry Eversole was feature speaker at Thursdays HRBC breakfast and had a follow-up to comments made at the Tuesdays Harris County Commissioners Court. In response to a Houston Chronicle article titled "Verbal fireworks in Commissioners Court". Commissioner Eversole made it quite clear that he hopes County Judge Ed Emmett continues in his position forever.

In more pertinent information to commercial real estate interests the Commissioner announced that sections F1 and F2 of the grand Parkway are commencing September 10. This portion of the Grand Parkway will be crucial to the new Exxon Mobil facility which will house 12,000 employees. Also starting up will be Coventry Homes on their 1,600 acre tract.

Laurence Bernell with Bernell Realty Group, Dick Klein with The Richard Klein Company, Ed Taravella with Taracorp and Bud Friedman with Fort Bend Real Estate Corp.

CCIM July 8th, Ted Jones Speaker

Stewart Titles Ted Jones was the speaker at last Thursdays CCIM Luncheon and once again put on an entertaining slide presentation. Ted feels that we will not be out of the recession till jobs turn around. Right now recessions are judged according to rising and falling GNP numbers. Ted feels that our economy would be best served if this was measured by the job growth rather than GDP. Trends point to 3 more years of rising unemployment. And just as others have commented  "it's a good thing we are in Texas".

Jim Cockrill with Coldwell Banker United, Realtors - Sugar Land, Beth Young with Grubb & Ellis and Gordon Fox with Fox Inspection Group

      Sassy Stanton with Stanton-Pinckard Realty, Michele Brown with United Western Bancorp, Suzanne Page-Pryde with Page-Pryde Properties and Melanie Fregoe Edmundson with Phase Engineering

HEBC July 8th 2010. Houston Mayor Annise Parker

Houston mayor Annise Parker was featured speaker last Thursday at the Houston Realty Business Coalition Breakfast. She mostly reflected on her first 6 months in office but did bring up the subject of increasing property values by accelerating the process of tearing down derelict multi-family properties. The mayor would like that Houston is thought of as the "City that works and you don't have to think about it".

                Mark Sappington with Cobb Fendley & Associates and Houston City Councilman CO Brad Bradford.

Former Houston Police Chief CO Brad Bradford was in attendance. He feels strongly that Houston can be positioned as the #2 city to do business in in the USA. No one can top NYC but neither Los Angeles or Chicago has the advantages of Houston. He feels a strong marketing campaign emphasizing our strong business atmosphere would prove beneficial.

 

Carried Interest

Senate Democrats Don't Expect to Pass Extenders Legislation by Sam Goldfarb




Senate Democrats said June 24 that they don't expect to pass extenders legislation in the near future and will move to a small-business bill after a procedural vote later in the day.



The Senate is expected to vote today on a motion to limit debate on a substitute amendment to H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010. At a press conference, Democratic leaders said they do not anticipate that moderate Republicans will support the amendment despite repeated efforts to modify the legislation to resolve differences.



Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that extensions of tax cuts such as the research credit and the state and local sales tax deduction will not be moved to the small-business bill because the tax extenders and small-business provisions are "separate issues." Offsets, such as a tax increase on carried interests, could conceivably be used to pay for other legislation, he said.



Democrats refused to say if there is a plan to address the extenders later in the year. "Until we get a few more votes on this, I don't know what we're supposed to do," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.



Bradley H. Bailey



Associate Vice President Investments



Director, National Retail Group

Special Assets Group



Marcus & Millichap

8310 N. Capital of Texas Hwy

Suite 150

Austin, TX 78731

License: TX: 0429279

(512) 338-7800 ext. 0167855

(512) 338-7855 direct

(512) 338-7810 fax

(512) 619-6070 mobile

bradley.bailey@marcusmillichap.com

ULI Luncheon June 22nd Galveston Recovery Panel

Panel members from L; Tom Murphy ULI Sr Fellow and former Mayor of Pittsburgh, Betty Massey Citizens Long Term Recovery Committee, Jim Noteware City of Houston Housing Dev. and Joe Jaworski newly elected Mayor of Galveston

ULI hosted a panel discussion on the Galveston Recovery Effort yesterday.  This effort has 42 projects planned and at this point has a long way to go but all say they are making significant progress. Of note was that Federal funding has not yet been sent and not expected till August.

Redevelopment of unused assets into a "Remarkable Place" is one goal. A lot of political bickering and an end to sluggishness should be ending with the recent elections. The Mayor and City Council are focused on forward and positive thinking. Per the Mayor the isolationist view of the past will be replaced with a more regional viewpoint.

Tiffany Soltis with Wilson Cribbs and Goren and Sue Jacobson with Stewart Title

Abe Goren with Wilson Cribbs and Goren, Phil Lewis with Eller Lewis & Loep Realty Advisors, Jerry Goldstein with Marcus and Millichap and Gary Hough with Q10 Kinghorn, Driver, Hough & Co

Biznow Houston Capital Markets - June 22, 2010

Biznow held a Capital Markets panel discussion yesterday and had a pretty good crowd of CRE executives. First up was the lender and banking perspective followed by executives from some local real estate firms. Larry Heard from Transwestern once again seemed to be able to convey the sentiment of many that Houston should be able to recover nicely but when is still the issue. With the BP disaster it looks as though chances of Houston recovering before the rest of the country are now slim. He feels foreclosures will extend through 2013, cap rates are going down, pointing to a DC office property that went at a 5 cap and he likes Industrial prospects in Houston.

Mark Kidd with M Kidd Properties and Fran Youngstrom with Marvin F. Poer & Co

Carried Interest Update, as of June 15th

Dear ICSC Member,




On Monday, June 14, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed for cloture, the final parliamentary step to move H.R. 4213, which includes the carried interest tax increase on real estate partnerships to pay for a $140 billion temporary extension of tax credits and benefits. Reports suggest, however, that Senator Reid is still short of the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster on this bill.



ICSC anticipates an updated version of the legislation to be released later this week as negotiations on several aspects of the bill, including carried interest, continue. Senator John Thune, R-S.D., is expected to offer an alternative that does not include the carried interest tax increase and would slash spending and deficits by $55 billion while still extending tax breaks and benefit payments.



Last week, ICSC President and CEO Mike Kercheval and various ICSC members came to Washington, DC to visit with several key Senate offices. While we received support from most offices, it was mixed with a lack of commitment to make necessary changes to this problematic tax increase on commercial real estate. ICSC's efforts to dampen the impact of this tax hike continue.



At this point, we do not believe that Senate leadership is willing to further consider the concerns of the commercial real estate community with the carried interest provision, and we are asking ICSC members to contact their Senators to request a "NO" vote on cloture and "NO" on H.R. 4213 until the carried interest issues for real estate are reconsidered.



To contact your Senators, please call 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senators' offices. Click here to use the ICSC phone script as a resource for those calls. You can also click here to send an email if you are more comfortable with that option. The important thing is that Senate offices hear from you.



Thank you for your continued efforts on this issue.



Sincerely,



On behalf of Betsy Laird

Senior Vice President

Office of Global Public Policy ICSC







Forwarded by:



Bradley H. Bailey



Associate Vice President, Investment



Director, National Retail Group



Marcus & Millichap REIS















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