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As an avid follower of presidential politics since the age of six, this year’s protracted primary process has been interesting.  The talking heads’ endless dissection of every policy statement; speculation as to which of the all-powerful super-delegates will back whom; the endless round of debates; the questions of who made the best impression.  One of […]

The Spring 2008 issue of Development Magazine quotes Mark Gibson, Leader, Strategy and Operating Real Estate Advisory Services for Ernst & Young, on the seven skills that corporate real estate executives should bring to the table, listing them in order of importance: Project Management Strategic Planning Process Implementation Understand the Business Fortitude Real Estate Real […]

When you embark upon a construction project today, the process is one of tight controls, vigilant attention to detail, and a careful balance of cost, schedule, safety, and quality.  Industry professionals are highly skilled and often highly specialized.  It takes an integrated team effort including the owner, design professionals, construction professionals, and many other stakeholders […]

I recently hosted a panel at DePaul University in Chicago on the history of corporate real estate, which highlighted the sector’s emergence from an embedded functionary to a stand-alone department with direct reporting to the CFO.  Unlike today’s more integrated version, the blueprint for corporations throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s was the holding company corporate model, featuring […]

The February, 2008 issue of Healthcare Real Estate Insights reported on the Titanic of MOB transactions – the acquisition of 28 medical office buildings (MOBs) by Nationwide Health Properties, a healthcare REIT based in Newport, CA. The deal, worth $915 million, included a portfolio of existing and future MOBs totaling 2 million SF. There is […]

One of the interesting drivers for new development may be the exchanges for futures and options which are seeing some consolidation.  A recent article in the March issue of Business Week Chicago profiles the acquisition of the Chicago Board of Trade by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to form CME Group — a blockbuster deal that […]

The current debate about spiralling fuel prices uses the price of gasoline at the pump as the belwether of energy prices. In the real estate industry, the energy metric commonly raised is electricity. But another spike is more striking: Diesel fuel prices soared 26.75 cents, or 7 percent, to an average $4.0630 per gallon from […]

With the current upheaval in the capital markets and the news that Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have written off $70 billion in loans, it is interesting to note a whole cadre of financial institutions that are doing gangbusters.  According to an article in the 2/19/08 USA Today, smaller banks which avoided the enticement […]

A recent report by Crain’s Real Estate Report (2/28/08) features a story about Schneider Logistics, an Evanston, IL-based company moving to downtown Chicago for one reason — the need to recruit young college graduates. According to Vice-president and General Manager Charles Craigmile, “it’s much better from a recruiting standpoint. Evanston is beautiful, but it’s tough […]

With all of the bad news about the housing market and the impact of sub-prime loans, its worth putting this in a historical context.  The U.S. mortgage market totals $12 trillion. Of that, $2.4 trillion is sub-prime loans.  Of this 20% of the debt will go bad — about $400 billion.  That equates to 3% […]