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Over the past year, my passport has thickened significantly – from Brasil, Russia, Morocco, Istanbul, China, Korea, Taipei, India, Bhutan, and to our offices in London, Dubai, Moscow, Shanghai, Beijing – along with our 5 US based offices – we’ve been designing retail places all over the world.  During my travels I am always drawn to the older marketplaces of these cities – many that have existed for centuries.  What makes these captivating places so dynamic, so full of energy, discovery and inspiration? What can we learn from these places as we develop new centers of commerce and retail, as we work…

  There appears to be an increasing air of optimism among real estate owners and investors with the recent increase in housing starts and apparent stabilization in the stock market. However, financing remains limited and expensive as spreads remain very wide and LTV’s very low. Unlike the early 1990’s, when banks and the FDIC dumped real estate assets, the banks today are exercising far more patience and appear willing to hold and manage foreclosed assets until pricing improves. Based on the proposed federal assistance that the feds plan to give to banks and the relaxation of mark-to-market accounting sales, we…

  Developing a social media strategy will be critical to your businesses success moving forward. If you don’t have a well conceived and deftly executed social media strategy it will be difficult to drive brand equity in an ever increasing consumer driven market. Our social media practice is the fastest growing segment of our business simply because of the demand-side pull from the market place. Consumers won’t engage with companies and brands they do not trust, and in today’s world trust is most effectively established via social validation on the Internet. How times have changed… If you’re still of the…

  The multi-family divisions of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – “the other side of the house” – rarely receive the credit due to them. It is estimated that 22-28% of American households live in rented homes. The large majority of these households fall squarely into the lower to middle income brackets. Their ability to find safe, well maintained rental communities often depends on the health of the apartment market. Critical to that marketplace is the availability of debt that helps finance the construction and acquisition of rental communities. Clearly, apartment operators/owners are willing to invest in rental properties if…

  Tamara Kos, a colleague in our office who specializes in leasing representation for owner clients in downtown Chicago, shared with me some interesting recent observations as follows. As we all know and as we are all aware, the recent events in the capital and financial markets have drastically impacted businesses and their decision making process. What has been unusual about the recession of 2008/2009 has been its significant impact on virtually every industry, and we are seeing very high levels of workforce job losses so early on in this business down-cycle.   As a result, many businesses have been…

  Over the next several years, hundreds of billions of debt capital will be needed to refinance maturing loans, and when market fundamentals rebound, additional debt will be needed for new acquisition and development projects. The future role of the agencies, which provided a lion’s share of debt capital for the multifamily market, is somewhat uncertain as the present conservatorship expires at the end of 2009. Smaller regional and community banks have begun to provide some debt but larger banks remain paralyzed. The number of insurance companies providing debt has diminished and the ones quoting are very conservative. But even…

Our work designing major commercial centers and boutiques across the globe offers a view to the future of retail environments – a vision to the store of the future.      From Globalization to Localization:    Consumer reduction in discretionary spending, a desire to travel shorter distances to shop and focus on quality and sustainability are driving interest in localization.  The store of the future will reflect its community, culture and landscape, while opening a window to the world. The store will be an engaging and dynamic heart of the community, a world portal radiating outward the dynamic energy of its world…

Where’s the Gipper when you need him? There are great lessons to be learned from Ronald Reagan. Few would argue that Reagan was a true statesman and one of the greatest presidents of the modern era. Virtually every politician, republican and democrat alike, have fondly referred to him on many occasions. Barack Obama would even quote him while stumping on the campaign trail. So why is it that the current administration doesn’t pay more attention to the wisdom contained in the words of President Reagan as they go about their day-to-day actions? The answer is simple; they are too busy…

  The last major and protracted crisis that specifically affected our industry was during the period from 1991 to 1995. How many of you were around to remember a phrase that permeated the industry – “Stay alive to 95”? Well, there has been one long-term effect emanating from that period of time. Have you ever noticed that there are fewer professionals in our industry today between the ages of thirty-five and thirty nine years of age? This will have a serious impact on succession planning for our industry for the near term future. It is all too easy to look…