Editor’s Note

With commercial property values rising, the stars are aligning for an exciting finish to 2015.

Welcome to the Age of Smart Buildings.

Crowdfunding has seemingly taken the world by storm, with individuals and companies turning to the Web to raise money for everything from a friend’s medical bills to Greece’s national debt. With $16.2 billion raised globally to date, it’s not surprising that the portion directed at commercial real estate investment has grown to more than $1 billion. For the real estate sector, the concept introduces a host of new opportunities, along with a slew of new concerns. On the concern side: Who are the new companies being formed? What’s their investment track record? What kind of risks are they taking relative…

Polled at the end of the first quarter, executives responding to our sentiment survey expressed some continued skepticism regarding both economic conditions and real estate industry performance.

People are shopping again, and the retail real estate sector is reaping the rewards.

The war is over, and green won.

The industry has long anticipated the wave of refinancings that starts this year.

The fact is, forecasting is an art.

We have been producing our Executive of the Year Awards, in some format, for 18 years now. Determined by a peer vote but based on a ballot put together by our editorial team, the awards honor top-level commercial real estate executives for achievements and strategies of the past year.

We are once again in the midst of a midterm election, and that circumstance is not promising for a number of real estate-influencing pieces of legislation. While the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act is generally expected to be passed in some form before it sunsets at the end of the year, the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act has languished amidst partisan strife, as has tax extenders, immigration reform, energy efficiency and Internet sales tax legislation, according to recent reports from the Real Estate Roundtable. Indeed, while the policy group’s third-quarter Sentiment Index rose slightly, respondents expressed concern about furtherance…