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Office markets across the country have weakened considerably as the economy has slowed and layoffs mount, but what is becoming increasingly clear is that markets that have a higher percentage of financial services jobs are getting hit harder than those that don’t. Manhattan is the poster child for cities that have a high concentration of banking-related jobs, and recent data shows that New York City is also one of the weakest office markets in the country.Back in the 2001-02 period, markets that were home to high-tech nodes were the most affected. San Jose, San Francisco, Boston, Austin and Seattle were…

Charlotte, N.C., office landlords house a large roster of banking and financial services clients and have likely spent some restless nights lately wondering how hard the city will be hit by the U.S. financial meltdown and how Wells Fargo’s purchase of Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp.’s buy of Merrill Lynch & Co. will affect office tenancy.Bank of America employs 15,000 in Charlotte and has announced plans to slash its payroll by 35,000 jobs across the corporation. Wachovia has 20,000 employees in the area. But the city did receive some good news in late February, as Duke Energy Corp….

The signing of President Barack Obama’s plan to pull the United States out of the current economic crisis puts into action the most expensive fiscal firepower since President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. While most economists would agree the stimulus package is a provocative step, it is necessary to soften the negative impact of the downturn and accelerate recovery. It is certainly preferred to the inaction that preceded it.In tracking the success of Obama’s historic stimulus package, which represents 5.5 percent of the nation’s 2008 nominal gross domestic product, we expect it to have a sizable impact on the economy, begin…

The life sciences industry faces hurdles to growth familiar to most other sectors of the economy. As a new Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. study points out, two important sources of capital shrank dramatically last year. Initial public offerings for biotechnology firms declined 96 percent compared with 2007, and venture capital funding slipped 14.9 percent. Ten times as many publicly held biotech companies are valued at less than their cash on hand as only two years ago. And the Biotechnology Industry Organization has concluded that one-quarter of all public biotech companies have only enough cash on hand to last for six…

Since the start of the recession, the U.S. has lost more than 3.6 million jobs. Real estate investment volume and values have fallen dramatically, a reflection of the liquidity crisis and the uncertainty that are plaguing the financial system. Throughout the down cycle, however, some markets have proven more resilient. Houston’s economy finished 2008 with positive job growth of 54,000 and gross domestic product growth of 1.2 percent. To be sure, recent compression of oil prices is starting to take a toll; tightening expenditures in the energy sector will lead to a slowdown in capital expenditures from large oil companies…

Tenant-friendly changes to New York state rent regulations will adversely affect several large New York City-based multi-family loans that back U.S. CMBS, according to a recent Fitch Ratings report that contends that resultant increased cash-flow stress as a result could lead to decreases in investment grades for these transactions.The new legislation would slow the pace of deregulation of New York City apartments by raising the minimum rent and tenant-income thresholds. According to Fitch managing director Eric Rothfeld, the increased threshold could delay conversion of stabilized units to market rents for eight years, hindering the ability of borrowers to remain current…

With the economy in the tank and the credit market still frozen, it’s more likely than not that the hotel market–like most real estate sectors–will not recover this year. Growth is not on the current list of hotel industry trends, according to Ernst & Young L.L.P.’s U.S. 2009 Lodging Report, but setting the stage for long-term success is. Profits are destined to elude the hotel industry this year. Having to contend with a dearth of financing and the impending maturing of $19 billion in commercial mortgage-backed loans, hotel owners will be forced to focus on restructuring existing loans, and they’ll…

According to a new study, goals for efficient energy use in office buildings may be unrealistic in many cases, and government standards must account for economic realities and varying climates. NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, which commissioned the research, argues that the findings have broad implications for development and for public policy. “With the results of achieving higher efficiency targets differing so greatly across the climate zones, the study reveals that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to mandatory energy reductions does not work in legislation or other mandates,” said NAIOP president Thomas Bisacquino in a statement released last week in…

There’s no doubt that times are tough. The Dow is down more often than up, major companies are begging for more and more bailout money, smaller retailers are going out of business and homeowners are increasingly losing their jobs and defaulting on their mortgages.But many commercial real estate players’ businesses are rooted in taking risks and identifying opportunities before they become obvious, all with the intent of netting greater returns. Indeed, the current situation has been termed unprecedented and compared most closely to the Great Depression, with no bottom yet in sight and the Federal Reserve Board repeatedly postponing its…

After nine years at the very top of the list of most expensive office markets in the world, London has conceded its spot to Hong Kong. As per Cushman & Wakefield Inc.’s new Office Space Across the World 2009 report, the credit crunch and the banking crisis are the factors that caused the city to fall from its perch, while relatively low vacancies pushed Hong Kong to the peak.”One of the interesting factors that came out of the study was the uniform contraction in demand from occupiers over the last quarter of 2008, and the rapid synchronization of trends across…