NEWS FRONT
GlobeSt Viewers Doubt Obama, Question Recovery
NEW YORK CITY—We asked and you told us.
President Obama’s stance on businesses
hasn’t exactly endeared him to GlobeSt.
com’s viewers. Eighty-seven percent of
respondents to an online poll agreed with
the statement that the president “has no clue
that this is a capitalist country.” Only 13%
would consider Obama “the entrepre-
neur’s personal savior.”
In that view, readers likely find them-
selves siding with GlobeSt.com blogger
Joel Ross, who wrote in September that
Obama and House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi “have created a regime filled
with people who are truly anti-business,
pro-labor, anti-wealth creation.” He
cited Obama’s appointment of
Elizabeth Warren to head the new
Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, which Ross called “the ulti-
mate example of the regulatory zeal that will
harm the economy.”
There’s been a lot of skepticism about
the current administration among GlobeSt.
com’s readers. Along with the poll on
Obama’s attitude toward business, readers
have sounded off on other poll questions
related to the economy and Washington’s
handling of it. Specifically, 76% say that a
double-dip recession is “right around the
...is the
entrepreneur’s
personal savior
corner,” while in another recent poll, a plu-
rality (50%) dispute that the Federal
Reserve’s efforts have helped the market,
agreeing that “nothing good ever came out
of Washington.”
To Ken McCarthy, Cushman & Wakefield’s
managing director of research for the New
President Obama...
…has no clue that
this is a capitalist
country
Source: GlobeSt.com
this second-quarter slowdown.” As a result,
“There’s a high degree of anxiety about
this: ‘Is it sustainable? Are we going to go
back down?’ That’s what’s being reflected
in the commentary and the criticism.”
Highlighting the sense of uncertainty was
the recent declaration by the National
Bureau of Economic Research that the
recession ended in June 2009. That
brought widely reported exclamations
of disbelief by everyone from jobless
Americans to Warren Buffett, and
Obama said that for the millions out of
work, the recession was “still very real.”
York region, the sentiments reflect anxiety
about how strong and sustainable the recov-
ery really is. He says he doesn’t think a dou-
ble-dip is likely, and he credits the Fed with
containing what could have been a more
disastrous downturn than actually occurred.
WASHINGTON, DC—Cathleen Kronopolus has
been promoted from assistant administrator at the General Services Administration
to regional commissioner for public
buildings for the Washington, DC
Metropolitan area.
For more executive moves, please visit
www.globest.com/executivewatch.
Greening Leased Space Still Comes With Hurdles
Building owners have made tremendous strides toward maximizing energy efficiency. Retrocommissioning, advanced energy
management and tenant/employee-engagement programs have
helped owners reduce energy use and the associated carbon
emissions. The minimal has been passed through to tenants as
operating expenses and is offset by lower
energy costs within months.
The next step, retrofits of entire buildings,
is proving to be a much greater challenge.
One issue is split financial incentives: owners
won’t undertake capital expenses to lower tenants’ operating costs
and tenants won’t foot a big bill that may pay
back over several years, often longer than
their remaining lease term.
Financing also presents problems. In most cases, a property’s existing lender is unwilling to allow the encumbrance
required by most financial structures. Energy-savings performance contracts have worked in public-sector buildings with
no financial encumbrance and stable long-term occupancy but
have not made strong inroads into financing work at multi-tenant office buildings. The new government Property Assessed
By Peter Belisle
Clean Energy program finances energy projects with repayment in the form of higher property tax, presumably offset by
lower energy cost. But a recent challenge by the Federal
Housing Authority threatens the future of PACE as a solution
for residential and possibly commercial properties.
Faced with these obstacles, owners and occupants of commercial property are banding together to find solutions. Recently, an
alliance of leading real estate owners, investors and financial institutions formed Greenprint Foundation with the single focus on
reducing carbon emissions across the global property industry.
While Greenprint’s members represent institutional real
estate, it is associated with a new group that also includes corporate occupiers with a similar commitment to address issues
such as the split financial incentive. Large corporate occupiers
such as Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Whirlpool Corp.
have committed to a dialogue with owners, including Beacon,
JPMorgan Chase, LaSalle Investment Management and Rreef
to resolve the challenges of energy and sustainability in leased
commercial space.
Peter Belisle is managing director of project and development services at Jones Lang LaSalle in Los Angeles. He may be contacted at
peter.belisle@am.jll.com. The views expressed here are the author’s own.
