By Ian Ritter, Custom Content Manager
Economic Development
THOUGHT LEADER
Accounting Trends
THOUGHT LEADER
ENVIRONMEN TAL ENGINEERING
THOUGHT LEADER
MARY JANE OLHASSO
Economic Development
Administrator
County of San Bernardino
Has the economy improved?
There is more reason for renewed optimism about the Southern California
economy, especially in the County of
San Bernardino. Consistent strength
throughout 2012 as a result of gains in
the labor market, along with renewed
optimism in housing, construction and
manufacturing are also driving retail
expansion. In Upland, a County of San
Bernardino community, several new
stores, including Nordstrom Rack, Toys
“R” Us, Panera Bread, Chipotle and
Tillys have opened or are in the process
of opening in a brand new development, Colonies Crossroads Shopping
Center. This is a 110-acre freeway-orient-ed property consisting of more than 1. 1
million square feet. Macy’s will soon
open its new store in the Mall of Victor
Valley in Victorville. Another exciting
trend for the County is the expansion of
ethnic grocers such as Cardenas
Markets, and new neighborhood retail
concepts from Wal-Mart and Target. All
told, these new concepts and commitments from national brands are a positive sign for the County’s economy and
underscore the dramatic diversity and
inherent opportunity of the region’s
population of 2. 1 million residents.
To learn more about the County, visit them at
booth C203L at ICSC RECon’s leasing mall.
HOWARD ROTH
Global Real Estate Manager
Ernst & Young
What is happening right now
in the European real estate
finance arena?
I think that the cloud is lifting, and I
am sensing a more positive vibe. There
are a combination of very interesting
things happening in Europe. There is
that world of distress that is out there,
but you’re seeing a lot of the private-equity shops from the US coming in
and finding investments. You certainly
have the sovereign-wealth funds and
the pension funds who are folks that
can write big equity checks. It is pushing prices up in the core cities. They’re
investing for a generation, not just a
year or five years, so it pushes prices up
significantly in some places. Then you
still have a significant void in senior
debt in Europe. It is diminishing, but
when you look at some of the players
that are coming in to fill that void,
insurance companies, sovereign wealth
funds and new debt-fund platforms,
there are a lot of different things happening that for the most part are pretty
positive in the European world of real
estate finance.
Watch a full video interview with Roth at the
MIPIM show: www.globest.com/RothVideo
S. IRA GROSSMAN
Principal
Partner Engineering
and Science Inc.
What are some tips for buyers
in terms of evaluating property conditions?
The Property Condition Report is a frequently used due diligence tool in commercial real estate, but the scope of
work can vary widely depending on the
purpose. The baseline standard for conducting a Property Condition Report is
ASTM E2018-08, which is used in both
debt and equity deals to assess the current property conditions and provide an
opinion of probable costs for maintaining the improvement over time.
Acquisition clients, however, rely on the
report to address specific risks they have
because of their position of ownership
as well as for a negotiation tool. As such,
they may need a more detailed evaluation than the baseline ASTM standard
dictates. Equity users may want to go
beyond ASTM by sending specialist
inspectors to further evaluate specific
building systems, or even add on custom
scopes of work like detailed research
into zoning conformance. This can all
be accommodated within the Property
Condition Report, but communication
upfront with your engineering consultant is key.
You can view a recent Partner webinar here:
www.globest.com/PartnerWebinar
The REM Thought Leadership Program extends across our entire media platform (Real Estate Forum, GlobeSt.com and the RealShare Conference Series), providing
expert commentary and business advice from a variety of industry thought leaders. To learn more, visit: www.ALMRealEstateMediaGroup.com/ThoughtLeadership
