California Mortgage Bankers Association 1955-2005
E-News
Commercial/MultiFamily
"The Voice for California's Real Estate Finance Industry"
Volume II, Issue IV
April/May 2005
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California Mortgage Bankers Association 1955-2005 E-News
Commercial/MultiFamily
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"The Voice for California's Real Estate Finance Industry" |
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Volume II, Issue IV |
April/May 2005 |
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Headline News
CMBA Releases 1st Quarter Delinquency Survey
CMBA and Members Promote Financial Literacy
Hahn Trails Villaraigosa In Race For Money
Commercial News/Analysis
Numbers Nearly Pencil To Plan New Buildings
Sales Rush Signals End Of Local Era
As Businesses Expand, Extended-Stay Formats Boom
Opinion
Housing Boom Defies Trends, Likely to Bust Soon - Won't It?
CMBA News
CMBA Joins Fight To Stop Split-Roll Initiatives
Calendar
Sign up for WSMC/50-Year Anniversary
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Headline News
CMBA Commercial Delinquency Survey Finds Eleven of Seventeen Companies Report No Delinquencies
SACRAMENTO - For the 26th consecutive quarter, the California Commercial Loan Delinquency Ratio is below one half of one percent. According to the March 31, 2005 Quarterly Delinquency Survey conducted by the California Mortgage Bankers Association (CMBA), 99.83% of the California commercial real estate loans serviced by seventeen mortgage banking firms were either current or only one payment delinquent. This translates into a delinquency ratio of .17%, the lowest since December 2002 when it was .14%. This compares to a delinquency ratio of .2% three months ago and .31% a year ago. Eleven of the seventeen companies reported no loans more than 30 days delinquent.
Of the $62.2 billions of loans being serviced by the seventeen California commercial mortgage bankers, $106.9 million, consisting of 11 individual loans, was two or more payments past due.
By number, the 11 delinquent loans represent .12% of the 9,408 commercial real estate loans included in the survey.
The table below compares delinquencies by type of property.
For survey purposes, a loan is considered delinquent if it is two or more payments past due. Loans in the process of foreclosure are included, regardless of the number of payments past due.
Seventeen income property mortgage bankers participated in the CMBA survey. These companies originate and service loans on apartments, retail, industrial and other commercial properties for institutional investors such as life insurance companies and pension funds.
March 31, 2005
(Dollar figures in millions)
|
Total Servicing |
Amount Delinquent |
% Delinquent As of 3/31/05 |
% Delinquent As of 12/31/04 |
Apartments |
$ 23,649.4 |
$ 2.0 |
* |
* |
Office Buildings |
12,774.2 |
38.3 |
0.30% |
0.38% |
Retail |
10,745.9 |
16.6 |
0.15% |
0.20% |
Warehouse/Industrial |
7,347.7 |
9.7 |
0.13% |
0.0% |
Hotels/Motels |
4,951.6 |
38.8 |
0.78% |
1.46% |
R & D Properties |
218.2 |
00.0 |
0.00% |
0.00% |
Mobile Home Parks |
203.9 |
00.0 |
0.00% |
0.00% |
Other Properties |
2,317.8 |
1.5 |
0.06% |
0.19% |
|
|
|
|
|
TOTALS |
$ 62,208.7 |
$ 106.9 |
0.17% |
0.20% |
*Less than .1%
The March 31, 2005 survey included $62.2 billion of California commercial mortgage loans being serviced by 17 mortgage banking firms.
For survey purposes, a loan is considered delinquent if it is two or more payments past due. Loans in the process of foreclosure are included, regardless of the number of payments past due.
CMBA Promotes Financial Literacy at Press Conference/Fair!
SACRAMENTO - The California Mortgage Bankers Association teamed up with the California JumpStart Coalition, California Bankers Association, and a dozen other groups to celebrate and promote financial literacy at a press conference and fair Tuesday, April 19 at the State Capitol.
The morning press conference featured JumpStart Chair Mitch Freedman, Junior Achievement Chair Jim Eaton and Cynthia Dettner, a teach at Laguna Creek High School who has used financial literacy programs in her classroom. Following the press conference CitiGroup, a division of Citibank, hosted group sessions dealing with credit and financial literacy. In addition, a group of enthusiastic children were given a head-start in becoming financially literate thanks to Sammy Rabbit, who taught that "Saving is a habit" through an educational and fun read-a-long.
CMBA was proud to be a participant in the fair, and was pleased that other CMBA members were involved as well. Home Savings Mortgage and Wells Fargo displayed their financial literacy programs, and made themselves availble throughout the day.
CMBA and its members will be continuing to promote and encourage financial literacy throughout 2005. CMBA's members are commited to helping Californians achieve the Ameircan Dream of homeownership.
Financial Literacy Fair - April 19, 2005
Home Savings Mortgage Branch Manager Krystal Kashuba discusses financial literacy programs
Sammy Rabbit teaches area children that "saving is a habit!"
Hahn Trails Villargairosa In Race For Money
Los Angeles Times (4-8-05 )
Jeffrey L. Rabin and Patrick McGreevy, Times Staff Writers
Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn has raised significantly less money for the mayoral runoff campaign than rival Antonio Villaraigosa in the weeks since the March 8 election.
Hahn's campaign reported Thursday that the incumbent raised $407,795 through last Saturday, less than two-thirds of what his opponent collected during that period. Villaraigosa, a city councilman and former speaker of the state Assembly, reported Wednesday to the City Ethics Commission that he had raised $653,255.
Hours before filing his campaign finance report, Hahn said he was not concerned that he trailed Villaraigosa in money. "I haven't raised as much, but I'm going to be competitive," Hahn said at a campaign event in Van Nuys. "We're going to have enough money to get our message out."
Steven P. Erie, director of the urban studies and planning program at UC San Diego, said the fundraising figures are a sign that Hahn could be in trouble. "It's a fairly substantial gap," he said. "To be this far behind is not a good sign."
Hahn, however, also lagged behind Villaraigosa in the money race when they faced off in the 2001 runoff election. Villaraigosa raised $2.9 million, 42% more than Hahn's $2.1 million. But Hahn beat Villaraigosa by 7 percentage points.
Raphael Sonenshein, a Cal State Fullerton professor and an expert on Los Angeles politics, said Hahn's fundraising shortfall is significant, but probably has more of a psychological effect than a real one. As an incumbent mayor, Hahn has the ability to bring in large sums of money in the weeks before the May 17 election, Sonenshein said.
"Hahn is clearly the underdog," Sonenshein said. "But Hahn's reelection troubles have been visible for months, and yet you still can't count him out."
Sonenshein noted that Hahn has an advantage in being able to command free television coverage as mayor. And he said that having less money, though not desirable, could help Hahn blunt the criticism that he has taken a lot of money from special interests with business at City Hall.
Villaraigosa's campaign manager, Ace Smith, was delighted with the mayor's financial standing. "It's an incredibly weak performance for an incumbent mayor of one of the largest cities in America," he said. "His campaign is in big trouble. It's that simple."
In a city as sprawling and diffuse as Los Angeles, candidates are heavily dependent on television ads to reach voters. Since 2001, the cost of those ads has increased dramatically, making the money race that much more important.
Hahn's campaign returned to many of his longtime supporters to raise money since the March 8 election, which saw him finish 9 percentage points behind Villaraigosa.
The mayor's campaign received thousands of dollars from attorneys with law firms doing business with the city, including lawyers for Manatt Phelps & Phillips; O'Melveny & Myers; and Christensen, Miller, Fink, Jacobs.
A large number of real estate and development firms also contributed to the mayor. Hahn received $1,000 each from AEG and the firm's chief executive, Tim Leiweke. AEG built Staples Center with financial help from the city and is now trying to win city approval for a $1-billion development near Staples.
The mayor also turned to longtime insiders, including attorney George Kieffer, former president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce; state Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles); and investment banker John Emerson, a former Clinton White House aide who was Hahn's chief of staff when Hahn was city attorney.
Checks also came from unions and trade groups, which have thrown their support behind the incumbent. Hahn received the maximum $1,000 each from the Los Angeles Police Command Officers Assn., Service Employees International Union Local 347, the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Assn. and Gunite Workers Local 345. He received $500 from the Directors Guild of America.
Hahn campaign strategist Kam Kuwata said Hahn's support from organized labor would include thousands of union members walking precincts and working phone banks.
City Hall lobbyists also made a big showing. Those who contributed $1,000 to Hahn include: Butterfield Communications, Darlene Kuba, Rudy Svorinich Jr. and Ek & Ek.
The last firm was co-host at a fundraiser for Hahn last week. The Airport Commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor, voted Monday to extend a contract for McDonald's restaurants at LAX. Lobbyist John Ek represents McDonald's outlets at the airport.
Hahn fundraiser Annette Castro and her husband, lobbyist Julio Ramirez Jr., each contributed $1,000. Ramirez represents the Hudson Group, whose contract to run bookstores and newsstands at LAX was also extended Monday by the Airport Commission.
Asked about contributions from firms that do business with the city, Kuwata said, "Both campaigns have that."
The entertainment industry also stepped up. Sylvester Stallone, Burt Bacharach, Warner Bros. President Alan Horn and producer Gary Ross donated $1,000 each.
Other prominent contributors who gave $1,000 included construction company president Ronald Tutor, billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, Hilton Hotels co-chairman William Barron Hilton, Univision Chairman and Chief Executive A. Jerrold Perenchio and former Police Commissioner Bert Boeckmann.
The mayor also received $1,000 from Advanced Cleanup Technologies, a firm whose attorney is Harbor Commission President Nicholas G. Tonsich, a Hahn appointee. The firm recently won a $300,000 contract from the port.
Hahn, who lives in San Pedro, received support from businesses in the harbor town. Port of Los Angeles tenant Yusen Terminals Inc. contributed $1,000. Pacific Energy Group of Long Beach gave $1,000 and is seeking to build a large crude-oil terminal at the Port of Los Angeles.
Also giving $1,000 were Andrew C. Fox, president of Pacific Harbor Line, a port rail line, and Metropolitan Stevedore Co. of Wilmington.
Other San Pedro business leaders donating $1,000 include James Cross, head of a group seeking to launch a charter high school in a port building, and Jayme Wilson, owner of Spirit Cruises and co-chairman of a port community advisory panel created by Hahn.
Bush Signs Big Rewrite of Bankruptcy Law
Associated Press (4-20-05 )
Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writer
President Bush signed a bill Wednesday that will make it harder for debt-ridden people to wipe clean their financial slates by declaring bankruptcy.
The legislation was strongly opposed by consumer rights activists who said it would prevent vulnerable Americans from getting the fresh start they need. But Bush said the law was "restoring integrity to the bankruptcy process."
"Bankruptcy should always be a last resort in our legal system," he said. "If someone does not pay his or her debts, the rest of society ends up paying them."
Many people in debt will have to work out repayment plans instead of having their obligations erased in bankruptcy court, according to the law, which takes effect in six months.
People with incomes above their state's median income will have to pay some or all of their credit-card charges, medical bills and other obligations under a court-ordered bankruptcy plan.
"This practical reform will help ensure that debtors make a good-faith effort to repay as much as they can afford," Bush said. "This new law will help make credit more affordable because when bankruptcy is less common, credit can be extended to more people at better rates."
Those who fought against the legislation said the change will hurt low-income working people, single mothers, minorities and the elderly and will remove a safety net for people who have lost their jobs or face major medical bills.
"The big winners under the new law will be the special interests that literally wrote it, particularly the credit card industry," said Travis B. Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America. "This is particularly ironic because reckless and abusive lending practices by credit card companies have driven many Americans to the brink of bankruptcy."
The financial services industry made the case that bankruptcy frequently is the last refuge of gamblers, impulsive shoppers, divorced or separated fathers avoiding child support, and multimillionaires who buy mansions in states with liberal exemptions to shelter assets from creditors.
Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Retail Federation, said bankruptcy filings have increased nine-fold since 1978, when bankruptcy laws were last updated. "Bankruptcy has gone from a stigma to a financial planning tool for many," Duncan said.
New personal bankruptcy filings went from 1,613,097 in the year ending June 30, 2003, to 1,599,986 in the year ending last June 30, counter to that upward trend of recent years.
Between 30,000 and 210,000 people — from about 4 percent to 20 percent of those who dissolve their debts in bankruptcy each year in exchange for forfeiting some assets — will be disqualified from doing so under the law, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.
Under the current system, a federal bankruptcy judge determines whether individuals must repay some or all of their debt.
Under the new law, people with insufficient assets or income could still file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which, if approved by a judge, erases debts entirely after certain assets are forfeited. Those with income above their state's median income who can pay at least $6,000 over five years — $100 a month — would be forced into Chapter 13, where a judge would then order a repayment plan.
Those people have six months until the law takes effect to escape the tougher guidelines. Bankruptcy lawyers have said they anticipate a rush to the courthouse.
Commercial News
CalPERS Buys Office, Parking Structure on R Street
Sacramento Business Journal (4-20-05 )
The California Public Employees' Retirement System announced Tuesday that it has purchased a five-story office building and parking structure at 400 and 500 R St. in downtown Sacramento.
"We made a promise to the residents of Sacramento and city officials that we will help to restore life and community to R Street," said Charles Valdes, chair of CalPERS' Investment Committee, in a news release. "These properties are a good addition to our commercial real estate portfolio and will generate additional income and help anchor our future housing developments along R Street."
The office building at 400 R Street includes more than 211,000 square feet and currently houses the California Department of Consumer Affairs. The accompanying parking structure at 500 R Street accommodates more than 570 parking spaces.
CalPERS officials don't expect to make any changes to the properties.
"We will hold these properties in our investment portfolio and continue their existing use," said Michael McCook, senior investment officer for CalPERS' real estate program. "This was a nice purchase given that the building and parking structure are so close to our new headquarters expansion."
CalPERS is near completion of its new headquarters, between Third and Fifth streets and Q and R streets.
The building and parking structure are the latest acquisitions made by the pension fund along R Street.
In February 2005, CalPERS announced that it is in contract to acquire the former Thompson Diggs Co. building, a four-story office structure at Third and R Streets with its real estate partner Regis Homes. The pension fund also purchased a half block between Sixth and Seventh streets on the south side of R Street, and a 2.5-acre parking lot at Third and R streets.
Last year, CalPERS purchased a parcel of land on R Street between Sixth and Seventh streets and unveiled designs for a three-story, 36-unit residential housing development.
CalPERS is the nation's largest public pension fund with assets totaling $182 billion. The system provides retirement and health benefits to more than 1.4 million state and local public employees and their families.
Business Wire (3-7-05 )
For all you brokers who were staying alive until 2005, how about, "You won't get your kicks until 2006."
In other words, first-quarter numbers are in and the rocky road to recovery may have hit another pothole. It's all the harder to bear after 2004 ended with such a flourish.
"Over the last six months of 2004, there was an astonishing positive net absorption of (250,000) square feet and a feeling that things were improving," Cornish & Carey Commercial noted in its first-quarter report for the North Interstate-680 corridor.
Then came 2005.
"From a leasing standpoint, the first quarter of 2005 saw little or no improvement over year-end 2004," the report states. "It seemed that every step forward was countered by a step back."
Step forward: More tenants are touring empty spaces.
Step back: More companies decide to consolidate space or downsize their labor forces.
Brokers have used the words "anemic," "flat" and "lackluster" to describe a market that burns on the sales and investment side, but just can't seem to light a spark under leasing.
It's the same at the southern end of I-680.
The Tri-Valley has 4 million square feet of vacant space, sending the vacancy rate to nearly 20 percent, according to CM Realty Inc. After a promising fourth quarter that saw a net of 268,000 square feet of space absorption in Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore and San Ramon, the numbers slid back into negative territory with 45,000 square feet more space becoming empty than being leased during the first quarter, CM Realty said.
Cornish & Carey, however, read the tea leaves differently. C&C agreed that net absorption dropped from the fourth quarter but remained in positive territory at 178,000 square feet. Vacancy rates fell to 14 percent, C&C said.
CM Realty predicts that Oracle Corp., which prefers to own its buildings, will not re-lease 67,000 square feet occupied by the former PeopleSoft Inc. when the lease expires in 2007.
Oracle also revealed last week that it plans to sell or lease two former PeopleSoft buildings with 370,000 square feet between them. If the buildings are marketed for sale, it could be a tough one, given the fact they are empty.
If they are leased, the already stumbling market could trip. As CM put it: "If some or all of the existing campus is placed on the market for sale or lease, and demand remains status quo, then rental rates could experience downward pressure."
Ouch.
Signs - as in dollar signs - of the active investment market continue.
The newly designated Lamps Plus Plaza in Dublin changed hands for a cool $15.8 million. The Chiu Family Trust purchased the 55,800-square-foot center on San Ramon Road from the Dublin Town & Country Association.
And Dublin's Synpep Corp., a manufacturer of synthetic peptides, bought an 80,400-square-foot building in Livermore for a reported $9.2 million.
It took time - three years - but Impax Laboratories Inc. bought a 19,000-square-foot office building in Hayward from Youngs Holdings LLC for $1.2 million. John Steinbuch, the buyer's representative, called it an "aggressive" price for an off-the-beaten-track office building. Colliers International brokers Rick Keely and Greig Lagomarsino represented the seller.
Riverside Press-Enterprise (4-19-05 )
Kimberly Pierceall, Staff Writer
For 20 years, debt, bankruptcies, lawsuits and a national calamity have thwarted Mark Bragg's plans to build a $400 million golf resort along the road leading to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.
This could be Bragg's year.
Bragg has paid off his outstanding bonds and debts and refinanced the project, he said. He expects to break ground on his Shadowrock resort within the year.
"It's the objective I came here for," he said. "I can't give up."
The Sierra Club has no intention of giving up either.
For several years, the local Tahquitz Group chapter of the Sierra Club and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have taken Bragg to court. They say an endangered peninsular bighorn sheep herd frequents the Shadowrock area and that development would kill them off.
Terry Kilpatrick, a lawyer who represented the Sierra Club in previous Shadowrock cases, said that parasites in the golf course and increased car traffic could kill the sheep -- a violation of the Endangered Species Act.
"We're totally opposed to the project in its entirety," said Jeff Morgan, the vice chair for the local Sierra Club's conservation committee.
Morgan said the group would likely challenge any city permits when Bragg chooses a construction date.
"We'll be waiting," he said.
Bragg started buying up parcels of land at the entrance to Palm Springs in 1984 when he decided a tennis resort would be a guaranteed moneymaker. But times and tastes changed, and the Coachella Valley became a haven for golf.
He spent seven years buying land to make one big golf course. In 1992, he moved from Washington , D.C. , to Palm Springs . Two years later, he had secured city entitlements and cleared the planning stages.
"We spent a fortune on trying to make sure we were doing this all right," he said.
He waited for the California real estate market to heat up. By 1997, with help from a $15 million municipal bond through the California Desert Public Finance Authority and city approval, he was ready to build a public golf course and resort.
Then came the lawsuits.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service filed a suit claiming that the project threatened bighorn sheep, and the Tahquitz Group asked the court to demand a new environmental impact report. Both times the court ruled in Bragg's favor.
With the cases behind him, Bragg had secured a big-name resort developer by early 2001.
Then 9-11 hit shattering the U.S. economy, and with it Bragg's chances to finance his project.
"Our whole plan collapsed," he said. "It was a disaster for three years afterward."
Bragg had bought the Marquis Resort in downtown Palm Springs and was expecting it to be a financial boost that could support his Shadowrock project. But the hotel went bankrupt, and Bragg started owing interest on his municipal bond. He was treading water, he said.
Last fall, Bragg refinanced the project and paid off his debts, including the Marquis bankruptcy.
His plans were put on hold again until city residents voted down a measure on the March 8 ballot that would have restricted development in Shadowrock's vicinity.
"Every finance organization on the planet knew about Measure B," he said. The measure's defeat "opened the flood gates," to investment.
He now has a $20 million equity investment to move forward with the project, he said.
Doug Holland, the city's attorney, said there is also pressure on Bragg to start construction this year because the development agreement between the city and Bragg expires in 2006.
As for impending lawsuits, Holland said he doesn't foresee anything on the legal horizon. "From the city's perspective, there's nothing more to be done," he said.
"It's a well planned project," said Gary Wayne, the city's planning department director. "It provides not only the resort and the golf but some upper-end housing. I think it's going to be a big benefit for the city -- not only the revenues, but the tax base as well."
Bragg said he's in negotiations with a hotel developer for a 105-room five-star boutique hotel on site. Once construction starts, he said it would take five years and about 3,000 construction workers to complete the project.
San Francisco Chronicle (4-9-05 )
Dan Levy, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco 's commercial real estate market showed signs of improvement in the first quarter, with prime office rents up 6 percent from the same period last year and the office vacancy rate down 3 percent.
Average Class A rents are $29.45 per square foot, while the vacancy rate for prime space is 19.5 percent, according to a new report from the Grubb & Ellis real estate services firm.
The commercial real estate market is still well below where it was during the tech boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when rents hit $80 per square foot and the vacancy rate was virtually zero.
There is about 12.2 million square feet of empty office space in the city -- much better than the 17 million square feet available at the bottom of the market in early 2003, but far from healthy.
"It's a slow and steady process," said Joe Cook, head of Cushman & Wakefield. "But the fact that we've had several consecutive quarters of positive absorption (vacant space being leased) is promising and a good sign for landlords."
More than 140 office deals representing 1.7 million square feet were signed in the first quarter, according to Grubb & Ellis. Most of the deals were for less than 15,000 square feet, but some were major.
Law firm Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe's deal for 246,000 square feet at 333 Bush St. was one of the biggest leases in years.
The 13 1/2-year deal, signed at a rental rate of $31 per square foot, included a renewal for the firm's present space on floors 26 to 34 and an expansion onto floors 7 to 11. It's the largest law firm deal ever in San Francisco , according to Cushman & Wakefield.
"We were negotiating with other landlords, but the major factor in staying (at 333 Bush) was getting relief on our current lease term," said Jonathan Hayden, Heller Ehrman's managing shareholder in San Francisco .
Hayden said the firm was paying about $51 per square foot on a lease that was priced in 2001. The renegotiated price cut that by $20 per square foot and included the additional space.
"We thought this was the best time to lock in," Hayden said. "We're very pleased with the building."
Given that rents in San Francisco are at the same level as in 1996, many other large users of space are rushing to lock in the low rates.
Tove Nilsen, research director at Colliers International, said several large tenants seeking 100,000 square feet or more are shopping for space. They include UCSF, Barclays Global Investors, Blue Shield, Gallo Institute, Sutter Health, Citigroup, Providian Financial and Advent Software.
Nilsen said that without new construction -- a prospect that won't happen until rents reach at least $50 per square foot -- those tenants will have trouble finding contiguous blocks of space to meet their needs.
The city has always regarded itself as a premium location for business, but the average Class A rent of $29.45 is only marginally above the U.S. average.
While the city continues trying to attract new businesses, some highly publicized deals have either not panned out or are still up in the air.
Virgin Atlantic was supposed to base Virgin America, its new West Coast service, in San Francisco , but the airline is having trouble raising money and won't be opening a local office anytime soon.
And San Francisco officials have an uphill road trying to lure the new California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. San Diego , San Jose , Los Angeles and Emeryville are also bidding for the small but highly symbolic headquarters deal. The institute for stem cell research is scheduled to announce its decision May 6.
Looking up
Commercial rents in San Francisco are up 6 percent from a year ago, although the city's average of $29.45 per square foot is only marginally above the national average. Here are some of the major office lease deals that were signed in the city during the first quarter:
Municipal Railway: 1 South Van Ness Ave. , 270,000 square feet, $21.50 a square foot
Heller Ehrman: 333 Bush St. , 246,000 square feet, $31 a square foot
Hanson Bridgett: 425 Market St. , 79,000 square feet, rent not available
SBC: 525 Market St. , 68,000 square feet, rent not available
Artus Biotech: 185 Berry St. , 3,700 square feet, $25 a square foot.
Sources: Grubb & Ellis, Colliers International; Cushman & Wakefield
Numbers Nearly Pencil To Plan New Buildings
San Francisco Business Times (5-1-05 )
Lizette Wilson
In the world of commercial office space, things are looking up.
Rents are up 10 percent in the past year, net absorption has risen seven consecutive quarters and counting and optimism is soaring, all stoking fantasies that San Francisco office construction will soon emerge from its lengthy hibernation.
But for now, the city's biggest office developers say these ideas are just that: Fantasies.
"There is a ripe time in the near future for seeing office development, but I don't believe it's here now," said Susan Segy, vice president of development for Equity Office Properties. EOP owns Foundry Square I -- a plot approved for 340,000 square feet near two other buildings it completed just as the market bottomed out in 2002.
Tishman Speyer, which owns a plot at 555 Mission St. approved for 549,000 square feet, also has no plans to build immediately. The New York-based company just demolished structures on the site, but it's preparing to pave it for use as a "temporary" parking lot by mid-summer, according to a company spokesman.
The Shorenstein Co., which owns Mining Exchange building at 350 Bush St., is also in no rush to erect fresh digs. Shorenstein has owned the site for more than 20 years and has plans for a 19-story building with 344,500 square feet of office.
"There's not much going on there," said the company's head of Bay Area development, Tom Hart. "We talk from time to time with potential tenants. You wouldn't do a speculative building in this environment."
Indeed, until a credit tenant commits to lease at least half of a proposed building -- a challenging scenario given the small number of such users now in San Francisco -- securing construction financing and demonstrating the need for new space will be a tough sell.
Main reason?
With a 19.5 percent vacancy rate in Class A offices there's still plenty of space to be had and the price reflects it. Average asking rents for Class A space in the central business district increased roughly 3 percent to $30 a square foot last quarter, according to Grubb & Ellis.
That's far from the $55 to $60 a square foot mark Doug Shorenstein has indicated would be his inflection point where fresh construction starts to pencil.
And as the cost for gypsum products, concrete and other material costs continue to climb -- steel mill product prices alone have jumped 38 percent this past year -- so will the need for higher rents.
"You need rents to be at least in the low- to mid-$50 range for new construction to work," said Colin Yasukochi of Grubb & Ellis. "If you could just build view space you could get that and it would be workable, but obviously you can't just do that."
Indeed, view space -- the top few floors in the best highrises -- has jumped considerably in the past year to $50, $60 or even more per square foot.
The fantasy of fresh construction is not entirely out of reach, however.
Cushman & Wakefield's Brad Van Blois tallied more conservative rent growth this past quarter with 2.5 percent for Class A office space in the central business district. Even that slower pace of rising rent -- assuming it continues -- would push San Francisco back into the construction zone by 2010, he said.
Van Blois's thinking? That rents continuing to climb 10 percent annually would pump average asking rates to $55 by the fourth quarter of 2010. At 5 percent quarterly increases, or 20 percent annual spikes, the inflection point would come even sooner.
"If you consider it takes two years for a project to be built, a decision could be made, with 20 percent annual rent expectations, in first quarter 2006," he said. "That's right around the corner."
But the crystal ball has more than a few clouds. Brokers specializing in tenant representation, and therefore most in touch with what companies are willing to pay for space, say the pool willing to pay big bucks is still shallow.
"Most of the people we're dealing with still want to pay $30 a square foot," said Studley's Jacques Ducharme, adding that "a powerful and rich corporation could do it (commission a speculative building to be built), but it all depends on the size."
Property owners, only now recovering from the bargain rents they had to offer during the bust cycle, say they are happy the area is recovering and are still in wait-and-see mode.
"The fundamentals are finally lining up in San Francisco, but we're not there yet. We need to see some upticks in rents in all the space -- not just the view space," said EOP's Segy. "We have our entitlements in place and all our working drawings are complete. We can apply for a permit immediately and pull the trigger very quickly on a project."
Lizette Wilson covers real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.
Sales Rush Signals End To Local Era
San Jose Business Times (5-2-05 )
Sharon Simonson
It's out with the old and in with the new.
Amidst the frenzy that the Silicon Valley commercial real estate market has become in the last 90 days, a theme is emerging: Some of the region's longest-term and most-respected players are cashing out.
In perhaps the most startling example of the trend, Richard "Dick" Peery and John Arrillaga, among the most successful commercial real estate developers the region has produced, have put 6.3 million square feet of Silicon Valley properties on the block. That's two-thirds of their collective holdings, amassed over three decades.
At the same time, San Jose's Orchard Investors LLC, another long-time local player, has sold a 613,400-square-foot Silicon Valley portfolio to a San Diego investment company for nearly $80 million, or $128 a square foot.
In addition, Orchard expects to close soon on the sale of an additional 260,000 square feet to a second buyer, says Mike Biggar, Orchard's managing partner. He declined to name the buyer or a sales price. Most of the properties are between 10 and 20 years old, he says.
After the sales, Orchard will own less than a million square feet of Silicon Valley commercial property, Mr. Biggar says.
Orchard had owned as much as 3.5 million square feet in the valley, according to the 2004 Business Journal Book of Lists.
Mr. Biggar's partner is David J. Brown, who founded Orchard's predecessor company in 1973 and has spent more than three decades developing and acquiring millions of square feet of Silicon Valley commercial real estate, especially along San Jose's North First Street. Mr. Bigger himself has toiled in Silicon Valley commercial real estate for more than 10 years.
Mark Ziemendorf, a senior vice president of valley brokerage Cornish & Carey, and Sam Wright, Cornish vice president, handled the sale for both buyer and seller.
Coming to market on the heels of the Orchard transaction is more than 1.3 million square feet owned by Sunnyvale's Renco Properties Inc., another long-term valley player.
Marketed as two packages, the largest Renco offering consists of 16 Fremont R&D buildings with more than a million square feet. The properties, projected to yield just more than $9 million in net operating income in the first year of new ownership, are about two-thirds occupied and offered unpriced. They were built in segments over the past decade. Messrs. Ziemandorf and Wright also are handling the Renco sale.
In dispute among local players is whether the prices being offered and paid for valley properties are too high, premised on an overly rosy valley recovery and purchased by folks desperate to place investment cash and without a full understanding of the local market. Some argue that in contrast to the local sellers, the buyers are largely outsiders who lack an intimate history with the valley's boom-bust economy. Further, even as the investment market is in full recovery, leasing fundamentals remain weak.
Neil Johnson, who is directing Northern California acquisitions for Westcore Properties, the Southern California buyer of the Orchard portfolio, says the old guard has made its fortunes, and now, presented with a sellers' market, is electing to take its money and a secure future rather than face the grueling work that some of the properties will take to make them competitive.
"It's still a tenants' market, and it's not fun being a landlord and having these tenants beating you over the head. A lot of these properties need to be re-positioned, and it's a bunch of hard work," he says. "I think they are seeing this as an opportunity to have fun versus having to put more money into these assets."
Neither Mr. Johnson nor Orchard would release a capitalization rate on the sale. A cap rate measures the first-year yield on a given holding and is one means by which to compare disparate property sales.
Though Westcore has been buying in Northern California for less than a year, Mr. Johnson is a more seasoned Nor-Cal player. With the Orchard buy, the company will have amassed 1.25 million square of feet of office, R&D and industrial properties in the region. It has another 300,000 square feet under contract.
Age and personal circumstance are clear factors behind all the sales. But they do not appear overriding. Nor is anyone selling under duress; after all, the sellers have all survived more than four years of what has been the region's most trying commercial real estate leasing market, perhaps ever, with huge vacancy and asking rents down sharply from their peaks.
According to several sources, the bulk of what is being sold is not the region's newest and most desirable space. Rather, it's largely a collection of second-tier research and development properties, stuff that might not sell or might sell for considerably less in a more tepid market. Beyond that, R&D buildings, especially those with significant manufacturing space, generally face the most uncertain prospects as the region's economy moves toward an unclear future.
But a local investment broker in the thick of the action, speaking on condition of anonymity, says allegations that buyers are suffering from irrational euphoria are nonsense.
"When you get institutional investors -- the Blackstones, Shorensteins, Hines, ING Clarions and Rreefs of this world -- these guys are intelligent buyers," he says. "They analyze carefully. These institutions aren't building billion-dollar portfolios if they don't know what they're doing.
"There's opportunity in any of these transactions."
Still, cap rates in San Jose and nationwide have been falling, meaning buyers today are paying more for the same cash flow as the investors of yesterday. At the end of last year, cap rates on Silicon Valley industrial property sales fell to just more than 8 percent, down from a recent high of more than 13 percent reached at the beginning of 2002, according to market researcher Real Capital Analytics. Much the same story is being told on the office side.
Noticeably absent from the buying and selling pools are the valley's Sobrato Development Cos. and Mission West Properties, home to local legend and commercial real estate guru Carl Berg. Both Sobrato and Mission West are long-term and large valley owners, with existing huge bets on the valley's recovery. The Sobratos have made a significant foray into apartment ownership not only in the valley but elsewhere and have sold a smattering of valley R&D properties in the past several months. Principal John Michael Sobrato has said the sales were aimed at diversification rather than any cash-raising initiative.
Mr. Berg, whose publicly traded company also has bought and sold a few properties in recent months, told a group of analysts on a recent conference call that he was watching the Peery-Arrillaga and other offerings carefully. "It will be interesting to see what happens with the big supply on the market," he noted.
While Mission West will be looking for buying opportunities, he was doubtful it would be an acquirer.
"We will look at some of it and make some offers, but... it's highly unlikely we will buy," he said.
"Because of cap rates, a lot of this stuff is selling at prices that we just don't think ever can be realized," he added.
SHARON SIMONSON covers real estate for the Business Journal. Reach her at (408) 299-1853.
As Businesses Expand, Extended-Stay Formats Boom
San Fernando Valley Business Times (4-25-05 )
Malik Lee, Contributing Reporter
The influx of corporate and regional headquarters to the San Fernando Valley , and particularly the Conejo Valley has spurred a flurry of development of extended stay hotels in the area.
The hotels, which arose to cater to the business traveler, who spends a week to thirty days away from home, have also become preferred accommodations for employees relocating to an area and for vendors who may spend several days or more in town while working with a client company.
Extended stay hotels are currently under development in Westlake Village , Newbury Park and Agoura Hills, to name a few, and others have recently opened in Woodland Hills and in Simi Valley .
“They (extended stay hotels) will meet the needs of the business traveler due to the growth of many companies in the Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village area in need of quality hotel accommodations,” said Jim Flagg, president of Ocean Park Hotels, which is developing TownPlace Suites by Marriott, a 93-room extended stay hotel in Newbury Park. The hotel is set to open next February.
Unlike traditional hotels, these extended stay facilities have larger living spaces, sometimes as large as two-bedroom units. They include separate workspace areas and fully equipped kitchens with sinks, refrigerators, microwave ovens and stoves. There are typically laundry facilities on the premises in addition to traditional dry cleaning services and some have convenience stores on the premises and grocery shopping services.
There are also small meeting rooms and a full range of business services – faxes, copy machines and printing – useful for business travelers.
Many even allow pets.
On average, rates range from about $75 a night to as high as $339 a night for suites at these extended stay hotels. There are discounts, in the range of 20 percent to 30 percent for those who stay seven days or longer, and loyalty programs that reward frequent guests with free stays, mileage credits on airfare and gift certificates.
Extended stay hotels have prospered since they first began to emerge about a decade ago, thanks in large part to the growth and expansion in corporate America .
There are currently more than 245,000 extended stay hotel rooms across the country, according to Highland Group, a consulting firm in Atlanta, and the category grew at a rate of 4.9 percent last year, surpassing the rate of the hotel industry overall, 4.6 percent, according to Smith Travel Research.
“With companies having more and more offices around the world, these they will bring their employees into town for corporate functions as well,” Flagg said.
Increased demand
With the growth of large corporate headquarters such as those for Countrywide Financial Corp., Amgen and Health Net Inc. all located on the Western end of the greater Valley, the need for these hotels has increased, and some cities have moved to make certain that extended stay hotels are part of their business mix.
Agoura Hills has recently issued permits to Dimension Development Co. Inc. to build a 125 unit Homewood Suites in the area.
“Our general plan we created ten years ago we identified a need for a hotel, and I think the improving economy recently has caused the Homewood Suites to move forward,” said Mike Kamino, director of planning and community development for Agoura Hills.
Dimension Development, which currently operates about 30 hotels in nine states, includes properties under the Hilton, Holiday , Marriott and Starwood brands. In Santa Clarita, Dimension Development operates a Fairfield Inn by Marriott, a Residence Inn by Marriott and a Hampton Inn.
In addition to Dimension and Ocean Park Hotels, Huntington Group is building a 160-room Marriott Residence Inn in Westlake Village , and an Extended StayAmerica hotel recently opened in Simi Valley .
All the rooms at Residence Inns have high speed Internet along with the standard Marriott packages – pool, spa, fitness area, and large breakfast rooms.
Phillip Crane the general contractor for a few of the Valley’s new hotels, said, “The rooms will have a higher end finish with granite finish counter tops in the bathroom, in the kitchen. It will be a nice finished package for business travelers.”
Since the first Residence Inn was opened in Wichita , Kansas by an independent operator, these lodgings have become the fastest growing segment in the hotel industry, according to industry reports.
The sector is now dominated by the major hotel chains. Marriott acquired Residence Inn in 1987 and is now the largest extended stay hotel chain with 460 properties.
Many standard stay hotels have even begun to offer discounts to compete.
“They (extended stay hotels) have also become more popular with non business travelers as well,” said Kevin Knight, founder and president of Biz-Stay.com, a global extended stay lodging directory established in 2000.
“The space you get, also families like having the kitchen so you don’t have to get the kids dressed to take them to the restaurant.”
Back to topOpinion
Housing Boom Defies Trends, Likely To Bust Soon, Won't It?
Contra Costa Times (4-4-05)
Rick Jurgens
To two Bay Area residents who bought new homes this winter, it looked like a good time to make a move into something better.
And although each paid triple what the previous owners spent less than a decade ago, these buyers walked into a hot market well aware of the recent run-up in prices and emerged happy to have found a house or a condominium that fits their needs.
"I wanted to get in as soon as possible, especially with the way prices are going up in the Bay Area," says Carlo Cesar, a 34-year-old manager for Safeway. March 16, he moved into the two-bedroom, two-bath, 871-square-foot Antioch condo, for which he paid $295,000. Nine years ago, the same unit sold for $77,500, according to county records.
Many have profited from the Bay Area's recent real estate boom. Few can explain it.
Economists say house price appreciation normally reflects gains in income and employment. So what explains the 47 percent jump in the Bay Area's median price since the end of 2000, to $549,000 in February, during a period when the region's economy shed 450,000 jobs?
To some skeptical analysts, it appears that low interest rates -- the average interest on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has stayed below 6.5 percent since mid-2002 -- have produced a bubble of inflated house prices in the Bay Area and in some other hot markets in California and elsewhere. And while they bristle at the term "bubble," even optimistic market watchers expect rates to climb and house price appreciation to slow soon.
So far buyers have kept buying, softening the sting of high prices with the balm of cheap mortgages and inviting loan terms. With real estate values now widely viewed as immune to economic setbacks, buyers seem certain that no matter how expensive that bungalow in Bay Point or that mansion in Moraga is, it will command an even loftier sum a year or five years from now.
Also, a growing number of investors have jumped into the market. Real estate has replaced the stock market as the new millennium's sure-fire route to quick gains. To those intimidated by the risks and complexity of owning property, advertisements and free seminars promise quick lessons and eye-popping results in the speculation game.
Post-dot-com wealth
Before he bought in Antioch , Cesar learned the hard way about price appreciation. He recalls "kicking myself in the butt" for not pulling the trigger on a deal five years ago when he looked at condos ranging from $40,000 to $60,000. House and condo prices rose smartly in the past year, and he expects future appreciation to be even better.
But Brian Forschler, a 31-year-old salesman, has a more cautious outlook on house prices. "I'm not counting on a whole lot of growth," says Forschler, who just paid $975,000 for a three-bedroom, 21/2-bath, 1,800-square-foot house in Danville . Nine years ago, that same unit sold for $279,000.
Forschler has already benefited from the Bay Area boom. Three years ago, he and his wife bought a San Ramon townhouse for $391,000. Forschler estimates that its value has nearly doubled since. Without that run-up, he says, "we wouldn't have the down payment for the next place."
The Forschlers weren't the only ones to benefit from the real estate boom. From coast to coast, rising house prices boosted an otherwise sluggish economy. Homeowners cashed out more than $300 billion in equity through sales, refinancing or borrowing, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Californians led the way. The value of the state's inventory of 12 million houses and condos rose by $1.7 trillion during the past four years, according to UCLA economist Christopher Thornberg. With the smell of money helping to mobilize an army of agents, lenders, brokers and builders to serve the red-hot market, housing-related jobs accounted for more than half the growth in the state's private sector employment, according to Thornberg.
Real estate became the Bay Area's post-dot-com wealth machine. Between the first quarter of 2000, when the stock market bubble burst, and the end of 2004, the average price of single-family houses rose 76 percent in the East Bay , according to a house price index compiled by the U.S. Office of Housing Enterprise Oversight. During that same period, the Standard & Poor's 500 index of leading stocks fell 19 percent.
Getting into a home
Some attribute the rapid appreciation of real estate here to the shortage of land available for development. But last year real estate fever spread to the sprawling inland subdivisions around Sacramento , where prices rose 23 percent, and to Southern California , where prices in Riverside are up 30 percent. In the Las Vegas area, house prices rose 36 percent last year, according to OFHEO.
Such hikes in house prices can't go on forever, warns Christopher Cagan, an economist with First American Title Insurance Co.: "You should not assume you will get 25 percent price increase in a year."
Not that anyone but the most highly leveraged speculator would want that. The continuing real estate boom has already intensified worries that high housing costs will chase employers to lower-cost regions.
And with starter homes priced at $300,000 even in outlying areas, young buyers seeking to get into the house market now load up with debt and seek to put payments off into the future. "People are stretching more than they used to," Cagan says.
Allen Barnes Jr., a 26-year-old accountant, recently bought a three-bedroom, 21/2-bath, 1,280-square-foot house in Pittsburg for $350,000. Planning to leave their rental unit in Union City by the summer, Barnes and his wife thought about moving to Modesto but felt lucky to make the winning offer on their new Pittsburg house, which was only the second they had looked at.
Barnes and his wife chose a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage and a financing package for the full price of their new house "just to get in," he said. "From what I've been hearing, that's what people have been doing" to cope with high house prices, he added.
Last year in California , 28 percent of all house buyers -- and one in three first-time buyers -- opted for adjustable rate mortgages, according to a survey by the state Realtors association. Those buyers passed up the opportunity to lock in slightly higher fixed-rates, even though most experts view current rates as historically low and unlikely to be available in coming years.
Shocks ahead
Growing use of new lending products constitutes a worrisome trend, according to Economic and Real Estate Trends, a real estate risk forecast produced by Walnut Creek-based PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. The forecast expects increases in the benchmark interest rates that determine the adjustments to variable rate loans. "This could potentially lead ... to payment shock, because borrowers with imperfect understanding and limited information are not fully aware of the extent to which their monthly payments can rise," according to the forecast.
The shock could be even worse to bullish investors who have taken out loans to place bigger bets that house prices will go even higher.
There seems to be plenty of new players. In 2004, a record-high 1 in 6 house buyers surveyed by the California Association of Realtors said that they "bought primarily for investment and tax considerations." The 2004 rate of 16.2 percent surpassed the previous high of 15.3 percent in 1991, just before the state's housing market fell into a multi-year funk.
New investors see plenty of enticements. A full-page advertisement in the Times recently offered "a life-changing free seminar" on "how real estate investing can make YOU a fortune" and "how to get in the game." A brokerage in the red-hot Las Vegas market trolls for attendees at a free seminar with Mayor Oscar Goodman topping the bill of speakers. Mass e-mails invite investors to pony up $6,000 to join "a stock market of real estate."
Caution flags raised
So where is the market going?
The California Association of Realtors sees signs of another good year for those with a stake in real estate. "The outlook for 2005 is largely dependent on the trajectory of interest rates," the association observed in its recent report on the state of the housing market.
Yet even the normally bullish Realtors seem puzzled by the recent strength in the market. Their report describes 2004 as "a year of apparent contradictions" and notes that "home sales and price appreciation were robust despite a weaker-than-expected job market."
That can't go on either, says Thornberg, an economist at UCLA's Anderson Economic Forecast. "The housing sector's ... current growth path both in building and prices is clearly unsustainable," he wrote in a March 15 assessment of the state's economic prospects.
Industry insiders are also waving caution flags. PMI estimates that there is about a 50 percent chance that house prices will broadly decline within the next two years in the East Bay and other core counties of the Bay Area.
Cagan, the First American economist, recently published a report that tried to identify areas of risk in the nation's housing markets. It found that during the past 16 years long-term growth in house values has been broken into up and down cycles in some markets, including the Bay Area.
Cagan says the recent sharp rise in house values and the likelihood that mortgage interest rates will rise indicate that the up cycle may end soon, bringing in a period of flat or declining prices. "The cyclical markets are pretty close to peak," he says.
But the Bay Area may have "a little more room to go," with relatively high incomes and episodes of price flatness in recent years likely to cushion any local slump in real estate, he says. House markets in Alameda and Contra Costa counties have remained "healthy" at all price levels even as demand slowed for the most expensive houses in the region's most pricey markets, he adds.
Ron Atkins, a Pleasanton Realtor, says that although Tri-Valley real estate remains a sellers' market, with a shortage of houses listed for sale, he is watching for signs of a slowdown. "When it happens, it will happen quickly," he says.
Recent appreciation rates won't be sustained, he predicts. "As a knowledgeable homeowner, I am looking for a 5 percent to 8 percent (rise in house values) this year," he says. "There will come a time when it will dead flatten out."
Housing booms most often roll into periods of price stagnation, according to a recent historical study by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. But busts -- price declines, in one case of 40 percent -- did occur over the past 25 years when stagnation was accompanied by "rather severe, localized economic shocks that tended to affect major employers," the FDIC found.
These days the FDIC, which insures bank customers against losses, sees some worrisome signs. "There are reasons to think that history might be an imperfect guide to the present situation," its study says. "Foremost among these are changes in credit markets that are pushing homeowners -- and housing markets -- into uncharted territory."
So where does Barnes, one of those new homeowners, think the market is heading? "It beats the heck out of me!"
CMBA News
CMBA is exicted to announce our keynote speakers for the 33rd Annual Western Secondary Market Conference (July 12-13) and the Commercial Real Estate Finance Conference (September 25-27): Ben Stein and Billy Beane!
Highlighting the Western Secondary Market Conference will be 7-time Emmy Award-winning actor and economist Ben Stein!
Ben Stein has had what may be the most diverse career of anyone now on the national scene. He is in every sense a Renaissance Man. He has been an award winning actor, economist, writer, journalist, and teacher, and is equally well known in America ’s board rooms and in America ’s dormitories and fraternity houses. He is certainly the only man to be a famous humorous teacher about economics and law. He was a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and also wrote editorials for the Journal. In June of 1976, he moved to Hollywood to become a novelist, TV sitcom writer, and movie script writer. He has written and published 17 books, seven fiction and the rest nonfiction. He labored especially hard on a decade long project of exposing financial fraud and the self dealing at large companies. His work on the Milken/Drexel junk bond scheme was instrumental in the recovery of billions for investors and tax payers.
Stein has also taught about law, economics and securities law at Pepperdine Law School for many years and has served as an expert witness in many securities law cases.
In 1986, with no professional training, Stein became an instant cult hero for his role as the boring economics teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which scene was directly voted one of the fifty funniest scenes in American film history. After that, Stein went onto be a recurring character in Charles in Charge, and then The Wonder Years, and then in 1997, began his long running hit quiz show, Win Ben Stein’s Money. The show has won six Emmies and Stein has won one for best game show host. In all, his show has been nominated for 17 Emmies.
Ben Stein has just finished his latest book, How To Ruin Your Life. He writes regularly for E-Online and The American Spectator and over his life has been a columnist for New York Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, Barrons, and many other magazines.
Stein lives with his beloved wife of 36 years, Alexandra Denman, and their son, the devilishly handsome Thomas Stein, in Los Angeles, California, center of the universe.
We are very fortunate to also be featuring one of Major League Baseball's top executives at our Commerical Real Estate Finance Conference. Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics, has used one of baseball's lowest payrolls ($55 million in 2005, compared to division rival Los Angeles Angels of Aneheim's $98 million) to produce a consistently contending franchise.
He has literally changed the way baseball executives scout talent and budget salaries. He's doing it with computers and statistics wielded by a bunch of college boys who never played baseball. Billy refuses to pay big stars what they're worth because he's figured out how to replace them for a fraction of the cost, and above all, he refuses to pay big money for marginal players. All by himself, he has changed the game.
Beane's story is covered in the bestselling book Moneyball, and is an important and fascinating tale for managers and executives from any industry or profession. Combining a down-to-earth style, humorous anecdotes, and concrete lessons for business success, Billy Beane is a celebrity speaker with a difference – real content that will help attendees to the Commercial Real Estate Finance Conference to become more effective managers, whoever their Goliath is.
For more information about any of our conferences, or to sign up, please visit www.cmba.com/conferences, or call CMBA Meeting Services Director Randi Bolton at (916) 446-7100.
CMBA Joins Fight to Stop Split-Roll Initiatives!
With efforts already underway to place commercial property split-roll tax initiatives on upcoming statewide ballots, CMBA has joined forces with dozens of organizations, small businesses, and taxpayer advocates to ensure that California's commercial real estate finance industry is not needlessly burdened by these onerous initiatives. The group, Californians to Stop Higher Taxes, includes the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, California Business Properties Association, California Taxpayers Association, and many ethnic business groups.
For more information, please go to www.stophighertaxes.org.
Calendar - Check our website for updates and registration info!
33rd Annual Western Secondary Market Conference - July 12-14, 2005
Keynote Speaker - Ben Stein!
Westin St. Francis
San Francisco, CA
50th Annual CMBA Convention - July 14, 2005
Westin St. Francis
San Francisco, CA
10th Annual Western States Loan Servicing Conference - August 7-9, 2005
Bellagio
Las Vegas, NV
8th Annual Western States Commercial Real Estate Finance Conference - September 25-27, 2005
Keynote Speaker - Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane!
Bellagio
Las Vegas, NV
Legislative, Regulatory, & Compliance Conference - November 7, 2005
Location TBD
Orange County, CA
Mortgage, Quality, & Compliance Workshop - November 8, 2005
Location TBD
Orange County, CA
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President's Council
Fannie Mae
Countrywide Credit Industries, Inc.
Bankers Insurance Service
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About CMBA E-News
Editor - Dustin Hobbs: (916) 446-7100
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