Good-bye Archstone, hello mega-REITs
Underperformance of apartment REIT shares was a major impetus behind the defunct investment bank's decision to sell Archstone in a private sale to competitors Equity Residential (EQR) and AvalonBay (AVB) rather than in a...
Influencers and high tide
Family and friends? Business associates? The Kardashians? Who is your voice of reason? After viewing the video and examining the DNA according to CSI protocol, it appears that those closely-held beliefs that we call truth may...
The future of energy management in commercial buildings
2012 was a momentous year for commercial energy efficiency : despite a slow-growth economy, the number of buildings registering for U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Existing Buildings rating system skyrocketed; energy disclosure laws...
Don’t anesthetize your colleagues with bad writing
The most engaging communicators avoid trite expressions, whether in conversation or in writing. They use strong, simple words. Think of Winston Churchill's famous phrase blood, toil, tears, and sweat. And remember what George Washington...
Bullish to balanced
Demand for apartments still outpaces supply, vacancies are at their lowest point in years, rents continue to rise faster than inflation and apartments remain the investor-favored property type in today's low-interest-rate environment, all leading...
Morgan on the move
"This is a unique time to invest in the multifamily sector. The wind is at our back. We are above 95 percent occupied across our portfolio and we are seeing tremendous growth," said Morgan,...
Putting your best pitch forward in a society of salespeople
So when Pink, bestselling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind, ran across statistics showing that one in nine Americans worked in sales in 2000 and that the same proportion of people worked...
Obama picks former prosecutor to head SEC
Mary Jo White, former U.S. attorney in Manhattan, has an extensive record of prosecuting white-collar crime, won convictions in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1998 terrorist attacks on two U.S. embassies...
The Home Act
Maryland's HOME Act is legislation that would prohibit landlords and other property owners from declining Section 8 vouchers, deeming it discrimination based on "source of income." While proponents believe the Act will eliminate high...
After the deluge
Residents of UDR, Inc.'s Rivergate, 95 Wall and 10 Hanover Square were not among the uninformed. The 40-year-old apartment REIT, which entered New York City with the purchase of the 493-unit 10 Hanover Square in...
Made in America holidays
I was mesmerized. I opened and closed the book, slowly, gently, considering the long and arduous process required to publish a book back then. I thought about the person who read it first. I...
iPerks: How Apple seeks to woo employees
These perks, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal, include new discounts on Apple products, a program that matches employees' personal charitable contributions up to a set amount, and "Blue Sky," which...
The big split
Equity Residential and AvalonBay will together pay $2.69 billion in cash along with stock valued at $3.8 billion, N.Y.-based Lehman announced. The buyers, the two biggest U.S. apartment landlords by market value, will also...
Even more shades of grey
The number of centenarians worldwide will double by 2023, and double again by 2035. Projections suggest life expectancy will surpass 100 in some industrialized countries by the second half of this century-roughly triple the...
Asking tenants to spend the night
"The 520,000 square foot, 34 story structure will be converted to 445 for-lease residences," according to Metropolitan Partnership Ltd., the Reston, Va., development firm that purchased the building in November for $6 million. Ten Light...
