Perspectives
Capital Markets Risk: Looking for Clarity in the Face of Uncertainty
Bifurcation of Capital Markets was listed as the #10 issue in the 2021-22 Top Ten Issues Affecting Real Estate® by The Counselors of Real Estate®. While we may not be experiencing the steep drops on our roller coaster ride since March of last year, the ride is far from over. When we look at what… Read more
Perspectives
Collaborative Design and Risk Allocation in Infrastructure Design-Build
How WSDOT Saved $89M With Design-Build Last winter, I had a chance to review a freeway interchange project that was recently completed using the Design-Build style of procurement. I assumed what I would find would be deadly dull and not suitable dinner party conversation. Instead, I found the project’s procurement and design process to be… Read more
Adaptive Reuse 2.0: The Neighborhood Approach
Adaptive Reuse 2.0 was listed as the #9 issue in the 2021-22 Top Ten Issues Affecting Real Estate® by The Counselors of Real Estate®. Adaptive reuse is not a new term or concept to the commercial real estate industry. It is an evolving property use trend expanding beyond the rejuvenation of single-property blight in urban… Read more
Perspectives
Economic Structure, Public Policy, and Private Decisions
Economic Structural Change was listed as the #8 issue in the 2021-22 Top Ten Issues Affecting Real Estate® by The Counselors of Real Estate®. The pilot of a jetliner on the tarmac has a lot of decisions to make. But, hopefully, he or she doesn’t have to guess about any of them. The cockpit instruments… Read more
Perspectives
Our Deep Divisions
Political Polarization was listed as the #7 issue in the 2021-22 Top Ten Issues Affecting Real Estate® by The Counselors of Real Estate®. There seems to be nothing new about America’s political polarization. Depending upon one’s historical perspective, this might be dated to the 1990s “Contract with America,” the 1960s Vietnam and Civil Rights movements,… Read more
Perspectives
Affordable Housing Discrimination in America
Housing Supply and Affordability was listed as the #6 issue in the 2021-22 Top Ten Issues Affecting Real Estate® by The Counselors of Real Estate®. When I wrote on this same topic a year ago, there was a shortage of 7.2 million affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income renter households, (those whose incomes are less than either the poverty guideline or 30% of their area median income).1, 2 This year, the shortage has... Read More