5 THINGS RAJEEV WANTS YOU TO KNOW
| This morning, GSU economic prognosticator Rajeev Dhawan gave his annual predictions for the 2012 economy during the Georgia State University Real Estate Alumni Group's Views From the Top event at Cherokee Town and Country Club. | ||
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Here are five takeaways. (Fair warning: Rajeev doesn't dish up his economic views with sugar on top.) 1. The US will likely avoid a recession, but Europe won't this year. 2. Atlanta will only grow 6,000 premium jobs (those most likely to use office space) this year and 13,000 in 2013. 3. CEO confidence has been plunging, which likely means corporate america won't be in a job-making mood anytime soon. 4. Oil prices and our "War of Words" with Iran are a big unknown at this point, particularly if things escalate. 5. The coming US elections probably won't solve our econonic malaise. ?If you believe come election day… that it's going to get better? You're delusional," Rajeev says. ?It's going to get worse in the coming years. I have sympathy for the next guy who is going to be the president.? | ||
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| Jamestown's Matt Bronfman says he's holding out hope that a streetcar system will actually be developed along Peachtree Street. Matt was one of a handful of local big developers on Views From the Top panel to talk about realizing big projects. Matt criticized how the announced streetcar's first phase of the downtown east-west route goes through ?areas without the density, in my opinion.? | ||
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| We also got Jacoby Development's Jim Jacoby (with GSU Alumni Chair Michael Anderson and Jacoby's John Borden) to reveal to us the address of the new Porsche HQ at the former Hapeville Ford plant. Ready for it? One Porsche Drive. Probably not too surprising, although you wonder why not 911 Porsche Drive? And Jim did confirm that Jacoby is ?acting as the developer for the project,? although he didn't say whether Porsche will ultimately lease or own the facility. | ||
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| Forest City's president Emerick Corsi seeks projects with high barriers to entry with complexities that can take up to 20 years to complete. That keeps the competition at bay. And Matt agreed with that: ?Give me a place that is hard to develop any day of the week.? Adding that overall Atlanta is just ?too darn easy? to develop. (Just wait until Double Jeopardy.) And while the Great Recession has put the kibash on many a dreamed-of project here, ?the recession will come to an end and [banks] will give away money like crack cocaine dealers.? | ||
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| We also got Wells REIT's Mary Beth Smith, Joe Oglesby, and Bert Collins to say cheese. Joe tells us that his firm just closed Franklin Center's purchase in Maryland. He also speculated that perhaps a ?bubble? is forming in multifamily, noting all the office players moving into the apartment world. ?I think it's a case of going where the money is,? he says. |
