NAIOP's Development '09
| Yesterday, NAIOP kicked off its three-day national meeting at the Sheraton on Columbus Drive. Despite the name (Development '09), topics ranged from finance, to marketing, to sustainable trends. |
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The biggest finance issue will be the $1.8 trillion in debt coming due by 2012, according to Bank of America's Eugene Godbold, flanked by Transwestern Realty Finance's Thomas McCahill and MetLife Real Estate Investment's Mark Wilsmann. Where's the credit coming from? Mark said that life companies were still definitely lending on performing assets, but construction loans would be hard to come by in the next three years. |
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Paris Development II's Aaron Paris, a veteran of five recessions with his current company and DP Partners, encouraged developers to diversify (if you're already in industrial, why not try self-storage?), be skinny and outsource, and cultivate good relationships with small lenders. He said this recession might affect commercial real estate less because we haven't overbuilt to 18-19% vacancy as we did in the early 1990s. |
