News
Deja Schmooze
January 4, 2011
| Did you know that Bisnow hosts more than 140 events annually in the 10 markets we cover? Dallas-Fort Worth was home to five of them in 2010, when we gathered the top names in the industry to discuss everything from capital markets to sustainability (audiences reached 550 at one event). Miss anything? Here's a recap. | |
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| It seems like we were just here hosting our first Happy Hour & Schmooze on Jan. 28, 2010 at 8300 Douglas in Preston Center. Here’s Cousins’ Matt Schendle and Cynthia Cowen, with your humble publisher Mark Bisnow (yes, it is his name). Last year also brought DFW Bisnow's first anniversary in October. And our next big event: Power Networking (Jan. 25, 5-7 pm, Trece Restaurant Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Lounge at 4513 Travis St. in Dallas) will feature two hours of business networking, open bar, appetizers and a tequila tasting. Early Bird price $29. Thanks to our fabulous event sponsors: Hill & Wilkinson General Contractors, Elite Facility Systems, Servcorp, and Crown Sterling Properties. Want to join the "in" crowd? Ask Joni Margotta about sponsorship opportunities. | |
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| Our DFW State of the Market breakfast at the Renaissance Dallas on tax day brought this headline from Granite Properties chiefMichael Dardick: We May Have Hit Bottom. It’s looking like he may have been right. Our star-studded lineup included Henry S. Miller prez Sam Kartalis, Duke Realty EVP Jeff Turner, Stream Realty co-managing partner Mike McVean, Haynes and Boone partner Rick Martin, Behringer Harvard prez Bob Aisner, Grubb & Ellis executive managing director Moody Younger, and Ernst & Young partnerChris Seyfarth. Chris told us that more than 200 banks have closedin the last couple of years with another 700 on the government watch list. He said the question was "can banks continue to hang on to this debt?" Some loans will extend and some won’t, providingopportunities for those with capital. He added that one of the real opportunities may be buying debt rather than the underlying asset. | |
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| On July 29, we learned that CMBS is back and money is ready to lend at our What's Up In Capital Markets summit. The Weitzman Co’s honcho Herb Weitzman summed up: “Properties are broken. We have to be fixers getting in the trenches and getting our hands dirty.” Also with Herb here are CBRE vice chairman Jack Fraker, then L&B Realty Advisors EVP (now Valero’s guy) David Gleeson, Cushman & Wakefield Texas capital markets group ED Stephannie Mower, and Hillwood Investments CEO Todd Platt. Other expert panelists included Cantor Fitzgerald managing director Jon Trauben, Churchill Capital Co CEO Jim Neil, Walker & Dunlop SVP and central region manager Vic Clark, Winstead chairman Kevin Sullivan, Goldman Sachs Commercial Mortgage Capital co-CEORoddy O’Neal, BBVA Compass Bank Texas real estate market manager John Reichenbach, and Newport Capital Advisors CEOJeffrey Juster. | |
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| We went high-brow on our readers and took our Sept. 24 Dallas Multifamily Summit to the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in the Dallas Arts District. Above, Invesco senior director Greg Kraus, Behringer Harvard Multifamily REIT I COO Mark Alfieri, Milestone managing partner Jeffrey Goldberg, and Thompson & Knight partner Ted Benn. Mark said pension funds and advisorshave hit reset and are starting to invest again with pent-up demand for Class-A well beyond his expectations. | |
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| Our second panel at the Multifamily Summit featured The Apartment Group prez Jeff Price (second from left between Prudential Mortgage Capital Co managing director Paul Geyer, KeyBank Real Estate Capital Central US multifamily guru David Schmidt, and HFF senior managing director John Brownlee), who said now is the time to start building in some markets for 2012 deliveries. About two-thirds of DFW's 600,000 units are pre-1990, well below what's needed in a market with six to seven million people, and demand will outpace supply. | |
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| Being green is easier than you may think, we learned from our Dec. 15 Bisnow Sustainability Summit experts: Winstead shareholderBill Weinberg, Granite development manager Aaron Bidne, The Beck Group director of sustainability Betsy del Monte, GSA Region 7 sustainability program manager Kevin Myles (peeking over shoulders), Behringer Harvard director of sustainability Michele Langenberg, and Realty Appreciation project manager Kevin Rogers. Michele said Behringer Harvard is finding many low-cost or no-cost initiatives leading to significant savings, like simply changing a building's business hours: “We’ve had several recognize savings with the flip of a switch, and we’ve had good payback on lighting retrofits, most cases seeing that in two years.” |
