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A storm of factors (public and private) is brewing to make California—already a green-building state—even greener, Snyder Langston director of sustainability Steve Gabbert tells us.  Steve details the legislation going into effect this year, including the new California Energy Code (Title 24-Part 6, 2013), California Green Building Standards Code (Title 24-Part 11, 2013), and the Nonresidential Building Energy Use Disclosure Program (AB 1103). But it's more than new laws. The newly introduced LEED v4 is also gaining momentum. The commercial real estate industry "will see significant advances in energy efficiency from new requirements for adaptive lighting—lighting that automatically dims or shuts off when it's not needed—demand response infrastructure, and better building controls,” Steve says. (Good for green, bad for ghosts, who used to use lighting control as their primary scare method.)  This year, Steve was elected to the Orange County Chapter of the USGBC's board of directors. Beyond mere energy efficiency, LEED v4 will create market transformation through new transparency requirements for manufacturers to disclose environmental and human health impacts, Steve notes. Pictured: Hyundai's new HQ in Irvine, which is pursuing LEED Gold under LEED-NC 2009. Snyder Langston has been on site daily to deliver the massive project to the automaker.  Victor Muschetto Photography Recently, the USGBC confirmed that California is, in fact, among the top states in the country for LEED-certified sustainable buildings. The org ranked the states according to certified space per capita in 2013, and by that metric California tied with New York for fifth, with 1.95 SF per resident. (Illinois was first, followed by Maryland, Virginia, and Massachusetts.) Pictured: DPR Construction's Newport Beach office, which is LEED Gold. |
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Mortgage Tenants Still Critical to OC Office |
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 Although Orange County's economy has diversified since the recession, JLL SVP Curtis Ellmore (who focuses on tenant rep) tells us it's still heavily tied to the mortgage industry. JLL research shows that in the county's CBDs, 14.1% of office space is occupied by financial services firms, while it's 12.5% in the suburbs. The volatility of the mortgage industry, Curtis says, motivates companies to seek as much flexibility as possible in their lease agreements. |
 Mortgage companies in particular are volatile, with the industry in a declining/transition phase. Business fueled by refi and ultra-low interest rates has come and gone. (All that's left are stories of low rates and a selfie we took with our deed.) Origination, not refi, is now driving the business. “Two years ago, we saw a lot of growth in the industry, but today that growth has ceased,” Curtis says. For example, Cash Call is working to downsize its 400k SF OC footprint by more than half. |
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Investors Hot for OC NNNInvestors are keen for OC net-lease properties, especially markets such as Huntington Beach, which “provides a dense population base in a coastal city, which is highly sought after by investors,” Charles Dunn Co's Charles DeSantis tells us. Along with colleague Kyle Gulock, Charles repped New York-based Big Four LLC in the sale of a 4,800 SF property fully occupied by Bank of the West. Demand for this kind of property is strong enough that it “achieved a strong sale price, despite a short amount of time remaining on the lease,” Kyle says. |
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YOU TELL US:
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Publisher's Notebook: Conspiracies in Seattle Don't you hear it's always drizzling in Seattle? We spent most of last week there, and even our weather app said it was drizzling. But that was not the case—we had beautiful sunshine every day, like the sky above 772-foot-high 1201 Third Ave that we snapped Friday.  And here's 580-foot US Bank Centre the day before. Clearly Seattleites have invented an urban myth about the weather to keep tourists at bay.  We loved eating at the counter of celebrity chef Tom Douglas' hugely popular latest restaurant, TanakaSan. He and four other top names on Seattle's frenzied food scene will be speakers at our Bisnow Restaurant Development Summit in Seattle on March 19.  Who knew that foodies helped fix the Super Bowl? These were the signs above the restaurant stove. (The number 12, for you tourists, is the nickname for the city's rabid fans who helped propel the Seahawks to victory—the “12th man" on the squad.) Maybe a secret code could help the Redskins. |
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