Labor Shortage in 2014?

BOMA S.F. had a stellar year, but SVP Marc Intermaggio has a wishlist for 2014. He thinks the CRE industry is poised to experience a shortage of talent in the coming years, specifically amongst property managers.

BOMA is filling that void with a partnership with San Francisco State University. The program enables students to obtain a B.S. with concentration in finance and Certificate in Commercial Real Estate from SFSU's School of Business to produce "job ready" commercial property management candidates. (It's like basic training except you don't jump out of planes.) He looks forward to further developing the program, involving other real estate associations (as they're all impacted, he notes), and expanding the program to other California State University campuses.

Marc's office contains an assortment of cigars (he loves the box artwork), paraphernalia from his band, and odes to Italy, where he's visiting next year. BOMA China, the newest national group to join the BOMA International Federation, is helping to support China's training needs and giving members a greater understanding of what Chinese investors are seeking. Expect a Jan. 30 program on that topic. He's also keeping an eye on the city's transition from a payroll tax system to one based on gross receipts. That will have a large impact on its members.

S.F. is expanding its number of pricey apartments and condos, he says. (NEMA's recent grand opening, above, showed off its new snazzy units for rent.) But workforce housing is an "achilles heel" for San Francisco, and City leaders have not done enough to support "truly" affordable housing. That exacerbates the so-called "class divide," adds cars to highways, increases commute times (the only ones who like that are radio djs), boosts calls for congestion pricing tolls on drivers, and feeds the rhetoric of the "nimby" crowd who has repeatedly "aborted our zoning and planning process" to stop even sensible projects that have received project approval.