WHEN THE CORONAVIRUS FIRST MADE ITS presence known in the US, I had a conversation with Thomas J. Illmensee, a senior director at SquareFoot. He was having trouble getting into the habit of not shaking hands with clients. It was such a counterintuitive thing to do, especially in real estate where relationships are so important. And social distancing? "As a broker we make money being out on the street," he told me. But even in those very first days, Illmensee and his colleagues were already adapting to the new normal. "These are all issues we can work around."
So it goes for the larger commercial real estate industry. Without a doubt, CRE, along with the rest of the broader economy, is grappling with how to handle the coronavirus. As I write this, there have been widespread shutdowns across most sectors of the economy as the novel virus continues its march across the US. Even just a few weeks into this national emergency, there have already been reports of financing falling through and deals being put on hold. Certain industries, such as the hospitality and retail sectors, are going to take a painful hit. But at the same time, the community is taking proactive steps to do its part to stop the spread of this disease.
Will these efforts pay off? We pray so, because the worst case estimates for deaths are unfathomable.
And will the industry recover? Much depends on the larger economy. Right now the general consensus is that if the coronavirus spread is stopped relatively shortly, the US economy should be able to bounce back by the end of the year. If it isn't, the picture darkens. Right now the best we can do is, like Illmensee, adapt to this new normal.
***
In the meantime business will go on and with that in mind, we hope you enjoy the features in this issue. Our focus for this month is ESG—a subject of growing interest to CRE companies as institutional investors step up their own embrace of this strategy. Green building, of course, is of particular interest to our readers and we delve into its current trends in our article "Has Green Building's Moment Arrived?"
This is also our issue to acknowledge our picks for our annual net lease influencers. As always, we curated this list based on the individual or team or company's unique contributions to the industry. We also look at new trends in the space in our article, "New Horizons for Net Lease."
As always, we hope you enjoy the issue!
Erika Morphy
Managing Editor
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
