The ballots are in, and of the 2,218 votes that were clicked through, 1,856--84.2%--voted that the banking proposal should be shot down. Some 348--15.8%--voted in favor of the proposal. Only 14 participants left the question blank.
It was no surprise, of course, that commercial real estate would vote against banks in the business. What is surprising, however, is the breakdown by specialty. Bankers made up 102 (4%) of the respondents to this question, and they voted in a slim majority against the proposal. In fact, 53 (52.5%) said no and 48 (47.5%) said yes.
"I'll bet you that the 53 already tried it," Fleet Bank managing director Matthew Galligan told GlobeSt.com. "It's a time-consuming task that doesn't yield that much. It's a difficult row to hoe."
The Boston-based executive says that, while he didn't participate in the survey, he would have voted the proposal down. "I wouldn't mind banks having the power," he explained, "but as soon as they get such power they tend to lose focus, and one of the things we've done in real estate finance over the past few years is develop some strong disciplines." He expressed his fear that diversification will result in a loss of these controls.
The survey numbers truly spiked when the specialty moved into hardcore real estate. A vast majority of the 1,131 responding sales and leasing brokers voted against the proposal with 1,027 (91.5%) saying nay and 95 (8.5%) saying yes.
Owners/developers, 508 of whom responded to this question, fell out along similar lines. Some 413 (81.8%) voted it down and 92 (18.2%) gave it the nod. Only 60 corporate tenants took part in the banking question, but they voted with the majority; 47 (78.3%) said no and 13 (21.7%) voted in favor of the proposal. Among the 409 respondents who did not indicate a business specialty, 311 (76.2%) voted the proposal down and 97 (23.8%) waved it through.
Cushman & Wakefield vice chairman John Cefaly isn't surprised by the results. "Anybody with that sort of muscle represents a threat," he says.
If banks were given the thumbs-down in the inaugural survey, President George W. Bush got a healthy thumbs-up, with 1,385 of our respondents--66.5%--answering that the Bush administration will be good for commercial real estate. Some 239--11.5%--respondents gave Bush a "no" vote. More participants--458, or 22%--felt that the Bush years will have no impact on the industry; 136 voters passed on the question altogether.
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John Salustri
John Salustri has covered the commercial real estate industry for nearly 25 years. He was the founding editor of GlobeSt.com, and is a four-time recipient of the Excellence in Journalism award from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.
