GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: GSA Exec Tracks $10B in Fed Projects at RealShare

WASHINGTON, DC-RealShare, Real Estate Media Inc.’s national real estate conference that makes its way through major markets across the country every year, has left a big impression on players in the nation’s capital and surrounding markets. The event, which made an appearance in the District for the second time, attracted nearly 500 industry insiders to the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel.

Real Estate Media president and CEO Jonathan A. Schein welcomed the guests, who commandeered every available chair to listen in on the gathering of the “who’s who” in local real estate. Commissioner of the US General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service F. Joseph Moravec was the next to take the stage, covering various topics pertaining to the “$10 billion in federal construction in the works today.” He lauded the positive effects President George W. Bush’s management agenda has had on the government’s real estate activities. “Part of the president’s management agenda is to bring private industry tools and standards to the government sector,” Moravec noted, attesting that applying such practices has made the government’s real estate operations more efficient and friendlier to the private sector.

A brief, but information-infused RealShare Unplugged session entitled “Ten Minutes with Jeff Neal” covered topics ranging from the area’s thriving investment sales market to the improvement of the GSA’s relationship with private sector real estate over the last couple of years. Neal, who is a principal at Monument Realty, also noted that the lifting of building height restrictions would greatly increase retail opportunity. Neal also offered his thoughts on the role of the broker these days. “The market has become a lot more transparent, a lot more efficient, so a broker’s role has changed,” he explained. “Brokers and developers talk to each other, so the broker’s role is to be a facilitator, not to keep each side of the transaction honest.”