How can environmental concerns impact development?
When a site has an cental contamination issue, one of the first questions my clients ask is, "Does it have closure?" The regulatory closure letter is considered the golden ticket when it comes to these sites. But when is it not good enough? Some typical issues that can arise during redevelopment are:
• The appropriate threshold levels for the type of development that will occur were not met (i.e. the property will be redeveloped as residential but was cleaned up to industrial standards).
• Residual contamination was left in place that would not be acceptable for workers to come in contact with during grading and other construction activities.
• Naturally occurring levels of metals are present at the subject property which, when hauled off site are considered hazardous waste and have to be handled and disposed of properly, which can be costly.
It's important to have a qualified environmental engineer with the experience and knowhow to handle these situations.
Read Partner's "Science of Real Estate" blog at www.globest.com/blogs/buildingsciences
How will the industry shape up over the next year?
The improving economic and commercial real estate readings of the past few months continue to foster an encouraging outlook for 2012. Last month's strong job performance put total private-sector job growth for the past 12 months at just under 2.3 million. First-time unemployment applications have hit a four-year low.
Growing reliance on permanent positions offers yet another data point that validates rising corporate confidence. For example, in 2010, temporary jobs accounted for a third of jobs created. That fell to 9% in 2011, indicating firms' need for full-time, long-term workers thanks to improving corporate financial conditions.
Another pivotal bright spot has been exports, which grew 5.1% last year, accounting for 13% of total economic output. Growth in trade underlies somewhat of a manufacturing revival in the US, resulting in 235,000 additional manufacturing jobs in the past 12 months. The US economy is steadily shifting out of neutral and back into expansion mode.
Read Hessam Nadji's blog, "StreetSmart," at globest.com/blogs/streetsmart
What are the coming development trends for the year?
One of the biggest development trends in 2011, and one that will deepen in the coming months, is the emergence of a new property category: "creative space." This is an amalgam of traditional R&D and office space, with a bit borrowed from the lab sector and even retail.
Perhaps the most dramatic manifestation is occurring in San Francisco, where an explosion among digital and social media, tech, online and mobile app companies has created a 21st century land rush as firms like Google and Facebook snap up everything from empty life science campuses to office towers and raw land to build environments highlighted by creative, techno-cool workspaces.
Landlords in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles have also embraced the trend, some deploying innovative "disguised identity" marketing campaigns to lease older buildings in markets not normally on brokers' radar and others acquiring largely vacant assets in un-cool neighborhoods to attract uber-cool firms.
Roth is a regular columnist on GlobeSt.com and a regular news source on the site.
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