Trump Top Pick in CRE Executive Survey

Ron Gart of Seyfarth Shaw’s Washington DC office.

CHICAGO—As reported last week in GlobeSt.com , the Chicago-based law firm Seyfarth Shaw recently decided it was time to take stock of how commercial real estate executives thought about the world and its challenges. The “2016 Real Estate Market Sentiment Survey” discovered that, among many other things , commercial real estate executives consider the profusion of high-tech jobs a challenge with several facets. In fact, the top emerging concern was that new tech tools have created a “gig economy” with the potential to disturb markets in a variety of unforeseen ways. Traditional taxi services have been undercut by the completion from Uber , for example, and “we don’t know what the next service provided by the Uber economy will be,” Ron Gart , a partner in the firm’s Washington, DC office, tells GlobeSt.com. And 83% of survey respondents said they were concerned about the impact of “brain drain” on the commercial real estate workforce as the industry embarks on a major generational shift. Baby boomers are approaching retirement age, Gart points out, and “others who are millennials typically focus on tech jobs that are not real estate related,” but do pay high salaries.    As real estate executive look toward the future, many are thinking about the presidential election, and its perhaps not a surprise that a real estate mogul was their top choice. Donald Trump was selected by 33% of respondents when asked specifically which candidate would be the best from an industry standpoint. As in the New Hampshire primary, all other candidates were far behind. Jeb Bush was picked by 13%, Hillary Clinton got 12% and Marco Rubio 11%. No one else hit the double-digit level.        One-hundred and thirty-nine respondents, ranging from owners and developers to brokers, took the survey, and Trump seemed to be the one who “understood my problems,” Gart says, especially since the other candidates are largely career politicians. Jeb Bush may have been expected to fare better in this type of survey due to his long experience in real estate. Still, he is far better known as a state governor than a real estate executive. “That is a subtle difference. But Mr. Trump is completely identified with the commercial real estate industry.”