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‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Not Your Father’s Renter Thanksgiving
I’m a second-generation American. My parents both came here from immigrant families that probably would have been denied entry if not for the fact that they arrived here around 1908. I come from a long line of renters (and a couple of very colorful characters who resided for a time at Sing-Sing and some other places for trying to make a living in some non-traditional ways). Renting was, in most respects, the norm in those days, and the vast majority of immigrant families either lived with relatives that had previously entered the country and found housing, or rented tenement flats or…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Mack the Knife
Sometimes you get to meet people in this business that really surprise you. Being on the inquisitive end of research, I’m always observational instead participative, so I notice details many would consider non-important (Probably one of my most irritating qualities). That’s why I wanted to tell you about Mack the Knife, the Chicago Chop House and how you get professional basketball players to lease from you. Picture it: Chicago, land of governors and gangsters, where a well-placed bribe is a lot like a bet, you never quite know how it’s going to turn out. Chicago in winter is unlike any…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Caryle’s Grand Gaffé?
In an article that appeared this week in the Wall Street Journal, not necessarily the most accurate of sources, to be sure (hello, Rupert, lay off anybody today?), there is a bellwether article garnering little notice, but certainly worthy of more attention than Rick Perry got about forgetting the names of the federal agencies he was going to eliminate. When it comes to the annals of fund raising history, few can match the talent, wits and connections of the Carlyle Group, so named for the Carlyle Grand Cafe in Washington, D.C., according to my conversation years ago with a senior…
‘Editor’s Notebook’ with Diana Mosher: Weigh in on S&P’s Debt Downgrade and Other Topics
Have you visited the MHN home page lately? Next time you’re there, we hope you’ll take a minute or two to share your viewpoint by participating in our poll. The topic right now is President Obama’s new mortgage plan allowing more underwater homeowners to restructure their Fannie/Freddie mortgages. We want to know if you think the plan will: 1) Slow multifamily growth because it well help the market swing back to homeownership; 2) Help multifamily growth because Gen-Y does not see the importance of homeownership; 3) Have no impact on multifamily; or 4) It’s too soon to tell. The previous…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: How the Apartment Turns, or You Want Fries with That?
Renters are a pretty curious bunch, and between checking out the latest and greatest buildings and comparing amenities with their friends, they use smart phones and social media to get information. Being in research, an integral part of gaining perspective is to, in essence, act and think like a renter. Emptying my head of such non-renter notions as cutting the grass and painting the deck, I recently began to investigate the potential of using smart phones to get information about renting in a community without calling them. For this test, I used my recently acquired Samsung Galaxy II 4G phone,…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Italy, Greece and U.S. Apartment Rents
Apartment rents have been a bright spot in an otherwise dreary economic outlook. The last time I had a conversation with anyone from Greece, he was a taxi driver taking me to LaGuardia. We had a very spirited conversation about Greek politics along with his insistence the speed limit signs in Manhattan were only advisory and didn’t apply to taxi drivers. An interesting fact that came out of the trip to the airport, white knuckled, seat-belt tightening aside, was that people in Greece apparently feel a sense of comfort that their system, however disorganized and prominently dysfunctional, takes care of the…
‘Editor’s Notebook’ with Diana Mosher: Playing the ‘Community Living’ Card
People…. Planet…. Profit… Sounds like a recipe for real estate success. In a recent “letter to the editor,” a reader introduced us to Su Casa Properties and its Urban Village concept which looks for synergies between people, planet and profit as it rides an important multifamily trend: creating community among residents. The Urban Village concept is now operating in Arizona and Utah. We visited the website designed to introduce investors to Su Casa Properties and also saw mention of Four Cornerstones of Green Restructuring with a full spectrum of over 50 green solutions that are selectively applied based upon each…
‘Editor’s Notebook’ with Diana Mosher: From Brewery to Apartments
Like other abandoned manufacturing facilities, the historic Schmidt Brewery in St. Paul, MN caught the attention of the multifamily sector as a candidate for redevelopment. The 1900 building—which has been described as resembling a castle on Germany’s Rhine River—was designed by In 2002, after the property had changed hands several times, the last beer was bottled. The 15-acre site remained vacant since 2004. Apartment development and management company Dominium has had its eye on the property for years. Now, Dominium has the green light to transform the historic brewery into the Schmidt Artist Lofts, a $95 million rehab project that…
‘Editor’s Notebook’ with Diana Mosher: A Green Conversation Starter for the Leasing Office’
As you’ll hear again if you read my Editor’s Note in the November issue of MHN (click here to subscribe), I think the USGBC’s GreenBuild conference and expo is an important event to attend. Skip a year every so often, and take turns attending, because new technologies take a while to evolve. But multifamily companies of all sizes would do well to get there every couple of years to stay abreast of new trends before they hit the mainstream. Have the team member(s) who attend the show present their most compelling products and conference take-aways during an in-house lunch and…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: President’s Address to Congress Really Helps the Apartment Industry
The president presented his proposals to Congress last evening highlighting both the opportunity to make changes in job growth and the potential derision by the republicans. Despite a lot of wrangling over who is to blame or what sort of spending or stimulus would be effective, the president is offering a plan that is very similar to his previous shovel ready proposition, suggesting that the country can build its way out of this economic morass. The plan fundamentally offers support to manufacturing, construction and municipal spending, all areas important in the apartment industry. While it may be too early to know if this will in fact pass, the mood…