Southern California Office Real Estate Blog

REAL ESTATE PRICES ARE STILL UP THIS MILLENIIUM IN LOS ANGELES

REAL ESTATE PRICES ARE STILL UP THIS MILLENIIUM IN LOS ANGELES

by Jodi Summers

A recent report on Forbes.com citing the 10 Best and 10 Worst U.S. Housing Markets noted that in Los Angeles, if you bought in 2000, paid your mortgage on time and are still in your home, you’ve seen a 71.5% price appreciation.

Up north, San Francisco’s prices are up 30.12% from 2000. It still has the potential for a further fall, given the 31% drop for 2008.

Forbes analyzed monthly declines and year-over-year declines in home prices to determine where prices were falling fastest and where those drops were picking up momentum. They noted, “It’s not a good thing for San Diego that prices from November 2008 to December 2008 fell 2.13%, but as prices declined by 2.29% from October to November, and 2.44% from September to October, the speed with which prices are falling is slowing.”

The information is based on an S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, which measured metro home prices in 20 cities through December 2008.

Info courtesy of:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/24/housing-cities-ten-lifestyle-real-Estate_home_prices.html?partner=alerts

GREEN WALLS KEEP OFFICE PROPERTIES COOLER

GREEN WALLS KEEP PROPERTIES COOLER

By Jodi Summers

We discussed green roofs, now let’s cover green walls. Covered in vegetation, green walls can be 25% cooler than regular building walls in summer, remove air pollutants, and they look great.

Historically speaking, green walls aren’t exactly a new idea: The Romans planted grape vines along building walls, resulting in faster growing and sweeter grapes for wine. The structures are also prevalent in Europe, where modern-day green roofs first took off.

What the ancient Romans devised is now be adapted for 21^st century applications. Steven Peck, president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a Toronto industry association, observes that interest in green walls is growing, estimating that green roof installations have increased at about 30 percent a year over five years.

Locally, the Rainbow Apartments off San Julian Street in the heart of skid row has a 34-foot-long vegetable wall filled with strawberries, tomatoes, basil and other herbs and vegetables. Residents of this step up housing facility are surprised at how the garden has united them.

“It brings us together as a group, kind of like therapy, to see something growing and flourishing,” Jannie Burrows said.

The wall was installed with the assistance Urban Farming, as part of the nonprofit’s Food Chain project. Urban Farming also erected “edible” walls at the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, the Miguel Contreras Learning Center and the Weingart Centidenter.

The Food Chain project, said Urban Farming founder Taja Sevelle, enables residents in some of the city’s poorest areas to grow food in underused spaces at a time when food prices are soaring. The walls, she said, “get people to think outside the box. You can plant food in so many different places.”

In the corporate world, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. recently installed a 2,400 square feet green wall on one side of its headquarters in Pittsburgh. It’s the size of two tennis courts and features more than 15,000 ferns, sedums, brass buttons and other plants that create a swirling pattern of varying hues of green above the company’s logo. They are divided among hundreds of 2-by-2-foot aluminum panels that were anchored onto the building’s frame after part of the granite facade was removed.

“We think it’s the right thing to do for our community, for our customers and our shareholders,” said Gary Saulson, head of corporate real estate for PNC. “We wanted to add greenery to an area that didn’t have any. … We really view the green wall as public art.”

Green Living Technologies LLC, of Rochester, N.Y., designed the wall at PNC. The company has also installed walls in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle.

PNC bills its green wall as the largest in North America. On average green walls cost about $100 to $125 a square foot.

The Pittsburgh wall requires only 15 minutes a week of watering during peak growing season — less in winter — provided through the building’s plumbing system.

For non-edible green walls, according to Joanne Westphal, a landscape architecture professor at Michigan State University and part of the school’s Green Roof Research Program, the biggest benefit to green walls is their ability to help cool buildings through shading. They also help capture rainwater and release it more slowly into the atmosphere and stormwater systems. Additionally, green walls can offset the carbon output of one person a day.

http://www.agreenroof.com

http://www.greenroofs.org

http://www.socalgreenrealestateblog.com/?p=514

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/slideshow/ALeqM5hKS7UwnC8nR6j4kYQLu6m1X7nBbQD9B9DRK00?index=0

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hKS7UwnC8nR6j4kYQLu6m1X7nBbQD9B9DRK00

http://www.insideurbangreen.org/green-wall/

http://www.edgelosangeles.com/index.php?ch=style&sc=home&sc2=&sc3=&id=97540

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/14/local/me-garden14

http://arkitipintel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/amelia_b_lima-green_wall.jpg

GOOD NEWS FOR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY SELLERS – AB 1103 HAS BEEN DELAYED

GOOD NEWS FOR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY SELLERS – AB 1103 HAS BEEN DELAYED

By Jodi Summers

Back in October 2007, when Assembly Bill 1103 was signed, the objective of reducing commercial energy consumption by, January 1, 2010, seemed a long ways away.

AB 1103, which was signed into law in October, 2007, requires the tracking of the energy use of all nonresidential buildings and the disclosure of such energy use as part of the sale, lease, or financing of an entire nonresidential building.  The stated purpose of the disclosure requirement is to “motivate building operators to take actions to improve their buildings’ energy profiles” and “to allow building owners and operators to compare their buildings’ performance to that of similar buildings and to manage their buildings’ energy costs.”

In October, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 531 (”AB 531″) into law, temporarily delaying for an indefinite period of time the January 1, 2010 commencement date under AB 1103.

The state advises that owners and operators of nonresidential buildings should not delay preparations for the eventual disclosure requirement as compliance will require a year of records.

In order to comply with AB 1103, the state suggests that all owners and operators of nonresidential buildings should:

* Register for an account with Portfolio Manager

* Create a profile within Portfolio Manager for each nonresidential building owned

* Coordinate with each electrical or gas utility to automate the uploading of data to Portfolio Manager to the extent possible

* Track the implementation of AB 531 to determine the revised Disclosure Commencement Date to be set by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (”ERCDC”)

* Ensure the Disclosure Data (defined below) is disclosed as part of any sale, lease, or financing affecting an entire nonresidential building concluded on or after the revised Disclosure Commencement Date

The intent of the law is “commercial valuation of energy usage” during a financial transaction, just as square footage is valued, says Martha Brook, senior mechanical engineer with the California Energy Commission (CEC).

A preexisting executive order, S-20-04, already mandated benchmarking the energy efficiency of state buildings.

http://www.martindale.com/environmental-law/article_Allen-Matkins-Leck-Gamble-Mallory_818224.htm

http://www.facilitiesnet.com/energyefficiency/article/California-AB-1103-Requires-Ener%20gy-Benchmarking-Data-Released-During-Sales–11020

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_1101-1150/ab_1103_bill_20071012_chaptered.pdf

LOS ANGELES OFFICE PROPERTY SNAPSHOT – NOVEMBER 2009

LOS ANGELES OFFICE PROPERTY SNAPSHOT – NOVEMBER 2009

By Jodi Summers

Each quarter the UCLA Anderson Forecast reports the state of the economy and the state of real estate with clarity and accuracy. If what the Anderson School sages is correct, economic growth will soon begin again.

According to Anderson School Senior Economist David Shulman, “We forecast that real GDP will increase at 2.1% in the current quarter and 2.3% in the fourth quarter. For all of 2010, we forecast quarterly growth to average 2% with noticeable improvement at the end of the year.”

The downside for office is that the unemployment rate will be above 10% well into next year…that’s nationally. California is lagging behind the country, but will be buoyed by increased consumer confidence and ”an increased demand for California produced goods.”

This reflects in Los Angeles office space, where prices are down 77% from October 2007. Not only that, but the volume of office properties for sale in Los Angeles is up 45%, while the number of properties that have sold has halved.

Statewide, employment is forecast to contract -3.7% in 2009 and will barely grow at a 0.2% rate in 2010. The unemployment rate will grow to a high of 12.2% for 4th quarter 2009 and will average 11.6% for the year. Though the state economy will be growing by 2011, it will not produce enough jobs to get the unemployment rate below double digits until the end of that year.

Looking for some specific details? Would you like to be our client – we’ll take good care of you. Contact the SoCal Investment Group through Jodi Summers, Jodi@jodisummers.com.

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http://www.clarusresource.com/

http://www.uclaforecast.com/contents/archive/2009/media_91609_1.asp

http://www.dqnews.com/Articles/2009/News/California/Southern-CA/RRSCA091013.aspx