BOMA SoCT serves the commercial real estate industry - by Rona Siegel

Rona Siegel, Collins Enterprises, LLC

Happy New Year!  I trust that everyone had a happy and safe holiday season spending time with family and friends.  BOMA Southern Connecticut started this year with their Annual State of the Market Luncheon at the Stamford Marriott on January 21^st.  Moderator Al Mirin from Cushman & Wakefield presented various questions to the panel including residential questions for Randy Salvatore from RMS Properties, retail updates from Jason Wuchiski from RHSY and pertinent commercial facts by James Ritman from Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.  With our largest audience to date, they posed multiple questions for the panel regarding future projections for real estate in and around Fairfield County.  A big thank you to AFFINECO, LLC for sponsoring the entire event.

If you’re reading about BOMA for the first time, you may be wondering who we are.  The Southern Connecticut Chapter of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA SoCT) represents commercial property owners and developers, commercial real estate professionals, and associate members through leadership, advocacy, research, outreach, and education.  BOMA SoCT serves the commercial real estate industry from New Haven to the New York/Connecticut line.  We are comprised of not only owners and managers, but also of companies that provide so many services to the properties day in and day out.  See more about us at www.soctboma.org and all members or non-member owners/managers can connect with us on LinkedIn.  BOMA International is a federation of 93 BOMA U.S. associations, BOMA Canada and its 11 regional associations, and 13 BOMA international affiliates.  Together, the 117 organizations form a worldwide, professional community dedicated to providing knowledge and solutions to commercial real estate practitioners.  For more info go to www.boma.org.

Then, on February 1^st, as chapter president, I represented BOMA SoCT along with Ron Goodin, chapter president of and Greater Hartford attending the Winter Business Meeting in D.C. that was hosted by BOMA International.  While there, we joined other commercial real estate professionals on Capitol Hill to meet our senators and congressmen to inform them of issues that are, or could affect the industry.  The meetings resulted in senator Blumenthal deciding to co-sponsor the Fire Sprinkler Act, which may allow owners to see some tax incentives/rebates to install fire sprinklers where needed, understanding that they save lives and property.  In addition, we requested for support for a vote to decrease the depreciation from 39 years to 15 years, as was done for leasehold depreciation. 

At BOMA SoCT, we strive to bring our members compelling educational and informative meetings that, in the end, help us become better at what we do.  Good business growth, both personal and financial, is much about experience and relationships from which creative ideas nurture expansion. 

BOMA SoCT would love to hear from you as we are always looking for new members.  We also have formed emerging leaders committee that focuses on reaching out to the new and next generation of leaders in the real estate industry while promoting networking opportunities amongst each other and with those more experienced.  So if you or someone you know is interested in real estate management and has less than five years’ experience in the industry, connect with us and let’s help each other.  All our committees can be seen at http://www.soctboma.org/committees.

More event info can be seen at http://www.soctboma.org/events.

Rona Siegel is the president of BOMA Southern Connecticut, and is with Collins Enterprises, LLC, Old Greenwich, Conn.