Fall is a time for change - A good time to take a leap forward - by David Kirk

Fall is a time for change. The last summer romp and first frost, at least in the northeast. A good time to take a leap forward. Pardon the shorthand and flagrant redundancy, deliberated to reflect the rhythm that is apparent.

Commercial property has sustained competitive investment Quality. And measurable risk adjusted rewards. Commodity, not so much. Demand and supply can be underwritten, property by property, with traditional methodologies and data sources, and capital sources are getting proficient, comfortable with the dynamics and patterns of the local property markets and prospective property performance. The professional commercial property practitioners have listened and learned together. The collaboration and cooperation of the public sector at all levels is unprecedented. Stability. Vibrancy. Buoyancy. Deals are getting done. Three deals to close, any one of which exceeds 2023 volume. And the rates are coming down!

New players. New pockets. New patterns. New proformas and profits, capital stacks. New portfolios. Persistence. Patience. Public, private partnerships (strange bedpersons), mixed doubles, open doors, no longer closed. Wait and see, no longer. It’s time, at last. Putting the pieces together and finding the fit. Not perfection. Professionalism, punch and passage of time.

Can we do it. Be a Part of It. That’s the theme of the annual meeting of Counselors of Real Estate (CRE) in New York from September 26 to October 1, four continents represented. And most, if not all, states and major cities, to date, represented. Anecdotal evidence of the market and the economy to be shared in sessions and sidebars. The toolbox to push forward together. The professional practitioner has learned how to care and share, out in the open. CRE will explain the celebrated Top Ten concerns of the CRE membership, through survey and interviews. Across four continents and walking through the streets of New York. Strange bedpersons, indeed! Whatever it takes. Best practices anecdotally, one by one. Granularity, aggregations and graphs, geographically, globally. Where have we been, and, more importantly, where are we going. CRE has been expanding to embrace the public sector, prominently on panels, and, more importantly, in the membership. Vigorous and rigorous zooming during COVID, the programs and outreach have been sustained, and the annual meeting in NYC is planned to continue the conversations.

Housing. Regulatory relief and incentives. Code accommodations at local and state levels. Credit packages, significant and substantial, real estate tax abatements, labor concessions, material buying arrangements, banks and non-banking programs. Not a mosh or mix mash, a vigorous and rigorous effort by the public and private sectors to jump start and sustain housing production. Best practices, fast evolving and getting granular, flexible. We can do it. Most in a climate-ready wrapper. Climate technology in motion.

Office. Workplace, hospitality and artificial intelligence. Strange bedpersons, finding synergies and symbiosis, in a wide variety of appealing alternatives to the so-called first class office commodity.

NYC demonstrates the get-arounds. Capital cities across the seas bring best in class solutions.

Mixed use. Yes, indeed. We are doing things differently. All at once.

The online data dump of current offerings with terms and dates, closings. The Counselors are notorious for candor, with clarity, measured speculation, peripheral vision. Can we Do it. Yes, we can! Be a Part of it. Come to New York for live action, and zoom with the boom!

David Kirk is founder, chief executive officer of Kirk & Co., Boston, Mass.