The weather is hot, and so is the commercial real estate market

Bob Marchewka, One Commercial Real Estate

I can tell by the light delivery of mail to my inbox that many people are on vacation, or at least dialing things back a bit and enjoying New Hampshire’s terrific, yet too-short summer.  I hope you’re partaking in all our fine state has to offer; climbing our magnificent mountains, sunning on our clean sandy beaches, consuming our fresh native cuisine, drinking from our sparkling, bountiful waters and visiting the many local breweries, distilleries, and wineries they supply.

Yes, the weather is hot, and by all accounts so is the commercial real estate market.  In speaking with brokers, architects, engineers, bankers, lawyers, etc... everyone is quite busy.  Despite issues caused by vacationing clients, low unemployment, high energy costs and ever-increasing transactional complexities, New Hampshire’s commercial real estate market remains robust. 

As the state’s exclusive commercial-only real estate board and in the interest of our dues-paying members NH CIBOR continually strives to promote New Hampshire’s commercial real estate industry, work to find ways to alleviate obstacles to business and educate our members in the profession of commercial real estate unique to our state.

We have finalized an agreement with the State of New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development (DRED) to populate their new website, www.choosenh.com,with our member’s listings via the New England Commercial Property Exchange (NECPE).  This is a great collaboration that will give the State another tool to further promote itself, our members and their listings throughout the country and internationally. DRED director Carmen Lorentz, business development manager Michael Bergeron et al. will be orchestrating a soft launch in the fall and a formal kick-off December 1^st. 

Our second in a series of development forums will be held this fall.  Through the hard work of our Public Policy liaison Pat McDermott, NH CIBOR will be holding a forum with N.H. towns and cities that are identified as being fair, predictable and timely in their development approval process.  The goal of the forum is to identify the best practices employed by these communities and document them so that they can be shared with other N.H. communities that want to encourage growth and expand their tax base.  The forum will be held in a central N.H. location and will consist of a panel of town and city managers.  The managers will be asked questions by the moderator and by members of the audience.  NH CIBOR members and other members of the N.H. development community will be invited to attend.  A summary of the significant findings will be put together and shared.               

Last month NH CIBOR put on a 3-credit course titled “Tenant Representation,” a unique panel discussion of this topic that included insight from practitioners and real-world case studies.  The panel included two respected and experienced NH CIBOR brokers; Dan Scanlon of Colliers International and Denis Dancoes of Cushman & Wakefield, an expert space planner and designer Genella McDonald with Stibler Associates and prominent real estate attorneys Jessica Nylund with McLane Middleton and James Kerouac with Wadleigh, Starr and Peters.

The enthusiastic panelists provided a rich dialogue about the many facets of tenant representation deals from several differing, sometimes conflicting points of view; consequently the class was enlightening, interesting and informative.

On July 25^th our affiliate committee chaired by diligent and devoted member Heather Rowan of Office Resources put on a fantastic After-Hours event at Zampa Restaurant.  The property was showcased for sale by broker Maxine Kenny of Colliers and after that event it’s hard to believe some savvy investor or restaurateur won’t buy the place.  All the bankers in attendance said they would finance it.

I hope the rest of your summer is an enjoyable balance of good health, good weather, good times and good deals.

Bob Marchewka is the 2016 president of the NH CIBOR, Bedford, N.H.