From Tom Vincent, CCIM | Chicago, IL - Please take a look at our latest edition of the Sentinel eNews. In this issue:

• Latest Whitepaper | Thriving, Not Surviving In Commercial Real Estate
• Active All-Cash Buyer Seeking Properties
• Featured VIDEO | Commercial Real Estate Bargain Hunters
• Whitepaper | Going Green To Get The Green
• Featured VIDEO | Getting Commercial Real Estate Guidance
• Featured Article | Commercial Real Estate Pipeline Opening Up
• Featured Investment Opportunities
• Resource Corner: Useful Links
• About Tom Vincent, CCIM

Please check out the issue HERE. You can follow the instructions in the newsletter to sign up for future issues, or click the “Sign Up” button on the left column of this page!

Click HERE to listen to the Commercial Real Estate Report for 8-2-10!

Bob Clark, News Radio 770 KKOB: Walt, you wanted to start with the industrial market, what is the latest with Industrial real estate.

Good morning Bob. There was a little rally in the industrial leasing market, unfortunately, it has reversed its trend and vacancies are heading upward again.  The hardest hit buildings are the older buildings that have some functional obsolescence, a real estate term for old, and flex buildings which are used for research and development.

Vacancies have climbed from 8.6% to 9.1% in the second quarter; this is still less than the high of 11.2% in 2005 so hopefully this is a temporary event.

There were a couple of vacancies that affected the industrial lease market; one was Express Scripts vacating 71,000 feet at 4500 Alexander.  The Wildfire TV series lease expired in Rio Rancho at the Fulcrum building and that brought 68,313 square feet on to the market.

Bob: What are industrial spaces leasing for in this market?

Unfortunately we have seen a substantial drop in rental rate since 2008 and the overall average asking rate is around $5.60/sf/yr.  Downtown rates are under $4/sf/yr which is substantially lower than the north I-25 rates of $6.33/sf/yr.

Bob: What else do you have for us today?

I wanted to comment briefly on a Data Digest report that came out last week.  The good news is that on balance economic activity continues to increase. Unemployment rates were lower in about half of the metropolitan areas tracked by the report, unfortunately, many areas were up in unemployment.

The construction industry continues to be hammered by job losses. Many companies in all areas are starting to feel the burden of higher unemployment insurance which will be a continued drag on companies as they have to shell out additional taxes for unemployment insurance to pay for the prolonged duration of high unemployment rates.  As this recovery continues these increased tax burdens place on businesses and especially small businesses will continue to hamper company’s abilities to invest in their businesses, which causes them to put off or re-evaluate real estate decisions regarding leasing or purchasing commercial real estate.

Bob: How can people get contact you today if they have any questions or want to talk further about your comments today?

Bob thanks, call me Walt Arnold on my direct line at (505) 256-1255 or check us out on the web at waltarnold.com.  At Sperry Van Ness we help people make wise real estate decisions in these tough times.  We are in some tough times; let’s make the best of it.  There is always opportunity in any market. Sperry Van Ness is a full service national commercial real estate company that specializes in sales, leasing, property management, tenant representation, accelerated marketing and site selection. Have a great week.

To look through our radio show library and listen to other episodes, click >>> HERE!

From Sperry Van Ness Accelerated Marketing | John Johnson, CCIM - CRE prices continue to fall, with retail suffering more than other sectors. Ripple effects will continue to be felt, as many current owners want to sell this year, due to higher tax rates after 2010. With so many properties coming to market, one would assume continued downward pressure on prices.  From Bloomberg.com:

U.S. commercial real estate prices fell the most in almost a year in June as the economic recovery showed signs of faltering, Moody’s Investors Service said.

The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index dropped 4 percent from May, the company said today in a report. The decline was the biggest since July 2009, and pushed the gauge down 0.9 percent from the start of the year.

“We expect property prices to remain choppy for some time as commercial real estate markets and the broader economy continue their slow recovery from the recession,” Moody’s researchers said in the report.

High unemployment and concern over slowing economic growth are hampering a price rebound for offices, apartments, industrial and retail properties, Moody’s said. U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a estimated 2.4 percent annual pace in the second quarter, less than economists forecast and slower than the 3.7 percent rate in the previous three months.

To continue reading the report from Bloomberg.com, click HERE.  Or, click HERE to read our other posts.

Click HERE to listen to the Commercial Real Estate Report for 7-26-10!

Bob Clark, News Radio 770 KKOB: Walt, if I needed to hire a commercial real estate broker, what skills and abilities would I look for in that person?

Good morning. Commercial real estate is so different from residential real estate and there are just so many more moving parts to the commercial business which includes office, industrial, retail, hospitality, self storage and apartments. There is the investment side; the owner user and also the leasing end of the business and each have their own intricacies. So first off you would want to make sure the broker is an expert in the field of commercial real estate you need. That is the first criteria.

Bob Clark: What else is important in selecting a commercial broker?

Having a level of experience which might include membership in either the CCIM Institute, which requires years to complete the certification process or an SIOR, a select group of 2,800 commercial brokers worldwide is an important component in selecting a broker to work with.

At Sperry Van Ness we talk about having encyclopedic market area knowledge and stress being the recognized expert in the market area. Someone looking for a broker wants to make sure they understand the market and have strong knowledge of it.

Another important trait is a broker that listens to your needs and assesses those needs and then works diligently to complete the transaction and keeps everyone apprised of the progress as it moves toward the completion

Bob Clark: Walt you have talked before about all the parts of the commercial transaction, how can a broker help put it all together?

There are many parts to the puzzle of a commercial transaction and making sure your Broker understands those pieces, like the ALTA survey, Phase One environmental report, space planning, financing, the lease document, the Tenant Improvement process including TI drawings dealing with architects, contractors, attorneys, owners and tenants requires someone with many skills to help analyze the commercial transaction from start to finish and beyond.

Bob: How can people contact you?

Thanks Bob, Walt Arnold direct line (505) 256-1255 check us out on the web at waltatnold.com. I specialize in office and industrial commercial real estate and am both a CCIM and SIOR; I have been in commercial real estate for over 20 years and have the experience to analyze client’s needs and get transactions completed. At Sperry Van Ness we have brokers that specialize in all the areas of commercial real estate, give me a call to discuss your commercial real estate needs.

Just a quick note on the auction for 9920 Trumbull is August 5th and the open house for that property is July 29th, this Thursday. Call me for details on this 19,000 sf industrial building that is being auctioned off by Zion’s Bank. Thanks Bob have a great week!

You can also visit my weekly radio show library by clicking >>> HERE!

From Sperry Van Ness Accelerated Marketing | John Johnson, CCIM - From the blog of our President and CEO Kevin Maggiacomo, Sperry Van Ness announces it’s ardent use of social media across the board, and it’s working. It a recent video produced by the company, SVN brokers around the country share testimony after testimony about getting ahead of the competition and closing deals by marketing themselves and their listings using social media.  Kevin writes:

Social Media and Commercial Real Estate – while some say the two don’t mix, I say they’re flat wrong. I’ve been evangelizing the innovative use of technology and digital media in commercial real estate on this blog since day one. While I normally don’t use this forum to tout the company, I’m making an exception for this post.

The video above simply validates what I’ve been saying for quite some time, which is that social media and commercial real estate fit like hand-in-glove. Yes, I know it’s difficult to believe, but it’s true – there are still naysayers who decry social media and its effectiveness – they just don’t exist at Sperry Van Ness. We have won listings, received media exposure, broadened and deepened relationships, and yes, we have closed real deals with social media. While some of our industry peers play the skeptic and hold on to the past, we embrace the demands of the market and look to the future.Sperry Van Ness is the only major national brokerage firm that has mandated and achieved a 100% corporate wide adoption of social media. In fact, our position within the commercial real estate industry is so dominant with respect to social media that we dominate the top 25 most influential commercial real estate professionals on Twitter as ranked by wefollow.com. We actively blog, tweet, participate in discussions on LinkedIn and Facebook and we are huge believers in the power of viral video. Why is this important? Because it allows us to engage and be in the flow of real-time conversations in ways that our old-school brethren simply cannot. We are engaged, we listen, we understand, we get it…

I’ll climb down off my soap-box for now and give you a few updates…We are doing some great things with the redevelopment of our Digi award winning Online Publisher product (the web based tool that SVN Advisors use to create content rich proposals, brochures, property websites, etc.).  The single point of entry design that SVN pioneered in 2000 is being rebuilt with Web 2.0 technology. The rebuilt product features content syndication capabilities, enabling our Advisors to seamlessly interact with various social media portals. Here, SVN Advisors will be able to push their newly listed inventory to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube, right from OnlinePublisher. Further, SVN will remain one of only a handful of firms/portals whose listing data LoopNet accepts through an automated data feed.

To read more about how SVN is using online marketing technology to advance the position of their brokers and listings, click HERE.

From Sperry Van Ness Accelerated Marketing | John Johnson, CCIM - According to Costar, more and more money is being attracted to real estate investment funds. When enough of these cash-flush buyers think the bottom has been reached, a buying frenzy may ensue.

Real estate companies and funds reported raising $3.85 billion in July for real estate-related acquisitions. Almost half of the total raised ($1.85 billion) was by commercial real estate-related firms and funds, while pooled investment funds including private equity and hedge funds raised $1.8 billion, according to data compiled by CoStar Group.

Click HERE to read the rest of the article, including lists of the “10 Largest Amounts Reported Raised In July” and “Most Money Reported Raised on a Per Month Basis In July.”

From Sperry Van Ness Accelerated Marketing | John Johnson, CCIM - The Motley Fool reports that there are strong signs that the CRE market may have finally hit bottom. Deal volume is increasing as investors, and pools of investor funds, are looking to put idle cash to work in something that yield better than investing in treasuries. Even though banks are still holding significant amounts of CRE on their books, and much more is still hanging out there in non-performing loans, Fool sources indicate that equilibrium may have been achieved.

“Dare I say it … could the commercial real estate (CRE) market be turning or at least stabilizing? I think it’s fair to say that the punditry has been incredibly negative about the state of CRE over the past year, but commercial real estate service providers Jones Lang Lasalle’s (NYSE: JLL) and CB Richard Ellis’s (NYSE: CB) recent quarterly reports, in which both companies reported double-digit revenue growth, have finally given me some reasons to be hopeful.”

To read the rest of the Motley Fool article, click >>> HERE, or leave your comments below!

To quote from the Times article tells us:

“The plan to put Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae into conservatorship was meant to be temporary.

But nearly two years later, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has only just begun the process of figuring out how to overhaul the U.S. housing finance system.”

Mr. Geithner is purported to be one of the smartest men in the world. Perhaps he can convene a small panel to help him solve the problem. He might recruit Sen. Dodd and Congressman Frank, two other financial geniuses who certainly know the ins and outs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

To read the full article, click >>> HERE.

>>> Click HERE to listen to the Commercial Real Estate Report for 7-19-10 <<<

Bob Clark, News Radio 770 KKOB: Walt this is such a difficult environment in commercial real estate, do you have any advice on how to navigate this market.

Walt Arnold: Bob, this is a commercial landscape seen for the first time.  We are in an extremely tight credit market, strict regulations from the feds on lending, high unemployment and many financial constraints on companies.

This is a market that requires professional advice from someone that is in the commercial real estate market every day.  At Sperry Van Ness we are analyzing this market daily, we are up to speed on the developments in the market and can advise landlords, tenants, buyers and sellers on how to position themselves and their property to have the greatest amount of success in this market.

Bob: What are some of the services you provide that can help people make decisions?

Walt Arnold: We have a myriad of sources that we pay to belong to pull data from to provide our clients with the best information to make good decisions, along with being an SIOR, one of 2800 worldwide, and the CCIM membership that requires years of classroom study and analysis, I am able to provide clients a wealth of information to analyze each situation to its fullest.

Bob: You also have spoken before about Sperry Van Ness’ marketing materials and the online publishing system. Can you tell us more about it?

Walt Arnold: We are able to provide our clients with the best marketing materials for the properties in the industry.  We can also create a specific website for a specific property through our proprietary OTS system. We have the experienced brokers, tools and programs to analyze lease spaces for tenants or present property for sale to the largest number ofpotential tenants or buyers.

Bob: How can people contact you today?

Walt Arnold: Thanks Bob, my direct line is (505) 256-1255, our website is waltarnold.com.  Value is created by adding up the sum of the decisions we make and execute.  This is not a do it yourself commercial real estate environment.  Commercial real estate is a complicated task and requires a professional commercial real estate broker to help in the process.  At Sperry Van Ness we have the people and tools to execute the decision making process and come to a correct choice.

A couple of quick announcements, I have a 19,000 square foot industrial building at9920/10000 Trumbull SE that will be auctioned off on August 5^th.  Call me for details.

Also have another lender owned facility at 9650 Eagle Ranch just south of Cottonwood Mall.  This is a 4000 square foot building on 2.3 acres, fully fenced ready for immediate occupancy.

Hey Bob, thanks for having me on today, have a great week.