Category: Spotlight Content

In the year ahead, we are likely to see continued compression in project delivery schedules, spurring developers and designers to hunt for new ways to streamline the design and permitting process. Meanwhile, the regulatory maze is becoming increasingly difficult and constantly changing. As a result, the permitting process often represents the major obstacle to project delivery dates, even for relatively simple projects.  Despite all the powerful new technologies available to today’s design professionals, “working faster” can only accomplish so much. At every scale, environmental regulation has grown more complex. To be

2018 closed out as a very strong year for commercial real estate developers and investors partially fueled by continued low interest rates and ever-present demand. We enter 2019 amidst government tensions and political infighting with seemingly impending rising interest rates. That’s the bad news. The good news is that New England has an unprecedented demand for most asset classes including industrial properties and flex properties, especially inside of I-495. Multifamily demand hasn’t subsided even though some may believe that time may be needed to absorb some of the new units that came online recently. Even with the

2018 proved to be a refreshing year in terms of new companies entering the New Hampshire market and the continued trend of existing businesses and entities expanding their footprints. Will 2019 continue these positive trends?  The media is fixated on what the Fed has planned, the “China trade talks,” etc. and what impact that will have on the economy. The significant drop in most of the global stock markets has many economists suggesting that a recession is on the horizon. From our perspective, the state’s commercial real estate market will remain strong in 2019. The challenges will likely be more “supply – demand”

As start-up and operational costs in the hospitality industry increase, food halls and “micro-tenant” aggregation continue to gain popularity in New England’s urban commercial real estate markets. From Boston Public Market to the recently introduced High St. Place (Boston Financial District), Lisbon’s Time Out Market (Fenway’s Landmark Center), or Bow Market (Union Sq. in Somerville), real estate developers are banking on vast multi-operator ventures to drive business and hedge risk among various operators. New England is likely to see this concept flourish in 2019 with several such developments currently underway.

We have now started the year 2019. What will the New Year mean for the real estate industry? The month of December was one of anxiety and concerns with the stock market ups and mostly downs, the controversy over interest rates and the tariffs making headlines.  Are we in for a recession? Many said at the start of 2018 that 2019 would be the year the economy sputters and we see the next recession.  Looking at the economy around the world there are some signs of a slowdown. In China, the key private sector index that looks at manufacturing showed activity shrinking in November, the first time since 5/17,

This article continues the central theme of insights caused by my being part of CBRE and published in the NEREJ in January every year since the end of the Great Recession. I will repeat: Boston’s real estate fundamentals are strong. There will be no ‘mild recession’ as predicted by naysayers year in and year out. A stabilized market will continue well beyond 2020. There is one red flag; the out-of-control increase in construction costs.

2019 is here, and it’s almost time to file your first tax return under the new law. But you probably sat around watching sports all weekend instead of talking taxes, didn’t you. (Did Santa bring a new TV?) So, as we ring in the New Year, let’s take a look at how the new tax bill affects some of those athletes you’ve been watching.  Washington sold the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as “tax simplification.” And really, who can’t raise a toast to that? Lower rates! Higher standard deductions! A 1040 you can fill out on a postcard! But many taxpayers,

Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 1031 allows a property owner, who holds property for “the productive use in a trade or business or for investment”, to defer paying any capital gains taxes if the property owner sells such property, identifies “like kind” property within 45 days of the sale, and acquires other “like kind” property within 180 days of the sale. There are three primary rules for identifying Replacement Property within the 45-day time period:

Closing on a $14 million refinance transaction which took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get done. The property that was being refinanced for construction purposes, involved a ground lease with the municipality and was cross-collateralized with land in another town wherein the borrower was the landlord in a similar ground lease situation. It involved complex title research,

Through our subsidiary, The Hotel Exchange, our largest deal was the $3.3 million sale of Raffael’s function facility in Walpole to the Saphire Group.

For me, this comes right back to the diversity of the past year – our team ran the gamut of projects and transactions that covered different property types.  There were modest credit and large credit transactions; new office construction and rehabilitation projects. We worked on deals that had historical tax credits, state tax credits, and Rebuild Rhode Island