January 2009 Table of Contents

Latte lovers, beware. After Starbucks closed 600 stores last July, mixed-use developers and owners began to eye their pro formas with uncertainty. Their conclusion? Thanks to today's flat-lining economy and shrinking commercial capital options, caffeine-addicts will have to search high and low to find their daily fix. Read more

What will employment look like in 2009? How will the downturn affect the apartment market? Our interview covers this and other economic issues. Read more

Listen to PropertyBridge vice president Jason Gardner talk tech strategies for 2009, and you'd swear he was an apartment owner. “This is a critical time—whether you're a REIT or private company, everyone is feeling the pain,” Gardner says. “You need to ask your vendors specifically: How can your technology save me money, save me time, and streamline my operations?” Read more

When will the recovery begin? What will it look like? How will the downturn affect the apartment market? Our interview covers this and other economic issues Read more

THE U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Neighborhood Development just closed its first public comment period. The National Association of Home Builders' National Green Building Standard is on the cusp of gaining final ANSI approval. There's also state programs such as California's GreenPoints certification and Colorado's Built Green program. So if you're sitting around waiting for a compact fluorescent light bulb to go off and make sense of it all, you're likely missing out. Read more

TRAMMELL CROW RESIDENTIAL, the country's largest builder of multifamily properties, building 10,936 units in 2007, made its name in development. In fact, in 30 years, the Atlanta-based company has done very few acquisitions. But times are changing. “We're looking at acquisitions again,” says Ron Terwilliger, chairman and CEO of the firm. Read more

Whether it was proper planning or dumb luck, BRE Properties, a San Francisco-based REIT with 21,808 units, made some financial moves in 2007 that look pretty good in hindsight. It took down a few hundred million in debt at 5.5 percent interest and also restructured its $750 million line of credit to 2010 at 47.5 basis points over LIBOR. Finally, it started selling properties in 2007 and increased its pace of sales in 2008. Read more

To sum up the multifamily construction and development climate in 2009, Chicago-based Fifield Cos. chairman and CEO Steve Fifield turns to The Bard. “It's exactly like that famous quote: ‘We run away today to flight again another day.'” Read more

Like nearly all business segments in 2009, multifamily marketing is going to be the victim of a volatile economy and a dearth of spendable dollars. Read more

What are your thoughts on the state of the economy in 2009? What does that mean for multifamily this coming year? Our interview covers this and other issues. Read more

At a corporate brainstorming retreat held this past November, Greenwood Village, Colo.-based Laramar Group managers and executives went through a drill. They assumed that revenue in 2009 would be flat and were charged with cutting expenses to improve annual net operating income by 4 percent to 6 percent. Naturally, many turned first to the huge personnel line item, but the exercise ultimately showed that alternatives to layoffs can be discovered if management takes some initiative to get creative. Read more

When people lose their jobs, they look for any way to cut costs. Since rent often forms the biggest monthly expense for these individuals, that's where many start. “People are wanting to consolidate their residences, lower their overhead, and move in with someone else because they've lost their job,” says Michael Stewart, CEO of Irvine, Calif.-based apartment owner Pacific Property Assets. Read more

The headlines at the end of 2008 were scary. Citigroup shelved 50,000 jobs. The Big firee auto makers came to Capitol Hill begging for a saving grace. And economists speculated that unemployment could pass the 10 percent mark if the layoffs continue. Read more

Multifamily Executive identifies the key challenges and opportunities within each of the industry's core competencies that can pave the way to success in 2009 and beyond. Read more

For a writer, a blank page can be an insurmountable wall at times. Personally, I find nothing more debilitating than a stark white Word document. I will stare for hours at the screen, hoping that brilliant phrases will magically appear—as if Harry Potter is standing behind me waving his magic stylus. Even when I know exactly what I want to write about—as I did for this month's column—I find myself forced to type a few random, irrelevant words just so that the screen doesn't look so discouragingly barren. India. Dolphins. Lentil soup. Read more

A patchwork quilt can be comforting on a cold winter evening. But the United States' current patchwork immigration policy—various state and local initiatives coupled with federal regulatory enforcement and litigation—benefits no one. Read more

If you're a homeowner, keep holding your breath. An analysis of renting versus buying costs released this past fall by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) projects that homeowners in 32 of the country's 100 largest metro areas will likely accrue negative equity until the year 2012. According to the study, “The Changing Prospects for Building Home Equity: An Updated Analysis of Rents and Price of Housing in 100 Metropolitan Areas,” the average New York City homeowner will lose $101,964 in home equity. In Los Angeles, the estimate is $168,069. Read more

In Volusia County, Fla., a developer of a 500-square-foot studio apartment pays the same in school impact fees as the developer of a 5,000-square-foot unit. Hardly seems fair, does it? That's what Arthur C. Nelson, a presidential professor in the College of Architecture + Planning at the University of Utah and director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, says. Read more

Multifamily Reits had some good news in the third quarter of 2008—more renters than ever are staying in their units. Camden Property Trust, a Houston-based REIT, saw its move-outs for home purchases fall to an all-time low of 13.6 percent, after peaking in 2004 at 24 percent. UDR, a Highlands Ranch, Colo.-based REIT, saw its move-outs drop from 15.5 percent in the same period last year to 13.1 percent this year. Read more

Real estate experts expect financial and real estate markets to bottom in 2009 and then falter for much of 2010, with continued drops in property values and additional foreclosures, according to the 2009 Emerging Trends in Real Estate report released by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers. But there are a few bright spots in this rather gloomy forecast. At the top of the list: Apartments are the best opportunity investment next year, according to the report, which includes interviews and survey responses from more than 600 leading real estate experts, developers, lenders, brokers, and consultants. Read more

Although all multifamily markets across the United States are contending with the pressures of a distressed economy, Orange County, Calif., remains on the investment radar thanks to its strong fundamentals and housing demand that's fueled by the desire of so many to live there. Together, these factors will go a long way in stabilizing this market in 2009, even as the nation continues its journey into unpredictable financial waters. Read more

Bell Partners, formerly known as Steven D. Bell & Co., is still riding high almost a year after it teamed up with DRA Advisors to purchase an 86-community portfolio from UDR—the largest public deal of 2008. Read more

The Guth Complex presented a hum-drum façade to central St. Louis for the past hundred years. Its four buildings, once painted white, had faded to a dingy gray. For most of its 100-year history, the complex was surrounded by similar operations: warehouses, workshops, and small factories. Read more

It's more than just a fancy name. Solstice on the Park—the 147-condo development in Chicago's Hyde Park—uses 71-degree angled windows to capitalize on the sun while saving energy and giving the building a unique look. Read more

When Pompano Beach, Fla.-based current builders was still in the design phase of 440 Flagler Village, a 218-unit luxury mid-rise apartment community it's building in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the design staff started noticing unplanned “bump outs” in the hallways. Read more

Smart owners and managers reduce their financial liabilities by choosing fitness equipment that is safe for all users—regardless of age, height, fitness level, or mobility. Read more

An experiment at the time, today it serves as an early example of current design trends in affordable housing, blended density typologies, hillside housing design, and open floor plans, all executed with the highest of aspirations ... an amazing display of how architects, coming together and working in concert, can express in built-form, impassioned ideals that influence generations. Read more