53.7 F
San Diego
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
-Advertisement-

Real Estate Panel concludes real estate will weather slowdown



Design Build Institute’s National Convention Honors Convention Center Project

The consensus among local commercial real estate experts is that San Diego is much better off in 2001 than it was during the recession of the early 1990s.

The panel of experts spoke at the recent Commercial Real Estate Trends 2002 Conference coordinated by the Real Estate Institute at the University of San Diego.

Matt Reno, president of San Diego-based Reno Contracting Inc., said the 1980s saw unrestrained building, which lead to high office vacancy rates during the early 90s.

The economy began to take off again in San Diego in 1994 and 1995, but the market was markedly different, Reno said. Banks were not as quick to provide financing for new projects, particularly for speculative buildings.

Reno is optimistic about San Diego’s economy riding out a recession, especially with the area’s booming technology and biotech sectors.

However, the amount of new sublease space in San Diego County is on the rise. Stath Karras, president and CEO of San Diego-based Burnham Real Estate Services, said the county had virtually no sublease space a year ago, but there is about 2 million square feet of it available now.

“Some companies went out of business, some expected to expand, but didn’t,” Karras said.

Still, he said there is a big demand for office space so that sublease space will eventually be filled.

Jeff Burges, chief operating officer of San Diego-based Yale Properties USA, whose company has commercial properties across the country, said, “From our perspective, San Diego is weathering well, but it’s also a question of whether the wave has hit here yet.”

Meanwhile, Gina Champion-Cain, president and CEO of San Diego-based American National Investments, said investors may have backed off of other projects recently, but her business of developing urban mixed-use projects has not slowed.

“My deals are considered safe,” Champion-Cain said, because they include more affordable apartment units, a hot investment item in San Diego’s tight housing market.

While the projects have been more difficult to fund in the past few years, investors have been calling to see what she has on the table.

In January, the economy was beginning to cool off and energy prices were soaring.

“What surprised us was the level of activity in investments , it didn’t drop off and still hasn’t,” Karras said.

Burges noted property investments are heavy in the apartment industry.

“The smart investor is simply going to change the types of properties they’re investing in,” he said.

During the recession years of the previous decade, local investors took advantage of bargain prices on commercial properties. Burges predicted there will be some good buying opportunities over the next few quarters, but not similar to the panic-driven bargains found in the early 1990s.

– – –


National Honor:

San Diego-based Douglas E. Barnhart Inc. and Joseph Wong Design Associates were given the award for Best Rehabilitation/Restoration Design-Build Excellence Award for the San Diego Convention Center Sails Pavilion enhancements at the Design Build Institute of America national convention in Boston.

The project entailed enclosing the 90,000-square-foot open-air and column-free Sails Pavilion in glass, in addition to other improvements, during ongoing events and in conjunction with the Convention Center expansion.


New Products:

Escondido-based America’s Money Lending Source has introduced a new line of home improvement loan products for brokers, correspondents, contractors, banks and credit unions.

The home improvement loans allow for the value of the home improvements to be added to the home’s property value, provide combination home improvement and debt consolidation, assist first-time homebuyers and provide loans up to $75,000 for homeowners with credit scores starting at 620. Also, unsecured dealer direct loans are being offered for between $3,000 and $15,000.

– – –


New Officers:

The San Diego chapter of the Institute of Real Estate Management recently elected new officers for 2002: president, Fred Caminite, Sunrise Management.

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-