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Something is growing fast in the Brazilian countryside. And it’s not just the monoculture plantations of eucalyptus, soy and sugar cane for which city-sized chunks of rainforest are cleared. The Movement of Small Farmers (Movimiento de Pequenos Agricultores, MPA) has in just 10 years mobilized 10,000 families across 14 states to resist the expansion of these vast plantations and the transnationals that are often behind them. Such industrial farming displaces entire populations, poisons the land with chemicals and contributes nothing to the local food bowl.

On the other hand, small-scale family farmers produce almost 60 per cent of Brazilian food. By joining the MPA they band together to resist pressure from big agribusiness companies to sell their lands for conversion to monoculture. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 5.3 million people abandoned the rural areas between 1999 and 2001. There are now more than a million landless people in Brazil and 80 per cent of the population is squeezed into urban areas.

Standing up to agribusiness in rural Brazil takes courage. Small farmers are often victims of serious violence and even murder. Between 1990 and 2002, the Pastoral Land Commission (Comissao Pastoral da Terra, CPT) reported 16 assassinations connected to the sugar cane industry alone. Nonetheless, MPA members see little choice but to stay and fight. As one farmer battling a huge foreign-owned eucalyptus plantation put it: ‘We believe the unity of the small farmers is the only way to succeed. If we are organized we can fight this harmful enterprise, not let it invade our region any more. Everybody has to be together in case we need to make a choice for physical confrontation.

‘The small farmer has to choose ecological farming. This will be the basis of our strength against the big companies. If the MPA, the churches, the schools and the trade unions join together we will have enough strength to fight our oppressors.’

The scope of the MPA’s concerns reveals its dynamism–promoting crop diversity, organic farming, local production, medicinal plants, women’s empowerment, pension rights, literacy, youth projects and direct action. MPA groups have also forged links with the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), indigenous communities, NGOs, academics and students.

Sergio (pictured right), director of the MPA group in Espirito Santo, explains: ‘All the movements are autonomous, but we work together, not destroying each other’s autonomy.’

And getting what’s best for local communities is at the heart of the movement. ‘In Brazil, there are several organic production projects being developed. But all these are for export. They are not meant to feed the hunger of the Brazilian people. We wish to provide a local market, to feed the hunger of our people. Of course we would like to export as well, but that comes second. We believe that production should primarily be for consumption here. That is what provides our projects with a different logic and vision.’

La Crosse County supervisors got a first look Monday at the most controversial part of the new comprehensive plan: land use.

The plan, required by Wisconsin’s Smart Growth law, has several elements, including transportation, recreation and economic development. But land use is the trickiest because it affects how people can use their property.

The land use element of the plan will be up for county board approval in June, with the entire plan due for final vote as early as November.

The land use plan sets five broad categories for general land use: residential, non-residential, agriculture and rural areas, public-institutional and environmental. The county’s towns are developing their own plans, which are much more detailed.

“We don’t want the county to be portrayed as a 500-pound gorilla,” said Supervisor Jeff Schroeder, a member of the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee. “All of this was done with a great amount of thought about landowner rights.”

But fellow committee member Tom Rauk said the landuse element “was the most difficult to arrive at, potentially the most controversial, and the one that will take the most effort to reach a consensus and agree to.”

Said Supervisor Donald Bina, “There’s going to be any number of people who don’t want their rights taken away. I think it’s a good plan, but there’s going to be quite a few people saying it’s infringing on their personal rights.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average of leading US stocks passed 13200 for the first time last week, after its strongest run (23 rises in 26 sessions) since 1955. The S&P 500, a broader indicator, stood at just over 1500, a fraction below the record high set in the final spurt of the dotcom boom. London’s FTSE-100 index, at 6600, is not far behind.

Both markets are being driven by a fever of takeover activity and rumour in the ‘digital media’ sector, including talks between Microsoft and Yahoo and an approach to Reuters from the Thomson empire of Canada — all ominously reminiscent of the AOLTime Warner deal, announced in January 2000, that was subsequently judged one of the most value-destroying mergers of all time.

And as if this isn’t enough evidence that the global balance of money and sense is wobbling dangerously again, the Daily Telegraph tells us that ’savvy investors’ are snapping up real estate in Ulaan Baatar, capital of Outer Mongolia. ‘Our main clients are wealthy bankers purchasing with dollars, which with the current exchange rate is very favourable to British buyers, ‘ a property consultant explains.

OK, I accept that overseas house-hunting has become a new national pastime — and when Merryn Somerset Webb tells us this week that Berlin is the hottest new hot-spot, I’m almost ready to declare, with JFK, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’. But a luxury condo in the land of the weeping camel, where half the population live in nomadic tents and get their kicks from fermented yak’s milk? Things may have improved a bit since I stared out of a train window at Ulaan Baatar’s crumbling Soviet blocks in the late 1980s, but I still think this is one of the barmiest investment propositions I’ve ever come across.

‘As far as I’m concerned, the party’s only just begun, ‘ declares the developer of the 14storey Regency Residence, which will no doubt be the most sought-after address in the entire Gobi desert when it is completed next spring. As far as I’m concerned, the party’s almost over, and to paraphrase William McChesney Martin, chairman of the US Federal Reserve in the 1950s and 1960s, it’s time someone took the punch bowl away.

No pink ceiling

Lord Browne’s decision to lie in court about having met his boyfriend through an internet escort agency was at least partially excused, for some commentators, by the fact that he was trying to protect himself against unreconstructed homophobia in the business world, and especially in the oil industry. It may well be true that intolerance remains the norm on North Sea drilling platforms and Siberian pipeline stations, but I very much doubt that gayness or straightness any longer affects anyone’s career prospects in the upper reaches of the City or the elegant head offices of the West End. One robustly heterosexual senior investment banker I know chairs his firm’s gay and lesbian group with no embarrassment, and other blue-chip companies from JP Morgan to McKinsey eagerly advertise similar support networks.

John Browne was not even the first gay boss of a major British oil company. The late Sir Philip Shelbourne, chairman of the British National Oil Corporation from 1980 to 1987, was more discreet than he would have needed to be today, but his feline manner still provoked strong reactions — not least from Alastair Morton, later of Eurotunnel, who resigned as a manager of BNOC in protest at Shelbourne’s appointment. When I wrote Shelbourne’s obituary in the Daily Telegraph in 1993 (it is reprinted in Closing Balances, the collection published last year by Aurum Press) I wrestled with the problem of how to indicate his orientation — which would certainly have been known to, or suspected by, informed readers — without breaching journalistic boundaries. Among other descriptive details, I called him ‘a City grandee of strong opinions and fastidious tastes’, who ‘lived for many years in a Victorian house in Highbury in which he collected antiques and installed a complete Indonesian sitting room’. I filed the piece then rang the obituaries editor, Hugh Massingberd, to explain my predicament.

‘Oh don’t worry, ‘ he replied. ‘That Indonesian sitting room says everything.’

Who ate all the pastries?

But never mind metrosexuality, market exuberance and Mongolian buy-to-let — I hear you complain — tell us what’s happening in Helmsley. My North Yorkshire home town offers its own set of economic indicators, particularly at this time of year when new businesses open up to catch the spring tourists.

Last year, you may recall, I was confidently predicting meltdown in the confectionery sector, having counted within a few yards of each other no less than four high-priced handmade chocolate shops, one of which boasted a lukewarm chocolate fountain. I was wrong.

They all survived, and so did the fancy patisserie we thought was doomed because there were already several bakeries nearby and we’d heard that this one was going to make the fatal error of calling itself ‘Patisserie’ — Yorkshire folk generally having no truck with anything French. In fact it announced itself in plain English and became one of the most successful start-ups ever seen in the town — a lesson to would-be entrepreneurs that if you really pay attention to the quality of the product, success will follow however entrenched the competition. Last year’s doomsayers, led by me, can now be found daily barging each other like bullocks in the shop’s narrow doorway to buy olive bread and Danish pastries from the charming Polish sales girl.

* GLOVER WORKING TO ELIMINATE LAND MINES: Actor Danny Glover, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, simulates using mine clearance equipment in a cleared mine field in Ethiopia. Glover’s appearance was designed to attract the attention of the public to the recent international conference on land mines in Nairobi, Kenya, where delegates from around the globe gathered to assess progress made in implementing the pact to eliminate landmines.

Glover expressed regret his own country has yet to sign the 144-nation treaty to eliminate the use of landmines which kill or maim more than 40 people around the world every day. Glover’s mission was his first as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Willingboro Town Center, a 700,000-SF, mixed-use facility, represents one of the largest “green” redevelopments taking place in New Jersey. The site, formerly known as Willingboro Plaza, was a dormant retail complex built in the 1950’s occupied by tenants such as Woolworth’s and Fox Movie Theater and was purchased by ReNEWal Realty in 1998.

The Willingboro Town Center development plan employs sustainable building practices in creating a mix of retail and commercial establishments, adult housing and community-oriented institutions. The Route 130 Corridor of Burlington County, in which the Willingboro Town Center project is located, consists of 12 municipalities, covering 59 square miles. The area lacks a central commercial node, presenting an opportunity for the project to fulfill that role. Much of the land area within the corridor is developed, presenting options for additional development that include in-fill housing and the redevelopment of abandoned or deteriorated properties. Willingboro Town Center is recognized as being a significant factor in revitalizing the Route 130 Corridor.

Willingboro Town Center will feature a new state-of-the-art, environmentally sustainable town library, residential housing, village greens, office space, daycare center, and over 175,000 SF of retail space. Renovations and an expansion began in September 2000 on the 160,000 SF former Boscov’s department store by Sweetwater Construction Company on behalf of ReNEWal Realty and the purchaser, Merck-Medco.

Set to open later this year, the 260,000-SF Merck-Medco facility will feature an automated mail-service pharmacy at this location, introducing over 700 jobs to the community. In addition, ground has already been broken for the 19,000 SF facility for Burlington County College, which is scheduled to be completed during the first quarter of 2002. The college will utilize the facility as a branch of its main campus. The site will also feature a new, 42,000-SF, $6 million dollar Willingboro library. The library will include an exhibition area and state-of-the-art auditorium. In addition, it will house a children’s area, adult reading area, multimedia facility, computer room and abundant storage area. Situated next to the development’s village green, a dedicated open space area with heavy landscaping, the library will be the first building to greet visitors at Willingboro Town Center as they enter the complex from Route 130. The new Willingboro library will be connected to the Burlington County College facility by a walkway. Approximately 13,000 SF of retail space will be part of the new library facility.

Acustaff, a Cherry Hill-based temporary staffing company, Chapala Cafe, a Mexican restaurant, and Java on High, a coffee shop, are all on track to become new tenants occupying part of the total 175,000 SF of retail space available at Willingboro Town Center.

Today’s tenants are savvy. They understand that they must provide a well-maintained business environment to project a positive image for their customers while providing an excellent place to work for their employees. All of this has to come at affordable rates, as well.

Landlords face the same challenges their tenants face–and another important factor: rising costs.

Property managers and owners must cope with rising energy and construction material prices on one hand, and requests for more amenities from their tenants on the other. The property manager’s challenge is to keep operating expenses down while offering affordable rents and attractive amenities.

Longer-term commercial tenants who are comfortable in their office space usually look to lock into lower rents, more so now than two years ago. This is an exceptional challenge because of rising costs. But, entrepreneurial firms, like Heritage Management Company, are able to focus on offering more value for the dollar. We consistently review our costs instead of simply paying expected expenses. This strategy allows us to work more closely with the individual client to work together to keep expenses down and minimize passthrough expenses to the tenant.

In addition to rising utility and construction costs, the increase in property taxes continues to be an issue, and the new Governor of New Jersey has promised to address this problem.

Fortunately, New Jersey is pro-business. In urban areas, the state has instituted Urban Enterprise Zones (UEZ) with a full complement of benefits that companies can enjoy when they choose to locate within a UEZ. Landlords can offer these benefits as amenities without incurring direct costs. There are tax incentives, lower-cost housing for workers, and increased availability to mass transportation. In Newark, for example, all major rail lines from New Jersey go through Newark’s two major rail stations: Newark Penn and Broad Street. With the completion of the Light Rail system, tenants and their workers will have 15minute access to Manhattan and easy travel to other important cities. Additionally, the region’s major roadways–The New Jersey Turnpike, The Garden State Parkway, and Interstates 78 and 280, border Newark. Managing properties in these zones makes it possible to offer tenants more amenities that occur naturally, without expense to the tenant, manager and building owner.

Another value that landlords can offer their tenants is cost-effective technology. We’ve recently renovated two buildings in Newark–550 and 570 Broad Street–where we have installed computerized systems that control heating and cooling. Our chief engineer can monitor the system off-site and make any necessary adjustments.

We do not expect to substitute people for computers, but this type of arrangement gives us more flexibility and quicker response time while closely monitoring system efficiencies.

Other new technology allows property managers to install security cameras with increased recording time. And looking toward the future, the newest technology will enable us to get away from key cards and change over to biometric systems, utilizing fingerprints and eye read to identify individuals who can safely enter buildings.

One of the most important amenities landlords can offer their tenants is on-site accessibility. Being there counts. When there is a problem, on-site managers are there, not only to respond to emergency situations, but also to monitor long-term maintenance that often prevents costly, radical repairs.

Good landlords of commercial buildings today understand the issues of rising energy prices, increasing property taxes, and keeping rents affordable. It is the landlord’s responsibility to stay current with tenant needs and concerns, to modify their buildings with available enhancements that work for both the landlord and tenant. And ultimately, the relationship between landlord and tenant provides cooperative working relationships that result in satisfied tenants that stay committed to their space for the long-term.

CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc has acquired Immobiliere Developpement & Gestion (IDG), the second largest retail real estate specialist in Belgium.

The acquisition of IDG is an integral part of CB Richard Ellis’ strategy to expand its retail services capabilities throughout Europe. That strategy was launched with the company’s October 2005 acquisition of the UK’s leading retail specialists, Dalgleish & Co Limited.

Founded in 1975, IDG has focused primarily on retail services, developing a strong reputation for serving the needs of property owners and retailers. For the first 22 years of its existence the firm operated as DevosGobert. It began trading as IDG following its acquisition by Charles Luel in 1997. Since then, the firm has experienced strong growth, and now employs a team of 17 professionals. It has annual revenues of approximately $2.4 million (o 2 million). Mr. Luel, IDG’s principal shareholder, has joined CB Richard Ellis and will lead the retail group in Belgium.

Gaetan Clermont, managing director, CB Richard Ellis Belgium, said: “The acquisition of Dalgleish clearly opened a unique opportunity to develop a first-class retail capability throughout Europe, and IDG is the perfect expression of that strategy in Belgium.

“We have an opportunity to develop the pre-eminent retail services capability in Belgium, and look forward to working with Charles Luel and his colleagues in realizing this goal.” CBRE has also acquired Advocate Consulting Group, Inc., a leading provider of real estate project and construction management consulting services in the New York area.

Advocate’s expertise in interior construction and move management complements CB Richard Ellis’ strength as the premier tenant rep brokerage firm in the New York area. Its ground-up construction management experience adds to the firm’s agency leasing and property management expertise. Advocate will immediately adopt the CBRE name and brand.

Founded in 1997, Advocate provides commercial, institutional, retail and other tenant clients as well as owner developers with services including pre-construction, construction and move-in oversight. Clients have included Deutsche Bank, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, MetLife, Morgan Stanley, Reuters and Bridgemarket Restaurants. The firm was responsible for $380 million of construction management assignments in 2005.

Advocate’s existing team of nine consulting professionals, led by the firm’s founder Thomas R. Nelson, will be fully integrated within CB Richard Ellis’ New York Tri-State Region. They will participate in the firm’s national project management group, which serves all business lines, including asset services, brokerage and corporate services. During the past few years, CB Richard Ellis and Advocate have collaborated on a number of assignments for clients, including Lehman Brothers.

Philip Wachtler, Founder & principal, Wachtler Knopf Equities LLC

Philip Wachtler takes a hands-on approach to managing his growing office portfolio.

Little more than a month after taking over the management and leasing responsibilities for a seven-building, 450,000 s/f office collection concentrated along Route 110, Long Island’s premier office district, Wachtler, a founder and principal of Farmingdale, Long Island-based Wachtler Knopf Equities LLC, has been signing new leases, renewing others and working on a three-building addition to the portfolio.

Wachtler, who worked for the prior five years as director of leasing and development for the Woodbury-based Tilles Investment Co., has quickly learned that the work as a building manager goes well beyond leasing. And, he likes it that way.

The 43-year-old real estate executive regularly tours the buildings in his portfolio–one of the largest on Long Island. During one visit, he stopped to pick up cigarette butts that didn’t make it into the new receptacles he ordered placed outside the doors of each property, checked the restrooms to ensure they’d been cleaned and the vending machines to see if they needed restocking. And he stopped into visit his tenants, inquiring about problems.

“Our tenants should know they are going to see me every day,” he promises, adding that he wants his tenants to experience the proprietor’s personal touch.

On a recent walk around his most visible asset, 115 Broadhollow Rd., in Melville, the modernist building once the Long Island headquarters of Chemical Bank, Wachtler points to the new landscaping planted around the 80,000 s/f property, originally constructed in 1972 and last renovated in 1996 by its previous owner, Blumenfeld Development Group. “We’ve put in 1,200 bulbs,” he noted. There also are plans for upgrades to the interior of the building which stands prominently near Pinelawn Road and fronts Blackstone’s Steakhouse, which is net leased from WKE.

Next door, at 121 Broadhollow, which is leased entirely to Cosmo.com, Wachtler points to peeling paint on the building’s exterior and promises to make things better. The owner and the tenant of such a visible building with its name on it deserve a facility worthy of the location, he said.

At the sprawling 500 Bi-County Corporate Plaza in Farmingdale–with 149,000 s/f, the largest privately owned office complex in the town of Babylon new plantings also are in the ground and new carpets will line the halls. An HVAC upgrade also is in the works.

“We have a substantial capital expenditure program for these buildings,” says Wachtler. But, he quickly adds, “We can’t spend the big dollars yet.” Much of the work won’t be undertaken until the spring.

Just modest improvements in the appearances of his buildings are things that tenants value. “I’ve learned you can make these people happy,” said Wachtler, who previously oversaw more than 3 million square feet of office and industrial space for Tilles.

WKE’s philosophy is a simple one: “To develop and maintain a first-class family-run real estate company fortified by hard work and integrity,” said Wachtler, who along with partner, Daniel Knopf, a leading commercial real estate broker with a major firm in New York City, established their venture last year after Tilles sold its real estate holdings to CLK/Houlihan Parnes. The duo own stakes in the properties, all of which were acquired last year from Blumenfeld Development Group by an affiliate of Great Neck, NY-based Sterling Equities and are seeking additional properties.

Other holdings that WKE tends include 1800 Walt Whitman Rd., Melville; 45 S. Service Rd., Plainview, and 125 E. Bethpage Rd., Plainview

The hands-on approach to property management is something different for Wachtler, a graduate of Skidmore College and the Gemological Institute of America in New York.

He worked as gemologist for the Walker Jewelry Co. in Manhattan before joining Sterling/Carl Marks Capital Inc. a small business investment company.

Wachtler is a resident of Upper Brookville, where he lives with his wife, Robin and their three children.

Lincoln Property Company announced Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, Inc. signed a new lease for 18,681 s/f at Parsippany Commerce Center in Parsippany, N.J. Rick Genthe, serves as in-house leasing representative for Parsippany Commerce Center. Outside brokers for this transaction included Sheila Matuscak, executive vice president and Audra Johnson, senior associate with Transwestern Commercial Services, Inc.in Chicago, and Edward Dudzinski, president, Atlantic Real Estate Services.

Never mind houses in Belgravia, the price of top commercial property in London just keeps on rising too. To prove the point, along comes the sale by Swiss Re of Lord Foster’s iconic, but for most purposes hopelessly impractical, “Gherkin” in the heart of the City for [pound]630m. This is the most a single office block in the UK has ever fetched. Nor is the record expected to stand for long. With both CityPoint, on the western side of the City, and HSBC’s Canary Wharf headquarters on the market too, bigger numbers still may soon be making headlines.

Do these record-breaking values signal the top of an already overheated market, or are they just the going rate for an ever more sought-after London market, rather in the same way as the [pound]1m house? This was once an extreme rarity too, but in London, at least, is now the price of an even quite modest dwelling in a Victorian terrace.

Office property in Britain obeys many of the same laws as the residential housing market. In good times, there is the same pressure of demand on limited supply. As prices rise, a construction boom gets under way with the consequent glut of new property generally coming on to the market just as the economy begins to go south. Everybody then struggles in the subsequent downturn. Only this time, it does-n’t seem to be working that way. Rising interest rates have failed to put any kind of a noticeable brake on the price of commercial property. Nor, as long as the City keeps booming, and foreigners keep wanting to invest their money here, are they likely to.

Part of the price that has to be paid (or perhaps it should be referred to as a dividend rather than a price) for the City’s success as an international financial centre is that seemingly everyone wants to come and locate here. As a consequence, prices are going up, particularly for prime property of the type that the highly skilled demand to work in. But so are rents. Yields are thus, broadly speaking, keeping pace.

The present phase of pressure of demand on constrained supply has coincided with a secular change in investment attitudes to commercial property. No longer is property regarded as the unsafe asset class, prone to boom and bust, it once was. Instead it has come to be regarded as a store of value which delivers a reliable, if unspectacular, income stream largely protected from the vagaries of inflation.

Just right, in other words, for maturing pension funds and the growing ranks of other risk-averse investors. If it comes to a toss- up between an inflation-linked gilt and a prime City property, I know where I would rather stick my money. Yields, even at recent valuations, are still reasonable, while rent reviews provide a perfect hedge against inflation.

There are other attractions, too. Law of contract together with the existence of deep and liquid markets makes Britain a honey-pot for foreign money, especially the petrodollars of the Middle East and Russia. This is perhaps just as well, since the consequent capital inflows support a current account deficit that would undoubtedly sink the pound in most other circumstances. London’s commercial property market is supported in the same manner as the residential housing market by a wall of foreign and City money. As long as this remains the case, the property market will continue to boom.

The more favourable tax treatment for commercial property brought about by the introduction of Real Estate Investment Trusts will help further underpin the market with institutional money. It’s a big price to pay for a gherkin, which is bound to invite parallels with the Tokyo property boom of the late 1980s. For the time being, the London sequel appears much better supported by the fundamentals.