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How To Succeed In Commercial Real Estate is a plain-terms guide to buying and selling commercial property, drawn from the author’s experience in 30 years of the business. Chapters cover sales points specific to commercial real estate, including suggestions for countering other brokers; the importance of exclusive listings; how rent is calculated and quoted; technical knowledge with regard to law, appraisal, taxation, zoning, surveys, and environmental investigations, among other topics; the pros and cons of going independent; and much more. A no-nonsense guide accessible to readers of all familiarity levels with the world of real estate, and highly recommended reading for anyone about to take the plunge and invest thousands or even millions of dollars into commercial property.

How To Succeed in Commercial Real Estate

How To Succeed in Commercial Real Estate is a plain-terms guide to buying and selling commercial property, drawn from the author’s experience in 30 years of the business. Chapters cover sales points specific to commercial real estate, including suggestions for countering other brokers; the importance of exclusive listings; how rent is calculated and quoted; technical knowledge with regard to law, appraisal, taxation, zoning, surveys, and environmental investigations, among other topics; the pros and cons of going independent; and much more. A no-nonsense guide accessible to readers of all familiarity levels with the world of real estate, and highly recommended reading for anyone about to take the plunge and invest thousands or even millions of dollars into commercial property.

The commercial property industry yesterday rounded on Gordon Brown’s new “stealth taxes” on the sector. Although Mr Brown did not put up stamp duty, as some had feared, the withdrawal of property tax benefits announced yesterday would raise more than [pound]1.3bn annually for the Treasury by the 2009/10 year.

The Chancellor removed tax relief on empty commercial property and he also cut tax benefits from expenditure on industrial buildings. Angus McIntosh, a partner at the property advisers King Sturge, said: “There is no market evidence that properties are deliberately left empty, and by being empty push up rent levels. This is yet another unwelcome stealth tax on the property market.

“Yet again the Chancellor has increased the tax take from the property sector. This stealth tax is bad for GB Ltd - at a time when stock markets around the world are not delivering reliable returns, increasingly Joe & Joanna Public are depending on Pension Funds to invest in property. A property tax is a tax on their pension funds.”

Mr Brown said he was trying to “encourage better use of commercial property” by removing the tax relief on premises that are kept empty. He believes that unused property holds back the regeneration of areas and that removing tax benefits will encourage owners to let or sell it.

Currently, industrial property qualifies for relief from business rates indefinitely. In future, this will be restricted to six months. For empty retail property and offices, relief will now be limited to three months.

Graham Beaumont, also of King Sturge, said owners of factories may now deliberately damage their own properties so that it cannot be argued that they could be put to use - for instance by removing roofs. “I think this will result in a lot of vandalism by the owner, if they see no chance of being able to let the property,” Mr Beaumont said. He added that, if there was genuinely no demand for a property, it had no value in rental terms.

According to the Treasury, the change on empty properties will raise [pound]950m in the 2008/9 fiscal year and [pound]900m in 2009/ 10.

Mr Brown also announced two changes to the tax relief available on construction and improvements made to industrial premises. He abolished the relief, worth [pound]230m a year, available on expenditure to upgrade such property - owners could claim back depreciation on construction costs at a rate of 4 per cent a year. He also reduced the relief available on putting in new fixtures and fittings on these buildings, such as lighting and air conditioning, from 25 per cent to 10 per cent.

Kevin Nicholson, a partner at accountants Pricewaterhouse- Coopers, said: “This will be seen as another hit for UK manufacturing, just when they were looking for support.”

According to Mr Brown, the industrial buildings allowance had been “poorly targeted”. His figures showed that the change will be worth [pound]75m to the Treasury in 2008/9 and [pound]225m in 2009/ 10. The revision to fixtures and fittings allowances will raise [pound]70m in 2008/9 and [pound]200m in 2009/10.

Clare Hartnell, head of construction for accountants Grant Thornton, said: “This is bad news. The removal or restriction of allowances could have an adverse impact on property values and introduces uncertainty.”

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.

In this article, I examine the impact of the reification of intellectual property rights (IPRS) on the global political economy of information and knowledge. I begin by establishing the central functions that IPRS perform in the global political economy, and then review reification as an analytical tool for the examination of social phenomena. The interrogation of IPRS using the concept of reification raises the issue of the role of anxiety in the politics of knowledge. There are two dimensions of anxiety that need to be accorded some analytical weight in any general discussion of the political problem of IPRS: anxiety about personal welfare, and anxiety about control. Both of these can be readily identified in discussions and disputes about the scope, applicability and costs of IPRS in the global system. This is to say that the reification of intellectual property contributes to the continuing discourse of depoliticisation and technocratic policy-making in this area. Thus, I argue that the reification of intellectual property must be resisted if we are to establish a meaningful global politics of information and knowledge.

We are often told that we have entered a new age and a new society: the ‘information society’. Such claims have prompted a widened interest in and concern about intellectual property rights (IPRS). Indeed, intellectual property is the legal form through which many key resources of this ‘new’ society are commodified: through the recognition of IPRs, ideas, information and knowledge are made into property-like goods that can be exchanged in markets. Although intellectual property has a long history, recent interest and commentary has mostly been prompted by the inclusion, in 1995, of intellectual property in the remit of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the form of the first global legal settlement for intellectual property: the ‘trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights’ (TRIPS) agreement (May, 2000; Sell, 2003). The previous international regime for the governance of IPRS, overseen by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), was strengthened and expanded by the TRIPS agreement, not least in that it made disputes over IPRS subject to the WTO’S dispute-settlement mechanism.

Considerable interest and concern has been expressed in policy-making, activist and academic circles regarding the role and effect of IPRS in the contemporary global system. However, this article takes a more general look at one central issue related to IPRS: reification. The purpose of this is to establish the status of IPRS as a political economic issue, not an arcane technical issue only for legal specialists. This article sets out the functions that IPRS perform and then briefly reviews reification as an analytical tool for the examination of social phenomena, before applying it to the institutionalisation of IPRS. This suggests that anxiety is a factor that needs to be accorded some analytical weight in any general discussion of the political problem of IPRS. Moreover, the reification of intellectual property contributes to the continuing discourse of depoliticisation and technocratic policy-making in this area. Therefore, reification must be resisted if a meaningful global politics of information and knowledge is to be established: it is only by understanding the reification behind the discourses that stress protection for IPRS that a principled political response to the effects of the commodification of information and knowledge can be constructed.

Although capital is, of course, segmented and fractional, encompassing varying ‘models of capitalism’, there remain some clear ‘laws of capitalism’ (Wood, 2003). Perhaps the most important aspect of these laws is the necessity of private property rights for capitalist social relations. As Samuel Oddi has noted, the widespread use of a natural rights discourse in the political debates over IPRS (most obviously at the WTO and the WIPO) tries to establish that ‘these rights are so important that individual [WTO] member welfare should not stand in the way of their being protected as an entitlement of the creators. This invokes a counter-instrumentalist policy that members, regardless of their state of industrialisation, should sacrifice their national interests in favour of the posited higher order of international trade’ (Oddi, 1996: 440).

This naturalisation has profound effects on the manner in which we conceive of the ‘problem’ of intellectual property. Indeed, the realm in which property itself is exchanged has also been naturalised. Markets just are, and any notion that they need to be set up seems to be largely absent from popular discourse; rather, they merely need to be unleashed. Thus the issues explored in this article are part of the more general problem of the rule of law, the construction of markets in capitalist social relations, and the role of reification in naturalising these contemporary structures of capitalism.

Reification obscures certain avenues of reform and trajectories of socio-economic development by naturalising the contemporary legal settlement that frames specific political economic issues. In particular, reification obscures the historical specificity of intellectual property. Although the history of various forms of IPRS can be traced back at least five hundred years, the current manifestation of intellectual property as ‘rights’, rather than as the limited monopolies that patterned the earlier history of Owning’ ideas, is linked with the emergence of modern capitalism. The ‘right’ to exploit ideas and knowledge as commercial assets was founded as capitalism started to accelerate in the eighteenth century. Entrepreneurs (such as James Watt and later Thomas Edison) sought to establish and maintain market advantage by denying their competitors access to the inventions on which their businesses were built. The reification of IPRS into natural rights of individual innovators and creators denies this historical shift, and obscures the interests served by the protection and enforcement of patents, copyrights, trademarks and other forms of intellectual property.