I love to cook and enjoy the process of preparation, selecting the ingredients, laying out my tools, cooking my meal and then to finally serve it to my family and guests. As with most chefs, professional or amateur, I nibble my way throughout the undertaking and have little room to actually sit and eat with my guests, but to sit and talk, to eat and drink and just commune with one another is its own reward

I am glad to say that there has been a renascence in kitchen design over the last few years, maybe it’s because of the current economic times we live in and people are staying home more and eating meals around the family table has once more taken center stage. What has changed, or maybe a better word would be, evolved, is the democratization of the family kitchen. This once private domain of the feminine world has now given way to a new social order that reflects the world that we live in. Everyone is welcomed, if not expected to participate in the ritual of preparation.

And with this increased activity and additional bodies in a high-traffic ballet of fire, boiling water and sharp pointy things…we find that the assembly-line kitchen of the past, with its uniform horizon of sink, dishwasher, cook-top, oven and refrigerator, forever locked in its limited one-person “work-triangle”, must now give way to a new way of thinking.

Appliances once dictated the form and flow of the kitchen. Today, they have all been replaced by the individual/s and the task and then the appliances and the space needed to fulfill the task. With a variety of people and activities in this enclosed environment, we must create a fluid, interactive, multifunctional arena, where tools and materials are close at hand and within a given task boundary.

Much like selling toilet paper, the primary use of the product is seldom addressed. The same has gone for modern kitchen design. Over the past several years, the collective thought of modern kitchen design was to create the “illusion of order.” This was accomplished by hiding the true function of the kitchen. By hiding the food, the waste and the appliances, we create the illusion of productivity and efficiency by hiding the process.

With cooking returned to the primary function, the kitchen must be efficient to be productive, an environment that is conducive to the task at hand. To this end we have reached out to the commercial kitchen to better understand the true meaning of efficiency, a world that clearly defines the boundaries of form and function and where the poetry of chaos is the rule of order. The commercial kitchen is designed around a menagerie of players, each with a tack or goal to fulfill, all working independently, all working to the same conclusion and all working in perfect harmony.

Daniel Gehman

Naturally, when I saw an article in my local paper extolling the advent of the first LEED Platinum rated building in Orange County, Calif., I was pretty darn excited. It was a single- family residence, which was a bit unusual, but a notable benchmark nonetheless. There was to be an open house that very afternoon, and, with a bit of time at my disposal, I decided to head on over there.

A steady stream of Priuses, old and new, braked successfully and deposited their optimistic occupants curbside. (I parked mine around the corner.) With a curious but somewhat critical eye, I drifted toward the entry court over the amber waves of native grasses. (This is hyperbole. The landscaping as installed was teeny, tiny shoots of what promised to be well-behaving, low-maintenance lushness later. I just like the way that sounded.)

It was at that moment something I had kind of glossed over in reading the paper’s description of the property leapt up and smacked me in the head like a chunk of Forest Stewardship Council-certified 2 X 4. This place was humongous!

More on that in a minute. First, let me give credit where credit is due. The team who put this palace (oops, I meant place) together stretched the (metaphorical) envelope pretty far, incorporating some resource-sensitive systems such as sinks that capture grey water for flushing of toilets and landscape irrigation use. Also, most of the hard surface on site (for cars and pedestrians) was composed of interlocking pavers, which will also allow rainwater to infiltrate the aquifer, which is a good thing. The landscaping itself was native Californian, so once the plants are established, they should be able to survive without subsequent additional irrigation. Tankless water heaters, which are big energy savers, were thoughtfully integrated, even if it took multiple units to do the job. A bone I had to pick with the paper’s description, which promised “LED lighting throughout,” was that though I looked high and low, there were none to be found–plenty of fluorescent tubes, which is a good thing, but none of the latest technical step forward. The home featured several walls that folded open to allow seamless passage from inside to out, a nice component in this temperate environment—good for climate control and fresh air.

But here’s my beef: weighing in at nearly 6,000 square feet, this domicile was enormous. Seriously. We’re talking six bedrooms, each with its own bath, plus a home office thrown in for good measure. It totally dominated its site, leaving only a little patio area and a large pool and spa outside the boundary of its eaves. Inside the house, the main living spaces were super-sized almost outside of the range of recognizable. It felt more like a semi-public clubhouse than a single-family residence, with enormous high ceilings, cold concrete floors, and very little intimacy outside the bathrooms (All six of them! Perhaps the fact that it was on a golf course led to such unrestrained excess.) Look, even if you paint a Hummer with low-VOC paint, it’s still a big, big ride. Hasn’t this team received the “McMansions are passé memo?)

It seems to me that along with accepting the general ideas that come with designing sustainably—pursuing “building high performance and resource sensitivity”—at some level there is a theme of generally stretching resources further, and, frankly, doing more with less. Whatever happened to Sarah Susanka’s “Not So Big House?” The conditioned area in this behemoth could accommodate an entire order of Carmelite nuns. Have I mentioned the six bedrooms?

What a disappointment that the first LEED Platinum project in the OC gets so many of the little details right, but completely misses the big picture. The developer has vowed to take on another project after this one that follows the same path. Please: keep all the cool widgets, but show us what you can do with some creative design of modest spaces, so the soul of the thing might match its makeup.

(Daniel Gehman is principal at Thomas Cox Architects. He can be reached at DanielG@tca-arch.com)

More than 70 years ago, the “Futurist” predicted that our world would be awash in jet-packs, flying-cars, moving sidewalks, personal robot helpers, mile-high cities, and let us not forget the ambiguous vacation on the Moon, or better yet on Mars.

Much like a feather on a string in front of a playful kitten, the kitchen of the future with all its time and labor saving gadgets and gizmo’s, has been dangled in front of the American consumer since the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, but for me the future became a reality one very hot summer day in 1960, while I stood in line at Disneyland to see the house that would change my life forever, the house of the future…the Monsanto House.

My first impression of the future, as an eight-year-old boy, was that it would be cool. Ice-cold air-conditioned air blew on my skin as I walked in from a hot and sticky Anaheim heat wave. There was the future…laid out before me like a buffet. The embodiment of every science fiction movie, TV show, book, magazine and comic book I had ever seen, all before me in glorious molded plastic, and as expected, everything was white or chrome with accents of color, it would be easy to see my life in this home of tomorrow.

And the kitchen of this brave new world was laid out as if a medical laboratory. A shiny, gleaming, pristine environment where actual food and food preparation would be banned and we would pop “food-pills” and consume “radar-ranged” freeze-dried dinners, and our personal robot helper would clean up the dishes using no water in the sonic dishwasher and we would all talk to our friends and family on a Viz-A-Phone after dinner.

Thankfully many of these visions are still the stuff of science fiction. But as we wade knee-deep into the 21^st century, we find that a few of Monsanto’s visions have survived and evolved. The ubiquitous microwave oven has evolved from the radar-range in to an everyday kitchen cornerstone. The magnetic induction cook-top with its heat-free cooking is right out of the Jetsons and the integrated dishwasher, though not sonic I am sorry to say, is a standard feature in every American home.

So, where is the future I was promised? I had invested all that time in books and movies and I knew every nook and cranny and back road of the future, and with great disappointment I woke one morning to the world as it was and lived out my days feeling a little bit cheated. But then something happened, the future caught up with me. I realized one day, not so long ago, that I am living in the future of my youth, but only without the official uniform of the future, the one-piece unitard.

I have my Bluetooth firmly lodged into my ear, I drive an electric car and I can watch TV as well as communicate instantaneously, around the world via email, IM or Twitter…all from my cell phone. I don’t have a personal robot assistant, but I do have to lift my legs every now and then with the RUMBA comes scooting along the floor. I knew for sure I was living in the future, as I sat on my sofa, watching live images streaming in from Mars, while eating microwaved popcorn. Now, if I only had a jet-pack.

(Kevin Henry is the executive vice president of Bazzèo LLC. He can be reached at kevin@bazzeo.com or read more of his observations at www.theessentialkitchen.blogspot.com)

If you’re like most property managers, your work day is stuck in the 20th century. Rent checks are collected through a metal drop box. Brochures sit idly by outside of your office. Your web site consists of one page with a phone number, e-mail address and a few photos. Enough paperwork is collecting in your office to create a fire hazard.

I want to point out six things that property managers can really master in the 21st century, thanks to the latest property management software systems.

Managing Leads to New Tenants

According to Apartment Internet Marketing, 46% of apartment prospects inquire about a property after normal 9 AM to 5 PM office hours.

How are you currently tracking these? Through e-mail? Scrolling through your Caller ID to check missed calls? Do you even know how effective your current advertising methods are?

Fortunately, many property management software applications will collect and organize your leads from all sources, even after you’re out of the office. Rent Manager is one company that is integrating marketing with it’s property management software.

A modern property management application can:

• Collect call information from prospects inquiring after hours
• Respond automatically via e-mail to internet prospects
• Track e-mail open rates so you can follow up with those who haven’t seen your response
• Broadcast e-mails to the leads you’ve collected but haven’t converted
• Log the source of leads to your web site (Craigslist.org, Apartments.com, etc)
• Track leads from offline sources through the use of specific phone numbers
• Integrate with your online advertising methods (pay-per-click, banners ads, etc.)

In our opinion, this is the wave of the future in property management software. With more and more people every day going to the internet to look for properties, integration of web services with your property management software will be the difference between surviving and thriving. Connecting with Your Tenants

Don’t be that property manager on ApartmentRatings.com whose tenants claim is never around.

Running your office on one of the leading property management software applications will allow you to:

• Generate e-mail blasts to your tenants and rental owners
• Create community forums to discuss important topics and feedback
• Manage online calendars of events and important dates

In short, your property management software becomes your communication hub between you, your tenants and your rental owners. There’s no need to combine three of four different, separate services that don’t talk to each other. Moreover, you’ll be present without having to knock on every door.

Automation of Regular Tasks

If the rent deadline has passed and a tenant has not paid their rent yet, what do you do?

Typically, you either call them on the phone or drop off a notice at their door. That’s too much manual effort. Your property management system should email them an alert or late rent notice immediately. No need for you to type, print, mail or deliver.

Property management software can even ease the pain during one of the most stressful times of the year – tax season. Buildium’s property management software will automatically generate 1099 tax forms for vendors and rental owners and even file them electronically to the IRS. All of this is done from within the software itself.

The advantages of automation are clear: more time to focus on more important tasks (like finding leads), fewer mistakes and an overall higher level of efficiency.

Others tasks that have been automated by property management software are:

• Rent increases
• CAM charges
• Preventative maintenance scheduling
• Lease expiration notices
• Tenant log in to view account details

Many of your automated notices to tenants can be emailed directly from the property management software or even sent to mobile phones.

Advertising with Popular Web Sites

Put yourself in the shoes of a prospective tenant. Where are you going to look first for a new apartment or home? More than likely, you’re going to start your search at Craigslist or another website.

Property management software company Appfolio integrates the ability to post listings to Craigslist directly into its software, making posting vacancies to the hugely popular web site that much easier.

Appfolio uses the information you’ve already entered and are managing about your properties and ports that information directly to Craigslist. No double entry and no time wasted managing your Craigslist account separately.

And it’s not just about making it easy to post to Craigslist. Appfolio allows you to design a custom template (pictured right) that makes your Craigslist posts stand out among the typical, text-only ads.

Building a Web Site that Integrates with Your Software

If you can count the number of pages on your web site on one hand, chances are it’s not doing much to help keep your occupancy rate high. You need more than a digital business card. What you need is a web site that appeals to prospects, tenants and property owners alike.

A good number of property management software systems out there give you the option to build a slick, fully functional web site that integrates directly with their software.

Property Ware and Rentec Direct are a few of the many property management software suites that give you this build-a-web-site option in addition to their other property management software services. They’ll build a fully customizable web site with all of the features you need.

Advantages of customizable property management web sites include:

• No coding or site maintenance is need on your part
• Installation is quick and painless
• They’ll manage your domain name
• Web site analytics built into the software
• Built in forms increase your lead generation
• All of this is integrated directly with the property management software

Instead of having one company handle your web site design and hosting and another handle your property management software needs, why not have one company do both?

Going Green

Eco-conscious tenants are increasingly concerned with the environmental footprint of their home, even if they are a tenant rather than an owner.

Here’s a list of ways that property management software helps property managers save energy and save paper:

• Storing documents digitally, resulting in fewer lost documents and less paper
• E-mailing renter’s statements at their request instead of printing out paper statements
• Scan renter’s checks and upload them electronically
• Web-based property management eliminates the in-house server, saving energy

Going green isn’t just about saving energy and trees. It also helps you increase your efficiency:

• Digital document storage cuts the time searching for documents dramatically when you can type in a search instead of rummaging through a massive file cabinet
• E-mailing out monthly statement’s is quite a bit quicker than printing, stuffing envelopes and making the rounds on your property dropping off statements
• Imagine eliminating those weekly, sometimes daily, trips to the bank when you can scan and uploading a renter’s check from your desk
• Web-based property management software virtually eliminates IT headaches (and time spent dealing with those headaches) because your software vendor hosts the software on their own servers

If you do take these energy saving measures and advertise them, you’ll attract more customers. And depending on the extent of the “greening” of your properties, you’ll be able to charge more in rent too.

What else does property management software help you do better? What things do you want your property management to take care of that it currently doesn’t?

(Chris Thorman is social media manager at Software Advice. He can be reached at 512-364-0118 or chris@softwareadvice.com)

I was invited to attend a luncheon last week with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Author of “The World is Hot, Crowded and Flat” Thomas Friedman.  I have been involved with environmental issues for over 30 years, ever since my first Earth Day rally in 1974, but this event was on an entirely different plane than I have ever been associated with before.

I realized that the revolution had moved to a new level…it wasn’t about fighting the machine…this was the machine.  The event was attended by Governors of other states, UN delegates, international media, scientists and engineers, non-profit organizations and corporate leaders…this wasn’t your tofu eating, long hair, Birkenstock wearing radicals…this was people from all walks of life, from around the world, multi-cultural, trans-generational and across all economic boundaries.  All on the same page regarding Climate Change with no finger-wagging or blame assignment.  They were there for one purpose…to find solutions to a problem of global proportions.

This luncheon was part of larger conference, the 2nd Annual Governors Conference on Climate Change, the Road to Copenhagen.  A week of speeches, presentations and workshops all centered on Climate Change and what governments, organizations and corporations can do to be involved.

With all these powerful people, government bodies and organizations, the message I walked away with from my lunch with the Govenor was a simple one…”that it is the individual who holds the power to make a difference”…by the choices we make and the actions we take, we can alter the course of life on this planet, now and for generations to come.

The leaders wrapped up their three-day summit in Los Angeles by signing several declarations and statements, including pledging to pursue cleaner transportation alternatives, to work together to stop de-forestation and to contribute towards low-carbon development in developing nations.

I left the conference re-born with a new vigor as well as a new commitment towards the future.  No matter what the talking heads on TV may say, it was clear that Climate Change is real and that a clear path on both a local as well as global level has been defined and that through our individual actions we can make a difference.  I was quoted in 1974, while attending Earth Day as saying, “The future is deeply rooted in the actions we take today”, that challenge has never been truer, I only hope that we move a little faster than the 30 years that have brought us to this point today.

(Writer, speaker as well as a green activist, Kevin M Henry is President of Group42, a consultancy specializing in Strategic Brand Management.  Kevin can be reached at kmhenry@group42.net or follow his blog at  www.theessentialkitchen.blogspot.com)

A few new developments in the sustainability world have come to pass since my last note.

One week ago, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass) launched a campaign for their climate bill. The purpose of the “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act,” which, incidentally, does not include the word “climate” in its title, is “to create energy jobs, promote energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy.”

While this proposal incorporates every industry, it is important to point out that green collar jobs are, in fact, on the rise within the building industry. A certain level of green consciousness—which seems to be higher than that of the average Joe—has come to pass within the industry that has long been blamed for the majority of the nation’s carbon emissions.

On another note, Google recently released a PowerMeter, which was created as a free electricity usage monitoring tool for utilities and consumers. As the Frequently Asked Questions site explains, Google built the tool to provide information to consumers.

This idea of monitoring one’s energy usage is certainly not a new one. In a recent MHN post, Dimitris Kapsis, vice president of energy management solutions at American Utility Management, discusses the importance of performing facilities audits in multifamily buildings.

Of course, monitoring energy and water consumption at a multifamily community is much different—and I assume much more difficult—than it would be at a single-family home, but the concept is the same. Everyone needs to play a role in managing their use of the earth’s national resources. The question is, how much of a role should, and can, government play in mandating our use? Have we gotten to the point where we have spread our resources so thin that the only way to resolve the issue is to have our resource use regulated?

What do you think? How much legislation needs to be introduced—and/or passed—for everyone to understand the importance of preserving our earth? Share your thoughts. Email me at Erika.Schnitzer@nielsen.com or leave your comments here.

(Erika Schnitzer is Associate Editor at MHN).

At the end of August I joined a new demographic when we dropped my oldest son at college for Freshman Orientation. It’s been a difficult transition for his parents and younger brother; but, it’s also an exciting one that we’re all enjoying vicariously, as he experiences his first taste of living away from home.

He likes his roommate, his instructors are brilliant, and the campus is just what he was looking for. We all agree the food is awful, but at least student feedback is encouraged. There’s a bulletin board in the dining hall where students can tack a note with their suggestions to the menu planners (and they do—by the dozens).

There’s really just one thing wrong with this picture…

The school doesn’t offer the option of paying tuition by credit card. Had we not been asleep at the wheel during the selection process, this small but important fact would have been noticed. And, it may have factored into the final decision.

We always put the family’s big-ticket purchases on the credit card. We do this for one very important reason: so that we can accumulate travel points for family vacations. Not being able to do so is a major disappointment—and a source of resentment. Especially since (I was told by the school) many other parents have also called, as I did, to see when this antiquated policy was going to be revisited. Apparently not anytime soon.

The college’s stance drove home for me the critical nature of some of the points raised during MHN’s recent webinar (which you can access here) “Found Money: Learn How To Streamline Financial Operations And Gain Efficiency.” Take-aways included recognizing that residents truly appreciate and value having choices in how they pay their rent, and that automation can dramatically reduce the costs associated with payment processing.

Whether picking a college or choosing an apartment home, the consumer is typically faced with a number of choices.

The apartment community that goes out of its way to make life as pleasant and convenient as possible has a clear advantage. The management team that not only takes the time to check in frequently with its residents, but also implements their suggestions, needs to convey these habits to prospects. Properties that implement suggestions can translate this proactive stance into a powerful marketing message.

Your competitors across the street might not be listening to their residents. If you are, be sure you shout it out.

[Diana Mosher is Editor-in-Chief at MHN. She can be reached at Diana.Mosher@Nielsen.com]

"I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down!"
Tubthumping Lyrics
(c) Artist (Band):Chumbawamba

Most forecasters have called rent declines an unfavorable trend through 2012, and commented on how the rents in place are tied, almost demonically to home price affordability. The commonly held view is that the strength of the housing market and the relationship between house price affordability and multifamily rent is sacrosanct, so much so that most analyst calls to the top 10 publics on rental play off of that theme.

I'm not so sure that's the case, and in fact it is beginning to look like the rental industry is gaining ground again. According to the most recent CSW data, the national composite home price rose approximately 2.9% on a quarter over quarter basis, not seasonally adjusted, and this is the first quarterly gain since the first quarter of 2006. According to the report, of the 20 metro areas surveyed, home prices increased in 15 regions, with Cleveland, San Francisco and Washington, DC leading the way. The prices are up, but not stunningly so in any metropolitan area.

Just for comparison purposes, I took at look at the September, 2009 Topline Report, courtesy of Pierce-Eislen. Starting with their San Francisco – Peninsula market I wanted to see how rental was faring overall against the newly released house price data. The average rent for September, 2009 was $1,658.96 overall, a decline from the prior month of $15.77. Rental concession participation rates, which I think is an excellent measure of demand strength, and only reported in Pierce-Eislen as far as I can tell, actually declined from 26.2% to 24.6%, probably indicating some positive trends coming in the next few months.

If you break down the rent numbers a bit further, the Topline report shows that at the Upper Mid-Range of properties, (those in the A- and B+ category), rents actually increased on both a month over month basis and their 3 month moving average. Since I was expecting to seek San Francisco still in trouble, the rent numbers overall and their composite sectors instead point to a positive outlook, at least incrementally.

I'm also interested in seeing what's happening in Washington, DC. Since the nation's capital is considered somewhat recession resistent, it wasn't surprising to see the city on the CSW list with house price increases, but rental in DC had taken a beating, and it made sense to see how the rents were now changing.

Again turning to the Pierce-Eislen data, (you can find all of this at www.pi-ei.com) rents in the Washington, DC-Suburban Maryland market averaged $1,263.14, a decline of $16.44 from the prior month. Using the same measure as before, all of the renter sectors declined, but again, on a three month moving average, the A- and B+ properties showed positive gains. What was really telling about the DC market is that the rental concession participation changed month over month from 45.5% previously, now down to 28%, demonstrating a different demand dynamic.

I now believe that rents are going to turn positive and there will be meaningful gains in certain metropolitan areas and submarkets, some appearing before the end of this year. I'm thinking that 2012 will probably look a whole lot different than what you're hearing at the industry conferences. My crystal ball is getting clearer but I still have a hard time getting it through security at the airport. As the forecasts are revised, just remember, we're talking about understanding the recovery, not fretting about the recession. Our internal forecasts and work show more progress in rent gains than anyone is expecting. I think it's about time.

(Jack Kern is the Managing Director of Kern Investment Research, and is fond of telling people he's called every recession, stock market decline and change in the colors of cars accurately since 1980. He can be reached at 301.601.1900 or Jkern@KernIRC.com)

Many investors are seeking to take advantage of the downturn (now supposedly coming to an end) to pounce on distressed multifamily commercial real estate opportunities.

Little wonder that the GreenPearl Events’s Distressed Real Estate Summit held in New York last week far exceeded the organizer’s expectations. The day-long event was attended by over 700 industry professionals.

Word at the conference is that if you expect a fire sale of distressed properties, such as the opportunities created by the RTC in the early-1990s, this is not the time. Banks are not letting go of their distressed assets at bottom-feeder prices or even releasing properties en masse necessarily.

If anything, banks are trying to extend loans as much as possible, and holding on to REOs for better prices down the road. As one commentator suggested, their attitude is, why get 50 cents on the dollar today if you can hold the asset longer and get 80 cents on the dollar next year or later? Furthermore, because many banks are healthier (remember the government’s capital infusion into the banks?), they can afford to wait it out.

Where they hold distressed assets, the government has the same approach. The FDIC has closed many institutions—though nowhere as many as in the late-1980s, early-1990s, noted Michael Sher, managing director, at RSM McGladrey, on one panel. But Sher said that the FDIC has a very structured approach in disposing of the real estate assets of the banks: They do not want to dump the assets at one go and destroy prices.

In response to a question posed by Carolyn Pianin, the panel moderator and senior consultant at Focus Management Group, Sher gave several specific suggestions as to where investors can look for opportunities. The handful of financial advisors helping FDIC sell real estate assets include PNC Midland (acquisition, development and construction CRE loans) and KBW Bank (acquisition, development and construction residential loans).

David M. Frank, CEO of the Merrill Group of Cos. LLC, advised investors to contact and build relationships with asset advisory firms, as they are in contact with owners of the properties. He also said that receivers are the first in play even before the servicer handles the asset as REO. “Go to lunch, play golf with them,” he said.

(Keat Foong is Executive Editor of Multi-Housing News. She can be reached at keat.foong@nielsen.com)

Ah, if only. People around here are fond of saying “God stopped making land a long time ago.” If not precisely scientifically correct, at least those words capture the emotional tone of the current predicament—we’re running out of dirt.

Allow me to qualify. It’s not so much that there isn’t bare land available anywhere, but powerful forces have conspired to make a great deal of it simply in the wrong place, even if for the right reasons. Of course, I’m talking about real estate suitable for the development of new multifamily communities. With the tiniest glimmers of light beginning to penetrate the dense fog of the “great recession,” it is time for new projects to enter the entitlement pipeline in order to properly anticipate the arrival of a better market, one in which the latent demand for dwellings will once again surface as people “un-couple” from the hybrid households that formed during our recent painful contraction. (Phew!)

So give us dirt! I have many colleagues in the development industry who are now on the prowl for a few acres of blank slate on which to sculpt their next multi-family masterpiece. Naturally, I want to assist the search in any way possible because I need work as well. So, partly at their bidding, but largely prompted by my own survival instinct, I’m keeping my eyes open, my ears to the tracks, (place your favorite cliché here) to pay attention for purchase and development opportunities.

Our industry, at least in California, is evolving. The give-back in rents of the last few years has had the effect of rendering nearly any project with structured parking essentially impossible to pencil. Back in the day, when rents were increasing, these dense infill projects could work. Construction costs have backed off considerably, but not enough to balance out the overall picture. And here’s the rub: to quote a friend frustrated by a fruitless search, “The sellers still think it’s 2006.”

Back in 2005, apartment REITS were consistently bid out of the competition for infill sites because for-sale developers could always offer more money for the land. Then by early 2007, with the declining market, many of these properties changed hands, with the for-sale teams bailing out through sales to for-rent developers.

Today feels eerily similar, but the problem doesn’t seem so much that the land is being bid up by for-sale guys; rather, the sellers all remember those days, and still expect inflated prices. To qualify yet another aspect of this, bear in mind that cultural pressures have gelled that make the wildly ex-urban properties (think 90-minute commute stuff) unpopular due to their “unsustainable” nature. All signs point to the logic of denser communities being built near and around transit, which has recently been resuscitated due both to public will and the infusion of recovery money. This means, of course, that all the land held in these zones is offered only at premium prices! Argh!

So what does it all mean? My buddies, the acquisition folks, are working harder and being more creative than I’ve ever seen. All my in-house colleagues are all trying to pay attention to the land market, though it is far outside our typical comfort range to do so, watching for leads. Everybody wants deals to be made so we can step up our work efforts.

All this effort is going to lead to “break-away” ideas—really new and unique propositions for properties that seemed unlikely in the past (see my post “Car-ied Away, from September 10th.) The municipalities may need to help, too, by offering incentives such as zoning overlays or parking relief.

Everything in me has that feeling that somebody, somewhere, is going to break through soon.

Bring it on!

(Daniel Gehman is principal at Thomas Cox Architects. He can be reached at DanielG@tca-arch.com)