Conservative pace wins the race

"Simple and boring is the new exciting," BMO Capital Markets analyst Rich Anderson wrote in a June report on the middle-market REIT that online investment blog REIT Wrecks pegs as this year's high achiever among its peers.

Memphis-based Mid-America's Sunbelt markets and mostly suburban garden-style assets are not especially exciting, nor is the company's low debt level, but today, when a lot of companies are looking at red ink, "boring is definitely the new black," the blog writer declared.

With the country's financial deficit spiraling out of control and its real estate markets reeling from the economic collapse, a story that is easy to understand is a welcome relief, and Mid-America's is such a tale.

"There are two things we do real
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What do you believe?

How about that Dana Carvey at the National Apartment Association (NAA) in June Was he a crack up, or what

I found the chirping crickets a curious sound effect after Carvey gushingly asked, "how about that President Obama" I'm thinking the audience probably just didn't hear the question.

I must have missed the Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi schtick. What a shame. It had to be funny, right Hollywood is quite entertaining.

There's so much going on in our country right now, it's hard to know in which line to stand. One thing is certain: Where there was apathy, there is now heed. You need not even step outside our industry to feel the affect of lending's locked brakes, the cult of Congressional curveball amendments or the nebulous recol
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Social networking

Social networking has long been part of civilization's landscape.

While it's taken various forms in recent times, we've all navigated to restaurants or other retail establishments where we've become familiar patrons, recognized and acknowledged by name as we walk in the door.

Humans, by nature, are social beings, hard wired for such connections, regardless of generational context.

Consider an American icon of this deeply-rooted characteristic in the long running TV series, "Cheers" (1982-1993). As the story line unfolds, Sam (Ted Danson) is purveyor and bartender of Cheers, a neighborhood bar in Boston. He is professionally and romantically entangled with his waitress, Diane (Shelley Long) to the chagrin of his other staff, Woody an
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Congressional power grab for multihousing

In May, President Obama signed into law The Mortgage Reform and Anti- Predatory Lending Act of 2009 (H.R. 1728). While the measure focuses largely on single-family lending practices, two amendments were added and later withdrawn because of technicalities, that would adversely affect apartment owners: a forced foreclosure mechanism and an overly broad renter notification requirement.

Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) attached an amendment that would allow the federal government to prematurely force apartment properties into bankruptcy and then sell them at a lower price to an entity that agrees to convert them to affordable housing. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) sponsored a comparable amendment, but withdrew it on procedural grounds.

Velazquez's
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Capitol reform

Metro Washington, D.C., historically one of the country's top-tier apartment markets, has turned stellar this year. With its strong and reliable employment record, beefed up recently by the newly arrived Obama administration, the market has provided some apartment REITs with surprisingly good news at a time when bad news is more prevalent.

"On the brighter side, the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area is performing ahead of expectations. The area has the lowest unemployment rate and the most favorable job outlook of any AvalonBay market," Leo Horey, VP of operations for the fourth largest apartment REIT in the country with a mostly bi-coastal portfolio of around 50,000 units, said at the end of April. "While supply as a percentage of tota
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Follow the money

"We have a slogan around here as it relates to cash flow. We say, ‘Cash is not king. Cash is the dictator in this economy,'" said Kevin Sheehan, The Bainbridge Companies' president of property operations, who moved the firm's management headquarters last January to the place where that money is minted.

The Bainbridge Companies, a fully-integrated family of real estate companies that has developed, owned and managed commercial real estate and apartments for the past 16 years from its home base in Southern Florida, has chosen to plant the flag of its management division in the nation's capital because the District of Columbia and environs represent one of the few bright spots on the multifamily map today.

"This market continues to be stro
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Building community

By feeding its hungry, honoring its heroes, beautifying its landscape, supporting local artists and offering discounts to those who teach the children and keep the community safe, the company that owns and operates 146,000 units in around 540 apartment properties in high- growth markets from coast to coast has proven itself a good neighbor and valuable addition to the small community just outside Washington, D.C., city officials agree.

"The first thing they did when they came into Hyattsville was a food drive and they filled up a two-bedroom apartment with food to give to the CapitoI Area Food Bank, because there's been a lot of publicity about the food bank shortages. So that says a lot about them," said Hyattsville Mayor Bill Gardiner.
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New world market

He named Rick Graf as successor president of the company last July, re-centering Pinnacle's operations in Dallas, where he believes access to industry talent is greater than in the Pacific Northwest. Graf, who joined Pinnacle 14 years ago, now directs the company's daily operations from the Dallas office, within shouting distance of Riverstone Residential and Greystar, two of Pinnacle's top U.S. competitors.

"The move doesn't take away from the Seattle roots of the company. I still remain here in Seattle and we have a number of affiliate companies and regional operations based here. But the international markets are a natural evolution for us and I wanted a day-to-day president for the company, so I could pursue those opportunities," said
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Hand spun capital: tax credit alternatives

One conventional source is a ground lease, which offers developers long-term possession of a site without the up-front costs associated with purchase. Abode Communities is in pre-construction planning on two joint-use projects slated to rise on land owned by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The joint-use and the long-term ground lease will help to reduce Abode Communities' development costs.

Despite the credit freeze, the 40-year-old Los Angeles-based nonprofit architect, developer and manager of affordable housing has four projects in the early phases of development, in addition to the joint- use projects with the LAUSD, and continues to seek new opportunities.

"The industry has lost 50 percent of its equity investment
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Bootstrap financing

Some, like Maine's recently enacted state historic tax credit program, are new facilities. Others, like U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development's (RD) Multi-family Housing Revitalization Demonstration Program (MPR), have been around for decades.

The MPR was formed to preserve and revitalize existing rural rental housing and farm labor housing projects, created under the Housing Act of 1949. Today it exists to ensure that sufficient funding resources are available to preserve and revitalize rental projects financed by RD to provide affordable housing for low-income residents.

With many low-income housing tax credit players likely to remain sidelined until their businesses become profitable again, the Massachusetts-based non-prof
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The big picture

"Multifamily has become commoditized," says Hiro Isogai, principal of WDG Interior Architecture of Washington, D.C. "Market pressures have caused developers and designers to make cost-based decisions in developing apartment space. Such sacrifice usually affects the livability of a space negatively, and ultimately, its rentability."

Isogai sees an apartment as a resident's home and "lifestyle commentary." For his part, he assures that the architectural design is respectful of the future resident's lifestyle. Case in point: Siena Park Apartments on Columbia Pike in Arlington, Va., part of a mixed- use project including 188 apartments over 32,000 sq. ft. of retail and 14,000 sq. ft. of office space. One mile from the Pentagon and I-395, the
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No more green hyperbole

"In the U.S., buildings consume 65 percent of the electricity and create 30 percent of the greenhouse gasses," said Jed Lowry, director of capital planning for CAS Financial Advisor Services. "Owners want to do the right thing, but they still have to meet their budgets. Our new product gives them the ability to see clearly the costs and benefits of every replacement, upgrade, and operating policy change they could make. They've never had a tool like this before."

CAS Financial Advisory Services, the asset management arm of CAS Partners, has launched its Green Capital Needs Assessment (CNA), the first product on the market to meet the green planning needs of residential building owners and managers. Each Green CNA is based on a detailed bu
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Who is killing America's millionaires?

Now those with the most assets and income have the most to lose. Add together the declining markets, an imploding finance sector, a real estate rot that has eaten its way up from the ground floor to the penthouse, and the predations of Bernie Madoff and Sir Allen Stanford, millionaires who ripped off other millionaires, and, as my Newsweek colleague Robert Samuelson notes, these are tough times for the wealthy.

As if market forces and malevolent actors weren't enough, the rich are now finding themselves targeted by politicians. Strapped for cash, states, cities, and the federal government are seeking to soak the rich -- or at least to make them pay taxes at the same marginal rates as they did in the Reagan years, which many on the right r
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