Moving Stuff

I've spent more time thinking about things to post here than I have writing them. The fact of the matter is that I've been a little preoccupied lately. My real job has caused a bit of writers slack.

I have been going through a transition at work. The company I've represented for the past fifteen years or so, ceased to exist last month. It wasn't a surprise. For the past year the principals had been working through the process of becoming the Maryland office of the national brokerage firm Lee & Associates.  At the end of March it was finally a done deal. Literally overnight we went from an office on Dobbin Road with four people to an office in Gateway with seven. We have new everything and while that is nice in many ways it still requires having to deal with new passwords, new copy machine, new phone system, and so on.

Recall that I am an old dog and all of the sudden I’m being hit with a lot of new tricks.

It’s all good, even those hiccups you always encounter in a new space. This morning for instance we arrived to find all office communications completely shut down, no phones, no server, no Internet. It was noon before that got ironed out.

In a way this move, like the others I've been through before, provides first hand knowledge for my clients. When I suggest that moving their offices will be disruptive in ways they may not have anticipated, I speak from experience.

Perhaps you’re wondering what the picture of the Rouse brother statue has to do with any of this. The answer is nothing. I just happen to like the shot.

iPhone…Finally!

Initially I pined for the day that the iPhone might become available on Verizon. Back in 2009, when Apple’s revolutionary phone hit the market you had to be on the AT&T network to use it, legally anyway. Like many, I decided to stick it out and hope for the day when it might become available on Verizon.

While I was waiting Android phones started getting better and better. I actually passed up the first opportunity I had to get a Verizon iPhone opting instead to stick with my Motorola Droid X which I’ve kept long past its useful life. I figured I’d probably just stick with an Android phone when it came time to replace it. Some people were even saying that Samsung's new Galaxy phones are superior to the iPhone.

And then I got an iPad. The iPad with the CoStarGo product is the most powerful tool in commercial real estate. It’s not available on the Android operating system. No iPad, no CoStarGo.

This is when I learned that Apple doesn't play well with others. My Android phone and my iPad had communication issues.

What finally pushed me over the edge though, was how easily the iPhone worked with our Microsoft servers. Last week as we transitioned into our new offices I could not get my phone to sync my email but I noticed that the people in the office who had iPhones experienced no trouble.

The next morning I was at the Verizon store picking up the iPhone 5.

Can you love a phone?

Perhaps it’s just that initial passion you get at the beginning of a relationship but I have to admit that I sometimes just like to hold my new i5. As David Poque points out in this column in The New York Times, the iPhone 5 is the thinnest smartphone in the world “just under four ounces; it disappears completely in your pocket. This iPhone is so light, tall and flat, it’s well on its way to becoming a bookmark.” 

Its beauty is matched by its elegant performance. It’s rather fast too.

 "The iPhone 5 is now a 4G LTE phone, meaning that in certain lucky cities, you get wicked-fast Internet connections."

When I returned to the office I was able to sync with our servers on the first try. Smugness ensued.

And the best part, it gets along very well with my iPad.

I think I'm becoming a fanboy.

On a Clear Day You Can See Best Buy

Some people can spend their entire working life in the same office with the same morning commute and the same view. Not me. Since beginning my professional career I've occupied sixteen different offices in five states. Three of those offices were windowless. I liked them the least.

My sixteenth move has landed me in the Gateway Corporate Community in Columbia. Corporate community is an apt label for the 600 acre business park that contains almost seven million square feet of commercial space but no residences.

It wasn't my first choice. If I had my way we would have located our new office in downtown Columbia. That said, I have to admit that I’m warming to life in this corporate community. I have a second floor view overlooking thickly wooded open space. In the distance I can just barely make out the Best Buy sign at Gateway Exchange. In matter of weeks, as the trees leaf out, I probably won’t even see that. In my former office my view was of another building.

Gateway is also Columbia’s largest disenfranchised community. Even though it is larger than any of the ten Columbia villages and its building owners pay the same CPRA lien as village residents, it has no representative on the governing body of the Columbia Association.

It’s our own HoCo loco version of taxation without representation.

Busboys and Poets

A couple of months ago I discovered Busboys and Poets for the first time. I was in Hyattsville on a work assignment and came across their newest location in the Gateway Arts District. I had heard the name before but I’d never been in so I decided to check it out.

 My first reaction was that Busboys and Poets would rock in Columbia. That was only further reinforced when I read how they describe themselves on their website.

“Busboys and Poets is a community where racial and cultural connections are consciously uplifted...a place to take a deliberate pause and feed your mind, body and soul...a space for art, culture and politics to intentionally collide...we believe that by creating such a space we can inspire social change and begin to transform our community and the world.”

Am I crazy or does this sound like it came right out the Jim Rouse playbook?

I decided to see if I could make a Columbia location happen so I sent an email to Andy Shallal, the impresario behind Busboys and Poets. I refer to Andy as the impresario because, as Judith Rosen writes in Publishers Weekly, “I’m not really a restaurateur,” says Shallal, who opened his first restaurant in 1987. “I’m an activist with food. We all eat. There’s a commonality.” 

He responded to my email in relatively short order, thanking me for the “vote of confidence” in his venture. Regarding downtown Columbia he wrote that he’d “keep this in mind.”

Now the real work begins. 

What’s in a Name?

There has been a significant realignment of Baltimore commercial real estate firms over the past two weeks, with all the action centered in Columbia. The sixty seven year old former powerhouse of the Baltimore market, Manekin, merged the lions share of its operations with the Baltimore office of Colliers International.  Lest there be any doubt about who was acquiring whom, Tim Hearn, CEO and Principal of Colliers will be moving his office to the Manekin building in Columbia Gateway, while the remaining Manekin businesses will occupy his old space at 7172 Columbia Gateway Drive. At least everybody involved gets to stay in the same neighborhood. Presumably, 8601 Robert Fulton Drive will soon be sporting a new name on the bricks. To the victor go the spoils.

That wasn't the only shift that occurred. After sixteen years my own firm, Ryan Commercial, morphed into Lee & Associates Chesapeake Region, along with a few brokers from the Columbia office of KLNB. The new firm is headed up by Allan Riorda (KLNB) and began operations with Matt Ryan (Ryan), Kate Jordan (KLNB), Tom Whelan (Ryan), Bill Harrison (Ryan), Marley Welsh (Cushman Wakefield) and yours truly. Like one big happy local commercial real estate family, the new Lee office is also in Columbia Gateway at 6990 Columbia Gateway Drive.

Unfortunately this means I have to move. Our current offices are on Dobbin Road in the Columbia Business Center. We've been there for about five years. I like where we are. I can be in Wegmans in ten minutes. Sigh. Columbia Gateway is a retail desert compared to Dobbin Road.

Actually, we are in the process of moving. The physical move happens Friday. Right now all of us are going through old files and loading up the recycling bins. As much as I dislike this process it can be very cathartic.

It's kind of like spring cleaning. 

An Oella Morning

This morning I met up with Charles Wagandt, the president of The Oella Company. His company has been involved in the redevelopment of the former mill village along the banks of the Patapsco River since 1973. Oella was not served by public and sewer until 1984. Before then many homes still used outhouses.

               

It’s a different place today. The William J. Dickey & Sons Textile Mill was built in 1918 and ceased operations in 1972. It is now a 147 unit luxury apartment project offering spectacular views of the river. Homes dating back to the early 1800’s have been painstakingly rehabbed and new homes have been added that maintain the architectural integrity of the village. Oella is now a National Register Historic District.

It’s still a work in progress and that’s what bought me back to see Charles this morning. Earlier in the year he had asked me to come up and take a look at the old village Community Hall which he had leased to a technology company called SensorStar. The company had since moved their operations down the hill to Ellicott City and Charles wanted to find a new tenant. He asked for my advice.

At the time, the building was clad in asbestos shingles. It sorely lacked what we call curb appeal. I suggested to Charles that getting rid of the asbestos shingles might be a good start.

He actually listened to me!

Today, with the old shingles removed, the original plank siding was exposed. I only wish I had taken a before picture. The place looks great.

If any HoCo loco business is looking for something a little different than the standard suburban office fare, there is a 5,000 square foot building in Oella that’s well worth a look.

And yes, this was a bit of a shameless plug for my real job.

Reentry Day

For most of us anyway, work returned today. After being relegated to the background of our consciousness for the past three days work roared back with purpose in my world this morning. My day went from stimulating to frustrating then bounced from exhilarating to exasperating.

Others had it worse of course like the people who work in the Three Centre Park building near Route 100 in Columbia. When they arrived at work this morning the temperature in some offices was 90 degrees. Apparently a repair job on the buildings HVAC system went awry and the building ended up without air conditioning.

“The building management came by and told us there were cold drinks in the lobby courtesy of the landlord,” one employee in the building told me. “We were a little disappointed to discover that it was only water and soda and no beer!”

At least they got out early. He told me his company let them go at four o’clock when he and his colleagues found cool refuge and beverages next door at La Fiesta.

It was two o’clock in the afternoon before I even had to time to grab lunch, much less a cold soda in a hot lobby. I decided to stop by Qdoba on Dobbin Road to grab a quick bite. Qdoba is pretty close to my office and I often drop in there for a late lunch because it is rarely busy after 2:00 PM. Today it was packed. That’s because it was Tuesday.

Until today I did not know that every Tuesday Qdoba offers half price burritos from 2:00 PM until 9:00 PM for students with an ID. This little promotion turned a normally sleepy Tuesday afternoon into a happening time at the Qdoba on Dobbin.

I never really got my head around the fact that it was Tuesday because it felt like Monday. My confusion actually began first thing this morning as I left my house. About midway to the gym, it occurred to me that I had forgotten to put the trash out before I left. Our trash day is Tuesday. Then I remembered that, because of Memorial Day, this was a slide day. Trash day moved!

According to the HoCo DPW, this week Tuesday is Wednesday!

Trophy Projects

Every two years, the Maryland Chapter of NAIOP holds an awards ceremony to acknowledge excellence in the local commercial real estate development industry. Last night, at the Hyatt Regency in Baltimore, HoCo projects and individuals took home eight of the thirty two awards.

Rand Griffin, the recently retired CEO of Columbia based Corporate Office Properties Trust, received the Lifetime Achievement Award and Fred Glassberg was posthumously honored with a Distinguished Merit Award.

The renovation of the county offices in Ellicott City won an award for Best Office Rehab, Liberty Place, across from Columbia Crossing Shopping Center, was recognized for the Best Exterior (including public/common areas) and EmersonOne in the Emerson Corporate Commons won Best Interior.

Maple Lawn took home two awards, Best Suburban Mixed Use project and Best Tenant Interior for Colfax Corporation.

Congratulations to all the winners.

Getting Closer to Our Co-Workers

If it seems like its getting a little tighter at your office than it probably is. A recent research study conducted by CoreNet Global predicts that the average amount of space allocated to each employee in an office will drop below a hundred square feet within the next five years.

This is part of a trend. In 2010 the average allotment was 225 square feet, today the average is 176 square feet.

"The main reason for the declines," said Richard Kadzis, CoreNet Global's vice president of strategic communications, "is the huge increase in collaborative and team-oriented space inside a growing number of companies that are stressing 'smaller but smarter' workplaces against the backdrop of continuing economic uncertainty and cost containment."

I noticed this in HoCo loco offices too. The majority of my clients that are currently renewing leases, are focused on gaining new efficiencies in their spaces. Sometimes this means a file room gets eliminated in favor of off site storage, other times it means reducing the suite size and getting everyone to just cozy up a little.

It hasn’t hit our office, yet. Even though our office is ninety percent open work plan, we still work out to 284 square feet per person. I don’t know how long we’ll sustain that but for now I’m grateful. 

The Blogger in the Room

This morning, at a breakfast meeting for commercial real estate brokers hosted by the HoCo EDA, Ken Ulman singled me out as a blogger.

Of course he was right but it still felt a little funny to be labeled as such in that setting because I was attending this function as part of my real job.

On the other hand, I realize that this is my new reality. Since I regularly post about HoCo loco politics, the exec now sees me as more of a blogger than someone who is actively engaged in commercial real estate. It actually took one of my colleagues to point out that I also represent the one of the largest new office developments in the county.

This was the first time Laura Nueman has hosted one of these quarterly gatherings and I think she presented her vision of the EDA quite well. In seven short months Laura has wasted no time in putting her own stamp on the county’s economic development efforts, including a wholesale restructuring of the staff. Under her leadership the EDA is launching a new Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship and recently completed a sales trip to Palo Alto to promote the county’s cyber security efforts in the heart of Silicon Valley.

The meeting was held at the new Robinson Nature Center in Columbia. It is pretty obvious that the exec is proud of the eco friendly facility too. On this rainy morning he was quick to point out the impervious features of the centers parking lot. I think this is an important ancillary benefit of the center. It provides developers and commercial real estate practitioners’ a real world demonstration of sustainable practices for development.

Continuing Ed

My real estate license expires at the first week of August. That means, in addition to forking over ninety bucks, I have to complete fifteen hours of continuing before then. As of the beginning of summer I had none. As of today I have twelve.

Three more to go.

I’ve had a real estate license for about thirty years. During that time the continuing ed requirement has changed a couple of times, some for good some not so much. For a brief period, the commission allowed licensees who held their license for twenty years or more to only take six hours of continuing ed. That was sweet but unfortunately short lived.

It’s not that all bad. Classes can now be taken online which is certainly preferable to sitting in a classroom. In fact I took an online class today. That’s why I didn’t post anything earlier. I was in class.

If I had posted earlier I would have written about the story of Nichole Kelly who tweeted the birth of her child at HoCo General. I first read it about in the Well and Wise blog and later read Amanda Yeagers coverage of the twittered birth in Explore Howard where it currently ranks as “Most Viewed." Nichole told the reporter “we thought 'this would be a perfect opportunity for people to see a little bit of the personal side of me…”

Ya think!

I have to admit that I am pretty old school in my thinking about this. I probably would have been more comfortable with how babies were delivered in the fifties. You know, when Mom would be off in some unseen delivery room while Dad cools his heels in the delivery lounge awaiting for the Doc to say “You can go in and see her now.”

That wasn’t how it played out for me though. I was right in the thick of things as the blessed event occurred. I even spent something like twelve weeks learning the Bradley Method beforehand. Talk about continuing ed!

Anyway, Nichole’s Twittering and contracting left me wondering what we will see next on the social media baby delivery front lines.

Live streaming video perhaps?

Maryland Leads in LEED

In 1998 the US Green Building Council established a rating and certification protocol for new commercial construction known as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Since then the program has expanded to include existing buiding retrofits and residential development. Today there is over 1.4 billion square feet of LEED space in over 20,000 projects in the US and Maryland leads the way.

According to this article by Stuart Kaplow, Maryland, relative to its population, “has more LEED® projects than any other state. The first certified LEED Platinum building was in Maryland. Maryland was one of the first states to offer a green building tax credit in 2001. Today, 14 local governments in Maryland have enacted a LEED based green building initiative, including several that have mandatory green building laws imposed on private building.”

HoCo is one of those 14 local governments. Property tax incentives are offered to developers that achieve Silver status or higher in their buildings. Those incentives work. Our new building in Emerson is on track to receive a LEED Gold rating when its review is completed in the next week or so.

Maryland has also taken the lead with the International Green Construction Code. This year the General Assembly passed legislation that authorizes counties to use the IgCC code for public and private construction. It is the first state in the country to do so.

It certainly won’t be the last.

Sheila and Me

This morning Sheila Kast had a segment about the proposed CSX intermodal terminal on her Maryland Morning program. Her guest was Louis Renjel, CSX Vice President for Strategic Infrastructure Initiatives. She also had recorded comments from Robyn Winder and Kurt Schneckenburger, two HoCo residents who oppose locating the facility at the Hanover site.

After the opponents said their piece Sheila then told Louis that he had "at least some supporters" in HoCo, namely yours truly. I welcomed the opportunity to share my perspective.

I happen to think that having the intermodal terminal located in one of the two HoCo sites would be beneficial to our local economy. With over 42 million square feet of distribution space located within HoCo, having an intermodal terminal here would help keep those businesses and their jobs in HoCo. Currently over 7 million square feet of that space is vacant. 

If increased freight traffic associated with this project is going to be traveling through HoCo, we should at least be able to reap some direct benefit.

You can listen to the ten minute segment here.

Misinformed Source

Last Thursday I had a conversation with a commercial real estate colleague whose firm specializes in retail. This particular colleague is primarily focused on HoCo loco retail real estate. I mention this because this person was the “informed source” I referenced in this post about the Friendly Inn.

It turns out that my colleague was not as informed as they led me to believe. Since I will likely have future business dealings with this person I will refrain from revealing their identity. For now let’s just call this individual Minus.

Minus told me that the Wecker brothers were involved in the reincarnation of the Friendly Inn to a wine bar. This information seemed plausible. The operators of the Iron Bridge Wine Company have already exported their wine bar expertise to Warrenton, Virginia and is widely believed that they have been scouting out a second location in HoCo as well.

That may be true but it that second location is not the Friendly Inn. Rob contacted me yesterday to clear this up after a reporter from the Howard County Times alerted him to the blog post. I immediately posted the correction on the blog.

I should have contacted Rob myself before putting up the post. That was simply bad form on my part. To make matters worse I actually know Rob and his brother Steve. They are great guys. In fact, I know them a lot better than Minus which makes my not following up with them all the more egregious.

After Rob contacted me I apologized to him. Please consider this post an apology to the readers of Tales of Two Cities. I screwed up. Lesson learned.

Out of Office, for Some Anyway

Since we were already away last weekend we didn't plan on going anywhere this holiday weekend. That means that today is just like any other workday for me, only slower. 

One of the projects I am currently working on is finding an existing building with at least 50,000 square feet of freezer/cooler space north of Baltimore.

That’s kind of hard to find.

As part of our search effort, this morning I prepared an "in search of" email blast to the Baltimore commercial brokerage community.

Within minutes of sending it off I was inundated with “Out of Office” auto replies.

“I will be out of the office through May 30^th and will not be checking email. In the event you require immediate assistance, please contact so and so at such and such number.

Thank you.”

I suddenly felt like I was only one working today.

Intermodal Insanity Too

Contrary to what some may think, I actually like Elkridge. I’ve been to community plays at the Lawyers Hill community building, jazz concerts at Belmont, played co-ed softball at Rockburn Park and for five years, I drove though the community every day, going to and from work. It was one of nicest commutes I've ever had.

After crossing Route 1 at Montgomery Road, I’d drop in to Dunkin Donuts on the corner and then head on past the firehouse to Hanover Road and on into the Parkway Business Park.

Some mornings my journey would be briefly interrupted by the passing of a freight train. This is one of only two places in HoCo where the CSX Main Line has an at-grade crossing. I enjoyed the interruptions, sipping my coffee, watching the train.

As it happens, I know a little bit about the CSX Main Line. My firm has leased, developed, bought and sold well over 5 million square feet of warehouse and industrial space along the Baltimore Washington corridor portion of the line over the past 10 years. Along with the Port of Baltimore, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and an excellent interstate highway network, the railroad makes the area an attractive place for industrial real estate.

That’s good for business. That’s good for jobs. That’s good for HoCo.

Now Elkridge, more specifically, Hanover, is being considered as one of four potential sites for a 70 to 100 acre CSX Intermodal terminal. The Hanover site runs along the rail line at Race Road and Hanover Road. The other sites are in Jessup near Montevideo Road and Dorsey Run, Brock Bridge Road (AA Co.) and Sunnyside Avenue and Powder Mill Road in Beltsville. Some believe that the site in Hanover is the front runner.

Understandably, Hanover residents living nearest to the site are worried about what this means for their community. Some have posted angry comments here after I wrote a post supporting the Hanover location. Some have asked what my agenda is. Some question if I expect to profit somehow from this.

I certainly hope so. That's my business. The thing is, when I am doing my job well it generally means that jobs are being created too.

That being said, I am interested in finding out more and I look forward to the upcoming workshops being conducted by CSX and the Maryland Department of Transportation. Hopefully, everyone participating will do so with an open mind. 

I know both HoCo sites and I can understand some of the reasons why the Hanover site might be preferable to the others. I also believe that a facility can be designed that would not have any more impact on the area than any other use that would normally be permitted in an M2 zone.

And that is really the main point. This site is already zoned for this type of use. It is HoCo’s heaviest industrial land use designation and has always been relegated to land along the CSX Main Line. Yes, it is true that there are 300 some homes within a quarter mile radius of this site. It is also true that the majority of these homes were built long after that zoning was in place. It is also likely that the prices of these homes have long reflected the fact that they sit along a major rail line.

And for those who are new to this blog and don’t know bones about wordbones, my real name is Dennis Lane. My office is now in Columbia. There is a link to our website on the right hand column of this blog under Ryan Commercial Real Estate. There is even more stuff about me here and here.

Merrill Lynch Makeover

The Merrill Lynch Building in Columbia Town Center has changed hands…again. The twelve story office tower next to The Mall was originally developed by Pat McCuan and Peter Kirk in 1982 as the Equitable Bank Building. Since then the 137,000 square foot building has traded several times, most recently last month when First Potomac Realty purchased the property from BIT Investments, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO.

According to the Howard/Arundel Report newsletter, the new owners intend to spend $2 to $3 million in renovations to the property. It won’t be the first time for that either. The Merrill Lynch building has undergone a series of renovations over the years including several attempts to correct continuing problems with the HVAC system.

It wasn’t one of the unions’ better real estate investments. BIT paid $20 million for the building in March of 2007. The sales price to First Potomac was $11 million.

Meanwhile, Over in Wilde Lake…

I have been invited to visit with the Wilde Lake Village Board tonight. Larry Schoen, the board chair has asked me to join my colleague Darrell Nevin in evaluating Kimco’s proposed plan for the redevelopment of the Wilde Lake Village Center from a retail perspective. As commercial brokers with some retail leasing experience we’re being asked to look at the plans from a prospective tenants point of view. In other words, real job stuff.

It also could make an interesting post. Apparently there is a group that includes Bob Tennenbaum that is unhappy with the proposed plan. They will likely be in attendance this evening.

I’m thankful for shifting topics. It was beginning to feel like this was starting to become the all Allen Dyer all the time blog. He is very easy to tire of.

Clearance Logjam Broken

It wasn’t that long ago that it could take up to a year for a private contractor to get a security clearance. It wasn’t that much faster for potential Department of Defense hires either. This resulted in a significant backlog in staffing and in some cases caused potential employees to seek work elsewhere instead of waiting. According to this story by Lisa Rein in The Washington Post after September 11^th the “need for clearances for civilians, contractors and service members grew, but the Defense Department was ill-equipped to handle the surge, and it persisted for years.”

‘The clearance wait grew so long by 2005 - to an average of 200 days for Defense Department applicants and 325 days for contractors - that the Government Accountability Office put the program on its high-risk list, a scarlet letter for federal agencies that raised concerns about mismanagement and a big need for change. Congress stepped in, passing legislation that set targets to clean up the problem and requiring the agencies responsible for it to work together.”

Apparently that worked. The wait has now been reduced to an average of 63 days for private contractors. Now if Congress could just pass the Defense budget... 

Safe Haven

In development of an office building, the developer and their architect pay as much attention to the lobby design as they do to the exterior design, sometimes more. The object of the exterior design is something we call curb appeal that is intended to draw you in. The object of a good lobby design is to make a statement.

In our Emerson office project we chose to make our statement with local art. We commissioned Tilghman and Will Hemsley, a father-son artistic team from Kent Island, to craft something specifically for the building.  This is the same team that sculpted the Maryland Waterman’s Monument on Kent Island.

After two years of working with sketches and models, the result is a piece entitled “Safe Haven” which consists of three bronze geese in various stages of flight as they come to rest on a body of water, in this case a fountain in the middle of the two story lobby.

Tilghman, who also happens to captain a charter fishing boat called the Breezin’ Thru, explains that geese only land where they know it to be safe. Since EmersonOne features several construction upgrades that protect the buildings occupants in the event of a terrorist attack, this sculpture helps us reinforce that message to prospective tenants.

The geese were cast at the New Arts Foundry in Baltimore.