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Welcome to our 3rd Quarter 2015 Newsletter, which highlights recent developments of the firm. In this edition you will find information on our involvement in international ethical standards, news from the CRE Annual Meeting, and recent work of the firm.
Anytime we can provide you with market research information, consulting, or simply answering a question, just let us know; we are happy to assist.
Sincerely,
Steven R. Norris, MAI, CRE
Norris Realty Advisors
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Can Ethics Make a Difference?
Ethics. Everyone talks about it, but what is really being done on a national and international basis to actually codify what solid ethics in real estate should be?
Steve Norris is honored to have been named by the Counselors of Real Estate as a member of the Standards Setting Committee of the International Ethics Coalition. This group will prepare the International Ethics Standards (IES), and Steve will be in Washington DC in early November to meet with the Committee to draft ethical standards to be used internationally.
The IES Coalition gathered for its first meeting at the United Nations in New York, October 2014. The group agreed that in many parts of the world,
there is a real and perceived problem with an inconsistent approach to ethics in real estate which must be addressed.
By creating the IES and establishing the global Coalition we can make sure professional ethics is even higher up the agenda and stimulate conversations about enhancing client confidence and public protection. This is a powerful and positive step for the property profession, and for the many thousands of professional practitioners around the world.
The video below outlines the work of this new IES working group.
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Argus Enterprise Software and
A University, Serving All, Shaping the Future
Over the past two years, Steve Norris has taken on a new challenge - teaching the latest version of ARGUS discounted cash flow software through UCLA Extension.
Argus has recently released the news that they will be ending sales and support of ARGUS Version 15 DCF in the foreseeable future. Sales of DCF 15 will end in December 2015 and support will continue only for an interim period.
There are very few educational offerings for this new software that are not offered directly by the software vendor. The new protocol software will be known as Argus Enterprise, with training offered through UCLA Extension. Information on UCLA classes can be found
here.
For individual client assistance with this massive change - contact us. We are available to consult with you or your staff on these impending major changes in software.
And .... for a remarkable visual overview of the Centennial legacy and future of UCLA, viewed last year by students on the Quad on campus, enjoy the video below (best viewed full screen):
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Get Ready - The Future is Here
Counselors of Real Estate Annual Meeting
The Counselors of Real Estate recently completed their Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. Steven Norris attended, and summarized below is the latest news from this event:
The Baby Boomers have finally lost the population race, as indicated in the latest Pew Center Research.
This demographic change is having significant implications for commercial real estate; including the ways in which office space is used and leased (read: smaller suites, more open office plans), the locations and styles of multi-family residential development, including a new focus on urban city centers, and the size and design of new retail developments. For more details on the Pew Research Center work, go here.
Although the US economy continues its slow recovery, the actual labor participation rate is at its lowest point since 1976, as illustrated below:
Overall US economic growth continues to very gradually improve at an almost glacial pace. As a partial result, along with recent international economic challenges, some of the latest predictions are that the Federal Reserve may not increase interest rates until early 2016.
If you're in a city that is considering a ban on Uber, the ride sharing service, you'll very likely also be at the bottom of the economic heap. Cities with the lowest economic success are those that have or are considering a ban on the Uber ride-sharing service.
Cyber security is now affecting real estate. In August 2015, there was a cyber attack of a Las Vegas hotel's building management system software. All building elevators were re-programmed to stop for a period of 3 to 5 minutes for each floor they stopped at - grinding services in the hotel to a halt. The fault took a number of hours to solve. This is
not the first time this has happened, and portends further security challenges for commercial real estate in the future.
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What Have We Been Doing?
Over the past several months, Norris Realty Advisors has been occupied with a variety of unusual and complex valuation and consulting assignments, including:
- Arbitration on fair market rent for tarmac space, hangars and offices at the Van Nuys Airport
- The upcoming valuation of fair market rent for a major container terminal in the Port of Long Beach
- Consulting on fair market rent for a fiber optic easement running adjacent to a railroad easement in the American West.
- Consultation on valuation, highest and best use, and land subdivision issues related to a major college campus in Southern California
- Third party neutral valuation of a major commercial land site close to the ocean in Santa Monica for the establishment of fair market rent in a ground lease renewal
The locations of properties and client names have been withheld, based on our long standing discipline of protecting client confidentiality.
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Thank you for taking the time to review our Newsletter. Contact us directly with any questions.
Steven R. Norris, MAI, CRE 
Norris Realty Advisors
626-405-9922
steve@norrisadvisors.com
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