CREW Charlotte January 2017 Luncheon: Got WELL?: A Holistic Approach to Wellness in Your Office

Submitted by Holly Alexander

On January 10, Nancy Everhart of Little and Molly Fowler of Wells Fargo Bank kicked off CREW Charlotte’s 2017 year by introducing how to incorporate wellness into your workspace.  They used the WELL Building Institute’s wellness program developed by Delos and the USGBC as the basis of their discussion.  Nancy discussed four design strategies used in this certification: Active Design, Biophilic Design, Restoration Space, and Circadian Rhythm.  Some of these methods include making stairwells more accessible and desirable with paint and better signage, repositioning how you use the tools in your workspace, turning your computer to face a window, and simply standing up every 30 minutes.  Molly discussed the seven categories of measurement used in obtaining the actual WELL Building Certification.  The bank currently has 5 pilot projects across the country pursuing WELL Building Certification.  The seven categories include Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Fitness, Comfort, and Mind.  Providing healthier food and drink options in vending machines, cleaning with green cleaners, lowering cube walls to increase light and exposure to the outdoors, and creating alternative areas to work are all items they are using in obtaining this certification.  We encourage you to visit the website to learn of some ways you can incorporate wellness into your workspace! Please visit  www.wellcertified.com/well or click here for more information.

CREW Charlotte 2016 Excellence Awards

CREW Charlotte celebrated an exciting 2016 at the final luncheon of the year on December 13. We spent the afternoon recapping the successes of 2016 and honoring our members and leaders. The program was accompanied by a live tweet wall that enabled our members to celebrate the accomplishments live via Twitter.  Seven members were presented awards for their outstanding contributions. The awards and winners exemplify what CREW Charlotte embodies in promoting women in leadership in the Commercial Real Estate Industry.  And the winners are:

Rising Star – Mellissa Oliver of LandDesign

Networker of the Year – Dawn Royle of Investors Title

Outreach Award – Carrie Sharp of Indoff, Inc., Nancy Olah of Nancy Olah Law, and Sharon Reed for their work on the Inaugural women’s leadership program, Becoming an Authentic Leader.

Member of the Year – Emily Buehrer of BLOC Design

Presidents Choice – Robin Haddock of RLH Development and Anna O’Neal of Wells Fargo

Deal of the Year – For their work on the Johnston Allison and Hord refinance –  Primax Properties, Parker Poe, Fortenberry Lambert, South State Bank and Investors Title.

In addition to recognizing these tremendous achievements, CREW Charlotte made a donation of $5,000 to Community Building Initiative of Charlotte, NC.

CREW Charlotte November 2016 Luncheon – Commercial Mortgage Back Securities (CMBS) Loans

Submitted by Virginia Luther and Nichole Kelley

What You Missed: Commercial Mortgage Back Securities (CMBS) Loans

Next month there is a new rule coming to the structure of CMBS loans.  But, how with this affect us?
 
CMBS loans are a type of mortgage-backed security backed by commercial mortgages rather than residential real estate.  CMBS tend to be more complex and volatile than residential mortgage-backed securities due to the unique nature of the underlying property assets.  CMBS are bonds created from pools of loans secured by commercial real estate mortgages; each pool of loans is aggregated into a single trust or securitization.  The securitizations are diversified by geography, property type, borrowers and tenant exposure.  Most of these loans have 10 year terms meaning there is a large group of loans that were originated in 2007 and are maturing in 2017. Now that commercial real estate is back up and interest rates are low, there is a healthy amount of capital available to invest.  80-85% of these loans that are maturing are able to refinance successfully.
 
Why might borrowers migrate to other sources other than CMBS loans?
1.      The market was artificially overstated and distorted in 2007
2.      Regulations are now making CBMS loans less cost effective
 
What happens when a borrower defaults and there is a foreclosure due to breach of contract?
–        A receiver comes in to stabilize the asset. Through utilization of the lender’s funds, the receiver reports directly on his/her progress to the court system. Loans rarely go back to the initial borrower and often have complicated maintenance structures, which makes the process of maintaining an asset challenging with layered approvals.
 
On December 24, 2016, Risk Retention occurs for CMBS loans. How does that impact borrowers?
–        Requires a 5% credit risk retention on the sponsor of the securities.
–        Positives: Everyone wants a good experience so sponsors work hard to keep those loans beneficial for all parties. Heavy regulations mean focus on security of all parties and keeps things honest (i.e. airlines, telecom, etc.)
–        Negative: Lose some competitive leverage due to the regulations. More regulations = more expense. Therefore, borrowers will likely pay a higher interest rate.
 
Does the election affect this?
–        It can. As government increases, so does its role in regulations. As well, change in power causes market volatility. If one party holds all the power, change can be more easily put into effect.

CREW Charlotte October 2016 Luncheon – Recent Developments in Charlotte

Submitted by Kathleen Chambers

Who You Missed:
    Chris Daly, Childress Klein
    Kristy Venning, Beacon Partners
    Brendan Pierce, Keith Corp
    Moderator: Allen Clark, Charlotte Business Journal

What You Missed:
Program focused on recent significant commercial real estate developments in Charlotte:

Industrial space – Childress Klein:
•    Examples
Jordan Food Service. 360,000 sq ft distribution center with 150,000 sq ft of refrigerated storage
Afton Ridge.  Started as 125,000 sq ft but is now 300,000 sq ft. 
•    Changes in industrial warehouse development. The facilities are much larger now to allow for larger trucks, significant need for onsite storage. Facilities require lots of land and lots of paving. 
•    Incentives for industrial are different between NC and SC. In SC, the tax rate is higher and so incentives are needed to build on that side of the border. Challenge in NC is lack of space in the Greater Charlotte area.
•    Daly has seen the turn towards larger spaces and longer term leases and so they develop to meet the need
    
Office Space in NC – Beacon Partners
•    Example – 1616 Camden, South End
•    Big changes in demographics going forward brought big changes in needs
•    The millennial work force favors the urban infill experience
•    Less square footage per person required 
•    Explosive demand for open office with exposed structural elements: less me, more we
•    More interest in creating the customer experience
•    Venning predicts that they will not do spec building in the near future

Office Space in SC – Keith Corporation
•    Example: Mortgage Company in Lancaster County. Aided in consolidating the company to one space requiring development of a 100,000 sq ft facility that was augmented during the consolidation
•    Spaces are now amenity driven. Their experience is that the amenities can come to the employees when you build them in to the facility. 
•    Benefits to building in SC because land is available.
•    Lower square footage per employee with new construction. 
•    Noted that rates in SouthPark have increased and new construction is finally underway.
•    Pierce noted that NC has a problem with incentives. There is no cohesiveness to attracting companies to NC. Our competitor states are much better at attracting business through economic incentives.

Owning Air – Air Rights 101

Who You Missed:

Moderator – David Jones – Partner at Troutman Sanders

Panelists – Fred Klein III – Partner at Childress Klein, Laura Smith – Executive Vice President at Foundation of the Carolinas & Doug Stephan – Principal at Vision Ventures

What You Missed:

• FAST FACTS

  • Air Rights Transactions have gone on in Charlotte for at least 25 years

  • Air Rights Transactions are vertical subdivisions, dividing properties up and down instead of from right to left.

  • Air Rights Transactions are extremely complex not only from a legal perspective, but also when it comes to structure and engineering.

• Projects

  • Carolina Theatre at Tryon and Sixth Streets (Laura Smith)

    • Requires four elements of condominium rights for uses within the project above the planned restoration of the 36,000 square foot theater.

  • The Mint Museum at 500 South Tryon Street (Fred Klein III)

    • Next phase of development that has happened over the last decade

    • Foresight of Wachovia/Wells Fargo was enormously helpful in helping this project come to fruition.

    • Air Rights above the Mint were purchased for $18.1M

    • Great lengths were gone to, including agreeing to not swing cranes over the trading floors at Wells Fargo during the building process.

  • The Epicentre (Doug Stephan)

    • Legal Battles over Air Rights went on for a lengthy period.

    • Separate development rights were created for condominium agreements

    • The economy and lack of parking were major roadblocks in this project.

    • Eventually the project became two limited service hotels, under construction now.

Charlotte Douglas International Airpot – An Economic Engine Of The Carolinas: Planning For The Future

Charlotte Douglas International Airpot – An Economic Engine Of The Carolinas: Planning For The Future – Submitted by Dave Rushing

Who You Missed:

• Jeff McSwain – Assistant Aviation Director of Development for CLT

In this capacity, McSwain is responsible for the planning, design and construction of Airport projects. He also oversees land acquisition and the Part 150 Airport Noise Compatibility Program.

McSwain holds a Master of Business Administration from Pfeiffer University and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University.

​​Professional affiliations:
Professional Engineer (PE), North Carolina
Certified Member (CM), American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE)√¢‚Ǩ‚Äπ

• Stuart Hair – Economic Affairs Manager for CLT

In this capacity, Hair plans, directs, manages, and oversees the activities and operations regarding economic development. Identify corporations and business facilities that are targets for recruitment to locate on, or near, Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) and market the Airport to identified targets.

Hair holds a Masters degree in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Queens University of Charlotte.

What You Missed:

• FAST FACTS
  • Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) is ranked 5^th nationwide in Operations, 9^th in passengers and 29^th in Cargo.
  • CLT handled over 44M passengers in 2015
  • CLT has approximately 700 departures daily and Nonstop service to 155 destinations.
  • $10-12B annual economic impact to the Carolinas
  • 100,000 jobs directly or indirectly related to the Airport and the businesses that serve it.
• Projects Underway
  • Elevated Terminal Roadway
  • East Terminal Phase II – Food Court
  • Concourse A North Expansion
  • Terminal Concourse Renovations
  • Regional Concourse Projects (Concourse E)
• Future Project
  • Terminal Lobby Expansion (Perhaps to include Queen Charlotte Statue)
  • Future Gate Expansions
  • 4^th Parallel Runway

“District 6: Sub √¢‚Ǩ≈ìUrban√¢‚Ǩ¬ù The Evolution of a Dynamic Market Place with Councilman Kenny Smith

The March CREW meeting featured Council Member Kenny Smith.   Councilman Smith’s topic “District 6: Sub “Urban” The Evolution of a Dynamic Market Place” provided an update on one of the busiest districts in the City – the SouthPark area.  He told us there is close to a billion dollars’ worth of development in SouthPark and along the Park Road corridor and discussed the recent and active rezoning petitions, trends, city vision, demographic trends, infrastructure and how Charlotte is impacted.  The SouthPark area is clearly one of the faster growing areas in both the state and the country as Charlotte continues to be a leader in job growth.  Councilman Smith’s knowledge as a commercial broker gives him a unique understanding and appreciation for his district’s direction.  

“District 6: Sub √¢‚Ǩ≈ìUrban√¢‚Ǩ¬ù The Evolution of a Dynamic Market Place with Councilman Kenny Smith

The March CREW meeting featured Council Member Kenny Smith.   Councilman Smith’s topic “District 6: Sub “Urban” The Evolution of a Dynamic Market Place” provided an update on one of the busiest districts in the City – the SouthPark area.  He told us there is close to a billion dollars’ worth of development in SouthPark and along the Park Road corridor and discussed the recent and active rezoning petitions, trends, city vision, demographic trends, infrastructure and how Charlotte is impacted.  The SouthPark area is clearly one of the faster growing areas in both the state and the country as Charlotte continues to be a leader in job growth.  Councilman Smith’s knowledge as a commercial broker gives him a unique understanding and appreciation for his district’s direction.  

CREW February 2016 Luncheon – Eye on the Economy: An Economic Update with Spencer Levy of CBRE

Who You Missed: Spencer Levy is Americas Head of Research for CBRE and serves as principal external spokesperson on real estate issues in the Americas region. He oversees the analytical activities of the CBRE research community within the Americas region and is responsible for the management of hundreds of professionals who are focused on producing market-leading insight and interpretative analysis on the latest real estate trends. As a senior member of the company’s global research team, he plays an integral role in the development and implementation of the global research strategy and business plan and is a frequent speaker before industry groups, including NAIOP, ICSC and CREW.

He is a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Law School, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women.

What You Missed: Come on down……..Spencer Levy discussed the global economy and its impact on commercial real estate in the United States with a focus on the “Unusual Suspects,” those factors that move beyond the standard analysis that can help you and your clients better understand (and be successful) in today’s volatile markets, including China’s impact on the world economy.

Mr. Levy accentuated a top concern across industries relates to talent – finding talent, keeping talent and developing talent….so much so that in a recent survey, six of the top eight issues listed related to talent.

CREW January Luncheon – Overcoming Transportation Infrastructure Challenges in NC

Overcoming Transportation Infrastructure Challenges in NC submitted by Sarah Hopfer

Who You Missed:

• Warren Cooksey – NCDOT Director of Outreach and Community Affairs/Division 10
• Ned Curran – Board of Transportation – Chairman
• Tracy Dodson – Board of Transportation – Member/Division 10

What You Missed:

Charlotte is expected to grow by 400,000 people by 2040 and keeping up with the city’s infrastructure needs is critical.  Maintaining and improving our level of mobility is key for continued economic and land development success and competitiveness. “Optional toll lanes work by changing price per mile every five minutes,” said Ned Curran, Board of Transportation Chairman.  “The toll rate is going to be what people are willing to pay – it’s that simple,” he stated. 

Curran also discussed the legislation that was passed modernizing the way NC’s transportation network is built, maintained and funded and how this will impact commercial real estate and the future of our city.

To see the full presentation, please click here.