BERKELEY, Calif. – February 8, 2018 – The Northern California chapter of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors® (SIOR) held its annual kick-off event, a dinner meeting, at the Cal Memorial Stadium Club on the University of California at Berkeley campus last week. Panel moderator, Jordan Schnitzer, president, Harsch Investment Properties, provided the color commentary to keep the momentum going throughout the program. Panelists included John Dobrott, president, industrial division, Conor Commercial; Matt Lituchy, chief investment officer, Jay Paul Company; Adon Panattoni, chief executive officer, Panattoni Development Company; and Carl Shannon, senior managing/regional director—Northern California and Seattle, Tishman Speyer. Here are some of the highlights from the panel.
Dobrott said there is shrinking industrial supply and it is hard to get started with capital. In addition, he said construction costs have gone up a lot due to recent floods and fires in various regions.
E-commerce continues to play a large role in the industrial sector and will continue to affect the commercial real estate industry, Dobrott said. Panattoni concurred, saying e-commerce is here to stay, driving the business in some respects, with some 30% leased to that property type.
Shannon pointed to WeWork capitalizing on locations and curating space to manage the experience for tenants, paying a premium for flexibility, as it has taken on commercial real estate management and procurement.
“In addition, the amount of institutional money that wants to play in commercial real estate is very strong,” Shannon said. “Commercial real estate is an attractive place to invest and the office market is turbo-charged now. We call it banging along the top. We’re at the beginning of something new.”
Lituchy said the entitlement process is different in San Francisco than in Silicon Valley. San Francisco projects are taking five to six years when it used to take three to four years, he observed.
Panattoni concluded by saying that demand in the Bay Area is off the charts. Dobrott agreed, saying that the Bay Area is an anomaly when it comes to commercial real estate.
“When the music stops, I want to be sure I have a chair,” Dobrott mused.
About SIOR:
The SOCIETY OF INDUSTRIAL AND OFFICE REALTORS® (SIOR) is the leading professional office and industrial real estate association. SIOR members complete more than 80,000 transactions annually. SIOR has more than 3,000 members in more than 630 cities in 34 countries. SIOR represents today’s most knowledgeable, experienced, and successful commercial real estate brokerage specialists. Real estate professionals who have earned the SIOR designation are recognized as the most capable and experienced brokerage practitioners in any market.