Agricultural Hot Potato

This news item won't likey impact prices for agricultural land, but the story is resonating from Coast to Coast as farmers wrestle with a proposed Department of Labor rule:

Child labor laws will be applied to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families' land. Under the rules, children under 18 could no longer work "in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials." Prohibited places of employment, according to a Department of Labor news release, "would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions."

The new regs were first proposed last August by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. Interesting. I spent many a summer working at my dad's stockyards. I can't even begin to imagine what this will do to 4-H and Future Farmer of America projects.

Oh wait! Here it is! The rule would also revoke the U.S. government's previous approval of safety training and certification taught by 4-H and FFA, replacing them instead with a 90-hour federal government training course.

Righhttt.....

Some urbanite/suburbanite dreamed this one up! Hoping that cooler -- aka "thinking" -- heads prevail on this one.

Heard About Onshoring? If You Haven't, You Will

There's a new buzzword in commercial real estate circles and it has the industrial segment of our business all atwitter. Its called "Onshoring."

Here's the headline: Corporations are with increasing frequency re-opening factories they previously closed. Further, companies taking a hard look at their options for growth are choosing to open plants in a number of U.S. states, in particular those locales with the lowest labor costs and unionization rates.

National Real Estate Investor Online reported recently that when it comes to deciding where to build factories, corporations weigh several factors -- total costs including supply chain efficiency and infrastructure, quality, price and availability of labor, proximity to customers and suppliers, taxes and incentives, external risks and shipping, and real estate.

This "Onshoring" phenomenon that finds companies previously producing products off-shore announcing plans to invest millions of dollars on new plants. The net effect? The return  of manufacturing jobs to the U.S. Thus far, companies that have announced such plans include Honda (which is a major automobile manufacturer here in Ohio), General Electric, Whirlpool, Otis Elevator, Master Lock, and others.

According to NREI Online, there has been a steady increase in manufacturing jobs since 2010 in the U.S., and this sector -- much to the delight of my commercial real estate colleagues focused on industrial and manufacturing properties -- is expanding at an annual pace of roughly 2 percent. 

All this is happening without federal government incentives. It is all based on the factors above, but mostly, again most heavily influenced on locales with low labor costs and low union membership.

Should be interesting to watch this trend in the next 36 months to see how it changes.

Real CRE Agents DO Eat Yogurt!

'Nuff said.

2012 Blue Rock Midwest Network Meeting

All PCRE Ohio hands were in the Dayton area today for our annual Blue Rock Midwest commercial real estate agent network meeting. Many familiar faces, and a number of new ones were on hand at Beavercreek offices of our sister residential company, Prudential One REALTORS.
Some great best practices discussions, peeks at some new technology and a reminder to not forget the basics of shoe leather and phone calls, combined with a renewed call to exploit bleeding edge technology.
In a crazy commercial market, we owe ourselves and our clients strategic approaches that make sense. A great time today, team. Back in the office now. Back to work...

New Year New Challenges

For many, 2012 has come in like a lion. The U.S. stock market charted its best January in a dozen years, and a handful of economic indicators show we may have finally hit bottom (strange to say that is a good thing).

But unemployment remains very high, inflation has hit as indicated by costs of goods at the grocery and elsewhere. Further some food costs are skyrocketing because of competition for grain now being diverted to produce ethanol for fuel worldwide. That trickles down into the cost for beef, pork, breakfast cereals and many other products that rely on corn.

To the good, phones appear to be ringing off the hook in commercial real estate offices around the U.S., this one included. I have received multiple inquiries on all of my listings, as have my office colleagues.

I have wondered why, but the reason is likely one of two:  Business can no longer put off essential hiring and modest growth despits uncertainties over the Obama administrations continually moving regulatory targets. OR, as one business broadcast put it last night -- the stock market movers and shakers have decided that President Obama is likely to lose so with that thought they are moving ahead under the assumption that the next administration will be more "producer" friendly.

I don't know what the reason is. All I know is that my clients properties are getting lots of activity after a couple years of quiet due to uncertainty about the economy, unpredictable and constant changes to federal regulations, and fear of explosive inflation as the Federal Reserve continues to pump cash into the economy.

How did your 2012 start out?

Best Wishes For A Happy New Year

I hope 2011 has been a good year for you.

Here is to a Happy and Prosperous 2012!

Lessors & Landlords To Be Excluded From FASB Revisions?

There is potential good news for Lessors, Landlords and affected CRE property owners with respect to the extraordinary revisions of a joint undertaking by Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IFRS).

Specifically, there has been significant concern -- and I have covered it extensively in these pages -- that lease accounting would be updated in the name of improved transparency.

The good news is this: There has been significant public comment on the draft published in August 2010. The potential impact for CRE has been huge, for landlords and tenants, property managers and commercial brokerages. More succinctly, because real estate leases comprise a high percentate of all operating leases, that impact could be significant.

A tip of the hat to my colleague Barbi Reuter at PICOR/Cushman & Wakefield, FASB now has agreed to reconsider its proposed guidance. Lease figure accounting under the original proposal was to be moved from the operating statement to the balance sheet. Now, final guidance is coming in 2012 due to the volume of public input. 

More importantly, FASB published the following on their public website: The two bodies "have tentatively decided that a lessor's lease of investment property would not be within the scope of the receivable and residual approach. Insteads, for such leases the lesor should continue to recognize the underlying asset and recognize lease income over the lease term."

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), which has been lobbying heavily on this subject, summarized it as follows: "The Boards' decision to exclude all lessors of all investment properties from the receivable and residual approach gives many real estate lessors the opportunity to continue to use operating lease accounting rules. Given their decision that lessors should apply operating lease accounting to leases of investment properties, the Boards will likely receive requests to reconsider previous decisions on lessee accounting, such as requiring a single income statement recognition model for all leases, including leases of real estate."

Stay tuned. This will continue to be hot news for CRE investors, tenants and practitioners.

Again, h/t to Barbi Reuter at PICOR in Arizona.