Content area
Full text
WHAT'S LIFE LIKE "in the trenches"? How are dealmakers holding up in a market that's far removed from the giddy days of just a few years ago? What are they doing differently? What kind of deals are getting done? Real Estate New Jersey talked to a half-dozen of the state's top dealmakers to find out. Our panel represents both the investment sales and the leasing sides of the equation, and on the leasing side, both tenant rep and landlord rep. Our panelists are Jeff Dunne, executive vice president of CB Richard Ellis and leader of the firm's Tri-State Investment Team, Stamford, CT and Paramus, NJ; Tom Giannone, senior vice president and branch manager of Studley's Edison, NJ office; Stan Kurzweil, senior vice president in Colliers Houston & Co.'s Somerset, NJ office; Dan Loughlin, managing principal for The Staubach Co. in Murray Hill, NJ; Andy Merin, executive vice president with Cushman & Wakefield of NJ's Metropolitan Area Financial Services Group, East Rutherford, NJ; and Bob Sklow, senior managing director for Trammell Crow Co., Florham Park, NJ. We began with an overview:
RENJ: What's going on in the market?
Giannone: It's a very mixed market right now. The anticipation is that the market is turning, or will be turning imminently. Part of that feeling is that the stock market has gone up. Because that's driven by Wall Street and the Dow, I don't know how much of it is reality.
When I talk to our brokers about the level of activity they're seeing, it's again mixed. Brokers question whether people are just "tire kickers," or in fact they're real requirements in the market-which probably means we're at a turning point.
Loughlin: I see a lot of companies beginning to look at some of their long-term issues and strategies, although the bigger problem appears to be that people just don't have a financial commitment to implement them. You see a lot of people investigating the marketplace, but you don't really see people executing transactions. But that's a prelude to what we're going to see, and I think the market is beginning to improve.
Sklow: On the landlords' side, there's been a tremendous amount of downsizing, and hence a lot of sublease space. Nothing drives down the economics...