GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: GSA Exec Tracks $10B in Fed Projects at RealShare

Real Estate Media president and CEO Jonathan A. Schein welcomed the guests, who commandeered every available chair to listen in on the gathering of the "who's who" in local real estate. Commissioner of the US General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service F. Joseph Moravec was the next to take the stage, covering various topics pertaining to the "$10 billion in federal construction in the works today." He lauded the positive effects President George W. Bush's management agenda has had on the government's real estate activities. "Part of the president's management agenda is to bring private industry tools and standards to the government sector," Moravec noted, attesting that applying such practices has made the government's real estate operations more efficient and friendlier to the private sector.

A brief, but information-infused RealShare Unplugged session entitled "Ten Minutes with Jeff Neal" covered topics ranging from the area's thriving investment sales market to the improvement of the GSA's relationship with private sector real estate over the last couple of years. Neal, who is a principal at Monument Realty, also noted that the lifting of building height restrictions would greatly increase retail opportunity. Neal also offered his thoughts on the role of the broker these days. "The market has become a lot more transparent, a lot more efficient, so a broker's role has changed," he explained. "Brokers and developers talk to each other, so the broker's role is to be a facilitator, not to keep each side of the transaction honest."

A mid-morning panel gave attendees a chance to hear from a five-person team that represented every niche of the industry. The list of speakers consisted of Charles E. Smith Commercial Realty president Mitchell Schear, Boston Properties executive vice president Ray Ritchey, Trammell Crow Co. principal area director Joe Stettinius, Marcus & Millichap president Harvey Green, and Advance Realty Group senior vice president and regional managing director David Fisher. Cynthia Hoffman, editor of Real Estate Media's Real Estate Forum, moderated the "Town Hall Meeting" session, where panelists covered topics ranging from commissions to cap rates.

Schear pointed out that the definition of full commission has become vague, and Stettinius added that, "how full commissions are calculated is increasingly more complex, and who gets full commissions is increasingly more complex." Ritchey conceded that his firm was probably near the top of the list in terms of full commissions because of increasing rent rates in Washington, DC and a good schedule. As for cap rates, Green summed up the panel's stance by saying that cap rates are likely to remain where they are for the most part. "Things that are going to drive our market is what's happening in the home refinance market," he added. "When rates start to move, that's going to have an effect on the real estate market." And Fisher pointed out the importance of an exit strategy in this situation, knowing that interest rates will not remain at their current low levels forever. Looking ahead at the District 20 years from now, Ritchey returned the spotlight to the issue of building height limits, while Stettinius predicted that the Southwest area, currently a federal enclave, will become much more diverse.

Attendees also had the opportunity to sit in on any two of five breakout sessions that ran concurrently in two different time slots. And bringing the event to a close, Real Estate Media editor-in-chief Michael G. Desiato hosted "Inside the Real Estate Mind," a one-on-one with JE Robert Cos. chairman and CEO Joseph E. Robert. Robert took the audience from his humble beginnings when he saw his first success with a $13.5-million investment in a Hollywood, FL property, to securing $5.8 billion in returns on $3.1 billion in equity investments a couple of years ago. Robert also talked about his life in between the triumphs, including his active role in giving back to the community through working with kids at a boxing gym when he first started out, to traveling to Iraq last spring to work on establishing a "telemedicine" center there, where, he says, "the condition of the pediatric care hospitals is deplorable." Robert closed the day's meetings, with some advice. The business, he said, is first and foremost about integrity and, relationships play an incredibly valuable, as well. "If we emphasize those things as a business, we'd be better off."