Sliding Earnings Dominate Q3

LOS ANGELES-A flurry of quarterly reports from office REITs and other publicly held companies in the L.A. area lately is reinforcing the adage that a rising tide lifts all ships and a falling tide lowers them. Although some of the publicly held real estate firms are holding their own or even reporting improved results, the economic slump is definitely having an impact in the publicly held portion of the office sector.

Among those who have reported quarterly results in recent days are CB Richard Ellis, Thomas Properties Group Inc., Douglas Emmett Inc. and Pacific Office Properties Trust. While all are publicly held companies, Emmett and Pacific Office are REITs, but CBRE and Thomas are not.

While CBRE reported comparable revenue versus last year’s third quarter, the company’s net income dropped to $40.4 million and 19 cents per share compared to nearly $115 million and 48 cents per share. Although CBRE’s management team noted a significant portion of the decline resulted from one-time charges, the company’s prepared statement regarding its quarterly performance summarized the forces that are vexing commercial real estate around the globe. “Results during the quarter were impacted by weak sales activity caused by the global credit market turmoil, and soft leasing performance reflecting weaker economic conditions, particularly in the US and the U.K. Constraints in the capital markets also adversely affected the achievement of incentive-based revenues by the global investment management business,” according to the release.