Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.real From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: real Mon, Jun 15 1992 Date: Mon, 15 Jun 92 05:41:48 EDT Message-ID: 05-16 0000 DECISIONLINE: Real Estate USA TODAY Update June 15, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network FUTURE OF OFFICES LOOKS GREEN: The future of office development and property management may be tied to the green movement, portfolio manager Philip Hoffer says in the June issue of Real Estate Today. Tenants have growing concerns about the environment, both indoors and out. To improve indoor air quality, for instance, developers working with architects may design and build lobbies as atriums. (For more, see special Environment package below.) JAPAN LAND PRICES FALL: Japanese land prices fell last year for the first time in 17 years but prices are still too high to make owning a home a reality for many workers. Japan's National Land Agency says residential land prices fell an average 5.6% last year after rising 2.7% in 1990. Japanese land prices soared in the 1980s: Even as late as 1989, prices jumped 13% from a year earlier. CONDO CONVERSION COULD COST: Potentially restrictive regulations could make converting apartments to condominiums too expensive before long, suggests real estate expert John Kincannon. He predicts that as developers convert, local government officials may implement higher fees and restrictions to discourage conversion. Some of those restrictions could include quotas limiting conversion in an area, he says. HONOLULU APARTMENTS TOP LIST: A basic one-bedroom apartment in the Honolulu area costs more than $12,000 per year to rent, compared to the $3,000 for that unit in Casper, Wyo., according to research by Runzheimer International. Other top-cost areas include San Francisco, $9,260; the New York area, $9,180; greater Boston, $9,020; and San Jose, Calif., $8,880. SIERRA SELLS SHOPPING CENTER: Sierra Real Estate Equity Trust '84 Co. Friday announced the sale of the Peninsula Shopping Center in Rolling Hills Estate, Calif. A California Limited Partnership between Comstock, Crosser & Hickey and St. Paul Properties Inc. purchased the center on an all-cash basis for $25.25 million. Proceeds to the Trust from the sale were $2.45 million. CENTER ON THE MARKET SINCE '91: Said Milton K. Reeder, president of Trust '84, of Friday's sale of the Peninsula Shopping Center: "This is an extremely difficult economy in which to sell property, especially a shopping center that has lost its anchor tenant due to bankruptcy." Peninsula had been marketed since January 1991 by Cushman & Wakefield in Los Angeles. FORGET THE CAR; FIX THE KITCHEN: Eighty percent of 684 people who remodeled a kitchen or bath last year said the move was a smarter buy than a new car, vacation, jewelry, swimming pool or fur coat. The survey commissioned by Decorating Remodeling and Kitchen & Bath Business found that most were willing to get their hands dirty; 60% tried to save money by doing some part of the remodeling themselves. AUTHORITY BEGINS FIX-UP PROGRAM: The Delaware State Housing Authority has announced that it's beginning a Home Fix-up Program, one of two that are part of an initiative announced last fall by Gov. Michael Castle. Eligible property owners and landlords in a target area of northeast Wilmington will be able to get no- and low-interest loans to bring homes and rental properties up to local housing code standards. COMPLEX FOR ELDERLY PRESERVED: The Rhode Island Housing Mortgage and Finance Corporation has approved a $3.9 million proposal to preserve the affordability of a Providence apartment complex for the elderly, reports the May:June Journal of Housing. The HRC Investment Corporation will buy Metcalf Court using a $2.7 million first mortgage provided by the Rhode Island Housing Mortgage and Finance Corporation and cash reserves. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON ENVIRONMENT: DEVELOPERS SHOULD THINK GREEN: As tenants are becoming increasingly concerned about the environment, the future of office development and property management may be green, says portfolio manager Philip Hoffer in Real Estate Today. Plants in a lobby area can act as natural filters by absorbing carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen, even though their effects might be more psychological than real. INCORPORATE RECYCLING AREAS: The growing interest in conservation will touch off more efficient building recycling programs, predicts Hoffer. Office buildings may incorporate recycling centers where paper, aluminum cans and other materials are separated. "If management has a variety of products to sort, it'll need a facility for that" before the stuff can be sent to a recycling facility, he says. TOO HOT, TOO COLD: Individual thermostats may also come as a relief to property managers, who must respond to complaints about office temperatures. "As soon as (property managers) get a call to turn the thermostat up, they get a request to turn it down," says Hoffer, a portfolio manager with Fifield Asset Management in Chicago. (End of package.) Real Estate Editor: Beth Mann. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM