NATIONAL: The Challenge with Office
Last night in LA, we snapped Cassidy Turley CEO Joe Stettinius talking shop to friends and clients at downtown's swank Jonathan Club. He pointed out that the current challenge in office is that 90% of recent absorption has been in Class-A product, even though that represents only 15% of the asset class. He also suggested that differing views between tenants and landlords can often be bridged if both sides find common-ground thinking of employees as their clients and how to make them happy and productive.
And Cassidy's chief economist, Kevin Thorpe, to the relief of the crowd, predicted a robust economy this year—and said to ignore some of the recent home sales, auto sales, and other numbers skewed almost purely, he said, by the polar vortex. "Trust me," he said, "I spend a lot of time with seasonally adjusted numbers—although I am saddened by the commentary that reflects on my life."
