October 23, 2009

October 18, 2009


Hoff & Leigh’s Weekend Market Report
Hoff & Leigh, Inc.
Leasing, Sales, Management, Buyer or Tenant Representation
4445 Northpark Drive, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, CO USA 80907
October 18, 2009

Attached is our complete listing of all properties for sale in Colorado Springs, based on property type - office, industrial and condo. This is the most complete listing that we are aware of. It’s our goal to provide this information, updated weekly. We develop these lists by basic research and cross-checking data points from the PPCIE, local broker's individual web sites, The Turner Book and any other public information domain we can find.

You are receiving this information because, at some point, you asked or a friend referred your name to be included in our e-mail Insider’s List. If you no longer wish to receive this information, send an e-mail reply to me (tim@hoffleigh.com) and ask to be removed. Alternatively, if you know someone who could benefit from the receipt of this information, forward this e-mail to them, and suggest they contact us, so we can consider adding them to our exclusive list.

All Market Average Office Building Sale Price PSF = $110.64 (DOWN from $110.96 last week.)
We are currently tracking 147 office buildings for sale.
This is 1,512,959 square feet, which represents a total market value of $167,396,033.

All Market Average Industrial Building Sale Price PSF = $82.49 (DOWN from $82.97 last week.)
We are currently tracking 142 industrial buildings for sale.
This is 1,736,099 square feet, which represents a total market value of $143,203,756.

To View Tim Leigh’s ad, please click below!
http://hoffleigh.com/Doc/Tim%20Leigh.pdf

To view our most recent Colorado Springs Business Journal Ad please click below
http://hoffleigh.com/Doc/10.16.09.pdf


Tim’s Market Notes:

I just got-off The Incline. Once again it was fantastic! Very illegal; but fantastic. Clear, warm friendly; Thank you Manitou! The Incline is a continuous reminder of why I love this city, this region and Colorado. Where else can you drive 5 minutes and be in the middle of the Colorado Rocky Mountains? This is surely a great place to make an investment in our future!

“Well, either you’re closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge, or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of a pool table in your community. Ya got trouble my friend.”

Now, I’m just thinking out loud, and I don’t know about you, but I normally have to live within my means. If I don’t have enough money, I have to scrimp, save & sacrifice. And, obviously, I’m too small to save. And, normally, when a company’s revenue falls, budgets are cut and lay-offs occur. But, even in that context, I still need a place to live, and personally, I’d like that place to be nice. Therein lays the conundrum and the food for thought. I’d love to hear yours. You can reach me at 719-630-2277 or Tim@HoffLeigh.com.

. . . and as broke as many of my friends are; and as broke as many of their businesses are; and as broke as they say the city is, the Gazette writes about the Grand Daddy of brokenness, your father in Washington. He’s broken the bank and is now $1.42 trillion over his checkbook for the year. Check it out (www.usdebtclock.org)

Are you kidding me? That number should take your breath away; it’s unimaginable! In fact, good luck getting your arms around it. Want some context? Well, first of all, it’s more than the loose cash I carry in my wallet; it’s a number with 12 zeros behind it. There are 1 million millions in a trillion. One trillion is more stars than there are in the entire Milky Way. If time is money consider, if you made $1 dollar every second, you’ll be a stud; er, Millionaire in 12 days; (Nice job with that, by the way! You finally got that real estate license, right?); you’ll be a Billionaire in 32 years; but it will take you 31,000 years to become a Trillionaire. And pay attention to your elected officials who throw numbers around without context. What have they said? “A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”

Say, what’s going on here anyway? Simply; we spend more than we make. Well, that’s a great plan! (Not!) But, that’s been the American way. Our entire economy has become one based on consumption. We used to be a nation of producers; no more. Now, we’re a nation of consumers. We buy stuff. Now there’s a legacy. Hey Dad, “Tell me about your generation. We’re you like the Greatest Generation?” “Well, ah, no, son. We were the consuming generation.” Nice.

And even now, even when we don’t have money - we spend. Our national deficit ($1,300,000,000,000 - that’s our annual cost of operations vis-à-vis our annual income – except that income is a misnomer because the government doesn’t produce income; it collects taxes – ah, Bob, that would be your money, Bob.), is now 3 times larger this year than it was last year. Our national debt ($11,900,000,000,000) is now larger than our national income (GDP) - $11,300,000,000,000). These are bad trends. Here’s a revelation; when you owe more than you can repay, you’re normally considered broke. Hmm.

By the way, in order of magnitude, The Department of Health & Human Services uses the greatest portion of our federal dollars; followed by The Department of Defense; followed by interest payments on the money the government has borrowed. When (not if) interest rates rise, we’re up-the-creek and the interest costs will become our number 1 expense. That’s a great model, especially if you consider that Japan (27%); China (18.5%) and OPEC (5.7%) hold a lot of that debt. Let’s see, I think we fought Japan in WWII; we fought China vicariously in Viet Nam; and OPEC; what can you say? That battle’s been ongoing since we discovered oil in the desert. Hmmm.

Dr. Kochtu taught us that money flows in circles; like a circle of love. (“Be one with the golf ball, Happy.”) We get paid, we spend; someone else gets paid; they spend, etc. But, what if people quit playing? What if someone breaks the circle? What if people started pulling their carrots off the table? “Oh, that’s spells trouble; right here in River City and, oh, we got trouble.” Starts with a B and rhymes with T and stands for broke! Somebody’s been reading Captain Billy’s Wiz Bag. . . Next thing you know, the circle of love’s dwindled to a trickle and we’re headed down the road to the depths of degradation; stores shutter, lay-offs occur and the money train comes to screeching to an abrupt halt. Trouble. Trouble. Trouble.

So, attempting to stimulate the economy, (because if we don’t spend, the government believes it has too), the government spends & spends & spends (something about a drunk sailor). I guess I’d like to believe their spending is altruistic, but it’s normally not. I’d like to believe their spending would stimulate the economy, but mostly I don’t.

If the government spent our money on shovel-ready projects where employment was created, that’d be one thing, but mostly, according to their own statistics, that’s not the case. For example, according to www.Recovery.gov the federal agency that has spent the greatest volume of stimulus dollars is the Department of Health & Human services. (Remind me again; what hard-asset project have they been involved in lately?)

However, having said all that, and this is good news in the game of stimulus-dollar-reallocation, Colorado’s been awarded $553,780,000 in stimulus-cash, and so far, we’ve actually received $48,330,000 creating 4,695 new jobs. And, congratulations to my friends at CH2M Hill; they have to be doing something right. According to www.Recovery.org, they’ve received nearly 3 times Colorado’s stimulus award! Thankfully, they have operations in Colorado Springs and thankfully, some of that stimulus stays in our community!

Oh, yea, back to realty-reality. For your consideration, a trip to the Twilight Zone; last week, Matt completed his latest survey of vacant buildings. He reports a 37% vacancy in Class A and a 38% vacancy in Class B office buildings in Colorado Springs. Our statistics are based on square feet available in buildings that have space for lease. (We don’t count buildings that are fully leased.) Buildings that aren’t for lease are not germane to the conversation on the theory that, if you have a job the unemployment rate is 0%; if you don’t have a job its 100%. Our survey data covers 304 buildings which are less than 40,000 square feet. We cover 801 units for lease. The average lease rate in class A buildings is $19.07 per square foot, gross. The average lease rate in class B buildings is $12.83 per square foot, gross

And how are things otherwise? Well, for one thing, a city-council person told me that according to the city manager, we could expect 3 more years of tribulation. That’s just ducky. Then to add insult to injury, a friend of mine, who owns a large sub-contracting company, told me, in his opinion, (and he is pretty smart), Colorado Springs’ construction industry is still leaning on the front-edge of crashing.

He said most contractors have been living off jobs they’d previously had in process. He said the pipeline’s emptying and believes that many of the contractors who’ve been around for a long-time will “disappear” in 2010. He doesn’t see a turn-around, (coincidently, for 3 years), until we’ve worn-out “our stuff” and need to replace it. By the way, to date, he’s laid-off over 50 employees and thinks he’ll have to cut back “significantly” again this year. And, while he doesn’t want to be, he’s the Poster Child for someone breaking the circle.

And how is it in commercial real estate? Well, we’re getting more demand for our professional services. And because of current economic conditions, we have to be operating at peak savvy. But, we’re having a harder time finding lenders willing to lend and we’re having a harder time finding tenants willing to decide. Every deal gets more challenging and each sale cycle becomes longer. This amid the comments by William Dudley, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President, who said, “more pain lies ahead for the commercial real estate sector and the economy faces meaningful downside risks to inflation over the next year or so.” Ugh!

But, hey, let’s end on a high note. I’m heading to Akron, OH on Monday to celebrate the Grand Opening of our 1st Branch office. Truthfully, I’m accompanying Holly, RD & Chris. They were the instruments to our expansion. Their enthusiasm is motivating and inspiring. Even in the midst of a deep recession, where some are calling for more stormy weather, we’re trying to do the impossible, expand. Way to go team; and welcome, Tommy!

By the way, does anybody remember where I put my Zoloft?

In spite of all of this, please make it a good and profitable week. And as always, give me a call 719-337-9551 or send me an e-mail Tim@HoffLeigh.com if you want to commiserate.

Sincerely,

TJL
Tim Leigh
719-337-9551
Tim@HoffLeigh.com

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