Small Tenants Drive Lease-Size Trends
While the technology boom of the late 1990s spurred an increase in the average size of office leases, the recession of 2001 took its toll on lease sizes. And, the office segment is still recovering, notes Bob Bach, national director of market analysis at Grubb & Ellis Co., Northbrook, IL.
As the economy heated up at the end of the 20th century, vacancy rates plummeted and large technology companies leased space in advance of need. The recession of 2001 and the jobless recovery of 2002 and 2003 shoved large companies to the sidelines, leaving smaller, privately held firms to carry the ball, Bach says.
While the improving economy has sent the average lease size a bit higher in 2004 and early 2005, smaller tenants continue to underpin demand.
Hilton Hotels Focus on IAQ
With more than 20 million Americans suffering from asthma, and as many as 70 million U.S. allergy sufferers, the Hilton O’Hare Intl. Airport has decided to make guests with allergies, dust sensitivities, and respiratory illnesses feel more comfortable.
Certain rooms at the Chicago hotel (called Enviro-Room Designs™) have been completely gutted - and Glen Ellyn, IL-based Environmental Technology Solutions Inc. has rebuilt those spaces with special products. A unique monitoring system offers a highly innovative, modern approach to environmental monitoring. Providing the hotel with critical information that will help ensure healthy indoor air quality, the system records five crucial indoor air quality parameters - temperature, carbon dioxide, relative humidity, odor/gases, and carbon monoxide - and if readings exceed predetermined specifications at any time, building engineers are notified via e-mail or pager.
Who’s Green® 2006 Directory
A new directory coming in 2006 from Ecotone Publishing LLC will serve as a resource book for locating firms, organizations, and institutions that are actively participating in the growth of the green building industry.
“Although the green building industry has seen tremendous growth in the past few years, locating a truly qualified green building professional in many areas can be challenging,” says Jason F. McLennan, founder and president of Kansas City, MO-based Ecotone. “Who’s Green will bring together the experts in the field in an accessible, informative directory, and help unify the green building community while helping it grow.”
The directory will include profiles and contact information for principal firms and organizations involved in the North American green buildings industry.
Visit (www.whosgreen.com) to learn more about the directory, or about the opportunity to be included.
University of Colorado Takes Top ULI Prize
Aspiring designers and real estate industry professionals from the University of Colorado beat out teams from Harvard, Columbia University, and University of Texas-Austin in the 2005 Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute (ULI).
Colorado’s redevelopment plan for a portion of the Magna Township in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley took top honors in the third annual competition, created in 2002 to honor the legacy of urban development pioneer Gerald D. Hines, chairman of the Houston-based Hines real estate organization and 2002 recipient of the ULI JC Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development.
The competition was open to teams of graduate students who were charged with master-planning one of two development sites outside of Salt Lake City. The winning team was announced following the final round of the competition, which was held in that city on April 1.
