Equity Group Chairman Sam Zell
The key to a strong real estate market in Miami going forward is not predicated on sifting through foreclosures or limiting over development, but instead, it is dependent on creating a well-educated, highly skilled workforce, Equity Group Chairman Sam Zell said as the keynote speaker at the University of Miami’s Real Estate Impact Conference, the Miami Herald reported. [more]
Real estate mogul Sam Zell said he expects little construction activity in commercial real estate nationwide over the next one to three years, except for apartment houses, according to Reuters. “We’re now approaching three and a half years of no development, and I see little prospect for new supply over the next 12 to 36 months except multi-family,” he said. With new supply, the value of existing office buildings, shopping centers, hotels, warehouses and distribution centers should increase and vacancies should fall, Zell said, which would cause lenders to stop extending maturities on loans on underwater properties and fuel property sales. Zell also predicted that real estate would do well over the next 24 months. “When the buildings fill, then pretend and extend is over,” he added. [Reuters]
Real estate mogul Sam Zell has some choice words for federal spending — namely, that it should be slashed. The chairman of Equity Group Investments compared U.S. government spending to that of pre-collapse ancient Rome, when citizens demanded “more entitlements, more entitlements, more entitlements, until there was no more.” In particular, Zell pointed to government salaries and benefits, which he said have become bloated and burdensome, “literally bankrupting the states.” [CNBC]
Sam Zell sat down with the hosts of CBS 2’s “Monsters and Money in the Morning” program in Chicago on Friday, and much to the dismay of Cubs fans and followers of the Chicago Tribune’s financial woes, he talked mostly about real estate. “There’s only one metric that matters in real estate,” Zell said, “and that’s supply and demand. When asked whether the commercial real estate market is really as dire as many are saying, Zell cited Mark Twain’s famous saying: “The reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated,” he said. Click here to watch the video.
Sam Zell has put together a $625 million fund to buy distressed securities, including those backed by commercial real estate. Zell filed a notice last month to create Zell Credit Opportunities Fund, which began raising money in July. He sold his real estate empire, Equity Office Properties Trust, to Blackstone Group for $39 billion in early 2007, at the height of the market. Zell has called himself the “Grave Dancer” for his ability to make a profit off of troubled assets. [more]
Sam Zell, chairman of Equity International, said that very few people who
bought commercial properties between 2003 and 2007 are above water, and
nationwide prices are
down 25 to 30 percent. “We won’t see new equity players until the banks
foreclose. It’s going to be a couple to three years before the
ownership structure changes … The reality is there ain’t much
trading,” Zell said at
the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.
[more]
