Developers Putting on the Brakes.You can see it on Wall Street, in the comments by Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan Dr. Greenspan is Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Dr. Greenspan also serves as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed's principal monetary policymaking body. , and now in L.A.'s commercial real estate industry: a new air of caution. After several years of vigorous development, builders, investors and brokers are getting wary. Big retail projects announced with great fanfare 18 months ago have stalled stall 1 n. 1. A compartment for one domestic animal in a barn or shed. 2. a. A booth, cubicle, or stand used by a vendor, as at a market. b. ; major office developments have been scrapped entirely. To be sure, no one is saying that the good times are quite over. But the commercial real estate industry is used to seeing boom-and-bust cycles, and the developers who got burned in the late '80s aren't about to get caught with their pants down again. Meanwhile, neighborhood opposition to new development has increased, as it tends to do when economic times are good. Hotel projects are collapsing because Wall Street no longer favors that industry. And speculative development of office buildings has all but disappeared, as builders opt instead to renovate existing projects. The tentative tentative, adj not final or definite, such as an experimental or clinical finding that has not been validated. atmosphere can be seen in L.A. County's third-quarter real estate activity. Although leasing activity was strong, average rents remained flat - indicating there was enough existing space to satisfy demand. And the nature of the leasing deals is causing some concern. Much of the action comes from Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the startups that are signing long-term Long-term Three or more years. In the context of accounting, more than 1 year. long-term 1. Of or relating to a gain or loss in the value of a security that has been held over a specific length of time. Compare short-term. leases in high-rent Westside buildings. They are companies that have no track record, no earnings, and may be gone tomorrow. If that happens, a flood of sublease sublease n. the lease of all or a portion of premises by a tenant who has leased the premises from the owner. A sublease may be prohibited by the original lease, or require written permission from the owner. space will hit the market. The full story can be found in a series of articles in this week's quarterly real estate report; starting on page 31. |
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