The ICSC Law Conference is being held this week in Phoenix. It alternates from the West to the East each year – this year it’s out West. It is a great conference for any attorney practicing in the retail real estate industry. Here are the top 10 reasons for attending:
10. There is a seminar on
In the late 1960’s and 1970’s the retail industry clustered under a common roof in controlled 72 degree conditions. As consumer tastes changed and populations shifts, the "life-style" center became the next new thing. The problem being addressed today is what do we do with all of the covered malls around the country ? One
Walmart has opened its supercenters in many if not most urban and rural communities. Where do they go next ? With the over abundance of strip store space just about everywhere Walmart has many options. Walmart is embracing the concept of ‘in-flll" with three concept store formats with which they are experimenting:
The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is consuming a lot of bandwith in everyone’s offices. Perhaps even slowing down the speed of emailing all of those contracts, leases and loan documents around the country. Have you ever wondered if there is a connection between the real estate industry and the NCAA Tournament ?
We found
2011 is the year when the Baby Boomers begin to turn 65 years old. This trend will continue for the next twenty years. How is the Real Estate industry going to respond to this demographic reality ? The impact on society is enormous: housing, transportation and work force issues abound.
A recent article in REJournals.com noted that the grocery store anchored strip center remains a strong performing retail category. In all geographic markets, there is an over abundance of retail space. There are several reasons for the excess space:
1) Developers overbuilt with the availability of easy financing.
2) The economy has forced
Landlord’s have gone to fixed CAM to reduce administrative expenses and disputes with their tenants. The government could accomplish the same by going to a flat tax – no need for complicated tax regulations that create unintended consequences; no need for intrusive audits where the government is at odds with its constituents; in fact maybe
The retail industry is changing, or depending upon your current situation, the retail industry has already changed. The days of throwing up a center on every open suburban vacant parcel are long gone and likely not to return anytime soon. Just knowing how to build a retail center is no longer enough. What can you
Toys R Us is leasing a large number of sites on a temporary basis: smaller stores and only for the Christmas season. Temporary leasing might be a trend to capitalize on, especially where you have vacant space in a decent geographic market. And if you can combine it with a different, complimentary seasonal concept (ice cream
Remember Enron and off-balance-sheet accounting scandals? The efforts to clean up these accounting practices are still in the works and are about to hit the world of commercial real estate—arguably at the worst possible time. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) (which is endowed with the power to decide U.S. generally accepted accounting principles) and its international counterpart, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are hoping to enact a new lease accounting standard by 2013. The Securities and Exchange Commission in a 2005 report to Congress estimated that the current lease accounting standards which went into effect in 1976 allow tenants to keep about $1.25 trillion in future liabilities off-balance-sheet.
Currently, a lease may be shown on a tenant’s balance sheet as either a capital lease which is treated on the balance sheet much like a finance transaction or as an operating lease which is mostly off-balance sheet. The FASB and IASB believe that investors are not getting a full picture of a tenant’s obligations when the lease is treated as an operating lease because the lease payments are recognized as an expense when they are incurred or paid rather than all of the rental payments for the term appearing as a liability on the balance sheet.
Continue Reading ELIMINATING OFF-BALANCE-SHEET ACCOUNTING OF LEASES