Minnesota Real Estate Journal earlier this month spoke with Mike Ohmes, executive vice president for transaction and advisory services with Minneapolis’ Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq, about the state of commercial real estate in the Twin Cities.
During the discussion Ohmes said that real estate activity was on the rise. But he also said that commercial activity would be even stronger if the federal government wasn’t bringing so much uncertainty into the market.
“We are faced with the same challenges as the rest of the country,” Ohmes said. “There is uncertainty over taxes, concerns about the implementation of healthcare legislation and how that will affect businesses and questions about a regulatory environment that is fairly uncertain. Companies can’t accurately or with confidence predict what the future will hold for them with all these uncertainties. They are being cautious in their decisions to part with capital and make significant additions to their payrolls. And ultimately, they are being cautious with their real estate.”
Ohme, of course, is far from alone. Many of the commercial real estate professionals I interview tell me the same thing: The government is making life more difficult for their industry.
“This is not unique to the Twin Cities,” Ohmes told me. “We need pro-growth smart public policies that the businesses can understand and factor into their equations. Until that happens, we will have the same conversation about the industry tomorrow as we are having right now. The recovery that we are seeing now is taking place despite the uncertainty left in play by our federal government.”
What do you think? What would you like to see from the government to make your CRE job a little easier?
