First private company closer to joining Innovation Square
By Andrea Rumbaugh | Correspondent

The Infusion Technology Center is one step closer to starting construction at Innovation Square at the former Shands AGH site.

Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group of Gainesville was recently appointed as the property’s exclusive broker. Managing Director Nick Banks said they are looking to fill the space with biomedical and high-tech companies. The center also will need businesses such as law firms to provide in-house services, and retail outlets and restaurants to lease the ground floor.

Banks said he hopes to start signing contracts in the next 30 to 45 days, and construction is planned to start late this year.

“It’s very exciting,” he said. “There’s so much momentum behind this project.”

The 150,000-square-foot building is the first private development in Innovation Square. It will be next to the Florida Innovation Hub at UF, an incubator for technology-based start-ups. It is hoped that workers at the two buildings will collaborate.

“We envision that it is likely when they (the start-ups) do graduate that many will go right next door to the Infusion Technology Center,” said Jane Muir, director of the Innovation Hub.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120221/articles/120229915

In commercial real estate, there are many ways a lease can be structured. It is important when negotiating a lease, whether as a tenant or a landlord, that you consider the impact the lease structure will have on your business.

Since the needs of landlords and tenants vary widely, knowing the various lease structures and how these could impact your business are vital to a successful landlord/tenant relationship.

Often, the landlord’s motivation in securing a particular lease structure is instilling predictability and consistency for future budgeting, cash flow and profit management. A tenant may have much different motivation, such as keeping initial costs low, understanding future liabilities or not being tied to a long lease term.

Whatever your motivation, the following summary of typical lease types provides a good foundation of understanding.

Gross Lease: In a gross lease scenario, the tenant only pays rent. Expenses associated with the ownership and operation of the property, such as taxes, insurance and common area maintenance (CAM) are the responsibility of the landlord.

Full Service Lease: In a full service lease, the landlord provides additional services such as utilities, janitorial, maintenance or security to the tenant. These services, as well as taxes, insurance and CAM, are provided to the tenant under the agreed-upon rental fee.

Net Lease: In this scenario, the tenant pays rent plus a portion of building operating expenses. The operating expenses that are passed through to the tenant are based on actual cost, not estimated costs.

Net-Net Lease (NN or Double Net Leases): This is similar to a net lease, but the tenant is responsible for additional expenses associated with owning a property, such as real estate taxes or insurance.

Net-Net-Net Lease (NNN or Triple Net Lease): In a NNN lease, the tenant pays a base rental amount plus his or her proportionate share of the landlord’s operating expenses. These expenses include real estate taxes, insurance, maintenance and repairs.

Absolute NNN Lease: The tenant is responsible for base rent and all expenses associated with owning and maintaining the building being leased.

Land Lease or Ground Lease: In this scenario, tenants are only leasing the property. The building constructed is the sole property and responsibility of the tenant. However, at the termination of the lease, all property, including improvements and buildings, become property of the landlord.

Other useful terms:

Escalator Clauses: A provision that increases the rent over the course of the lease term.

Percentage Rent: The tenant pays either base rent plus additional rent based on an agreed-upon percentage of business income, or base rent is solely the agreed-upon percentage of business income.

Seth Lane practices in the area of brokerage, consulting and development with Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group. Front Street is invested, donating 10 percent of all revenues to charity. Call 352-505-3844, or visit www.frontstreet.net for more information.

Understanding Office Classifications

If you have spent some time looking for office space, you have certainly come across properties being advertised as Class A, Class B or Class C. While this nomenclature is common, there is no industry standard or universally accepted set of measures used to classify an office property. While general parameters exist, classifying properties is still a subjective process based on the market, property owner and even the property’s listing broker. Here are a few rules of thumb:
• Class A is considered to be new or in like-new condition. The property is well constructed, using high-quality materials. The interior should have a contemporary look and have modern conveniences, such as easy access to high-speed communications. A Class A classification can also be predicated on location. Between the condition of the building and the property location, Class A space typically commands the highest rental rates in the market.
• Class B should be in good condition with little need for major renovations or updates. When compared to Class A properties, Class B are typically a bit older, may have less amenities or upgrades or may be in a location with a slightly lower demand. Class B space is easily rented but commands a lower rental rate.
• Class C space is typically characterized as being in need of significant interior or exterior updating or as having a functional obsolescence. This may include a site plan configuration that is no longer in demand or having interior infrastructure that does not support modern technology. Like the other classifications, a poor or undesirable location may cause a property to be labeled as Class C.

http://www.gainesvillebizreport.com/understanding-commercial-leases/2/

With so many demands on their time, chief executives worry about striking the right balance between setting long-term strategy and responding to short-term problems.

Over the past few years, The Wall Street Journal’s Lessons in Leadership video series has asked CEOs of big companies, including Microsoft Corp.’s Steve Ballmer and American Express Co.’s Kenneth Chenault, how they manage their time. Some bosses map out their year on a spreadsheet. Others carve out time just to think about managing their schedule. Here are tips culled from those interviews over the years:

Jeff Weiner, the CEO of Professional Network LinkedIn tells The Wall Street Journal how he carves out time to think, instead of just reacting to challenges.
“Part of the key to time management is carving out time to think, as opposed to constantly reacting. And during that thinking time, you’re not only thinking strategically, thinking proactively, thinking longer-term, but you’re literally thinking about what is urgent versus important, and trying to strike that right balance.”

Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, on the secret to work-life harmony: Don’t do stuff you don’t like. “The secret to work-life integration is to never back down and not to compromise and don’t do stuff that you know you don’t like. And that sounds very easy and it sounds like, ‘Well you can say that because you’re the CEO,’ but I’ve been like that ever since I was seven.”

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO creates a spreadsheet to budget time for the year, allocating time for meetings, travel and exploring new ideas. “I’ve got a spreadsheet, it’s got a budget—my time for the year … I give the budget allocation to my administrative assistants, they lay it all out and then anybody who asks for time, they say, ‘Steve, this is in budget, it’s not in budget, how do you want us to handle it?’”

Kenneth Chenault, American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault says he allots time for developing talent, managing business priorities and meeting customers. “You need to spend a good percentage of your time with customers and clients because that keeps you externally focused.”

—Erin White

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204883304577221551714492724.html

February 9, 2012
Gainesville-based Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group was appointed today as the exclusive broker to market Infusion Technology Center by developer Trimark Properties. Infusion is a proposed 150,000 square foot office tower and the first private development in Innovation Square.

“We are very proud to be a part of this dynamic project” said Nick Banks, Managing Director of Front Street. “Innovation Square has the opportunity to change the business landscape in Gainesville by fostering job growth and innovation right at the doorstep of the University of Florida. Infusion Technology Center is the first private development in Innovation Square, and enables us to create awareness for all that Gainesville and the project have to offer both emerging and established companies.”

Front Street competed with several local and national brokerages in winning the Infusion assignment. According to John Fleming, Managing Partner for Trimark, “We chose Front Street as our marketing partner because they are local, they are specialized and they offer access to decades of relationships with brokers and other industry professionals throughout the southeast.”

Infusion Technology Center is in the planning and approval stages, and will break ground in late 2012. The Class “A” office tower’s site is adjacent to the recently completed Innovation Hub, which was developed by the University of Florida. Infusion will include space for office, high-tech wet and dry labs, research, bio-med facilities and a retail / restaurant component on the ground floor. Front Street will market spaces at Infusion for sale or lease.

Innovation Square is a public-private partnership between the University of Florida Development Corporation and private developers such as Trimark. Located between the university and downtown Gainesville, Innovation Square will encompass, upon completion, in excess of five-million square feet on 40-acres.

For more information about Infusion Technology Center or Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group, please contact Nick Banks at nickb@frontstreet.net or 352.505.3884.

About Front Street:
Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group is invested in the community, in its clients and in real estate. Front Street is committed to leadership in the commercial real estate business by offering superior brokerage, commercial mortgage banking and property management solutions to its commercial real estate clients. The company’s commitment to the community reaches far beyond commercial real estate, as Front Street donates 10 percent of brokerage revenues to local cause-related organizations on behalf of its clients.

Mike Gallagher takes over the chairmanship of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce at a time when the business organization has better relations with local government and higher education.

“My belief is where a few years ago the Chamber and others in this community have not been as aligned, today I think we’ve crossed all those bridges and are much more synergistic and collaborative in our respective agendas for the benefit of Alachua County and the city of Gainesville,” said Gallagher, president and CEO of SantaFe HealthCare Companies.

A lot of those bridges were built when the Chamber involved a broad cross-section of the community in its economic development planning process that produced Innovation Gainesville.

Gallagher points to the University of Florida Innovation Hub as a prime example of IG’s goal of harnessing the area’s existing entrepreneurship and intellect, in particular that coming out of UF.

The newly improved government relations may come in handy as the Chamber plans to get more involved in advocating the public policy priorities of local business and its 1,200 members.

That will include weighing in on planning processes in hopes of reducing the time and expense of construction and in formulating a position on how to improve roads and whether to back a sales tax referendum, Gallagher said.

He said good roads are an important part of a community’s livability as well as an economic development issue that affects businesses’ ability to move goods and services.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120205/articles/120209853

January 25, 2012

Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group announced today the hiring of Seth Lane to serve in the role of director. The move bolsters the company’s initiative to expand its commercial brokerage operations within the Gainesville and North Central Florida markets.

“We’re thrilled to have Seth join the Front Street team,” said Nick Banks, managing director. “He brings a depth of brokerage experience and commitment to the community that is perfectly aligned with both our vision and the highly specialized level of service our commercial real estate clients expect.”

Lane is a fifth-generation Gainesville native who has worked in commercial real estate for over eight years in a brokerage capacity, as a developer and a consultant. He previously served on the Urban Village steering committee and the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council’s Citizen’s Advisory Committee to the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Authority. Lane currently serves as the vice chairman of the City of Gainesville Development Review Board and on the Gainesville Development Review Committee, which works to streamline development regulations. He is also a member of the current Leadership Gainesville class.

“It’s exciting to join a team offering decades of experience in every facet of the commercial real estate business across the state of Florida,” said Lane. “I look forward to continuing to serve the North Central Florida marketplace with a group that is passionate about its clients and the community.”

Before joining Front Street, Lane worked for Coldwell Banker Commercial in Gainesville, where he was honored as the top-producing commercial agent in both 2010 and 2011.

For more information about Lane or Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group, please contact Nick Banks at nickb@frontstreet.net or 352.505.3884.

About Front Street:

Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group is invested in the community, in its clients and in real estate. Front Street is committed to leadership in the commercial real estate business by offering superior brokerage, commercial mortgage banking and property management solutions to its commercial real estate clients. The company’s commitment to the community reaches far beyond commercial real estate, as Front Street donates 10 percent of brokerage revenues to local cause-related organizations on behalf of its clients.

From The Gainesville Sun:

Unemployment rates improve at year end
By Anthony Clark | Business editor

Unemployment rates ended the year with improvements at the local, state and national levels in December, with Florida’s dipping below double digits for the first time since April 2009.

The Gainesville Metropolitan Statistical Area — Alachua and Gilchrist counties — saw its jobless rate drop to 7.7 percent in December from 7.9 percent in November and 8.5 percent in December 2010, the state Department of Economic Opportunity reported.

Florida’s rate dipped to 9.9 percent from 10.0 percent in November and 12.0 percent a year prior while the U.S. rate was 8.5 percent, down from 8.7 percent in November and 9.4 percent in December 2010.

While the improved rates at the state and national levels reflected job growth, Gainesville’s drop was more a function of a shrinking labor force, which can indicate discouraged job seekers who have stopped looking for work, relocated or gone back to school.

The number of people with jobs in Gainesville dropped from 128,444 in November to 126,858, while the number of unemployed also dropped, from 11,031 to 10,569, according to household surveys.

A separate employer survey used to measure job growth showed Gainesville lost an estimated 1,000 jobs over the year, a loss of 0.8 percent. The most losses were in private education and health services, down 400 jobs, followed by government, professional and business services, financial activities, construction and information.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120120/articles/120129978

Technology hub in midtown is part of a new, seamless Gainesville
By Nathan Crabbe | Staff writer

After serving as University of Florida student body president and graduating nearly two years ago, Jordan Johnson left town to work for General Electric.

Now, he’s back in Gainesville as co-founder and president of Totuit, a mobile application development company housed in the new Florida Innovation Hub at UF.

At Wednesday’s dedication, Johnson said the facility could help change a mindset held by many graduates that they have to leave Gainesville to start their careers.

“Nobody was thinking that they could start a dream in the place where they grew up and went to school,” he said.

Three months after the hub opened for business, UF held a dedication for the facility that included speeches from officials and a performance by dancers dressed like robots.

The 48,000-square-foot building houses UF’s Office of Technology Licensing and serves as a business incubator for technology start-ups, 15 of which have already moved in.

Built on the former Shands at AGH site, the hub is the centerpiece of a planned 40-acre Innovation Square development meant to better connect campus and downtown. UF President Bernie Machen said the development is part of a “new, seamless Gainesville” that helps put disputes between the city and university in the past.

“Today, we have a shared faith in the power of innovation to bring economic prosperity while preserving Gainesville’s distinctive quality of life,” he said.
Read more at http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120111/articles/120119872

In New York, which has a low vacancy rate, renters at the Ten23 building made deposits based on floorplans.

The nation’s apartment-vacancy rate in the fourth quarter fell to its lowest level since late 2001 as Americans continued to favor renting homes instead of buying them.

Rents climbed, but data firm Reis Inc. said the increase was less than expected. Landlords of properties intended for lower-income renters found it more difficult to raise prices, according to Reis.

Multifamily property has been the star of the real-estate sector for more than a year, generating profits for landlords but headaches for renters struggling with the economic downturn. Demand has swelled from people being foreclosed out of their houses as well as those unable or unwilling to buy.

In the fourth quarter, the vacancy rate fell to 5.2% from 6.6% a year earlier and 5.6% at the end of the third quarter, according to Reis. The vacancy rate rose as high as 8% in 2009.

During the depths of the downturn, landlords had to offer incentives such as flat-screen TVs and months with no rent to attract tenants. But in the fourth quarter of 2011, landlords in 71 of the 82 of the markets that Reis follows were able to raise rents.

Darlene Shaffron recently moved into a loft apartment that rents for $2,800 a month in Jersey City, N.J. She considered buying—and was preapproved for a mortgage—but was too scared to put money down on a home that could see its value decline in a volatile market. “If we went into a double-dip recession or something worse, then I would have spent all of the cash,” the 40-year-old said. Ms. Shaffron decided to “save the money…and rent for a little bit longer.”

Nationwide, landlords raised asking rents an average of 0.4% in the fourth quarter, to $1,064 a month. That’s up from $1,026 in 2009.

But rent increases showed signs of moderating in some markets and, overall, they were less than Reis had expected. The data firm had projected rent growth in 2011 of more than 4%; the annual rate was 2%. Behind this disparity, Reis said, was the slower-than-expected economic expansion, along with price resistance hitting landlords in some markets.

New York City, for example, was one of the strongest markets for most of 2011. But in the fourth quarter it scratched out only a 0.6% rent gain.

Reis said the market has been weakened by job losses in the financial-services industry. Also, the city has the highest rent level in the nation—$2,876 a month—making it difficult for landlords to raise prices.

By contrast, San Francisco’s landlords managed a 5.1% gain over the past year, while San Jose climbed 5%, fueled by a booming tech sector. The higher-quality properties in the most desirable locations posted gains of over 10%, Reis said.

The rental market also has been fueled by a dearth of new supply. Just 8,865 units were delivered in the quarter, the second-lowest quarterly figure since Reis began publishing quarterly data in 1999.

The strength of the market hasn’t been lost on developers who are racing to move plans off their drawing boards.

More than 173,000 units were likely started in 2011 and some 225,000 and 280,000 starts are expected nationwide in 2012 and 2013, according to Zelman & Associates.

One concern for landlords is that the housing market will bottom or improve in 2012, which could curb rental demand. “Most any person or industry would be happy to see the single-family market stabilize, except for the apartment sector,” said Richard Anderson, an analyst who covers apartment companies for BMO Capital Markets. “You’re either an owner or a renter. There’s no middle ground.”

By Sasha Bogursky, Fox News

A growing tech startup scene in the South threatens to unseat the traditional tech meccas of Boston, New York and San Francisco. Meet the next generation of entrepreneurs behind three Atlanta-based companies who come at tech from a very different perspective.

“Atlanta and the South in general is very different culturally — especially for the tech industry,” GuildQuality founder and CEO Geoff Graham told FoxNews.com.

His company has provided customer satisfaction surveying for the construction and real estate industries since 2002, and he readily admits that the venture capital funding available in Silicon Valley and New York just isn’t there in Georgia.

“We build businesses here using the money customers paid us to serve them,” he said. “Instead of being funded by venture capitals we’re funded by the checks we [cut] ourselves, the money we borrow from friends and family.”

From telecom to Internet security to digital media, Georgia plays a bigger role in technology than most Americans know. Atlanta in particular is a tech mecca, a place where companies launch with starkly different ideologies than their Northern competition.

Atlanta’s technology community numbers more than 13,000 companies, according to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, employing tens of thousands of Georgians. That stretches from startups to big businesses like AT&T, IBM, Siemens, Cisco and more.

The absence of the get-rich-quick venture capital mentality has created a very different culture, born both from necessity and a Southern sense of prudence.

“In places like Silicon Valley, the culture is one of ‘I’m going to see how fast to get something to happen and I need it to be widely successful in seconds,’” Graham said. Things are different down South, where “you have a culture of commitment among founders that are going to see their businesses through to being successful.”

Patrick Clements, CEO of Atlanta-based application development firm bigWebApps, told FoxNews.com that mentality leads to more stable companies.

“BigWebApps has been around almost 11 years and I’d venture to say that if we took capital early we probably wouldn’t be in business today,” Clements said.

His business has grown since he co-founded it 10 years ago, and it now serves more than 200 clients with 100,000 users in 43 states and nine countries.

“In Atlanta, entrepreneurs don’t start off with an all-or-nothing crusade to be the dominant player,” he continued. “We set out with the objective of starting a great business with a strong value for the people who pay for our services.”

Southern businesses look to build companies that provide their employees with healthy lifestyles, something they say stands in stark contrast to Silicon Valley’s mentality.

“Silicon Valley has more of a culture of working 24/7, where Atlanta is a little more laid back,” Pardot CEO David Cummings told FoxNews.com. His five-year-old firm provides on-demand Web marketing automation products that integrate with popular sites, such as Salesforce.com and SugarCRM.

“We are still very successful while keeping a good balance between life and work,” he said.

Both Cummings and Graham commented on the emphasis Southern companies place on family life.

“If you follow our tech entrepreneurs on Twitter, the first thing you are going to see in their bios is not the business they run but something about their family or who they are,” Graham said. “I still try to be home at six to have dinner with my family.”

Cummings doesn’t see Atlanta as a competitor to Silicon Valley but rather as a different but equally fruitful option for people who want to break into the tech scene.

“Silicon Valley is great if you want to work 24/7 and change jobs every 18 months,” he said. “I see Atlanta for someone who wants to have a better work life balance.”

Cummings noted that his two most recent hires were people from the Northeast looking for lower cost of living and a warmer climate.

“There isn’t so much of the jungle lifestyle here,” he said. “If Silicon Valley isn’t for you, Atlanta still provides the infrastructure.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/12/27/new-technology-civil-war/#ixzz1hsz3q99k