NAIOP Upstate and RDDC sponsor 3-city event - August 4

On August 4, NAIOP Upstate New York Chapter in conjunction with the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation (RDDC) jointly sponsored a three- city event (Buffalo, Rochester & Syracuse) titled " New York State: How to Succeed in Real Estate." The featured panel of speakers included from Rochester Brian Sampson, executive director of Unshackle Upstate and Larry Glazer, CEO and managing partner for Buckingham Properties along with Kenneth Franasiak, chairman & CEO of Calamar Inc. of Buffalo and Robert Doucette, president of Armory Development and Management in Syracuse. Sampson began the discussion by telling the audience of developers and real estate professionals, that through the write-in efforts of his organization and our organization's members we were able to defeat the proposed SEQR legislation which would allow anyone to protest a project rather than the current policy that allows only people that are immediately impacted by a project. He added that even though it was defeated in Albany our legislators are trying to submit a new similar bill. He also stated that the cuts in IDA funding along with the State's push for prevailing wage on all IDA projects and then living wage requirements on the tenants of the project after the completion is a definite job and project killer especially in the upstate area. His example was, "Why would someone who may get a 10 -15% break through the IDA want to do a project that will increase their construction labor cost by 20% and the labor costs to their future tenants?" He say's this is insane and will kill development in New York State. One of the ways he feels New York could change this year is for the State to invoke the Mass. 2.5 property Tax Rule. This rule would cap our property tax increases at a 2.5 rate with a local option to amend it up or down by petition and vote of the people and also no unfunded mandates from the state. When this was introduced in Mass. it took them from the 3rd highest property tax state in the U.S to number 33rd. He encouraged us all to join together and support their efforts and try to change the way things are being done in Albany. The next panelist to speak was Franasiak. He said that Calamar has been a catalyst in bringing development to Western New York and primarily Niagara County, with the opening of The Woodlands Corporate Center in 2000 and The Woodlands East in 2005. He told the group of 210 that opportunity abounds for developers in the Southern Ontario corridor from Toronto to the Niagara Falls / Buffalo border. He said that with the projected increase of 2.5 million people in this area over the next ten years the economic development environment and condominium market is much stronger in Ontario Province than it is in Upstate, N.Y. The third panelist was Glazer who is the CEO of Buckingham Properties which owns and /or manages more than 40 properties totaling over 7 million s/f in the Greater Rochester/Finger Lakes region. Glazer was very optimistic about the economic development opportunities in the area. He said that you need a vision and cannot be a turtle in this business environment. You need to take chances to succeed. He concluded that even though bank financing is difficult at the present time there are other ways to get projects done. His enthusiastic approach the current market was well received by the audience. The final speaker was Doucette,. He has been a pioneer in the downtown development revitalization efforts in Syracuse, N.Y. His main message was that before true redevelopment of an area can occur the culture and character of the area must change. His work in the Armory Square District of Syracuse , which mixed high end retail, luxury residential and class A office space , exemplified his theory. People will come if there is a nice place for them to go. The event ended with a short Q&A session and a great appreciation from all those in attendance for the views shared by the speakers. We thank Boylan Brown, Largo Capital, Marchioni & Associates and Uniland for helping to sponsor this event. NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, is the leading organization for developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial and mixed-use real estate. NAIOP comprised 15,000+ members in North America and advocates responsible commercial real estate development and advocates for effective public policy. NAIOP is a leading commercial real estate industry provider of unparalleled networking opportunities, educational programs, research on trends and innovations and strong legislative representation.