Game Changers panel asserts real estate recovery is broad
Real estate in all its permutations ”” from estates to hip apartments to city-making developments ”” dominated the dais recently at the Game Changers lunch presented by the Fairfield County Business Journal and attended by 170 at The Waters Edge at Giovanni”™s in Darien.
Sponsors included Eastern Land Management in Stamford, the Stamford office of accounting and assurance company McGladrey, Stamford-based First County Bank and Sotheby”™s International Realty, Greenwich. Hearst Media Services was the media partner.
Event panelists were Shelly Tretter Lynch, senior associate, Sotheby”™s International Real Estate, Greenwich; Jeffrey Kaplan, director, Norwalk-based Seligson Properties; Thomas Rich, president, Stamford-based F.D. Rich Co.; and Bruce Tuomala, director of economic development for the city of Danbury.
The recovery is real, the attendees heard. There is fresh activity in high-end homes ”” a point made by Tretter Lynch ”” and in freshly minted and newly repurposed downtowns. Those downtowns, in particular, appear to be hot commodities, with millennials en masse turning their backs on cars, suburbia and all things not resembling Brooklyn.
Rich said the Regional Plan Association”™s 1970s vision of Stamford has largely come true. “Aerial photos of Stamford in 1968 are unrecognizable,” he said. He ticked off citywide amenities like entertainment, restaurants and the University of Connecticut”™s Stamford campus as predictions that all came true, saying, “When you allow multifamily density, it helps.”
Tuomala said game-changing developments can be hampered by too many government mandates. “A game-changer would be to include the cost of doing business in the equation,” he said. He said the question of future development in Danbury is often met with a “no” for the absence of clarity regarding true business costs. But he also cited a city on the upswing that included development in downtown, a less traffic-choked interstate in I-84 than more southerly municipalities endure with I-95, and the best employment numbers in the state.
Kaplan, a Miami native who has worked with developer and Seligson Properties principal Stanley Seligson to make the Waypointe development in Norwalk a reality, also has seen the move into city centers, saying, “We in the development world want to be a part of that.
“There has been a big urban movement,” he said of those now filling downtown apartments. “They want that New York City experience. That”™s the biggest thing right now ”” people moving back into the urban centers and near transit hubs.”
Tretter Lynch said, “The recovery is really real.” As such, she said new thinking may be required. For a recent $18 million sale, “The house had been on the market four to five years. Sotheby”™s reinvented the project.”
“The recovery is as real as we think it is,” Kaplan said. “It”™s kind of like the stock market. There is a critical mass involved. As long as the banks do their part, we”™re going to be OK.”
Rich said he still frets about office space. “Real rents have not gone up in 30 years,” he said. “I do worry about the office market. It”™s all about jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Rich said there are pockets in the residential rental market that are “very strong,” singling out Stamford as an example. “It used to be if you rented in Stamford you worked there. Now, people actually live there and commute out.”
The panelists zeroed in on problematic transportation in the region. Rich said, “We”™re positioned for continued growth, but there are issues. The railroad has major issues. We”™re dealing with technology on that rail line that is archaic.”
Tuomala gloated a bit about Danbury”™s I-84 ease of driving compared with I-95”™s perpetual clotting, saying, “I agree with Tom (Rich) about transportation. Interstate 84 is not as bad as 95, but it can still be tough.”
The master of ceremonies, Paul Senecal, said, “Most of us make our schedules around I-95 traffic.”
Peter Gioia, the Connecticut Business & Industry Association vice president and economist, asked during a question-and-answer period about the coming elections, saying transportation “is off the radar.” Citing state Legislature elections in November, he said, “What would you tell these candidates to do?”
Rich responded, “We need to start acting regionally. Where we can develop near trains, we need to do that. The train, not only for us but for the entire Boston-Washington corridor, needs to be nurtured. As much housing as possible near the city cores and trains is key.”
“This is an easy one,” Kaplan said. “We have to get rid of the cars.”
Tuomala said Danbury developers seek relief from government, looking for a lower cost of doing business, lower bureaucracy and lower taxes. “Government seems to do the opposite of that,” he said.
Kaplan disagreed, saying that in both Miami and in Fairfield County he had good relations with government. “Waypointe is a good thing that”™s happening with government help,” he said.