MySquareFeet

It’s Hot, It’s Cold! Temperature Control in an office building.

Today I visited a company in a lovely office building in West Hartford, CT. It was a first class, multi-story building around 100,000 square feet, no small property.  After a few minutes, I was taking off my jacket and looking for a glass of water. No kidding, it was hot! When I mentioned it to the person I was meeting, she said it was an ongoing problem for them. She said she had asked the building manager to please not turn the heat on that morning because it always got so hot by noontime. The property manger said he had to turn it up because the tenant next door was so cold they needed the heat.

Clearly, this building has a HVAC problem when the control for one tenant's heat is in another tenant's space. So, if you are a tenant in a building struggling to warm up or cool down, here is some information that may be helpful.

Is now a good time to invest in commercial real estate?

The credit crunch in the residential real estate market has caused panic on Wall Street, a sharp decline in home sales and record foreclosures.  However, a similar total melt down has not occurred in the commercial real estate market.  Having said that, there is a definite credit tightening for commercial loans and heightened underwriting scrutiny for mortgage applications.  So, is now the time to look at investing in commercial real estate or will there be a similar value crisis for commercial properties?