Reflecting on Sept. 11: More Security, Less Hotel Work
Crown Realty Taps Property Manager to Oversee Portfolio; Housing Permits Up 16.7%
REAL ESTATE
by Daniel D. Williams
COMMERCIAL
I had an opportunity recently to track down a few real estate players to ask them how the terrorist attacks altered the way they do business.
On Sept. 11 of last year, David Frosh, chief executive of Irvine-based Sperry Van Ness took a United Airline flight from Chicago to Boston.
It was an early-bird flight and Frosh eased his seat back and slept, unaware that four planes had been hijacked.
His flight was the last allowed to land before all air traffic was shut down.
When he awoke the stewardesses did not ask if he enjoyed his flight. They just stared grim-faced, and Frosh walked off the plane where he met a crush of media.
“There were cameras and microphones being stuffed at me,” Frosh said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”
When he found out what had happened, he realized it would change the way Sperry does business.
Sperry had previously flown workers into Irvine from around the country to go through orientation.
“The affiliates didn’t want to fly. It put a huge strain on our staff,” Frosh said.
The travel itself changed. Frosh went from rushing in minutes before a scheduled departure time, to arriving two hours early. And it’s harder to get good prices.
To get around the travel, Sperry’s using more videoconferencing.
“Before Sept. 11 we had one a week. Now we’re doing five to six,” he said.
At home, the company invested in technology to beef up security.
But Frosh said we can’t live in fear,he was not nervous about his plans to fly to Seattle this Sept. 11.
Rick Gaylord, chief executive of MCG Architecture, said he’s seen tighter security in buildings, especially with key cards to enter.
But the biggest hit to his business has been in the hospitality sector.
“After the attacks we had about 15 hospitality projects halted,” Gaylord said.
Dougall Agan, a principal with Stirling Airports International and a developer of Foothill Ranch, saw the same thing. Agan had an agreement with Marriott for two new hotels in OC. Marriott called and asked for a couple days extension. Marriott then announced it was shutting all funding to real estate projects.
The decision had a ripple effect on Agan’s marketing efforts as potential office tenants were depending on having a hotel close by for out-of-town workers.
At Stirling International Airport, Agan experienced firsthand the repercussions of Sept. 11. The major airlines cut back fleets by 20%.
“We could accommodate the extra 747s so we babysat a fleet,” Agan said.
Stirling went from housing 30 planes at a given time to maintaining 300 shelved planes. Agan was able to lease out a 125,000-square-foot hangar to take care of the planes.
As for the airport, security was tightened and the National Guard came on-site to monitor the increased security measures.
A Woman’s World
The Boys Club has taken a couple of hits to the solar plexus.
The fairer sex continues to make progress, even if it’s baby steps, in the testosterone-driven world of commercial real estate.
Irvine-based Crown Realty & Development has tapped Diane Cimino as vice president of property management, where she will oversee the company’s two-million-square-foot portfolio.
“Ms. Cimino is an industry leader in property management and will greatly enhance Crown’s tenant services,” said Robert Flaxman, Crown’s chief executive.
Cimino’s duties include overseeing office, retail and industrial properties.
She joins Crown after eight years as senior manager for Lakeshore Towers, a one-million-square-foot, multi-building office campus in Irvine.
In a nearly 20-year commercial real estate career, Cimino has had stints at Birtcher Real Estate Group, C.J. Segerstrom & Sons and Griffin Realty Corp.
She holds a bachelor of science in business management from the University of Redlands and is a certified property manager.
RESIDENTIAL
Robert Reicher, principal with Santa Ana-based research firm Market Profiles Inc., passed along the latest trends in California and OC housing from the Construction Industry Research Board.
In OC, the numbers were very strong, with permits up 16.7% vs. last July.
That beat the state numbers. California’s housing permits were up 3.9% from the same period a year ago. Single homes had healthy gains, up 6.6% while multi-homes dropped 4%.
But high prices and lack of supply kept the county from reaching the fast-paced growth in Riverside-San Bernardino area.
