D Magazine

Let’s talk trash. I mean real trash! I have been doing a lot of thinking about trash and the message it sends about a property because of a recent experience. I drove up to an office building with a client to look at available space, and there was a lot of trash in...

When someone is described as a philanthropist, we think of a wealthy individual who is giving away millions of dollars, perhaps as direct gifts or through a personal foundation. However, a philanthropist doesn’t have to be a wealthy person. Anyone can be a...

I had lunch a couple of weeks ago with two young agents celebrating a deal we had just completed. They asked if I had any advice for them, as they have only been in commercial real estate for three years. We talked about saving for living expenses and participating in...

I have become an expert in having my nonprofit clients be rejected by landlords, and this is not a particularly satisfying expertise! Luckily, it doesn’t happen too often. I have, however, also had the positive experience of having many landlords explicitly...

If Dallas-Fort Worth finds itself short of construction cranes, Neal Sleeper and I can tell you where to find them; they’ve gone to the Kingdom of Morocco. We just returned from The Dallas Assembly trip to Morocco with 75 other Dallas folks, most of whom had never...

As a commercial real estate brokerage professional, I spend a lot of time helping clients develop a real estate strategic plan. The process involves organizing meetings, obtaining lots of input from a variety of people, and then putting that plan into action. With our...

I cringe whenever someone calls me a Realtor. Technically a Realtor must be a member of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), an organization composed primarily of residential real estate agents. I am not a member of NAR, although I am a member of the North...

The great thing about working in commercial real estate is that you never stop learning. Earlier this year I learned about Accident Potential Zones (APZs), and just this month I learned about Runway Protection Zones (RPZs). They are out there, but as I learned this...

I received some interesting emails following the publication of my last post. I must say there are certainly some creative landlords in our community! Here are two landlord situations that I thought were particularly interesting. Eliza Solender This first one has...

“Will the landlord donate leased space to us as a charitable gift?” or “Can’t the landlord lease us space at a below market rate and take the difference as a donation?” I get asked some version of these two questions every week. The short answer is, “No.” None of the...