A Great American Data Source

If you’re in a real estate-related field, you’re likely already using U.S. Census data regularly, at least indirectly. But with ongoing updates based on the 2010 Census and informative new tools available, it’s worthwhile to go directly to the source. The American Fact Finder is a good place to start for hoards of place-based demographic profiles, economic data, housing stats, and so on. Potential drill down into the data seems nearly endless.

Click the image below for an example of one new visualization tool with some local relevance.

Walt Takes Lease v Own Seminar On The Road

Walt Clements, Director of the Lewis White Real Estate Center, will be teaching seminars on Lease Versus Own analysis in several Midwestern cities at the end of July. Cities include St. Louis, Des Moines, and Omaha. Sorry Chicago, maybe next time.

Most classes provide at least 3 hours continuing education credit, and lunch is provided.

Register online at www.umkc.edu/whitecenter

LWREC Recieves Final Approval for Commercial Real Estate Masters Program

The Lewis White Real Estate Center received final approval from the Coordinating Board of Higher Education (CBHE) of the University of Missouri system last week to offer a Master’s of Science in Entrepreneurial Real Estate. It is the only Master’s Degree in Real Estate offered by an AACSB Accredited Institution within a 500 mile radius of Kansas City. The CBHE approval follows the decision made last month by the University of Missouri Board of Curators for this program to be offered in two formats. For those with a minimum of 5 years of experience in commercial real estate, there will be a 14 month Executive Format that includes instruction by 9 PhD’s (several from outside the area), 5 attorneys, 3 CCIM Instructors and a handful of local specialists in certain specialized areas. It will also include a week of international travel where they will be introduced to real estate professionals in other countries which will build their international networks while learning about Global Real Estate Issues. There will also be the traditional 2 year program offered. Both programs will be commencing in the fall of 2011.

Courses taught will include:

· Urban Planning

· Legal Contexts of Real Estate Decisions

· Market Analysis and Feasibility Studies

· Advance Negotiations for Commercial Real Estate with software

· Construction Means and Methods

· Taxation issue for Commercial Real Estate

· Corporate Real Estate

· Property Management

· Valuation Techniques and Practices

· Ethics and Values for Real Estate Decisions

· Global Real Estate which includes one week of international travel

· Advanced Real Estate Finance and Excel Modeling

· Real Estate Capital Markets

· Public and Private Finance

For more information, contact their website at www.umkc.edu/whitecenter.

President's Club Meets To Discuss CRE Issues

The Lewis White Real Estate Center at the Bloch School of Management of UMKC held its’ second annual President’s Club meeting at the home of the gracious Charles and Patty Garney. This informal gathering represents over 3,000 commercial real estate service providers in the Kansas City Metro area. This is the only venue where these 15 plus chapter presidents of national associations can gather socially and discuss issues of common interest within the area of commercial real estate. Commercial real estate is a multi-disciplinary field which is emphasized by the numbers of local chapters here is Kansas City. Each individual chapter ranges from 35 members to 250 members and covers the gamut of corporate real estate, architecture, retail real estate, Office real estate, Industrial real estate, commercial real estate lending, real estate education, women in real estate, property managers, facilities managers and other specialty areas. “We can simply do more for the greater good of our community by working together on some critical issues than we can by operating in our respective silos.” Says Walt Clements, the Director of the Lewis White Real Estate Center.

In Photo: Dan Musser, Lane Vance, Paul Neal, Anne Lemon, Linda Laurence, Jacki Older-Hefner, Jim Noe', Bill Early, Bob Mayer, Brian Votava, Shirley Harpool

LWREC To Offer Innovative Excel Real Estate Analysis Course

Coming up on June 23, 24 and 25 Dr. Jeffrey Engelstad, PhD visiting from the University of Denver will be teaching an advanced spreadsheet analysis course for the Lewis White Real Estate Center at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

The coursework is geared towards seasoned real estate professionals already familiar with using TVM, IRR, and NPV in the analysis of real estate investments. The course delves further into the intricacies of modeling advanced real estate income streams into pro-formas and practical application of advances financial analysis. For more information or to register click here: Real Estate Financial Spreadsheet Analysis using Excel.

Not familiar with these concepts? Click here to find out more information on the graduate and undergraduate degree programs offered by the Lewis White Real Estate Center at UMKC.

New Federal Lease Accounting Standards

The upcoming changes to the Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) will dramtically change how leases are shown on an organization's balance sheet.

Long-term leases have often been an off-balance sheet item, and some argue it was a tool for corporations to hide what is essentially "debt" in the form of monthly payments to a landlord. The new regulations will require these leases to instead be shown on the balance sheet as a long-term liability which will instantly impact debt-to-equity ratios and could trigger default clauses in some corporate contracts. Despite the pain of transitioning to the new system, proponents of the new standards argue it will allow a higher level of corporate transparancy and accountability.

On June 14, 2011, Walter Clements, CRE, CCIM, FRICS, Director of the Lewis White Real Estate Center along with David Donnelly, PhD, Professor of Accountancy for UMKC will co-instruct a seminar geared towards informing real estate professionals to learn how to proactively prepare their clients for this upcoming change in accounting rules. More information can be found here: http://www.bloch.umkc.edu/centers-institutes/lewis-white-real-estate-center/online-registration/real-estate-leases/index.aspx

Briarcliff Named as Master Developer For 'Horizons'

The city of Riverside, Missouri finalized a master development agreement yesterday with a unit of Briarcliff Development for the 'Horizons' site at I-635 and Hwy 9. The master plan (see above) was designed in conjunction with BNIM Architects and is comprised of 1.1 million square feet of office space set in a series of tree-lined canals along with 1.5 million square feet of industrial space.

Riverside, with its relatively sizable tax income from casino earnings, has spend millions over the past several years on infrastructure, including a large levee to prepare the site for development. Briarcliff is now the 6th developer since 2002 to attempt development of the site, but with its highly successful retail and office experience in the Northland, Briarcliff may just have the right combination of skills and knowledge to turn this blank canvas into a crown jewel for Kansas City as a whole.