Archives for February 2017

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Come August, at least 95 percent of the 155 student apartments being built at the forthcoming Innovate ABQ research and development site Downtown are expected to be filled.
The University of New Mexico began accepting applications and reservations this month for students who want to live in the six-story Lobo Rainforest building now under construction at the old seven-acre Baptist Church property at Central and Broadway. That’s where UNM, the city, the county and private partners are working to create a modern, high-tech research and development district.
The $35 million,160,000-square-foot facility is rapidly rising and on schedule to open in August, say developers, who broke ground last July. It will house entrepreneurial development programs and startup businesses on the ground floor, and up to 310 students in two-bedroom apartments, priced at $674 a month, on the top five floors.
The InnovateABQ Building under construction at Broadway and Central NE. Friday Feb.17, 2017. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal)
“The outer frame for the first five stories is already in place, and we’re working to frame the sixth floor now to top the building out by March,” said Jason Perry, managing director of the Florida-based Signet Development. “We’re doing electrical work and plumbing now on the lower floors.”
The new apartments, reserved for sophomore students and higher, are drawing a lot of interest, said UNM Institutional Support Services associate vice president Chris Vallejos.
“We’ve had a lot of inquires and a few contracts already signed,” Vallejos said. “Our target is at least 95 percent occupancy for the first year.”
The university will start actively marketing the apartments next month, focusing especially on students in UNM’s Innovation Academy. That program launched in 2015 as part of the Innovate ABQ project to offer students direct experience and real-world skills in entrepreneurship.
“We’re going gangbusters to get everything in place for August,” said Innovation Academy director Robert DelCampo. “We have 541 students in the academy now.”
The goal is for academy-connected students to live, work and play at the Innovate ABQ site. The academy will be housed on the Lobo Rainforest ground floor, alongside technology transfer programs run by UNM and some of the national laboratories, to help students and others build and grow new companies.
“It’s open for students to live there and participate in all the educational and entrepreneurial programming activities,” said UNM chief economic development officer Lisa Kuuttila.
After the Lobo Rainforest facility, the Innovate ABQ board will focus on the next phase of site development on the existing Baptist Church complex, a 71,000-square-foot facility on the site’s southeast corner, which will be remodeled into a mixed-use facility for business incubator and accelerator programs, high-tech labs, entrepreneurial support programs, and meeting and event spaces, said Innovate’s interim board president and chair, Terry Laudick.
“We have a good number of interested tenants, although we have no agreements in place yet,” Laudick said.
The board is also working to raise funds for Innovate programs and investment in startups that emerge at the site, said board member Jeff Apodaca.
“It’s all about private and public capital coming together for investment purposes to support entrepreneurs and create new companies and jobs,” Apodaca said.
By: Kevin Robinson-Avila (The Albuquerque Journal)
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Improving Employee Satisfaction is at the Forefront of FM Responsibilities, a Trends Report from Sodexo Found

What will companies be doing differently for their employees this year? Sodexo looked into this last week in its 2017 Global Workplace Trends report, which highlights the most important factors affecting the world’s workers and employers in the workplace.
At large, the trends signify that workplaces that can blend work life with outside life, cater to employee needs through improvements in wellness and invest in space design and learning programs will be at the forefront of business. The modern workplace benefits from all generations teaching and learning from one another as well as leveraging individual strengths and the power of collaboration to meet personal and business goals.
“With this piece, we’ve distilled key findings from different sectors, generations, and countries to produce a report that provides a holistic view of the global workplace. It’s critical for business leaders to recognize the underlying trends driving change, to evaluate their significance and stay ahead of — rather than follow — them,” says Sylvia Metayer, CEO, Worldwide Corporate Services segment of Sodexo.
The featured 2017 Sodexo Workplace Trends include:
1. The Agile Organization: Organizations are seeking the holy grail of agility — speed plus stability — with an ultimate goal of responding to new conditions, all while keeping employees agile, too, by using disciplines such as mindfulness.
2. The Rise of Cross-Workplaces: The newest iteration of collaborative workspaces takes co-working to a new level, with organizations not only sharing physical space and resources but also intentionally structuring interactions across boundaries that encourage problem-solving approaches in order to combine strengths and address global issues.
3. Employees Without Borders: The sheer spread and scale of the relocation of workers, in both emerging and developed economies, is driving new opportunities to demonstrate inclusive leadership through evaluating skill needs, availability, location benefits, and effective cultural integration.
4. The New-Gen Robotics: Robots have been in the workplace for years, and advances in artificial intelligence have led to organizations increasingly using them for jobs that humans used to perform. The newest discussion: exploring the success of robots, especially as they collaborate with people on uniquely human jobs.
5. Intergenerational Learning: As people continue to live and work longer, all workers are forcing companies to think differently about hierarchical and traditional employee learning. Employees of all generations are teaching one another from their own experiences and driving a new culture of personal development.
6. Personal Branding Goes to Work: Which brand leads? Personal branding is taking on a new life and getting deeper scrutiny, as employers look to understand potential risks and leverage the power of employees’ personal brands for the good of the company.
7. Redefining the Workplace Experience: From physical space and technology to virtual work considerations and amenities, the way workers experience their surroundings is key to a happy workforce.
8. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: The 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call on organizations to work together and with government toward a shared vision. The way businesses interpret and adapt practices will affect not only the progress toward meeting the SDGs but also the needs of a workforce hungry for positive change. (“Sustainability” as a buzzword is being upstaged by the all-important goals codified at the United Nations.)
9. Unlocking the Potential of Millennial Talent: Why do we need to better understand Millennials? Grasping the unique set of attributes that Gen Y and their younger siblings, Gen Z, bring to the work table gives us a view into the future of the workplace.
10. Wellness 3.0: Moving beyond thinking of workplace wellness programs as sources for “fixing” or preventing health problems, they are now being viewed as potential catalysts for healthy living for employees, their families and the community at large.
The 2017 Global Workplace Trends report can be downloaded from the Sodexo website here.
By: Buildings: Smarter Facility Management
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With the start of a new year come goals, resolutions, and a general sense of being able to finally accomplish those high aspirations, such as improving your services to commercial clients. While we can’t help you get to the gym more often, we can certainly guide you through using RPR in ways that will save you time, and give your clients a reason to keep coming to you for their commercial real estate needs.
Below are three courses that will get you started down the right path.

1.  3 Key Benefits to Wow Commercial Clients –

   This course is a great introduction to RPR Commercial or even just a quick refresher. The focus is on how to gather and add information about properties and save time searching for communities that compliment your client’s business needs. As an added bonus, you will even learn a few great tips for how to use RPR Commercial on mobile devices.
   

2. Creating the Perfect Presentation Package –

   One of the challenges for Commercial practitioners is to eloquently walk a client through why one property and area combination is a better fit than another. In Creating the Perfect Presentation Package you will see how RPR Commercial can alleviate that hardship using real life scenarios as examples.
   With the help of RPR Reports you will learn how to walk your client through the processes of site identification, property selection and even reinforce their confidence in the community to be able to support their business plans. Coming to the table with a presentation package like this is guaranteed to impress!
   

3. Valuing Long-Term Real Estate Investments for You and Your Clients –

   If you are working with an investor focused on cash flow, you’ll want to join this talk about how to determine value for long term investments. RPR makes the process much easier through an integration with Valuate®, a financial analysis and marketing tool for the purchase and sale of commercial and residential investment properties. This course will show you how to get an analysis started, adjust cash flows, add expenses and determine various return ratios such as IRR and Cap Rates.
   Investment analysis has never been so seamless!
   

By: REALTORS® Property Resource (National Association of REALTORS®)
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Legislative Update February 10, 2017

The 60-day New Mexico Legislative session is not quite at the halfway point, but already nearly 1,000 bills (924) have been introduced. Two of them, both dealing with budget items, were sent to the Governor and signed into law.
The subject matter of the bills range from recognizing a local 4-H chapter to economic development legislation, and of course, several of interest to the REALTORS® Association of New Mexico.
Crime Bills
Many bills that come under the “crime” category have been introduced including bills that increase the penalty for driving while under the influence of liquor or drugs (HB271); for leaving the scene of a traffic accident (HB319); and sex crimes against children (SB160).
Economic Development Bills
Many of the economic development bills deal with improving the state’s broadband (internet) infrastructure:

• HB60 adds infrastructure for new broadband telecommunications network facilities to the definition of an economic development project eligible for funding in the Local Economic Development Act;
• HB113 requires state’s Chief Information Office to develop and maintain a statewide broadband network;
• SB24 amends the Infrastructure Development Zone Act to provide for broadband infrastructure development by a local government.

Other bills provide for  workforce stimulus funding:

• SB73 appropriates $125,000 to the Workforce Solutions Department to provide leadership training services to workers, businesses and organizations.

The Cannabis Revenue and Freedom Act (SB278), which establishes a comprehensive regulatory framework relating to marijuana, industrial hemp, and medical marijuana has also been introduced.
Other
Another bill would have required presidential hopefuls to make public their tax returns. That bill, HB204, was killed in committee.
RANM Bills
The RANM Legislative Committee, which has met twice since the Legislature began and will be meeting again on Friday, February 17, is following approximately 140 bills. Two RANM-sponsored bills have been introduced.

• HB362 – Home Inspector Licensing sponsored by Rep. Alonzo Baldonado (R-8). This bill has been referred to the House Business and Industry Committee.
• Home Owner Association Amendments (no bill number available at press time) sponsored by Monica Youngblood (R-68) would cap HOA disclosure document fees to $200.

Other Bills on RANM’s Radar
RANM’s Legislative Committee has identified several other bills of concern, including:

• SB244, a bill that would make comprehensive changes to the Homeowners Association Act. As written there are concerns about language that limits to 30 days the time the disclosure documents are valid (meaning parties would have to pay for new documents after 30 days); a $400 cap on the disclosure document, an amount RANM feels is excessive; and an increase every three years of the cost of providing such documents.
• SB125, a bill that exempts auctioneers who auction real property from working under the control of a licensed real estate broker. In other words, under this bill an auctioneer does not need to be licensed to sell real estate.
• SB215 provides an “assessment contract” or Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loan for the leasing/purchase of solar equipment. The National Association of REALTORS®, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and other financial and real estate groups have expressed concern that PACE loans retain a first-lien position ahead of the primary mortgage.
• HB205, the “Vacant Rural Building Act”, would change rules for building codes to allow occupancy of a vacant commercial building by a small business.
• HB331 would allow landlords to return tenant deposits and itemized statements of deduction by mailing the statement and any payment by certified mail.
• HB146 makes it a crime to exploit a vulnerable adult by misappropriating, misusing, transferring, or selling their property.
• HB199 and SB210 are identical bills that provide more disclosure to homeowners who are financing and/or buying solar panels. These bills have received “Do Pass” recommendation from the first committees in which they were heard.

For a copy of any of the bills in this article, or to follow any legislation, go to: www.nmlegis.gov.
RANM lobbyist Nancy King discusses the latest on the HOA bill with Kent Cravens, lobbyist Brent Moore, Steven Anaya, and Ashley Strauss-Martin.
RANM will provide updates throughout the session, which ends on March 18.
By: REALTORS® Association of New Mexico
Click here to view source website.