Homelessness On The Rise

While those in the middle and upper middle class are seeing a reprieve, and a recovery from "The Great Recession"  The fact of the matter is that those that live in poverty last year, was 15%, down only .1% from Recession high of 15.1%.

Yes, Thankfully, the jobless rate is at its lowest in 5 years, and the stock market is setting new records, however, the bottom of the economic food chain seems to continue its struggle with little change.

This article in the Sun Sentinel points out some unsettling realites in the face of poverty, homelessness, and food stamp cutbacks.

For me, the most telling captions were

On an average night, more than 20,000 people sleep on Los Angeles' streets, and almost 2,000 of them are families or children living on their own, the city reported. Homelessness has increased 26% in Los Angeles since last year, and 16% of L.A.'s homeless were turned away for housing help.

Chicago reported an 11.4% increase in the number of homeless families since last year, with requests for emergency food assistance up 6%. City pantries had to reduce the amount of food they gave to the hungry. And homeless shelters were increasing the number of people allowed to sleep in a room to meet rising demand.

Rosenfeld Realty Advisors is involved in commercial real estate in South Florida.   As facilitators in the economy, by virtue of the fact that we focus on commercial real estate, we feel a l level of stewardship for those not yet participating in the recovery.

In whatever way you can, lend a hand, leave a comment, volunteer, better yet, give a job.   Lets continue to see this economy strengthen though our time and efforts and capital, and remember to pay particular attention to those in need to ensure that they see hope in their futures as well.

Comments welcome.

The Invisible Child... (Con't)

Homelessness and Poverty and our Children

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/#/?chapt=4

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/#/?chapt=5

This may seem like overkill to some of you but it is actually one long story that is broken up into 5 parts. While I know it is a lot to read, I think you will learn important things about a very neglected part of our society that is larger and growing faster than anyone knows. While we read about unemployment numbers being at record lows, and foreclosures are down this negativity barely even makes a blip in the way of national news but homelessness can no longer be ignored. The gap between rich and poor has never been so wide and again, it is growing wider very quickly with no end in sight. If this is not dealt with now think where it will be in just 5 years. It is truly heartbreaking that in a country where 50% of food is thrown away that there are so many people going hungry right here in the U.S. not some third world country.

The Invisible Child, Get upset, then act. #1

We need to shed more light on these kinds of stories and situations. More must be done to help the neediest people in our own country that the government and others just want to sweep under the rug and pretend it is not happening. But we all know it is happening, and sadly things are getting worse for these people, not better. I always think about them when I read that we (the U.S.) are giving hundreds of millions in aid to this country or that country, for the cost of our elections, billions of dollars for this or that. More of our resources need to go to these people, struggling Americans, in order to break the cycle of poverty. It is not that I don’t think we should be helping others around the world, I just think our own people should be helped first. As always, I welcome your comments or ideas. Thanks for reading and for making a difference out there.

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/#/?chapt=1


It is exciting to think that possibly hundreds of people might be able to read this article that otherwise wouldn’t. Maybe it can help in some way, if by increasing awareness of the issue if nothing else. It would be fun to go to one of these places like the Auburn House with a few thousand dollars and change their lives. With your help hopefully it can happen! If you have the time, read the article, which is very long and the first of a series. I promise I will be supplying the rest of them as well and will want to post them.

Palm Beach County Convention Center

• More Jobs

• More Money in the Economy

• More good news for Palm Beach County Commercial Real Estate!

It's been almost 10 years of planning, but the new Hilton, all beautiful 400 rooms, is under construction at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.

Related Co's broke ground on the $100Million dollar project.   The $100M is a hopeful number, but the real impact will be 1,500 new jobs, and an estimated Billion Dollars in economic activity  over 10 years.

Is it wrong, that what I'm most interested in is the 225 seat restaurant?   Not to those that know me!

Never has there been a more exciting time for South Florida Commercial real estate, seeing a solid recovery and growth.

Orin Rosenfeld Rosenfeld Realty Advisors 9858 Glades Rd., Suite 209 Boca Raton, FL 33434

Phone: 561-756-1665 Fax: 561-470-0707

The Madras Café – Pompano Beach - - Another Rosenfeld Restaurant Review!

Yes, we represent a restaurant for rent in the Village Tower Shoppes in Boca Raton, but we also LOVE going to restaurants, and sharing our reviews.

The Madras Café – Pompano Beach

Tucked away in a seedy unassuming strip center on Jog Rd. in Pompano Beach lies one of the hidden gems of South Florida restaurants – The Madras Café.

It is an Indian restaurant, and is even rated by Zagat. There aren't many of them in South Florida and what there is can be hard to find. This is no different but trust me when I tell you it is well worth the trip. First a little background in the location is humorous. I actually leased this center for a short time! Yes, along with probably 10 other brokers (maybe more?) over the years, we all mistakenly thought we would be the ones to fill the poor place up. Unfortunately due to many reasons, none of us were successful. So the center sits exactly as it was almost 6 years ago when I had the leasing about 25% occupied. Strange, but at least there is plenty of parking! The restaurant has been there at least that long and has expanded in the time they have been there. Must be close to 10 years or more, impressive for any restaurant.

I have never been to this restaurant at dinner, only lunch. It is excellent place to meet friends who work in Ft. Lauderdale since it is the halfway point between Boca and Ft. Lauderdale. They have a buffet style lunch, which I really love since I can overeat without feeling guilty. In this environment it is simply good value! Regardless, they have a bit of everything. The buffet line starts with some salads, and nacho looking dip stuff, cold vegetable concoctions and this last time even some watermelon. Then you get to the entree section, which starts with lentil soup. I really love lentil soup and this one if the spiciest I have ever had, truly excellent. But you need to be careful since there are long red chilies in there and if you are not careful and eat one, watch out! It goes great with the naan bread they bring, which is sort of like a pita bread. The entrees have everything from fish, to stuffed jalapeno peppers to lamb and chicken dishes. There are many vegetarian options, and everything they serve is prepared with tasty and sometimes spicy sauces. They have tandoori chicken on the bone, and chicken tikka masala which is in pieces. They even had lamb samosas which are like little knishes or empanadas shaped like triangles. If after all this you still have not had your fill, there are deserts, always at least 2 options. I can say that I have never had a glass of wine or beer here (since it is always at lunch) nor have I had room to try desert. That is a good thing since it means you really enjoyed the buffet. I would strongly encourage you to give this place a try! The food is worth the trip alone but the value is off charts! I think the lunch is $11. Enjoy and let me know what you think! I also love trying new places so I would also love to hear about any good restaurants you know of that I should try. Much appreciated and thanks for reading.

Orin Rosenfeld
Rosenfeld Realty Advisors
9858 Glades Rd., Suite 209
Boca Raton, FL 33434 Phone: 561-756-1665
Fax: 561-470-0707 Email: orin@rosenfeldrealtyadvisors.com

WHERE IS THIS SOUTH FLORIDA REAL ESTATE MARKET???

Wrap Up

We will find out very soon I think. The sales market has been on fire for A class properties of all asset types. Large institutions have compressed cap rates and off market deals are becoming increasingly rare. B and C class properties are starting to move now that capital has started moving again. But it is still restrictive, as is refinancing, and it is causing properties to change hands. The net leased sale market is beyond hot, with investors flocking to drugstore and home improvement stores, closely followed by the dollar stores. Clearly safe money is flowing to the higher yields these properties can provide as compared to bank investment options.

So what does it all mean? I am not exactly sure but I am advising caution to my clients, seeing slowdown in retail projections and inventories. This tells me that lots of people are preparing for slower times, especially with higher fuel prices suddenly upon us. Now more than ever it is critical to have up to date market information and advice to help you make decisions today. Mistakes can be costly and be problematic for years or even worse in certain situations. All of the above doesn’t take into account current global and national events, that can change everything very quickly (wars, problems with or in oil producing countries that raise the price of oil, gov’t shutdowns, etc.).

One must be on top of what is happening out there and how it can impact you and your business. We all have to be constantly looking for that one thing, whether it be a new idea, information, a new hire or other thing that can give us an edge to be successful. One of my favorite quotes is from Mahatma Gandhi which is “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” which is just good advice for everything in life on a daily basis in my opinion. It applies equally to business as it does to life. So make that extra effort out there today, for yourself, your business or anything else that is important to you and make it a great day!

If you have any ideas on the market or anything else that interests you from this blog I would love to hear from you. Thank you for your interest.

WHERE IS THIS SOUTH FLORIDA REAL ESTATE MARKET???

South Florida Commercial Real Estate

The Commercial Real Estate Market leasing market. Numbers here have been pretty strong, like the residential sales. Vacancy rates for all asset types (office, retail and industrial) have decreased and properties are enjoying healthy occupancy rates. Sounds good right? Well here is the info you don’t hear much of but I see often. The rents that are being realized are much lower than they had been. More concessions have been made to make the deals than Landlords have had to make in years. For office tenants with excellent credit, the resulting deal they can extract from a Landlord is often so lean that the Landlord doesn’t make money on it for years. The South Florida industrial market has been so hot that businesses are considering other options in the central and northern parts of the state because the rates have become so high and there is little supply. Everything Miami is on fire right now, which means office retail and industrial leasing, residential and commercial sales. The best news here may be that more companies from around the country and the globe are taking advantage of Florida’s business tax friendly real estate market which should continue (Office Depot) as the economy continues to slide. But with the bioscience industry still in its fledgling state and tourism being the number one revenue source for South Florida, where will the growth and jobs come from that are needed to sustain a healthy economy?