JONES LANG LASALLE CHANGES NAME TO JLL

Why is this news and why do we care? For many reasons. First some background. Jones Lang LaSalle is one of the largest global real estate services firm in the world. They are an international firm, and have been growing rapidly. It has been around since the 1960’s so changing the name is no small matter. Other competitors, CB Richard Ellis and Cushman & Wakefield had their own name abbreviations with CBRE and C & W but they have not changed their names. So what gives?? In no small part this was a result of technology. 4 reasons were given for the change, social media, the internet and international expansion. One of the driving factors was the fact that so many customers are accessing real estate information on their mobile devices and the shorter name makes it easier for people to find them. The fourth was that they also had a problem in China, where Mandarin speakers couldn’t come up with characters for the company name. Like their competitors, the abbreviated name was already widely used by people in the industry so it wasn’t a real stretch to change it. Still, this is the first large international real estate firm to make a change like this due to technology and Chinese influence. That speaks volumes as to what is going on now and where the industry is heading. Will other companies follow suit? I dare say it made me think of my own long company name, but since I am a local expert with no international aspirations I think it should be OK. Plus my web site is able to be viewed on mobile devices, something that my web developer stressed would be critical now and in the future. It is all going mobile these days so you better get with the program. And maybe change your company name.

Mobile Devices Spurred JLL Name Change

http://www.globest.com/news/12_809/chicago/other/Mobile-Devices-Helped-Spur-JLL-Name-Change-343499.html?ET=globest:e42258:4990a:&st=email&s=&cmp=gst:National_AM_20140306:editorial

Orin Rosenfeld

President

Rosenfeld Realty Advisors

9858 Glades Rd. Suite 209

Boca Raton, FL 33434

Phone: 561-756-1665

Fax: 561-470-0707

Web: www.rosenfeldrealtyadvisors.com

FLOOD INSURANCE REFORM?? HERE WE GO AGAIN?

I promised to keep an eye on this one and here is a serious update. This time the House has approved a bill, by a huge margin, to reform flood insurance. Since the last time this effort failed it was the House that killed the measure that had been approved in the Senate, there is hope that it will finally succeed this time. Rates will not be able to increase by more than 18% on primary homes if it passes. In a clever move to avoid the deficit from being further raised, fees of $25 for homes and $250 for businesses would be imposed to pay for it. Could this finally be the end of this issue?? How many hours, dollars and foreclosures did it take to get here, assuming we are there? How could an issue like this take so long to figure out? It seems like there are so many other issues out there that deserve more attention, this one should have been easy. A great example of politics at work, but at least they may have finally figured out this nagging and important issue that affects so many Floridians. As soon as there is another update here rest assured you will see it here in short order. As always thanks for reading and have a great day.

U.S. House passes flood insurance bill

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/morning-edition/2014/03/us-house-passes-flood-insurance-bill.html?ana=e_sflo_rdup&s=newsletter&ed=2014-03-05

PALM BEACH COUNTY FLOOD MAPS REDONE IN A YEAR?? MAYBE LONGER??

OK if you are a Palm Beach County resident and have high blood pressure, heart issues and live in a flood zone you might want to skip this posting. You see we are so far behind Broward County on this issue that we are not even sure when this will be done. Broward on the other hand, has completed their revamping of the flood insurance maps and the changes will take place this August! Now this is misleading, because this decision and process has no input or direction from the counties in question. It is completely run and on the time table of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). They finished the preliminary Broward maps in 2011 but didn’t get the final approval on them until last month. So when will Palm Beach Counties maps be done? That is the million dollar question, and there is only a vague answer that it could take up to a year. Or it could even take longer than that. FEMA started the process later in Palm Beach County than Broward for some unknown reason, and now we have a grossly inequitable situation on our hands. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some suing happy person trying to get compensated for this somehow in a lawsuit. Sure makes you feel like a 2^nd class citizen living in Palm Beach County on this one. You can be sure that this one will be updated when there is more news on it. As always thanks for reading and have a great day.

Palm Beach County may wait a year or more on flood zones

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-03-04/business/fl-palm-beach-county-flood-maps-20140303_1_flood-insurance-flood-zones-fema

Orin Rosenfeld

President

Rosenfeld Realty Advisors

9858 Glades Rd. Suite 209

Boca Raton, FL 33434

Phone: 561-756-1665

Fax: 561-470-0707

Web: www.rosenfeldrealtyadvisors.com

HONDA CLASSIC SETS ATTENDANCE RECORD

It is not that surprising is it? Florida is setting all kids of tourism records this year so I don’t think so. And much like our previous blog about the boat show, this event had a serious financial impact. There are also further parallels to that article in that I have no interest in golf, either playing or watching it, but I am looking at this strictly from an economic standpoint. The attendance to the event has almost doubled since 2010 when there were 101,200 visitors to the 193,052 this year. That is over 14% higher than the year before and it is the largest event in the county. It is estimated that the tournament generates $40 million in revenues, based on hotel stays and money spent by visitors. Maybe most important is the fact the people from around the world were watching sunny South Florida, which will further inflate tourism revenues going forward. Even charities are reaping the rewards from the event, having set a record last year with $2.13 million collected for 125 charities. That number is expected to be broken this year, although the numbers are not yet in to confirm that. With top golfers, perfect weather, and the rest of the country freezing to death what could be better than the Honda Classic this year? Other than the Miami Boat Show, not much!

Honda Classic hits attendance record

http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/sports/golf/honda-classic-hits-attendance-record/nd49M/?icmp=pbp_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_pbpstubtomypbp_launch

Orin Rosenfeld

President

Rosenfeld Realty Advisors

9858 Glades Rd. Suite 209

Boca Raton, FL 33434

Phone: 561-756-1665

Fax: 561-470-0707

Web: www.rosenfeldrealtyadvisors.com

Rosenefeld Restaurant Review!

Fat Tuesday... of course we are going to talk restaurants, but not NOLA, this time we take a trip to Italy, by way of Broward County Florida.

KITCHENETTA TRATTORIA TIPICA ITALIANA

Now say that 5 times fast! Most people just refer to this place as Kitchenetta, but I have to give you the whole mouthful for the official record. You will see more reviews of these good Broward restaurants here in the future as I am regularly meeting up with my cousin who lives in Plantation. We get together for dinner once a month and I am trying to try as many good places in Broward as possible.

I find out about most restaurants from 3 places. The Palm Beach Post, The Sun Sentinel, or Zagat restaurant guide. I started using Zagat years ago in New York and find it to be very reliable. Kitchenetta was rated a 27 there, which is the 2^nd highest rated place in the county so I figured it had to be good. The place is very 1950’s looking from the outside, but has been renovated inside. We sat outside, which was very nice but uncovered. My cousin noted that they could lose their entire outside seating area in the event of rain, but fortunately it was clear skies last night. There are lots of waiters and busboys running around here and they have a large special board that they bring to every table. We went with a mushroom pizza and escarole, beans and red peppers first. They were both excellent, especially the pizza. For entrees I went with a special, the chicken marsala. It was a whole chicken cut up into pieces (with the bones) and in a dark soupy sauce that had lots of mushrooms and roasted potatoes. It was very tender and I probably surprised people with how much I ate of it. My cousin had the special ravioli stuffed with osso buco. Both were great. Desert, was a little surprising. I went with the bread pudding which I ordinarily love. This was the only one I really didn’t and I only ate a few bites. My cousin had the ricotta cheese cake, and it was good. We switched midway through each and were happy. They had some solid wines by the glass, I enjoyed some tasty Sangiovese which was great. For desert they only had one port option and I went with it, a Sandemans 10 year tawny. We were able to wear shorts, and the atmosphere was very casual. Also gave very large portions, except for the pizza which was small. I would strongly recommend this place to others, and was very surprised by how reasonably priced it was. I would love to hear about your favorite restaurant or one you have just discovered. Thanks for reading as always and have a great day.

Orin Rosenfeld

President

Rosenfeld Realty Advisors

9858 Glades Rd. Suite 209

Boca Raton, FL 33434

Phone: 561-756-1665

Fax: 561-470-0707

Web: www.rosenfeldrealtyadvisors.com

BOCA RATON TO GET STUDENT HOUSING COMPLEX

History is being made with the creation of the first all student housing project in Boca Raton. Ground broke on Wednesday for the 279,000 square foot University Park project which is located at 135 NW 20^th St. It will open in the summer of 2015 and will feature 2, 3 and 4 bedroom apartments, furnished. Since it is in Boca, the apartments will have flat screen TVs and washing machines and bathrooms, unlike many other communal student housing complexes. But that is nothing compared to what you will find in the 2 story clubhouse. In addition to a student lounge, there will be a juice bar, 24 hour gym, tanning beds (just what every student in Florida needs, don’t tell Mom), video game rooms, computer labs and study areas. Wireless internet will be available of course. Finally, it will offer free shuttle service to the FAU and PBSC campuses in Boca. It is being built by Rosemurgy Properties, and experienced and respected developer. Is there any way this project can fail?? I highly doubt it. Congrats on a home run Rosemurgy! It will be great to see this one go up. Won’t be long now.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/fl-university-park-lede-x-jpg-20140226,0,920929.photo

Orin Rosenfeld

President

Rosenfeld Realty Advisors

9858 Glades Rd. Suite 209

Boca Raton, FL 33434

Phone: 561-756-1665

Fax: 561-470-0707

Web: www.rosenfeldrealtyadvisors.com

FLOOD INSURANCE REFORM??

I don’t think so. There is something strange going on here with this, and we may never know what it is. But one thing is clear, nobody from either party is very interested in getting behind this for whatever reason. The latest drama occurred when a vote that supposed to come this Thursday was abruptly postponed and no reason was given as to why. In the middle, almost forgotten in the middle of this political jockeying are some lower to middle class (along with some upper class for sure, but this won’t really affect them financially) people who will not be able to sell or pay their new insurance premiums and will be forced into foreclosure. It also raises the prospect of what will happen to these homes once they are foreclosed on? With prohibitive insurance premiums no one else will buy them and before long there could be entire towns or cities full of these types of homes. I think that Republicans are pushing for this, trying to protect their wealthy party members who are being affected by this, and Democrats are pushing back. They are in a rare position of arguing that the Government needs the money more and I think they are relishing it. Meanwhile regular people are caught in the crossfire. It is not right and a fine example of what is wrong with politics. How hard would it be to include some sort of provision in this that says if you have a home or net worth over $1,000,000 then the insurance reform doesn’t apply to you? We haven’t heard the last of this one, but this is clearly a round lost for the people in the battle for insurance reform.

Flood insurance fix vote suddenly postponed

http://politics.heraldtribune.com/2014/02/26/flood-insurance-fix-vote-suddenly-postponed/

Orin Rosenfeld

President

Rosenfeld Realty Advisors

9858 Glades Rd. Suite 209

Boca Raton, FL 33434

Phone: 561-756-1665

Fax: 561-470-0707

Web: www.rosenfeldrealtyadvisors.com

OFFICE DEPOT CUTS HQ STAFF BY 35%

This merger thing is starting out on the wrong foot here. I was very excited about this news, thought it would be great for Florida. Well, it still could be, but it looks like this company is going to have to keep reducing costs to get competitive. They just announced that they have laid off 35% of their staff since the $1.2 billion merger took place in November. Stock is sliding, and they are trying to reorganize. If you remember from one of my former blog posts about the unemployed, that we all know someone in this situation, who has become unemployed. In this one, it was my next store neighbor. He will remain nameless, but had worked at the firm for over a decade and was a very high executive there. He was led to believe that he survived the merger, and so feeling secure he began some badly needed home renovations that he had been putting off. It was then that he was given the news. He has 3 kids, and there are not many companies the size of Office Depot here. As companies fight for survival there are going to be casualties but there are right and wrong ways to do things. That being said, there could be more pain before it is all said and done. The job of reorganizing is huge, deciding on which stores to close, rebranding and renaming all the stores, etc. I wish them well but not sure I am going to shop there again.

Office Depot, OfficeMax cut HQ staff by 35%

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/morning-edition/2014/02/office-depot-office-max-cut-hq-staff.html?ana=e_sflo_rdup&s=newsletter&ed=2014-02-26

Orin Rosenfeld

President

Rosenfeld Realty Advisors

9858 Glades Rd. Suite 209

Boca Raton, FL 33434

Phone: 561-756-1665

Fax: 561-470-0707

Web: www.rosenfeldrealtyadvisors.com