By Howard Ecker Since our most recent election, fake news is, well, all over the news. It seems that everyone has their own perception about what constitutes “fake news.” Sometimes, I think fake news is anything that we really don’t want to know about or goes against our core beliefs. No matter your definition,
By Howard Ecker Every time you look up, there’s a new startup launching a business, a service or a product and setting up shop in a modern space or a co-working environment. And a lot of them are talented, smart and bold. They have the world by the tail. But for every success story,
By Howard Ecker I’d like to change the game. Change how tenants and how brokers think about the real estate leasing business. Actually, how the world thinks about the real estate leasing business. My plan? I’d like to propose a bidding process for potential clients, and then let the best person, combined with the
By Howard Ecker With all the excitement and speculation surrounding which city Amazon will choose for its second headquarters, I really have to pause to think of all the ramifications, both good and bad, that will result from the decision. The good part is, it will create more jobs than anyone can anticipate. Not only
By Howard Ecker As I read about the death of Hugh Hefner a few weeks ago, what came to mind was the effect that Playboy had on the city of Chicago and the iconic real estate that Playboy created — and what has happened to that real estate since. Recently, I relocated a tenant out
Picking out the perfect office space has always been a complicated decision, but it’s become much more difficult in recent decades. For the majority of human history, companies selected their space based on the headcount of employees they needed to support. Every employee came into the office to complete their tasks, and was hired with
It’s common for companies to hire either outside consultants or a real estate director to manage their commercial real estate decisions, but this often ends in disaster, especially if they are not properly guided. While yes, real estate directors may have specialized knowledge about the real estate market, it’s critical that someone who is knowledgeable
4 or 5 years ago, I began an effort to re-brand our company. To make a long story short, I came up with the phrase “seeing with new eyes”. It was my opinion that the commercial real estate market was changing dramatically, and unless we looked at things in a “different way” we would continue
I was recently interviewed by Forbes regarding the impact the new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) guidelines is set to have on company balance sheets. Referring to the new FASB guidelines as “the biggest change to hit business owners in decades,” author Brian Rashid examines the financial impact they will have on any business owner
While CFOs may understand the basics surrounding the new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) standards, they may not be aware of the many ways FASB could actually disrupt their business. Under the new rules, any lease over 12 months must now be recorded on the balance sheet as both an asset and liability by the
