100 Yellow Bicycles, Three Comps
As a Portlander (Oregon) and
Chicagoan (current), as well as
editor, I am excited to present
our second sustainability issue, following our Second Quarter 2007 issue, for
which hardly anything concrete about
the genre was known, other than the
fact that it was ready to explode. Despite
the slumping commercial and residential
real estate markets, it still is on the verge.
And now, as opposed to then, comps are
starting to come on the market, build-ers and consumers are applying a little
science to the construction and consumption (instead of falling for the marketers
use of the word “green”), and appraisers
are starting to understand how they can
interface with this burgeoning field, as
opposed to merely waiting for numerable
comps (they’re coming—numerous studies, some of which are outlined herein,
promise us!).
The feature spread starting on page
10, “Finding Green in Sustainability”
outlines how to get in on the ground
floor, and become a part of the decision-making process; as well as numerous
sidebars with resources galore! On page
18, attorney Fredric Prohov outlines the
important issues of “green leases,” another
burgeoning topic. And on page 14, guest
commentator Thomas Dorsey, MAI,
SRA, equates the future of the movement to when buildings got elevators or
air conditioning—things that are nowadays
commonplace and quantifiable.
“Quantifiable.” It was the same term
used by George Sullivan, the short-fused
firecracker of a developer I interviewed
for that second quarter 2007 issue
(http://207.208.196.137/webpac-bin/pdf/
VIP2007/Q207p5.pdf). If it wasn’t quantifiable, it wasn’t worth listening to. And
“green” was the term he railed against.
“Comp” was the one I playfully floated as
the more infuriating one, for appraisers—
at least at that time.
Back to Portland, the city that officially
endorsed a program ( http://c2.com/ybp/
story.html) in the early 1990s in which
they painted 100 (or more) bicycles bright
yellow and left them around the city for
anyone’s use, free of charge—just take a
bike you find, ride it where you need to,
and leave it there; the next person will do
the same. And so on (in other words, the
“cycle” continues).
In 1971, Oregon was the first state
to implement a bottle return policy to
encourage recycling and has spurred at
least eight other states to adopt similar
legislation. Over and above recycling, this
is how I used to make pocket change
as a youngster (including around $60
one particularly industrious weekend at
a campground—as I bothered everyone
with any cans outside their RV—“Umm,
can I take those?”). And the mayor from
1985-1992 was J.E. “Bud” Clark, himself
a bicycle rider who would exclaim
“Whoop, Whoop” as he rode around
town (and even so, he was re-elected to a
second term—that’s Portland)!
Upon moving to Chicago (which does
not have a bottle return policy, which is
criminal), its great public transportation
system enabled me to sell my car, with
nary a regret. (Although, if I did, there
is the iGo and ZipCar programs, which
are very akin to Portland’s 100 yellow
bicycles, but with cars and nominal fees.)
And Chicago Mayor Richard Daley—who
has vowed to make Chicago “the greenest metropolis in the nation”—was named
the fifth “greenest mayor” in the U.S. For
those in the know, due to his colorful
language and demeanor, he might also be
the craziest. Which got me thinking…
Maybe there is a certain element of
craziness in those passionate about their
sustainability issues. However, despite
the antics of Mayors Bud Clark and
Richard Daley, George Sullivan, and
pre-teen me, it might just be the appraiser who doesn’t take advantage of
the sustainability movement that is the
crazy one. Hopefully the articles in this
issue will help.
Valuation
INSSIIGGHHTTSS&&PPEERRSPSE PCET CITVIEVSEFSOFROPRRPORFE OSFSEIOSSNIAOLNRALEARLEEASLTAETSETATPEPRAAPISPERRASISERS
President
Jim Amorin, MAI, SRA
President Elect
Leslie P. Sellers, MAI, SRA
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Joseph Magdziarz, MAI, SRA
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R. Wayne Pugh, MAI
Chief Executive Officer
Frederick H. Grubbe
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Hope Atuel
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Adam Webster
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