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Moore's Law at the Urban Land Institute
Posted on | May 26, 2015 | Comments Off on Moore's Law at the Urban Land Institute
Moore's Law and Real Estate: Shrinking Demand for Physical Space Still Means Opportunity
Posted March 6, 2015 on the Urban Land Institute Triangle website – click here to go to the original posting:
According to strategic marketing guru Gunnar Branson, real estate is facing a shrinking demand for physical space as a result of Moore's Law, a prediction made in the 1960's by Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore that the computer power of micro-chips would improve exponentially every two years and take up less physical space as time over time.
As a result, so much of what we consider essential now fits on the smartphones or thumb drives in our pockets or on servers and databases accessed by cloud computing. No longer do consumers require libraries and bookshelves to store their magazines, books, and CD's. Companies no longer require as much office and storage space for documents that are now all digitized.
"This is not an opportunity to sell more square footage," Branson said. "We want people to pay more for less square footage." President and CEO of the Chicago-based National Association Real Estate Investment Managers, Branson delivered his remarks as part of the ULI Carolinas' Second Annual Meeting held in Charleston, February 9-10. Three district councils – ULI Triangle, ULI Charlotte, and ULI South Carolina – received an Urban Innovation Grant from the ULI Foundation to support the conference.
According to Branson, the reduction in physical space presents an opportunity – rather than an obstacle – for the real estate industry. Place-making should still be the priority of real estate developers and should be pursued according to three principles: density, diversity, and shared ownership.
"The denser people are, the more money we can make," Branson joked with the audience that seemed ready to agree with this conclusion. Diversity doesn't just mean ethnic and gender diversity, but diversity in retail rents, price points, services, and housing types. The more variation, the more interesting and engaging your development will be. Regarding shared ownership, Branson predicted that renting would continue on an upward trend with Millennials shy about homeownership. Car-sharing services like Zipcar, Lyft, and Uber are here to stay with fewer and fewer urban dwellers interested in owning their own vehicles.
Finally, Branson urged the industry to follow the "desire lines" of consumers – to observe consumer behavior and design product types and services that reflect what people are actually doing instead of trying to mold preferences to outdated paradigms.
– Archana Pyati is an impact writer on the Strategic Communications team at ULI headquarters in Washington, DC. Reach her at firstname.lastname@example.com.
what surprises you?
Posted on | January 29, 2015 | No Comments
These are good times for real estate, so why do we all feel so anxious? 2014 was a banner year with lower unemployment, lower cap rates and higher purchase prices than anyone thought possible. Capital from around the world is flowing into real estate even though projected yields for assets purchased today are a shadow of pre-recession pro-formas. Gateway cities continue to absorb very high pricing – above pre-recession levels – while secondary markets are warming up. Investment managers are raising capital, growing their teams and enjoying the fruit of their considerable labor.
And yet…things aren't exactly the same as they have been in the past. There are new disruptive business models, new real estate usage patterns, new regulations, and new institutional capital that is actively changing how the game of real estate is played and won. Meanwhile the overall economy isn't exactly boring either. It's difficult to predict what might happen in the next month, much less the next year or decade. In the midst of a recovery and growth cycle, we all continue to be surprised by what happens.
And the more surprises there are, the less likely our original assumptions are correct…hence, our collective anxiety in a strong economy.
But what if those surprises could be turned to our advantage? What if surprise can help us better understand what is happening and what might happen in the future? Julia Galef, the President of the Center for Applied Rationality recently wrote about how surprises help us discover deeper truths and understanding – that surprise is key to the scientific process. As she pointed out, Isaac Asimov once said that, "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka?' but, 'That's funny…'"
So, in the spirit of Isaac Asimov and Julia Galef, here are three things that surprised me in the last month: three surprises that are forcing me to question my assumptions and perhaps will help develop a more accurate picture of what is to come in 2015.
- Oil prices are half what they were six months ago. This surprised a lot of us, but we should have seen it coming. What else happens when there is more supply of something and no increase in demand? Will lower oil prices change the growth patterns of cities and suburbs? Will geopolitics change when oil based economies like Russia run out of money? How many investment strategies assume stable or rising oil prices whether they know it or not?
- Baby boomers are not downsizing. According to recent research by Nielsen, only a third of baby boomers plan to move to a new home in the next ten years. Of that third, half plan to increase the size of their homes, while the other half may decrease the size of their home, but increase the cost of that home through better finishes and better neighborhoods. How many economic predictions rely on the assumption that baby boomers are winding down?
- Interest Rates and Inflation have not gone up. Over the last few years, January has become a time when everyone predicts that rates must go up. And every year, that has not proven to be the case. Will it happen this year? How many portfolios rely on interest rates staying the same? How many strategies rely on them rising?
We live in a time of surprise whether we like it or not. This is a time when growth doesn't happen evenly, and where loss or can happen in an instant. The mistakes we make today will likely come from our own cognitive bias: the assumption that what has always been true in the past will continue to be true. Look at your assumptions the next time you are surprised. Are they right? What might happen if they aren't? Do you need to change them?
And the next time you catch yourself thinking, "that's funny…" there is a possibility that you are looking at the seeds of your next brilliant investment strategy.
Keynote Speech at U. of Colorado: Moore's Law of Real Estate
Posted on | December 10, 2014 | No Comments
buy vs. own – a strategic question.
Posted on | August 30, 2014 | No Comments
How many times, after an extensive planning session, have you or someone else in the room said, "Let's see if we can get 'buy-in' from our clients, colleagues or the market?" I've always found the concept of "buying-in" somewhat problematic. If a strategy is bought into by whatever constituency you wish, will it actually be supported? Will a "buyer" own the success or failure of your strategy?
People buy quite a few things that they never use, never care about and quite often forget about. How many interesting tools, articles of clothing or various knick-knacks have you purchased only to lose in some closet or drawer?
Shouldn't the goal of your strategy be to get others to share ownership? Owners, after all, tend to care far more deeply about the future of what they own. Owners have a tendency to prioritize resources, make sacrifices, adapt to change, and make every effort to create success. And with all the changes and uncertainty afoot, we need more owners than ever before – to solve problems, create resiliency and anticipate the future.
Instead of asking the question, "How do I get buy-in?" of your team, of your investors, and of all the other parties that can determine the success of your ventures, perhaps we should all ask, "how can I better share ownership?"
all ownership is shared – but how will we share it in the future?
Posted on | August 4, 2014 | No Comments
"We enter a new era. Are we ready for the changes that are coming? … In the perspective of fifty years hence, the historian will detect in (this decade) a period of criticism, unrest, and dissatisfaction to the point of disillusion – when new aims were being sought and new beginnings were astir. Doubtless he will ponder that, in the midst of a world-wide melancholy owing to an economic depression, a new age dawned with invigorating conceptions and the horizons lifted."
– Norman Bell Geddes, 1932
"We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims."
– Richard Buckminster Fuller, 1978
As our society changes, so do our cities – the places where civilization happens. Just as our cities changed after the Great Depression and in the post-war period, they are changing now to accommodate the needs, desires and resources of society. In the second decade of the 21st century, we are still recovering from a frightening global financial crisis, facing changing demographics, and profound innovations in technology and global communication. How will our cities change, and how can we steer them to make not just habitable but better than they were before?
That isn't a simple question to answer – in great part because no one person or entity owns or controls a successful city. There may be a strong political leadership, powerful corporate interests, organizations, tribes and thought leaders that can exert some influence, but at the heart of any successful city is fundamentally the sharing of ownership. The streets, the infrastructure, the buildings, and even the identity are owned by everyone who lives in the city. In the emotional or spiritual sense, it is intuitive that the city is shared. In a successful city, it is not uncommon to see someone pick up a piece of garbage or give a tourist directions to a museum, or shovel the snow off the sidewalk in front of their home or business – it is, after all, their city. Every citizen owns and is responsible it. When people don't share ownership, however, only the most oppressive regimes can keep up even the appearance of a functioning metropolis. City workers perform only the minimum tasks asked of them. Security is corrupt and often non-functioning. Garbage is left in the streets. New investments in private and public space from anyone other than the leaders become scarce and those free to leave, do.
Equally important as the emotional ownership is the shared economic and legal ownership. Over the centuries, we have created a series of structures, customs and laws that support sharing the city and its resources. Financial and governmental arrangements such as leases, mortgages, regulations, taxes, and shared services all support a rich shared ecosystem that allows a city and a society to flourish. As those structures change, so does the nature of the cities themselves.
Cities are shared, and how we share ownership will determine the shape of their future.
As an example, North American cities underwent a tremendous transformation in the second half of the twentieth century. As predicted and to some extent encouraged by Mr. Bell Geddes' prescient Futurama exhibit for General Motors at the 1939 World Fair, cities transformed through an expansion of the suburbs and the steady "emptying out" of the central downtowns. Superficially, this was enabled by factors such as new industries, massive engineering of roads and bridges, wide-spread automobile ownership, the expansion of the economy after a brutal depression, and an explosive post-war population surge. But the most powerful driver of transformation was the often overlooked innovation in shared ownership created by the Federal Housing Administration in 1934: the 30-year self-amortizing home mortgage.
No one thinks of a mortgage as particularly innovative, and yet it changed the decisions, behaviors, and opportunities for millions of people, perhaps even more than all the brilliant design, engineering and technology of the 20th century. Before the 1930's less than half of the U.S. population could own their home. A few short-term, balloon payment mortgages, where the entire principal had to be repaid in 5-7 years, were available, but only a small number of people had the means to take advantage of such loans to buy their own home. In 1910, the census showed that only 46 percent of families owned a home. Everyone else rented.
What happened over the next 80 years is well known and impressive to consider. Home ownership soared to over 65.9 percent of families in 2013. An astonishing majority of people in the US live in their own homes.
By any measure, the thirty-year mortgage has been very popular…and with good reason. As long as home values rise, the considerable cost of interest is mitigated or even superseded by the increased value of the home when it is sold. But there was an important catch to this innovation in shared ownership that transformed the landscape far more than a simple change in ownership structure: up until the 1970's a mortgage only worked for a single-family home. Anyone who wanted to own their home would have to leave the city center for neighborhoods and suburbs with room enough for individual houses. Mortgages weren't available for apartments until federally insured condominium mortgages were developed in the 1970's. Until that time, if you lived near the center of the city, you were a renter. If you wanted a mortgage, you moved out.
In the 1970's some people used condominium mortgages to stay in the city. In the next few decades, more people chose urban living and some city neighborhoods came back to life. In a few cities, suburban growth slowed while urban growth increased. For example, the U.S. census reported in 2011 that Chicago's overall population decreased by 7 percent over the previous decade – and yet the population in a five-mile radius from the center of downtown grew by 36 percent.
City center populations continue to grow – driven by changes in technology and the growing preferences of well-off baby boomers and millenials to live, work, and play within walking distance. But there is a downside to this recent success. Thanks to the law of supply and demand, living in today's revitalized downtowns is becoming too expensive for many people who want to live there – and that could limit future growth.
Is it possible for shared ownership to change again? Just as the 30-year mortgage developed the shape of the 20th century city, is there another structure that could facilitate the needs of the 21st century city?
Before considering what a new shared ownership structure might become, it's important to clearly understand what a lease and a mortgage share in common. If one rents a home from a landlord, one agrees to a lease of a defined term, usually one year. Every month during the term of that lease, rent must be paid to the landlord. If one buys a home with a mortgage, one agrees to a defined mortgage with a lender, usually ranging from 15 to 30 years, where interest (rental fee for the money) must be paid monthly. If a renter stops paying rent or if a borrower stops paying their mortgage, both are eventually evicted, and the possession of the home reverts to the landlord or the lender.
Of course, there are very important differences between a mortgage and a lease, including the capability for a borrower to retain appreciated equity on any increase in value in their home – but in fundamental ways when one leases a home, one pays rent for the property, when one mortgages a home, one pays rent for the money.
Having a mortgage is simply another form of renting. This is certainly supported by historical data on home ownership. Despite the current 65.9 percent home ownership rate, the percent of families that own their own home without a mortgage today is about 20 percent. Compare that to the rates of free-and-clear ownership in 1910 of about 30 percent. Viewed this way, a smaller percentage of Americans today own their homes than in 1910. Most Americans are still fundamentally renting their home, but use a different kind of rental agreement called a mortgage.
A similar financial construct allowed for most people to "own" cars as well. Car loans allow for "owners" to make a regular payment on their cars until they are paid off. Built into that payment is interest, or "rent" for the money needed to "own" the car. If a car owner stops paying the loan, the car is repossessed by the lender.
Renting money for a house and a car were crucial enablers for suburban expansion. Only by "renting" money could people afford to live in a home far away from the city and drive to work, shopping and to recreation. Without the mortgage and the car "loan", the suburbs might never have happened. But how good a "deal" is renting of money to own a home and a car?
Consider the cost of "owning" a car: even with a car loan or lease it is expensive. According to AAA's 2013 'Your Driving Costs' study, the average sedan costs $760 per month to own and operate. A larger car, such as a truck or SUV, is even more expensive.
At the same time, it appears that most car owners do not use their car all the time. For example, the 1995 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey conducted by the US Department of Transportation calculates that the average time spent by drivers in their cars every day is 1.2 hours – or five percent of the total time. That means that for 95 percent of the time, the car is not in use and is not providing value to the owner.
For most people it costs $9,000 every year to "own" a car that they only use five percent of the time. But what if you could monetize some of the 95 percent? What would happen if one had only to pay for 50 percent or 30 percent of that car? What if you had a membership in a club that gave you access to a car when you needed it, but shared it with other members when you didn't?
That's precisely what car sharing services like ZipCar, Car2Go and DriveNow do. Members only use cars when they need them, and the services are free to monetize the untapped 95 percent idle time by sharing the cars with other members. Drivers are able to pay less on a monthly basis to have access to cars at their convenience – and a single car is used by many people in any given day. The value proposition to users is very compelling, and these kinds of services are growing fast. At the end of 2013, Zipcar claimed that their revenues had almost tripled in four years from $106 million in 2008 to $279 million in 2012 and has grown to 850,000 members.
Instead of renting property, or renting money to own property, these services offer membership based access to assets.
The appeal of these car-sharing services is often somewhat misunderstood. The thousands of users who become members every year aren't joining just to save money – they are gaining access to more than they could possible get if they were owners. Just as belonging to a health club allows you to use facilities such as swimming pools or tennis courts that far exceed in quality that which could be built – sharing a car allows someone to live a far more elevated lifestyle than they could buy themselves through a money rental agreement like a car payment. For $700 a month, someone can "own" a modest sedan but through a car sharing membership, one can drive much nicer cars – even perhaps afford to hire shared limo drivers through services such as Uber at the same cost.
By changing from renting to membership, individuals are able to gain access to more and better quality services than they could before. Membership is not about saving money, it's about upgrading lifestyle. The question then becomes: can membership be as viable a model for real estate shared ownership as it is proving to be for cars? Can membership help more citizens gain access to the denser city centers of the future?
A membership is not as different from a loan or rental agreement as it might initially appear. In both a rental and a mortgage arrangement, ownership of an asset – whether it's a car, a house, an apartment or an office, ownership is shared – between a landlord and a tenant or between a lender and a borrower. Membership is also shared ownership, but it is shared with a larger group of people.
This form of membership has already begun to be applied to office space. Usually, the only way for a business to access office space is to buy an office building or to rent blocks of offices space in an extended lease of five to 20 years. This buy or lease model has served large stable companies quite well, but smaller and faster growing companies are effectively shut out of the higher quality office space in downtown locations.
At the same time, there is a surprising amount of office space available. Even in healthy downtowns where there are limited vacancies, most offices stand empty at least two-thirds of the time. Someone walking down the streets of downtown New York, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Boston or Chicago, all currently healthy office markets with high official occupancies, might be surprised to see how many empty windows there are. What if all that capacity was put to work?
Co-Working spaces such as Galvanize in Denver, Next Space in California, General Assembly and Neuehouse in New York all offer different versions of memberships for individuals and companies to locate their office – without renting. By doing so, just like car sharing, it is possible for more people to use the same amount of space. It also allows for a higher level of office space than those companies could afford to create themselves, located in coveted downtown locations, with a high level of services, infrastructure and flexibility for companies that are growing and changing every month instead of every 10 years. If a company needs to add workers, they simply have to add memberships, not go looking for new office space to lease. With membership in co-working offices available, a whole new demographic of companies, entrepreneurs and free-lancers can leave their attics and garages to work downtown.
These co-working spaces are surprisingly efficient. Some operations report as much as three times the number of members than desk chairs in their office. Instead of measuring the optimum amount of office space as 100 or 200 square feet per person, a membership model allows far greater density. This is important if everyone wants to be downtown, and may be a key to understanding what our cities might look like in the decades to come: a lot denser than they are now – but there is a good chance that it won't feel very crowded. Instead of offices and homes standing empty most of the time as they do today – if the buildings are used more efficiently, with different companies and individuals using space at different times of day and the week, it's possible for more people to use the same amount of space without being on top of each other.
Interestingly, the density of people downtown is far less today than it has been historically. According to a study done by Jerome Pickard in 1967, Dimensions of Metropolitanism, for the Urban Land Institute, the population density in 1920 for five of the largest cities, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Pittsburgh was about 8,400 people per square mile. In 2010, those same five cities have a population density of 3,100 people per square mile. Certainly, these cities' populations grew in size over 90 years – by a considerable amount – but they mostly grew out thanks to the dramatic expansion of suburban communities. Meanwhile, city centers built millions of square feet of new office product and lost over 60percent of their residential population density.
Today the greatest demand in our cities is for living space. More people want to live close to where they work. There are many reasons that may explain why this is happening, ranging from higher costs and congestion for commuting to a shift in aspirations towards a more urban lifestyle. Perhaps the simplest and strongest reason for the increase in demand for city centers is that people want to be closer to their friends.
When looking for a place to live, the assumption for many years is that most people value the quantity of space they can acquire above all other considerations; as in, "how much space can I get for the money?" And although many people still ask that question, it is not the primary driver of living decisions; instead it is a bit more complex.
An apartment developer recently asked prospective tenants what amenities or features they valued most in a potential apartment, and what would most influence their decision to move into or stay in any given building. The list of features that prospects were asked to rank included things like swimming pools, concierge services, workout rooms, parking, party rooms, cleaning services and many others. With all these high-value, and often expensive amenities on offer, it was striking that the most influential feature, well above anything else, was "a friend that lives in the building." The social aspect of home purchase or rental decisions is quite often the primary driver. Even single family home buyers select the neighborhood they want to live in, often one close to friends and family members, well before they try to find the largest or most attractive house they can afford.
Membership structures can help make a more social lifestyle affordable for more people. If one lives close to where they work, and has easy access to car share service, mass transit, and taxis, one can forgo owning a car entirely – and save the $700 + per month cost of ownership. That frees up more money to pay for a more expensive apartment. But it is important to remember that even though urban living is more expensive on a per square foot basis, the difference in price for a living space isn't always that much. Urban living is very different from suburban living, in that much more time is spent in shared spaces, such as coffee shops, parks, lobbies of apartments, etc. In the suburbs, there is far less common space, and much more time is spent in a private home. Therefore, a suburban home needs to be larger than an urban one – as more time and more activities take place there. Urban homes can be much smaller because people spend less time there – and therefore more affordable as a whole despite a higher per square foot price.
An apartment membership scheme could make urban living even more accessible. Membership based office space has fewer empty windows than traditionally leased office, but thanks to more efficient space design and scheduling, there is plenty of room for everyone to work. Managed correctly, apartments could also use shared space more efficiently through membership. One of the drivers of vacancies or non-use of apartments in existing buildings is that peoples' lives often change faster than the term of a lease. One might take a new job too distant from the apartment, fall in love and decide to live together – or even welcome a child or pet into the home.
In a pre-membership environment, space stands empty until the lease expires and finds a new tenant. Imagine what would happen if instead of signing a one-year lease for an apartment, one could join an apartment building for a one-year membership. If during the membership term one changed jobs or decided to move in with someone else, one could up-grade their membership to allow them to shift to a larger apartment or to another building owned by the apartment company. Instead of losing a tenant at the end of a lease term because their life changed, a building owner would be able to deepen their relationship and hold on to members by accommodating to their life changes.
High-end apartment buildings built today already feature quite a bit of shared membership attributes. Shared amenities such as outdoor patios, dog walks, yoga studios, swimming pools, gyms, lounges and party rooms replace the need for large private spaces that used only a fraction of the time by their owners. If one joins an apartment building, much the same way one joins a health club, it may be possible for members to enjoy a better lifestyle than they could create on their own.
Imagine what would happen to our cities if membership became the dominant form of ownership rather than the lease or mortgage. More people of a broader economic spectrum could enjoy the amenities and pleasures of a city at a lower cost – and encourage more uses in close proximity. Consider, for example, what might happen if more people shared a single amenity such as a swimming pool. According to a 2013 study by Benedikt Gross and Joseph Lee called "The Big Atlas of L.A. Pools" there are over 43,000 swimming pools across the greater Los Angeles area – most of them privately owned – costing over $946,000,000 in construction costs, 22 million square feet of land and 760 million gallons of water. More sharing of those pools – could provide swimming to more people for a fraction of the money, land, and water used today. Not everyone can or should pay $22,000 to swim in their own pool. Many more people can pay a membership fee to share that pool with 10 to 100 other people. Sharing of amenities means that fewer assets have to be made, less land is needed, less transportation required, less energy consumed and less carbon created – but more people can have access.
Since the beginning of cities, there has been some form of shared ownership. The evolution of the forms of shared ownership, whether they are leases, mortgages or memberships have and will continue to define the shape of our cities. If membership becomes a more dominant form of shared ownership, it is quite possible that in the next twenty years, the density of cities could double, and their citizens will share more of what a city can offer.
2014 CRE forecast moderated by Branson (video)
Posted on | January 31, 2014 | Comments Off on 2014 CRE forecast moderated by Branson (video)
an empty space for NAREIM – new HQ in Chicago profiled
Posted on | January 25, 2014 | Comments Off on an empty space for NAREIM – new HQ in Chicago profiled
For a print version with photos, click here.
Can space change the way people behave, interact, and ultimately think? Is it possible for an environment to help create thought?
"This is not a typical association office," exclaimed a recent guest after walking into the new offices of the National Association of Real Estate Managers (NAREIM). It is an open format environment, simply and elegantly furnished, on the third floor of the iconic Wrigley building. Out the windows are views of Michigan Avenue below, the Chicago river and some of the most exciting 20th century architecture in the world. This is less an office for association staff and more a gathering place for those making new connections, challenging their thinking, and learning how to run their businesses better.
In only a few months, the space has proven to be a flexible stage for strategy sessions, association meetings, and roundtable discussions—and has even served as a location for a student job fair. NAREIM members routinely use the space as a temporary Chicago office, holding meetings with colleagues and clients. And a good number of meetings in the 2014 NAREIM schedule are already planned to take full advantage of the new facility
The Wrigley Building was the first office building to be built north of the Chicago River in the early 1920's, concurrent with the bridge connecting North Michigan Avenue with the Loop business district south of the river. Designed by the architecture firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, the grand new headquarters for the Wrigley chewing gum company was modeled after the Grialda tower of Seville's Cathedral with white glazed terra-cotta ceramic tile cladding and ornate towers on top of the two office blocks. It was old but new from the beginning. Despite its elaborate detail and old-world inspiration, it had the most modern conveniences of the time and was the first air-conditioned office in Chicago. It stands almost like a gateway to the avenue, turned slightly off the grid of the streets and open to views and light on all sides. At night, bright spotlights light up the façade to glow like a beacon on the river. It may very well be the most recognized building in Chicago – and certainly seems to be the most photographed, as on any day looking down from the office windows, one can see a constant queue of photographers—profession and amateur alike—in the plaza below.
Owned by Wrigley throughout the 20th century, it was sold in late 2011 to a group of investors that include the Zeller Realty Group—managers of the building to this day. One month after the sale, NAREIM signed an agreement to lease space on the third floor of the north tower and move in once renovations were completed.
Here was a rare opportunity to create a stage for discussions—a place where members could connect, think in public, and work through the issues affecting their industry and their businesses.
The celebrated theatre director and author Peter Brook wrote in his 1968 book, The Empty Space, "A stage space has two rules: 1) anything can happen; 2) something will happen."
Is it possible to create a place where anything can happen and something would happen when NAREIM members came together? With the build out of the new office, we intended to find out.
As a favor to the association, Donna Powers Branson took on the task of overseeing the build out and design of the interior. Drawing from her experience in the theatre, in retailing, and as an independent film art director, Donna had a considerable challenge with an oddly T-Shaped corner space that had not been occupied since the mid 1970's. Fifteen hundred square feet that encompassed four separate office spaces, finished with thin veneered cabinets and radiator covers, gold-colored carpeting, and a dropped ceiling of acoustical tiles. Long abandoned paint peeling and flaking off the walls, ceiling tiles missing or dropped on the floor, and electrical wiring hanging ominously from the ceiling, it initially felt less like a headquarters for an association and more like the setting for a horror movie.
It was time to start from scratch. Everything was stripped bare—walls and cabinetry removed, the remaining ceiling tiles taken away. The morning's light lit the entire office, burning clean the gloomy darkness that once hung in the air. It was immediately apparent; this bright, open light was what we would build around.
According to Donna, "To retain the best aspects of the space, we decided to keep it as open and spare as possible. NAREIM is all about new perspectives, flexible thinking, and looking forward. The space needed to reflect that." No solid walls were built inside the space; no drop ceilings installed; no cubicles or dividers. Instead of covering up the radiators—they would be kept open, cleaned up, and given a fresh coat of paint. The nicks and scrapes that a building acquires over 80 years of use would still be visible, but made fresh and clean.
Since the ceiling was perhaps the roughest surface—and crowded with everything from conduit and fire sprinklers to HVAC ducts—most tenants would have simply installed another drop ceiling. Instead, to create the visual effect of a more finished ceiling below the mechanicals without blocking air-flow or lowering the height, lighting pendants were used. Reproduced from a design quite common in 1925 when the Wrigley Building was first constructed, the hanging fixtures mix modern with old with sculpted fluorescent bulbs that echo the shapes of early Edison filaments.
Furnished with simple and moveable furniture, the intent was to allow each meeting to adapt the environment as needed. At the same time, the environment needed to stimulate new thinking. According to Donna, "The last thing we wanted was 'conventional' furnishing. Instead of traditional office furniture, we used a mix of clean mid-century and industrial pieces with some historical references to Wrigley's history. The addition of art added an occasional pop of color as well as wit." The mix of mid-century and industrial is well represented by the meeting tables made from reclaimed barn wood set on wheeled legs of galvanized steel and simple chairs, copies of the classic 1957 Arne Jacobsen Model 3107 chair that were stained a deep indigo blue.
Instead of carpeting, the floor was laid with vinyl tiles made to look like wood planks—easily cleaned and maintained at a fraction of the cost of true wood floors. Using a hard surface created an uncommonly high level of energy as the acoustics became much more lively. The dead acoustical effect common in modern offices created through carpeting and drop ceilings can be very useful for audio recordings or conference calls as there is no echo when people speak. However, those kinds of acoustics can also have a deadening effect on individuals' energy levels—and make it difficult for someone to be heard across a larger room without amplification. When people hear their voices bounce back from hard surfaces, it not only provides a boost to energy levels, it also helps the speaker intuitively moderate their voice to be comfortably heard by others.
That is why most public spaces built before microphones were commonplace have a similar acoustical signature. The environment functions as a literal amplifier of sound and energy—and in the process allow speakers to be more intimate and spontaneous than they would if handing around a microphone to speak.
Simple, easy to adapt, and loaded with visual wit, the new NAREIM Headquarters has arrived. Members now have a meeting space in Chicago to drop in on, engage in discussion, and connect to their colleagues. This is a place where anything can happen and something always does.
This is not a typical association office, but perhaps it should be.
PrivCapRE Discussion – changes in real estate and capital (video)
Posted on | November 20, 2013 | Comments Off on PrivCapRE Discussion – changes in real estate and capital (video)
Why Real Estate Matters
Posted on | September 13, 2013 | Comments Off on Why Real Estate Matters
Real estate matters…quite a bit more than many people assume. Not only does real estate account for a full fifth of the gross domestic product, it is the infrastructure, ecosystem, and structure for a fully functioning economy. The boxes we define as offices, stores, warehouses, and homes are only the physical manifestation of a broad range of activities that tie every aspect of our society and economy together into a broad and deep network of trust. The pursuit of real estate investing is a valuable and essential part of building and maintaining civilization.
…and it requires quite a bit of thoughtfulness.
There is an assumption that real estate is simply about the deals; that is, whoever gets the best deal, either the purchaser or the seller, wins. And though the ability to negotiate better than the counterparty of a deal is a key part of success in this business, it is not everything. Real estate professionals also have to understand, anticipate, and help to shape economic activity throughout the term of an investment. Purchasing that investment at a low price and selling it at a higher price is absolutely necessary, but there's a lot more to it than negotiating terms.
According to the tired old cliché of real estate, the three most important elements of successful real estate are "location, location, location". In some ways, the cliché – like most clichés – is too facile to explain the intricacies and importance of this business and it implies a somewhat defeatist or passive view of investing. In other words, it is difficult to swallow the notion that "location is destiny" – especially when real estate investors have had quite a bit of influence in the discovery, building, improvement, and creation of new locations around the world.
In 2009, the New York Times published William Safire's analysis of where 'location, location, location" came from. According to his research, the earliest recorded mention of the phrase he could find was in a 1926 Chicago Tribune real estate classified ad that said: "Attention salesmen, sales managers: location, location, location, close to Rogers Park." This is especially ironic to anyone who invests in Chicago real estate since property values in Roger's Park are typically half of the average Chicago property.
But if the rules of real estate aren't "location, location, location" what are they?
Here are three new rules to consider: Density, Diversity, and Shared Ownership.
What makes for a successful location? It has quite a bit to do with how many people want to spend time there. If your building is where the most people want to be, it has the highest potential for revenue. The denser people are, the more opportunity there is, the more value there is. In some ways the real estate profession creates the infrastructure for density. Real estate makes density possible.
Diversity of people, of cultures, of uses, and of economic activity is essential for thriving places, cities, and communities. In farming, it may be possible to improve crop yields if one devotes a large area to a single crop, but the moment conditions change, perhaps due to difficult weather, an invasion of parasites, or a shortage of water and nutrition in the soil, that monoculture is less likely to survive than farmland planted with a variety of crops. Cities and communities behave much the same way. Less diverse economies like Detroit enjoyed tremendous growth at first – built around one very successful industry – but are particularly vulnerable to economic shocks. More diverse economies are able to handle changes in the economy better and return to full productivity sooner. As Ecclesiastes said, "divide your investments among many places for you might not know what risks might be ahead."
At the same time, a diversity of businesses, cultures, and people promotes faster formation of new businesses, new technologies, and new ideas. A successful real estate investment depends on the economic success of the people and businesses that occupy the asset as well as the surrounding area. Diversity creates new growth and mitigates the natural volatility of a business cycle.
Shared Ownership
Every tool at the real estate professional's disposal is essentially a device to promote shared ownership – whether it's the JV agreement, the limited partnership, the GP-LP relationship, the mortgage or the lease. Every agreement and contract is designed to bind all the parties as much as possible in a shared responsibility for the success of every asset. The tenant needs to feel that they share in the ownership of a building as much as the lender or equity partner; the property management team needs to own its success as much as the developer or owner. Everyone should be able to come together and work out the problems when the asset falls and share in the rewards of its success when it prospers.
At its best, the commercial real estate industry is all about sharing a sense of ownership. And the most successful markets are passionately "owned" by all the participants.
For the best real estate investors, destiny is not just something in the stars, or in some pre-ordained quality of location, but rather in ourselves and in our ability to solve the challenges presented by a swiftly changing world.
CBC Lang & O'Leary Interview with Gunnar Branson (Video)
Posted on | July 24, 2013 | Comments Off on CBC Lang & O'Leary Interview with Gunnar Branson (Video)
Gunnar Branson appeared recently on the CBC's Lang & O'Leary Exchange to discuss the ongoing densification of cities and its impact on commercial real estate in Toronto.keep looking »


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After the Primary
Community Contributed
By Barbara Haliniak
On May 21, I filed my campaign nomination papers for State House District 13 which gave me only 80 days to actively campaign before the Aug. 9 Primary Election. Therefore, it was a crunch campaign for my run against an eight-year incumbent. And since I chose not to solicit campaign contributions for this election, the money contributed was from friends, family and my own funds, which resulted in limited trips to Maui including a trip to Hana, suppressed any trips specifically for sign waving activities on Hana Highway and only one trip to Lanai. Although it was a low budget short campaign, I felt I ran a good campaign with a passionate heart to bring positive outcomes for District 13 communities (Molokai, Lanai, Hana, Haiku, Paia and East Maui).…


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Submited by- Sitagita Team on 30 Nov, 2012 LIFESTYLE FESTIVALS & CULTURE
are available for festive decorations with Rangoli. The basic of a Rangoli design is to draw similar patterns... is the essence of Rangoli. The following designs for Rangoli on Deepawali are illustrative of this essence... of Rangoli making. The basic feature in all the designs is repetitive nature of a single pattern...Rangoli making is an Indian practice of decorating the house on festive occasions. It must have.... The whole kingdom along with the king fell into mourning and praying. The Brahma took pity on the mourners Read More...
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Submited by- Sitagita Team on 14 Dec, 2012 LIFESTYLE FESTIVALS & CULTURE
drawing very much alive and vibrant. Rangoli designs are also said to bring good luck to a household.... Most Rangoli designs consist of basic geometrical shapes like squares and triangles, and the sizes vary... in the house add onto the original design from the first day of Onam till the last (or the tenth) day... is drawn in the middle of the Aipan. Besides the Rangoli designs mentioned above, flowers and flower... petals can be used in any Rangoli design to make it look different and vibrant. Marigold petals, rose Read More...
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Submited by- Sitagita Team on 09 Jul, 2013 LIFESTYLE FESTIVALS & CULTURE
beautiful designs. These are then filled up with colours to make them look attractive.This form of rangoli... the rangoli design. These days rangoli posters and stencils, fabric paints are available in the markets... these days that make rangoli designing easy even for beginners. Rangoli Designs 1.Simple Dot Kolam... Rangoli Designs Dot Kolams are easy to make and are ideal for beginners. You can join the dots, keeping... your design. 3.Peacock design Peacock designs are one of the most widely used designs in rangolis Read More...
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Submited by- Sitagita Team on 10 Apr, 2013 LIFESTYLE FESTIVALS & CULTURE
and having colors of all kinds added to them. Apart from the design of the rangoli, the one thing... with it a dash of color and texture to the design. Here are some of the popular colors of rangoli... available, you could use synthetic dyes and colored sawdust too. Since rangoli designs have become very... to create vibrant designs on your rangoli. Flower petals, beads and other decorative items are often also... used to create beautiful and colorful designs. So once you have chosen the design and created Read More...
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Submited by- Sitagita Team on 06 Aug, 2013 CAREER WOMAN & CHILD EDUCATION
Missed the school bus again? Hate having to drive your children to school in your dishevelled hair... and your night pajamas? Morning hours are the craziest time for mommies when they have to wake their kids.... If you planning to pack things like aloo parathas or fried rice for your kid's lunch box Read More...
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Submited by- Sitagita Team on 30 Aug, 2012 CAREER WOMAN & CHILD EDUCATION
for the question paper. We solve the last 10-years question papers, question banks and other work sheets so that we... do not fall in a situation when we have to face an unexpected question paper. Still, there are times... when the examiner throws unexpected questions in the paper and leaves the rest to us. All of us do... panic in such a situation. The first thought to strike our minds is that of failure. Our expectations...'t even look thoroughly at the question paper! Here are some tips that would help you Read More...
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will go through in school if this is the case in pre-nursery.Numbers, Alphabets, colors(not just...how is air pollutionThese are just a few of the things which a "Pre-school" - the child will...have to learn so as to get admission to "main school" (in nursery)?When questioned about why the children... officials visits required to atleastarrange for some relief for kids?If polio vaccine can Read More...
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The First StepThey say taking the first step is the hardest. In fact when women go out... and become entrepreneurs, believe me, that first step gets even harder! But I feel every woman should make... an effort to take that first step. Becoming an entrepreneur also means taking charge of the money... duty to raise confident, well-rounded children, who have high self-esteem? We want our kids to go out... to nothing about finance or money matters when I first started my boutique. But as time passed I learnt a lot Read More...
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Let me be honest about it, this is my first blog. Ive never blogged before, even though I have... published online. So I thought, why not! Im going to be the first to blog about Womens Blogs...�ve just poured my thoughts out, hoping other women will come forward and together we can become a powerful Read More...
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Perhaps the only female designer in the first ever Van Heusen India Men`s Week who is going... to showcase her collection individually, Rajvi Mohan has managed to create a distinctive design aesthetic... of sophisticated, fun and quirky designs for the discerning male client who lives and works in a global space. Her... and designs. The industry will only grow once the realization sets in, that the market is big enough for all... parties, right from design to production and retail, all sectors must invest in every step, to reach full Read More...
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the first cheque. I spent the whole amount on charity, as I had made a vow to do so... at marketing. Then what else to do? I considered partnership with existing business houses. I did not come... came into existence. I was excited when my first assignment was to place a HR manager for a big group Read More...
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Donkey BasketballDate: Sunday, March 23, 2014 Time: 4:00 pm
Location: Show map 49 Gym
Fairbury, NE
Fairbury, NE
Come see the Crasiest Show on Earth!
Come see the Crasiest Show on Earth!
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I have a project that is a WCF client using netTCP endpoints. The project compiles into a DLL that is referenced by another project. I use AppSettings to switch between local and remote ip endpoints like so:
public EmbeddedClient()
//Grab ip to use: remote or local (used for simulator)
String location = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ipAddress"];
String ip = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings[location];
//Default to localhost if no appsetting was found
if (ip == null)
ip = "localhost";
String address = String.Format("net.tcp://{0}:9292/EmbeddedService", ip);
//Setup the channel to the service...
channelFactory = new ChannelFactory<IEmbeddedService>(binding, new EndpointAddress(address));
My App.Config is where I have my AppSettings and WCF endpoints:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<add key="ipAddress" value="local"/>
<!-- Replace above value to "local" (Simulator) or "remote" (Harware)-->
<add key="local" value="localhost"/>
<add key="remote" value="192.168.100.42"/>
<!--WCF Endpoints go here--->
When I compile the project the appsetting always returns a null. I also noticed that app.config is renamed to something like Embedded_DCC_Client.dll.config after compiling. Why is it not able to find my appsettings? Why is it returning null? Thanks.


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Use the tools below to refine your search by only displaying reviews with a certain number of star ratings or to only show reviews from a certain time period. Eg click on '1 star' to just display the reviews we have which received a 1 star rating click or 'Within the last month' to display just reviews posted over the last month.
Written on: 11/01/2009 by CloClo1 (22 reviews written)
Ben and Jerry's Baked Alaska is my all time favourite ice cream. It's exactly like Phish food, but it's all white chocolate, and the chunky polar bears are so sweet… Read Full Review
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" Heavenly " Read More
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Monochromatic Is Not a Disease
By Jill Davis, Founder of Scrapbook.com
In my youth I caught the infectious 'mononucleosis' virus. I knew at the time that 'mono' meant 'one' so I hoped the experience would be a one-time thing. Fortunately, my wish came true.
Years later I caught another bug, similar in name but much more difficult to shake: it was called Frustrated Monochromatic-itis. It came to a point where I wondered if there would ever be a cure…
Worried that you might be infected with Frustrated Monochromatic-itis (FM)? Read on!
What is Frustrated Monochromatic-itis...?
Have you ever bought a navy blue sweater thinking it would look great with your favorite pair of navy blue pants, only to find that the colors were "off" just enough to look terrible together? The reason they don't match is because the navy blues were made from different dye blends.
This problem exists in scrapbooking too when you try to find matching cardstock, especially lighter versions of the same color. If you've ever found yourself annoyed, disturbed, or irritated because you can't find a light colored cardstock to go with a darker colored piece, you have Frustrated Monochromaticitis.
While the light-to-dark contrast sometimes works well, the color-clash is frustrating! Most scrapbookers give up on the idea of trying to find pleasing color selections, and opt for working with two different colors.
Sufferers of FM usually have stacks of cardstock in a myriad of colors but few could be combined to form a decent monochromatic layout. Those afflicted usually know there's a problem but may feel like something's wrong with them for not being able to figure out what it is.
What does monochromatic mean?
"Mono" joined with "chroma" means one pure color or hue in multiple shades, tones or tints. Monochromatic color seems to make more sense when you can see a sample. See the Bazzill Basics Monochromatic Red Multi-Pack. [See Figure 1] The samples form a graded scale beginning with intense red color and ending with very, very light red.
Figure 1
How does one color become truly monochromatic?
To best describe how a monochromatic scale is formed, I'll use a monochromatic color triangle. [See Figure 2] Every monochromatic color triangle begins with one foundation color located at the top angle.
This color will vary from triangle to triangle, but every base will have one black angle, one white angle and a grey midpoint.
Shades, tones, and tints are created by adding calculated amounts of value (black, grey, and white) to the foundation color.
Figure 2
In other words...
foundation color + any % of a black value = a shade
foundation color + any % of a grey value = a tone
foundation color + any % of a white value = a tint
Grades (levels) of the shades, tones, and tints create the triangle lines that connect the top angle to the black, white or grey points on the base line.
How are the triangle lines completed? Looking at the monochromatic color triangle, you'll see that the samples from the Red Monochromatic Multi-Pack form the line from Maraschino to White:
1st color = Foundation color = Maraschino
2nd color = Foundation color + % of white value = Watermelon
3rd color = Foundation color + 2 x (% of white value) = Flamingo
4th color = Foundation color + 3 x (% of white value) = Blossom
5th color = Foundation color + 4 x (% of white value) = Quartz
6th color = White value
Therefore, monochromatic scales are created by adding various levels of value to your foundation color. And, monochromatic color triangles are created by displaying the monochromatic scales of shades, tones, and tints.
You no longer have to search high and low to find cardstock that has dark to light harmony. You can now successfully create a pleasing monochromatic layout [See Figure 3] or combine cardstock colors for a multi-colored masterpiece [See Figure 4]. This is the cure for Frustrated Monochromatic-itis.
Figure 3 - February Quick Calendar
Figure 4 - Eden's First Shoes
Who developed this miracle cure?
Bazzill Basics Paper (known for colorful, high-quality, acid-free cardstock) was founded four years ago by scrapbook industry front-runner, Doug Jones. He and his talented staff were the first to create and distribute a true monochromatic line of cardstock. The Bazzill texture was added to the original 45 colors and introduced at the Hobby International Association convention (HIA) in 2003. These textured cardstocks are comprised of nine harmonious monochromatic color groups (or hues). Traditional monochromatic packs offer a group with one true color and four tints totaling five different papers with intensities from light to dark.
At HIA 2004 the new Monochromatic Trio line was introduced. Different from the white tints in the Monochromatic Multi-Pack line, these colors are based on grey tones. Each color pack contains a foundation color and two tone colors. These new colors coordinate well with the original monochromatic colors (see Figure 4 - Eden's First Shoes - blues are from the Blue Monochromatic Multi-Pack and purples are from the Velvet Trio Pack).
Bazzill Mono Mini Albums, also introduced at HIA 2004, have a cardstock cover measuring 5"x7" or 6"x6". The cover is made from the next-to-deepest tint in each of the monochromatic packs . The inside pages and envelope are the lightest tint. So, if you purchase an album and a few monochromatic packs (I recommend the 5.5" x 8.5" size) you'll have a great selection of color to create a color coordinated treasure.
How are Bazzill Monochromatic and Trio Packs the cure?
Follow these simple steps to your own cure:
1. Get educated - study this article and others on color and monochromatic techniques.
2. Get immunized - surround yourself with pure monochromatic color.
3. Get boosters - purchase replacement colors when you run out.
4. Get supplemented - purchase coordinating Bazzill brads, buttons, fibers and eyelets.
As Frustrated Monochromatic-itis is quickly becoming a thing of the past, we have something wonderful to look forward to: monochromatic health. You'll know you have it when you exhibit symptoms of excitability, sleeplessness, and urgency. We hope you catch it and keep if for a lifetime!
© 2004 Jill Davis


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if you were going to use the pictures as part of an ad to sell peanut butter you might run into model release issues if the people, or their heirs, recognized them and said "why is uncle filmore on this jar of peanut butter?"
But if you just want to post them on apug, or facebook, or any other social media or photo web site, that comes under journalistic fair use, just like the newspaper: Look at these images I found, fun, huh? you're not using them commercially, you're just showing them to folks. It's your little bit of the First Amendment.
Some artists use images like that for art collages, and they find their source material at yard sales and thrift stores. Same rules apply to you as them --
so go ahead and show. No problem. They're your pictures, you just don't own commercial use of the images of those people.
c trentelman, journalist.


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Dear NCS Parents,
Re-enrollment for 2015-2016 is the week of February 2nd through the 6th.
During the first semester of this school year, NCS has exp6rienced students excelling in a host of areas. From wide-eyed preschool students advancing their active cognitive skills through a rich learning environment to driven high school students who are leading the way in academic successes, community involvement, fine arts performances, and athletic opportunities. I am both pleased and proud of the learning and applications our students are demonstrating. These types of results have a direct impact on our enrollment. As a result, NCS' enrollment numbers are robust resulting in several grade levels reaching maximum capacity.
I recently attended a school event when a parent leaned over and said to me, "Dr. James, I have one child almost graduating and then I get to do it all over again with my younger child. We love NCS". I hope that as NCS parents you feel the same way. This past December I shared with the school family our Faculty and Staff Pledge to NCS Families. The 3rd and 5th Pledge items read: We the Northside Christian School staff, whole-heartedly pledge to the families of NCS to: "teach the academics with a high level of excellence and professionalism and encourage students to utilize their gifts in the fine arts and athletics to excel and do their very best to the glory of God"
I want to thank you for speaking so fondly about our school to your friends and co-workers. We have already received many admission applications for the 2015-2016 school year. However, we will not process these applications until we have given our current families an opportunity to re-enroll their children.
Please take a few moments and complete the following steps to re-enroll your child(ren).
Steps to take to Re-Enroll:
The re-enrollment fee will increase after February 6th and your child's classroom space could potentially be awarded to a new applicant. For your convenience, we will also be available in the MS/HS Library from 3pm until 6pm on Wednesday, February 4th and Thursday, February 5th if you prefer to re-enroll in person.
You will see that tuition rates will increase an average of 2.9%. Northside Christian School is committed to maintaining all of our current enrichment classes, athletic, and fine arts programs. Students entering the 7th-12th grades will be receiving Course Registration Forms shortly. As in the past, we offer a wide variety of classes and electives from which to choose.
In closing, I want to remind you about the Ambassador Program. If you refer a new family and they cite your name on their admissions application, you will receive $500 off per family when they enroll their children at Northside Christian School. There is no limit to the amount of money you can receive as a credit toward your tuition costs through this program. Thank you for being a part of Northside Christian School.
In His Service,
Donald C. James, Ed. D
Head of School


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Lenovo ThinkVision E2223s 21.5" LED 1920 x 1080 600:1 LCD Monitor - Raven Black
$ 142.94 $ 149.99
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Dell Ultrasharp 25" LED-backlit 2560 x 1440 1000:1 / 2000000:1 LCD Monitor
$ 410.40
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Product Information for NEC 46" LCD 1920X1080 5000:1 E462 VGA Black 8MS Speaker
Highlights for NEC 46" LCD 1920X1080 5000:1 E462 VGA Black 8MS Speaker
The 46� NEC E462 second-generation, commercial-grade large-screen LCD display offers value-driven digital signage capabilities with impressive professional screen performance. Featuring RS-232C control, this display makes professional display management easy, and an upgraded B-DID panel enables a 3-year limited warranty. Boasting an impressive full HD resolution with three HDMI inputs, integrated USB media player and a variety of display settings, the E462 delivers stunning visual impact with high static contrast ratio and low power consumption. Built-in features include an analog/digital tuner, swivel stand, low-profile stereo speakers and closed captioning. The E462 was designed for implementation in educational environments, corporate lobbies, boardrooms and small conference rooms, while addressing digital signage needs in retail stores, waiting rooms and health clubs.
Synchronization Range
Input Signal
Power Consumption
Physical Specifications
VESA Hole Configuration Specifications
Environmental Conditions


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- Filed Under
Kate Marshall, Nevada state treasurer, and John Farahi, CEO of Monarch Casino and Resort, parent of the Atlantis hotel-casino in Reno, will be keynote speakers at the Oct. 17 breakfast meeting of Nevada Business Connections.
Marshall will discuss Senate Bill 75, which created Nevada's first private equity investment fund, and Farahi will discuss the Atlantis expansion plans and the hospitality industry.
The meeting will be held from 7:30 a.m.-9 a.m. at the Atlantis, 3800 S. Virginia St., in Reno. Cost is $20 for NBC members and $30 for guests.
To RSVP, call 775-883-8306 or 775-771-5747 or email email@example.com.


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Mountain View Resort
from £23 /night help Price for guests, Nights
from £23 /night help Price for guests, Nights
Estimated nightly price based on a weekly stay. Excludes fees (if applicable). Enter your dates to see the total cost.
Apartment / 1 bedrooms / sleeps 4 Home 107903
Availability Your dates are available
Apartment / 1 bedrooms / sleeps 4
|Key Info
Our brand new one bedroom apartment is on the ground floor of Mountain View Resort complex, so no need to access lift or stairs, and is situated on Pirin Street, just up from the Kempinski Hotel.
Ideally located just 400 meters from the main gondola, and with the piste just 50 meters away, it provides excellent ski in ski out facilities, with no need to wait around for bus transfers.
With beautiful mountain facing views from both the living area and bedroom, this fully furnished and spacious apartment sleeps upto 4.
The apartment has a double bedroom, whilst the lounge has a a double sofa bed with duvets, bed linen and towels all provided, and a separate dining area with table and 4 chairs, and is equipped with all you need for a self catering holiday.
The complex benefits from 24hour security/reception. There is also an indoor heated swimming pool, with sauna & jacuzzi and you will have access to a private ski locker.
|Sleeps up to 4, 1 bedrooms
|1 bedroom, 1 bathrooms of which 1 Shower rooms
|Will consider
|Corporate bookings, Long term lets (over 1 month)
|Car advised
|Nearest Amenities
|100 m
|Nearest travel links
|Nearest airport: Sofia 160 km, Nearest railway: Bansko 1 km
|Family friendly
|Great for children of all ages
|No pets allowed, No smoking at this property
Features and Facilities
|Jacuzzi or hot tub, Sauna, Internet access, DVD player, Staffed property
|Shared indoor pool
|Central heating, TV, CD player, Telephone, Wi-Fi available
|Kettle, Toaster, Iron, Hair dryer
|Clothes dryer, Cooker, Microwave, Fridge, Freezer
|1 Sofa beds, Double beds (1), Dining seats for 4, Lounge seats for 4
|Linen provided, Towels provided
|Shared indoor pool, Private garden
|Parking, Suitable for people with restricted mobility, Wheelchair users
The Blagoevgrad Province region
Bansko is Bulgaria`s number 1 ski resort, having the most modern ski lift facilities in the country. Based at the foot of the Pirin Mountains, it benefits from snow fall from late November through to April,
Bansko is approximately 160km from Sofia. The town is surrounded by panoramic scenery and is a superb resort for both summer and winter visitors.
For skiers and snowboarders there is 70kms of pistes. with 8 blue, 11 red and 3 black runs, there is something for all levels. There is also extensive off piste to be had off the back of Todorka peak and between the pisted runs. There are crèche facilities and English speaking ski schools.
In the summer there is also available horse riding, river fishing, golf, bear park, ten pin bowling, quad biking, white water rafting, Mountain Biking and walking.
The Pirin National Park covers over 40,000 hectares is a rugged and unspoilt region with 45 peaks over 2590 metres high, and 186 pristine lakes, numerous water falls, caves and historical sites. The National Park is criss-crossed with hiking trails so a good map is strongly recommended for anyone wishing to explore the area.
Bansko boasts an abundance of apres ski life, including restaurants, taverns, nightclubs, casinos, an ice rink, bowling alleys and horse riding. The traditional taverns are known as Mehanas and offer a great local atmosphere with plenty of charm and often host live folk music. There is a good selection of local cuisine,wines and beers as well as a wide variety of international food and drink catering for all possible tastes.
There are many cultural and historical monuments in the town and in the surrounding region if you have time to explore, with a wide variety of shops supplying essential ski wear and equipment as well as the usual souvenirs.
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text:
Resolution: standard / high
Figure 1.
Typical response for patients on BRAF inhibitors. BRAF inhibitors can induce positron emission tomography (PET) responses in as little as two weeks but unfortunately most patients developed relapse and progressive disease at about six months. This patient was treated in the phase 1 study of PLX4032 (vermurafenib).
Finn et al. BMC Medicine 2012 10:23 doi:10.1186/1741-7015-10-23


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You may love to compost, reuse, and recycle but is your birth control as green as the rest of your lifestyle choices? Women around the world rely on birth control to protect themselves, their loved ones, their families, and their future families. However, most contraception methods contribute to environmental damage. Condom rubber is harvested in the Amazon. Synthetic estrogen, progestin and other hormones are released into the world's waterways, in concentrated form or through urine expulsion, affecting water safety, impacting human health and contaminating wildlife. So we here at HuffPost Green decided to investigate the greenest forms of birth control.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 200 million women worldwide do not have access to family planning tools, resulting in 52 million unwanted pregnancies each year. In the United States each year, 50 percent of all pregnancies are unplanned. Check out our slideshow of green birth control options and vote on your favorite. As always, we want to hear from you in the comments.
Hailed as the greenest birth control method, Intrauterine Devices produce the least waste and boast a 99 percent pregnancy prevention rate. IUDs are hormone-free and made of copper, an abundant metal. The device is placed in a woman's uterus by a physician, releasing copper, which creates an inhospitable environment for the uterus and serves as a spermicide. IUDs can be used for up to ten years. ParaGard is durable for ten years and Mirena, which releases progestin, lasts up to five years. IUDs are one of the least used forms of contraception: less than 2 percent of women who use birth control in the United States rely on IUDs.
Did you know that 60 to 100 million condoms are improperly discarded in the United Kingdom ever year? Or that in 2008 in the United States, 437 million condoms were sold? Annual American waste weighs 152 million tons. While vegan condoms are made from tree derivatives, many latex condoms are infused with casein, a dairy derivative- a fact that many people are unaware of. Glyde condoms are an excellent vegan condom option. Whatever you do, don't flush! Not only does this waste water, the condom will become solid sewage along the way.
For Fair Trade biodegradable condoms, try French Letter Condoms and Sir Richard's Condom Company. Both companies strive to reduce environmental harm. French Letter Condoms and Sir Richard's Condom Company use latex rubber that is harvested under Fair Trade conditions. French Letter Condoms pays Fair Trade premium for the rubber and the company's rubber producers are given workers benefits and fair wages. Sir Richard's Condom Company donates one condom to a country in need for every condom sold. More: To make an eco-statement to your partner and protest the oil spill's damage at once, try Practice Safe Policy's oil spill condoms. The condoms boast a "drill without the spill" slogan.
The Vaginal Ring, often called the NuvaRing, is reusable and as effective as the Pill and the Patch. Each vaginal ring lasts three weeks and uses less plastic waste than most other birth control methods, such as the Pill.
Many women choose to use a diaphragm or silicone cervical cap as their birth control. These reusable barrier cups are praised as impressively green birth control options as one cup can last for up to two years, reducing landfill waste.
Quite possibly the number one environmental culprit on this list, the Pill, which celebrated its 50th birthday this past May, has come under great scrutiny for its environmental damage. Worldwide, over 100 million women rely on the Pill as their main form of birth control. This birth control method harms the world's water, causes dangerous hormonal imbalances in wildlife, impacts fish populations through the secretion of hormones into the waterways where it enters fish systems making male winnows feminized, and creates a surplus of waste in landfills due to excess packaging.
The Patch, known as Ortho Evra, is the world's first transdermal contraceptive, secreting progestin and estrogen through the skin into the body for pregnancy prevention. Each patch lasts for one week and can be placed on four areas of the body. The Patch produces a moderate amount of packaging waste and filters hormones into the world's water as it functions like the Pill.
The Fertility Awareness Method is a rubber and chemical free birth control option. According to Planned Parenthood, FAM is considered to be as effective as condoms. Grist's Umbra describes the concept as remaining sperm-free during ones most fertile period of the month. Many abstain from sex during this period or use barrier methods (condoms, cervical caps, and diaphragms) for pregnancy protection. This method requires great familiarity with ones ovulation schedule.
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Three San Diego artists represented in 'State of the Art' show
Three San Diego artists will be included in Arkansas' Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art's groundbreaking "State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now": Adam Belt, David Adey and Kelsey Brookes.
"I'm really excited and happy to be involved with it," said Brookes, whose show "Sleep: The Science and the Mystery" is now on exhibit at the Library Street Collective in Detroit.
Crystal Bridges' president, Don Bacigalupi (formerly the head of the San Diego Museum of Art), and assistant curator Chad Alligood made studio visits to nearly 1,000 artists nationwide in search of "the most compelling American art being created today," according to the museum.
"It's funny, you never really know how these things go, studio visits from curators and collectors," Brookes said. "You just show up and be nice and show the work in the best possible light. You find out later how it goes."
Brookes was among 11 artists chosen from California, including two from Los Angeles (Adonna Khare and Danial Nord) and six from the San Francisco area.
"The exhibition is a glimpse into the state of art in our nation at this moment," Bacigalupi said. "Presenting the exhibition at Crystal Bridges provides us an opportunity to see contemporary art in the broader historical context of the five centuries of American art in our collection, as well as connect us to what's happening in American art at this moment."


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I have recently begun playing on the live chess site. I'm sure this has been covered many times, but please show some class. If you are lost, resign and say good game. I'm sick of having a won position and then having to wait for minutes after you sign off. We are here to play chess - when you have been outplayed, admit it and resign. Chess shoud be a gentleman's/gentlewoman's game. Act like an adult.
Adults are self-absorbed bores; I'd much rather act like this child: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUJIgkPoiBg&feature=player_embedded
Chess should be a gentleman's/gentlewoman's game.
Why is that?
dont know, im a hood rat and i love the game.
You can't blame them. But have patience indeed. It's only you who are going to be affected in what they done.
Some thoughts-Its not over till its over/ Never say die/ Patience is a virtue/ What if you suddenly died/ If sick, get well soon/ Games are like busses: there's always another one just round the corner (but probably not where you hale from)/ Noble sentiments butter no parsnips/ Resign your own game - that'll fox them/ Who gives a toss anyway/ Don't be so bossy/ and finally, with all that spare time, you might at least proof-read your outraged post!
Ye don't become anxious over it make a cup of tea have a biscuit..Revel in there disgruntlement over seeing there loss. Imagine there kicking there computer to bits and calling your name over and over again.
Are you referring to chess.com or defrockingvirgins.com?
@timbeau: Thank you for posting thoughts (especially the last one )
The OP can use this advice how he pleases. But as he's a gentleman he probably wont.
Their, their, dont fret.
Catnapper..Have a cup of tea and a biscuit. Don't spoil the lads thread with dislike and unharmonised attempts at humour. General chess discussion only please.
Just go back with the topic posted then.
since when are you so stuck up, BUUUUD?
You apease him then. It sounds like hes upset.
man, you didnt get my point. we should play a game
Hey streetfighter.. did you play at North Shields last week?
I've never been to one personally.I would of gone to it if i'de known sooner, had notice. Just even to take a look.It's not far away from where i live. Bit of a bummer...
Smrex13 do you think attempting to manipulate your adversaries into resigning so that you can earn a victory a little faster is a demonstration of class?
You don't HAVE to resign, its not a must if you are in a bad position.
How to get better?
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Can Karpov become world champion again?
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What is your FIDE rating?
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why is e5 more popular than c5 at lower levels of play?
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Have you ever heard of a chess player rated over 2000 commit a crime of any type
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MSC157 vs. Pulpofeira match
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Game doesn't load, but continues to search.
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Is there any chance that a 1300 rated player can beat a 2700 rated player?
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Contacting chess.com
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The most interesting game of chess was played here in chess.com !!!!
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im looking for riders around here. reply if you are close or know of good rides around here. thanks!
i ride a 60cm trek 5200 w/ rolfe vector pro wheels look 357 clipless pedals. ultegra components. wondering if i should have gotten a larger frame? i'm 6'2 1/2 and i am beginning to wonder if i have outgrown it.