TCAR Fundraiser Nets $15,000 for Charity

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The 8th Annual Joint Commercial Real Estate Networking Event, held on September 12, 2013, raised $15,000 to benefit the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina and Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers, Inc. The money was split evenly, gifting each cause with a check for $7,500.

“This event continues to grow. Over the past two years, the money raised for local charities is up more than 50 percent,” says Joni Barnes, TCAR board president and director of sales and leasing for Pinpoint Properties. “We are so thankful to the sponsors, hosts and attendees who made this year’s event so successful.”

The annual event brought together more than 300 members from eight commercial real estate organizations for networking in a festive environment, with proceeds benefitting the area nonprofits. To date, $90,000 has been donated to local charities, including The Boys and Girls Club of Wake County, Hilltop Homes, Wake County Women’s Shelter, Pretty in Pink, InterAct, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, Haven House and Urban Ministries.

HPG Celebrates 30 Years by Giving Back

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September 23 marked the 30th year in business for Hughes Pittman & Gupton, LLP. The partners and staff of the firm are recognizing this milestone through community involvement and providing support to charitable organizations. One way firm members are encouraging each other to get involved is through the firm’s 2013 Casual Community Days.

The program allows employees to dress casually on the last Friday of every month in exchange for a financial donation to the featured charity. The 12 charities, one for each month, are selected through an employee nomination process.

“As a locally owned and managed firm, it is important for everyone at HPG to invest in the community in which we live and work,” says Tim Gupton, HPG executive committee member. “This philosophy has been a cornerstone of HPG’s culture these past 30 years.”

The 2013 recipient nonprofits include:

FMI Issues the Q3-2013 Construction Outlook Report

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The markets continue to shift, reducing annual Construction-Put-In-Place predictions to $909.6 billion, down nearly $4 billion from previous predictions. Early forecasts for 2014 show annual CPIP continues moderate growth of 7%, rising to $977 billion.

Major market predictions include:

Residential Construction — FMI continues to forecast traction in residential construction. However, the growth is expected to taper off to 12% in 2014. Total predicted residential forecast is $379.6 billion, compared with the $338.2 billion for 2013.
Commercial Construction — The current forecast calls for a 5% increase in 2014. Although retail sales as of June 2013 were up 5.7% over the previous year, new bricks and mortar retail space along with commercial other construction growth will remain slow to recover.
Healthcare —With business owners nervous about the costs of the Affordable Healthcare Act, predictions are slightly unstable. Although the healthcare construction forecast slipped 1% since last year, it is still expected to grow 6% in 2014 to $44 billion.
Educational — The increase in residential construction and tax revenues will help bring this market back in many areas of the country. Due to budget cuts for government spending at all levels, the national market will rise only slightly in 2014 to 4% over 2013 levels.
Manufacturing — The resurgence of the automotive industry is a big boost to manufacturing as is the continuing explorations and mining for shale oil and gas. However, manufacturing construction is expected to drop 2% by year-end 2013 before returning to 4% growth in 2014.
Highway and Street — Passage of MAP-21 calls for nearly $38 billion for the fiscal year 2014 for the Federal-Aid Highway Program. This is a major contributor to the CPIP predications of nearly $80 billion for 2014.

While there is no singular reason for change in these markets, there are a few economic concerns that touch all of them.

Potential conflicts with Syria
Downsizing of government and large companies
The implementation of Affordable Healthcare Act

October 19 “Secure Your ID” Day Event Now at Two Locations

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Fall 2013 Shred Flyer - Final - English - editedBetter Businesses Bureau serving Eastern North Carolina will hold its fall “Secure Your ID” Day event on Saturday, October 19, 2013. It will include document shredding, collection of computers and hard-drives for secure destruction, electric/electronics recycling and identity protection tips. Due to the increase in participation, the event will be held at two locations from 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in the parking lot of Coastal Federal Credit Union (1000 St. Albans Drive) and Lafayette Village (8480 Honeycutt Road) in front of the Executive Office Suites.

In the 2013 Identity Fraud Report by Javelin Strategy & Research, it states that the number of identity fraud incidents increased by one million more consumers over the past year. This equates to one incident of identity fraud every three seconds.

“Shredding paper documents is still a top priority to protect an individual’s identity. However, as new technologies continue to emerge and evolve, thieves are not just following a paper trail, but are using old electronics to steal sensitive information from consumers,” says Toby Barfield, president and CEO of BBB serving Eastern North Carolina. “In hosting our ‘Secure Your ID’ Day events, we look to provide Triangle consumers with a safe way to dispose of their sensitive documents and electronics while educating them on ways they can protect themselves from unscrupulous individuals.”

“Secure Your ID” Day is jointly organized by the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling to raise public awareness and educate Americans on the issues surrounding identity theft. During the event, local partners Costal Federal Credit Union, Executive Office Suites at Lafayette Village, ProShred and GEEP will be on hand educating consumers on protecting their identity. Individuals are encouraged to bring up to three boxes or bags of documents that have been removed from binders and up to five electric/electronic devices, such as computers, cell phones, tablets or TVs, as well as printers, fax machines, vacuums, dvd/cd players, microwaves and toasters or similar products.

GEEP, which stands for Global Electric Electronic Processing, is trusted for their secure electronic recycling. The company will be providing consumers at the BBB event a receipt of electronic devices handed over for destruction. This will be the third “Secure Your ID” Day event that GEEP participated in with BBB.

The April event had nearly 700 participants. Nearly 10,000 lbs of electronics were safely destroyed, as well as nearly 30,000 lbs of documents were shredded. To date, the semi-annual “Secure Your ID” Day events have securely destroyed more than 150,000 lbs of sensitive documents and 19,000 lbs of electronics. Additional event information is available at www.easternnc.bbb.org/secure-your-id.

FMI Release Q3 Non-Residential Construction Index

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The NRCI score of 60.3 is a .2-point improvement over Q2. Although the numbers aren’t drastically rising, the sustainability and continuing upward movement is encouraging. This score remains the highest score for the NRCI index since Q1 2009. The index for the overall economy rose to 72 points and the combined index sentiment for economies where panelists are doing business rose 3.2 points.

Cost of construction materials, cost of labor and productivity continue to hold down the index. Additionally, investments in technology, equipment and training are needed to keep the economy from going stagnant.

Panelists for this quarter’s NRCI suggest that the uncertainty for investments is a result of the immigration/labor bills, delays in implementation of “Obamacare” and the impact of residential growth on nonresidential construction. These issues are causing the industry to sit back and wait to see the outcomes before making any risky investments.