Sam Zell–Tribune owner, real estate mogul, hog-lover (and by hog, we mean motorcycle)–says commercial real estate, especially in dense urban cities like Manhattan, will weather this financial storm just fine, thanks to renewed investment in mortgage-backed securities and foreign buyers.
“After they get through bashing George Bush, the very next question is, `Where’s my visa?”’ Mr. Zell told Bloomberg News during an interview in New York City. “There is not another environment in the world that matches the U.S. in terms of opportunity, creativity, acceptance of change, acceptance of failure."
Mr. Zell was less bullish, however, about those repositories of the hellish known as the suburbs.
“I’m sure there’s going to be some casualties, particularly in what I would call ex-urban, the glass-block commodity office building,” he said. “I don’t think there is going to be any casualties in Manhattan, I don’t think there’s going to be any casualties in any of the first-class office space around the country. The commercial real estate market is going to do terrific no matter what the economy does, short of a depression.”
