Buildings/NY features products and methods

Real Estate Weekly, May 19, 1993

Buildings NY's 320 booths and estimated 5,300 visitors -- both significant increase over last year's show offer -- evidence of the continued success of the show. An audience survey conducted during the show may h ave revealed some of the reasons this is so. For instance, by a significant margin, attendees consider trade shows to be the best source for information on new suppliers and on new products. In addition, 97 percent of attendees have purchasing authority -- a figure that should make exhibitors smile. The fact that an even greater number of attendees actually took some purchasing action while at the show no doubt made exhibitors even happier.

Conversations with both visitors and exhibitors to the show, which took place at the New York Hilton on March 2 and 3 of this year, revealed satisfaction with the show. This is in sync with the survey that found that 99 percent of those polled consider themselves likely to return to the show again next year.

For those on the third floor, those involved in the interior design industry, this first year of a new emphasis offered a promising beginning. Viorica Belcic of Belcic & Jacobs Architects noted, "The show is very well organized. Everyone is very cheerful. At some shows, people are either too aggressive and don't let you walk around and look at your own pace or they are not at their stand and don't give you any information. This show has the right proportion of being nice and yet selling the product."

First time exhibitor Helen Rausch, representing the New York Chapter of IFMA (international Facility Management Association), became convinced of the value of trade shows. "I think it's a great way to proselytize. It's a great way for me to learn who is about and what's going, on a great way to meet possible network people. And it's a lot of fun."

The conferences held throughout the show augmented the informational aspect of the event. The large view and the very specific were addressed in the conference entitled "Environmental Survivorship for the 21 st Century," held Tuesday morning. Panelist Randolph Croxton, whose Croxton Collaborative recently completed the national headquarters for the Audubon Society which is considered avant garde in. dealing with environmental issues, directed the audience to consider that if a building meets minimum requirements, if it were built any worse it would be against the law. Acknowledging that owners are working with fewer dollars and resources than before, Croxton feels, however, that exceeding compliance can lead to a superior return on investment because buildings that are environmentally healthy will increasingly be perceived as more desirable in the marketplace. Andrew Fuston, of Haverson Rockwell Architects, discussed concerns of indoor air quality, particularly of-gassing of VOCs (volatile organic compounds). He pointed out that a new space should not smell new; It should not smell at all. Dirck Leys, president of AGP Surface Controls Systems, Inc., addressed the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 which requires notification of lead-based paint upon transfer of real estate property and which will require lead removal or encapsulation when it goes into effect in 1995.

Tuesday afternoon, an interesting group met to discuss "Making the Most of Today's Business Opportunities," Alair Townsend, publisher of Crain's New York Business, noted in her brief overview that from April 1989 through 1992 New York City lost 388,000jobs. To bring the point home, she added that at 200 square-feet per job, that's almost 68 million square-feet of space no longer needed. Michael T. Cohen, president and CEO of Williams Real Estate Co., Inc., pointed out the opportunity presented by corporations today who are outsourcing their real estate departments to downsize staff. Richard Hayden, of Swanke Hayden Connell, asked, How much more service will be have to offer for how much less fee? Projects today, he said, are going twice as fast as they did just five years ago. Then he reflected that the Empire State Building, built in the depths of the Depression, was completed in just 18 months with workers on the job 24 hours a day. John McCarthy, COO of Community Preservation Corporation, explained that distressed properties make rental investment even without government investment very lucrative and a particularly good investment for immigrants just getting started in this country. Wallace R. Ford, II, commissioner of the New York City Department of Business Services, pointedly remarked that government agencies should regularly produce a business impact statement. He looks forward to changes in city government to better support the economic growth of the city.

The Wednesday morning conference dealt with "1993 Update; Implementing the Americans with Disabilities." Derek Orr, executive director of Easter Seals, explained simple rules for interacting with a person with disabilities, and such as: don't be overprotective or artificially kind. No one says you will like every person with disabilities.