BOMA San Francisco Members Attend BOMA International's National Issues Conference in Washington D.C.

BOMA San Francisco members attended a National Issues Conference in DC earlier this week. At the top of their agenda was encouraging our Bay Area Congressional representatives to permanently extend the 15 year depreciation schedule for leasehold improvements, which expires at the end of 2009. Doing so, BOMA argued, would stimulate the economy and add jobs to the design and construction industries. Allowing the leasehold improvement deduction to revert back to 39 years would do tremendous damage to commercial real estate and reduce any incentive to upgrade existing buildings.

Pictured left to right:
Ken Cleaveland, Director, Govt. and Public Affairs, BOMA SF Nancy Gille, Chair, BOMA SF PAC Bruce Schilling, Member, BOMA SF PAC Margot Crosman, President, BOMA San Francisco Stephany Cull, Member, BOMA SF Environment Committee

Here is a picture of our BOMA California delegation and Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who represents southern San Francisco and northern San Mateo counties in the U.S.House of Representatives, at our meeting with her on March 24, 2009, in her Capitol Hill office. At that meeting it was emphasized that the country's economy could be best assisted by helping stimulate the commercial real estate industry. That could be accomplished in a number of ways including giving commercial building owners a 3 year financial bridge to assist performing properties whose LTV ratios have recently plummeted, by permanently extending the 15 year leasehold depreciation schedule (which expires the end of 2009) and by increasing the rebates for energy efficiency upgrades. Such actions would benefit not only commercial real estate owners and their tenants, but be a financial boost to many other industries including architectural, engineering, construction, and green tech, resulting in significant job growth.

Pictured from left to right: Rob Cord, Kennedy-Wilson, BOMA California President Jack Spiegelman, Buzz Oates Properties, BOMA Sacramento Stephany Cull, Principal, Retro-Com Energy Strategies, BOMA San Francisco Nancy Gille, Chair, BOMA SF PAC, BOMA San Francisco Representative Jackie Speier Bruce Schilling, Waxie Supply, BOMA-SF-PAC, BOMA San Francisco Margot Crosman, Unico Properties, BOMA SF President Ken Cleaveland, Director, Govt. and Public Affairs, BOMA San Francisco Joe Markling, Lowe Enterprises, BOMA Greater Los Angeles

Lastly, here is a picture of our team meeting with Sen. Feinstein's senior policy advisor for energy and transportation issues, Matthew Nelson. Our group pushed for larger financial incentives for energy upgrades in commercial real estate and suggested the rest of the country should be brought up to California's Title 24 energy standards before any arbitrary new energy reduction goals were adopted nationally.

Pictured left to right: Bruce Schilling, Nancy Gille, Matthew Nelson, Margot Crosman, and Stephany Cull.