Speyer on Real Estate

There is a saying within the real estate community that real estate always follows the economy, lagging but generally heading in the same direction. This is one of the reason's Jerry Speyer, chairman and CEO of Tishman Speyer, is optimistic about the future of commercial real estate. This doesn’t mean he thinks it will be easy going. "The economy is stable, but it’s clearly not growing," he said. "But as a real estate owner and manager I’ve got to be optimistic — it’s in my DNA."

Speyer spoke at SOM on Feb. 18 as part of the Gordon Grand Fellowship lecture series. Speyer’s company is one of the largest real estate developers in the world. A force in New York for decades, Tishman Speyer moved beyond the city in the mid-1980s, moving first into China and then Europe and Brazil. As its portfolio has continued to expand, Speyer said the company has become more focused on the environmental impact of its buildings. He said that buildings consumer 40 percent of the nation’s energy and 70 percent of its electricity. Tishman Speyer built the first LEED certified high rise in Brazil and has a 9 million square foot project in China that he called a "world changer" in terms of pushing the greening of buildings. "One million people just in the U.S. go in and out of our buildings every day," Speyer said. "We need to do something to demonstrate that this is an important issue."