Commercial Investment Real Estate is the magazine of the CCIM Institute, the leading provider of commercial real estate education. CIRE covers market trends, current developments, and business strategies within the commercial real estate field.
Issue link: http://cire.epubxp.com/i/700533
July | August | 2016 Commercial Investment Real Estate Q & A C CIM e by Samuel S. Moon Globe Trotter Ensuring the safety and security of U.S. embassies and ambassador residences globally are of prime concern to David Lauster, CCIM, CIPS, CRS, senior realty specialist for property acquisitions at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations. do it, and do it right. With that in mind, I knew that if I was going to be managing large commercial transactions for the U.S. government, I needed to get serious, and, of course, that is what the Department wanted me to do. ey immediately put me to work finding office space and buildings around the world. CIRE: What were the initial challenges in coming from the private to the public sector? L auster: T he g re ate s t hu rd le w a s , and continues to be, dealing with the bureaucracy of doing business within the government. Everything takes time. It is nice having a principal that does not have to obtain financing. e United States is my principal and my employer. By the same token, you have to clear many layers of approvals to get things done, and that can be a headache. CIRE: How would you describe a few of your recent projects? Lauster: The security hitches are the biggest part of any project. I am currently trying to find office space in one of the former Yugoslav republics. One of our headaches is that we cannot find anything near the center of town that has the sufficient amount of setback and safety features that we require to minimize the risk to our Foreign Service Officers and locally hired staff. Our diplomatic locations need to be near the heart of a city, so the population can get to them for visa applications and other services and where the diplomats who are working for us can interact and meet with their host government counterparts. You cannot afford to be too far away from the downtown area. CIRE: What are the unique challenges you face in today's global market? Lauster: A few years ago, we sold our Embassy property in London to a major Middle Eastern development group. The proceeds of that transaction made the construction of our new Embassy possible. We are leasing the old embassy property back until our new Chancery across the river is completed. Then you have the security requirement (and cost) of providing 24-hour surveillance and making sure no one can get in and plant devices during construction (like they did in Moscow). "e laws in the U.S. generally do not change very quick ly, whereas in other parts of the world, entire governments can change overnight," Lauster says. "You might have gone to sleep with a liberal government in power, only to awaken the next morning to discover t hat a ver y conser vative government has taken over." A 12-year veteran of the U.S. State Department, Lauster discusses his experiences with Commercial Investment Real Estate. CIRE: What made you decide to work for the U.S. State Department? Lauster: I started in commercial real estate back in the early 1980s when syndication was big. I was hired by a broker to find sma l l shoppi ng centers t he y cou ld syndicate and resell. But paychecks were too few and far between, so I moved my focus to the residential real estate sector. In 2004, this job opportunity opened up, and that is when I came over to the U.S. State Department. There are two sides to the real estate business: residential and commercial. You can do one exceptionally well, but it's highly unlikely that you are going to do them both exceptionally well. So pick a side, David Lauster, CCIM