Having attended the Friday session/presentation by the Urban Land Institute on its recommendations on the Core to Shore redevelopment in Oklahoma City, I was struck by several things.

First and foremost was the overflow audience. This is obviously one of Oklahoma City’s largest initiatives, particularly since aspects of C2S touch the recently passed MAPS program, including a new convention center, central park and headquarters hotel. They also impact the now fairly established views by many business leaders in town as to how these properties should be sited.

Also, many will argue that less than a week is a pitifully short timeframe in which to derive solid recommendations for such an important endeavor. While I’m inclined to agree with that point to an extent, I also know the depth of talent and respect that the ULI brings to the table. I challenge anyone to spend 15 minutes with former Indy Mayor Bill Hudnut and not come away impressed with his knowledge of how cities should work.

Past experience with these sorts of charettes has revealed some spot-on thinking. As we await the final report, due in the next four months, it will be interesting to gauge how the C2S planning plays out.

Raise your hand if you knew this was “National Procrastination Week.”

Well, it is. And don’t wait to write that down, ok? It’s March 1-7.

I only know this because a press release caught my eye late last week from Smead, a company that produces filing and organizational products. Here’s the gist of it:

The causes for procrastination are many and are subject to debate – whether it’s a fear of failure, uncertainty of how to proceed, anxiety, or a nagging feeling of being overwhelmed. What’s not up for debate is that procrastination is a tough habit to break, and it robs millions of Americans of their time, productivity, and well- being.

“The good news is procrastination is a behavior that can be changed,” said Louise Kurzeka, a professional organizer who works with Smead. “Fighting procrastination isn’t as simple as willing yourself out of it, saying something like, ‘I won’t procrastinate with my next project,’ but it can be tackled with a strategy that suits your organizational style.”

Kurzeka recommends taking advantage of National Procrastination Week with the following three solutions for chronic procrastinators:

•The “Worst First” approach challenges the procrastinator to pick the least palatable part of the procrastinating task and get it out of the way up front.

•The “Pros and Cons” strategy requires the procrastinator to list all the positives that will result if they accomplish the procrastinating task as well as all the negatives that will result if they continue to put off action. The pros usually outweigh the cons.

•The tried and true method of “Divide and Conquer” helps the procrastinator break down all the steps of a task into manageable portions so the whole task feels less overwhelming.

Not surprisingly, Smead created a Web site that can help anyone determine their organizational style and provides tools to match.

The whole thing seemed pretty clever. I don’t know about you, but I learned something today.

Carry on.

As part of his semi-annual testimony before Congress today, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke fielded numerous questions about the present and future of the commercial real estate markets.

While it pains me to hear the industry mentioned so often now as a target for the next wave of the economic apocalypse, I suppose it’s only logical. Thanks to a new Congressional Oversight Panel report earlier this month, CRE is the new target. As if the industry didn’t have enough problems.

Bernanke was asked repeatedly today about the “distress du jour” or the potential flood of foreclosed commercial real estate mortgages that might take down community and regional banks.

To be sure there is an abundance of misinformation regarding this topic in the public sector, which is also troubling. A congresswoman from Illinois had her reasoning all wrong as she asked Bernanke why federal regulators were putting more pressure on banks to write down their CRE loans. Plainly that’s not the case, as Bernanke gently noted that there is a cognizant effort among regulators to not force banks to write-down the value of their mortgages on commercial properties that are otherwise performing and not “impaired.”

He did mention that the best way for the CRE loan problem to rectify itself was for the economy to start growing . “That will mean more people in shopping malls and people getting jobs that take space in office buildings.”

From your lips, Ben…

Back in the late-1990s, I was the editor and publisher of National Real Estate Investor magazine, the top CRE trade magazine (then and now) celebrating its 52^nd year of publication in 2010.

For those who remember, those were the giddy days of Thursday night broker parties, endless groundbreakings for soon-to-be-see-through buildings, and unlimited, sky-is-the-limit opportunities. We thought those days would never end.

Oops.  My friends, in case you hadn’t noticed, they did. In fact, the dot-com bust of early 2000 drove a stake through the heart of that overbuilding, overzealous beast.

“So Ben, why are you bringing all of this up now? Don’t you know it hurts to reflect on the past by rubbing it in?”

Well, I was vividly reminded of that bygone era recently while rummaging through my endless stacks of magazines at home. The NREI cover you see here is from January 1996. That’s nearly exactly 14 years ago that the leaders of General Growth Properties, Robert Michaels and John Bucksbaum, graced the cover and several inside pages as part of a company profile.

Today their once-proud firm is at the center of a takeover battle thanks to Simon Property Group’s $10 billion unsolicited bid on February 16 to buy the company out of bankruptcy.

I chose GGP for that profile back then and met with the company’s top leaders to write the piece. Over the years, I grew to respect and admire John Bucksbaum, in particular, for both his easy-going nature and his razor-sharp business acumen.

While Bucksbaum and the rest of GGP’s leaders stayed steady through the downturn of the late-‘90s and early-2000s, they were caught up in the next downturn thanks to an ill-timed merger and some highly leveraged property acquisitions.

In that cover story of 1996, I wrote a tagline that proved prescient to a point, “General Growth Properties is living up to its name.” It was growing, and had just paid $1.85 billion to acquire a group of malls from Homart, which at the time was owned by Sears (raise your hand if you remember that).

I also wrote that rumors were swirling that publicly traded GGP would soon be going private, something it had already done in a prior life back in 1985, but it never repeated that feat. One is left to ponder what might have been had that particular deal gone down.

To my mind, Bucksbaum was never a swashbuckler, nor much of a risk taker for that matter. Ultimately time simply ran out on him in a credit squeeze as his huge loans matured and there were no lenders with deep enough pockets left to refinance them.

Most of all, I suppose, the cover reminded me once again that even the sharpest minds can fail.

Last week’s annual forecast conference, this year sponsored by both the Commercial Real Estate Council and the Urban Land Institute, was a terrific start to Bank of Oklahoman Bryan Geiger’s presidency of the CREC. The content was terrific and insightful, and the networking was robust to boot.

What really struck me, though, was the apparently still fashionable national snub of Oklahoma City.

 Ouch. Let me explain.

I have been a card-carrying member of the ULI for more than a decade. I’ve even served on one of its committees, the UDMUC-Green (shorthand for Urban Development, Mixed-Use Council). But the highly touted annual Emerging Trends forecast, which is a joint effort by the ULI and PricewaterhouseCoopers, is simply not complete, in my opinion. If it does not include major metros like Oklahoma City, the 31^st-largest metro in the United States with a population of more than a million people for crying out loud, then something is dreadfully wrong.

As a national magazine editor for many years from the 1990s through the 2000s, I often used the Emerging Trends report as a useful guide. But I always realized it, like every report, contained flaws.

Now hanging my shingle in Oklahoma City, the flaws have become more acutely apparent. Last week’s conference only served to reinforce that notion.

ULI Senior Vice President Dean Schwanke, a great guy and a long-time ULI staffer, presented the Emerging Trends overview before a packed house at the Skirvin Hilton Hotel. But he should have been better prepared. There was very little OKC-specific information, and might as well have been talking to a group in Toledo (not that Toledo is a bad place, but you get the idea.)

When asked if he knew about the recently passed MAPS program, Schwanke said “no.” Eyes rolled and credibility was lost in an instant. A quick 10-minute discovery session on Dean’s part would have uncovered one of the most significant urban renewal programs now being undertaken in any city – large or small I might add – in America. That’s ALL 50 STATES.

All of which gets to the point of why I created this website and its content. My goal was to create a central point of dialogue, a two-way street between Oklahoma City and the rest of the world when it comes to the all-important industry of commercial real estate. “World, here’s OKC and all of the great things happening here.” “OKC, here’s what’s happening in the rest of the world and there might be something we can all learn from it.”

Just last week, OKC received two of the biggest media “hits” in recent times, major coverage on both CNBC and in the New York Times.

Without a doubt, Oklahoma City has come a long way, but I was starkly reminded last week that we have a ways to go in our mission. Let’s hope that the larger national institutions of learning can get on the bandwagon.

Barron’s has reviewed the new biography on Sam Zell, Money Talks, Bullsh*t Walks, in its latest issue out today and focused heavily on the “future of newspapers” angle.

There is a strong Oklahoma connection here, since Zell’s number two man, William Pate, hails from Madill, Oklahoma, where several generations of his family owned the Madill Record.

Here’s the review:

Paper Chase

Reviewed by Susan Witty

EVEN IF YOU’RE REAL-ESTATE MAGNATE Sam Zell, you can’t win ‘em all.

That was evident in December of 2008 when Zell’s misadventure in the newspaper business — buying and running the Tribune Co. — landed the media empire in bankruptcy court. It was a spectacular comeuppance for the overconfident Zell, but in the year or so since then, the challenges he faced have become commonplace in the newspaper industry.

By providing in-depth and revealing details of Zell’s botched effort to make the ailing Tribune into a moneymaker, Money Talks, Bullsh*t Walks not only provides a compelling blow-by-blow account, it brings fresh insight into the troubles at many of America’s biggest newspapers.

Author Johnson is fawning at times, especially when recounting Zell’s earlier victories. Two highlights: creating Equity Residential Properties, which made him “the nation’s largest apartment landlord,” with 554 properties, and masterminding “the largest office REIT in the world.” While the book celebrates the deals, it keeps Zell’s private life safely under wraps.

But Johnson is blunt when writing about the Tribune fiasco, the heart of the book. Instead of triumphing as “the grave-dancer,” with a reputation for turning failing properties around, Zell simply dug his own grave. While the company owned such iconic newspapers as the Los Angeles Times, Zell knew zilch about the news business and even less about news people.

The following is how he addressed recalcitrant L.A. Times and other Tribune journalists. “You think I needed to do this?” he barks at them at a town meeting. “You think I needed to take on the Tribune because this is my way to maybe get a plane, or maybe I can live in a penthouse or maybe have a house in California if this works. I got all that sh-t, OK?”

Now, he has all that and something else: a large blemish on his once-enviable record.

If you have a subscription, you can see it on the Barron’s website here.

Oops. Ouch. Zanga. Here’s a list no chamber of commerce or convention and visitor’s bureau would highlight any time soon concerning Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

OKC and Tulsa rank 53^rd and 64^th, respectively, on a new list of the worst commutes in America. That’s surprising considering that locals tout the lack of traffic, and I agree with that assessment.

Still, The Daily Beast, a news and information website, used data from the Travel Time Index and traffic-tracking firm INRIX to rank the “Highways to Hell.”

Besides the inclusion of OKC and Tulsa, the list has a few more surprises. Austin, for example, is ranked a surprising fourth on the list, but if you’ve ever tried getting through that city on I-35 unscathed, you’ll know exactly why it’s there. And there are a number of smaller cities (Boise City?!) that you wouldn’t think should be ranked, but do.

Here’s the complete list:

#1, Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles

#2, Lunalilo Freeway (H-1), Honolulu

#3, Capital Beltway, surrounds Washington DC

#4, I-35, Austin

#5, James Lick Freeway (US 101), San Francisco

#6, Cross Bronx Expressway, New York City

#7, I-5, Seattle

#8, I-95, Bridgeport, CT

#9, Kennedy Expressway, Chicago

#10, Airport Expressway (State Road 112), Miami

#11, Bayshore Freeway (US 101), San Jose

#12, Loop 610, surrounds Houston

#13, I-10, Baton Rouge

#14, Southeast Expressway, Boston

#15, Loop 820, surrounds Dallas-Fort Worth

#16, I-5, Portland, OR

#17, I-494, Minneapolis-St. Paul

#18, I-264, Virginia Beach

#19, San Diego Freeway (I-5), San Diego

#20, Schuylkill Expressway, Philadelphia

#21, Baltimore Beltway, surrounds Baltimore

#22, I-75, Atlanta

#23, I-275, Tampa

#24, I-25, Denver

#25, Riverside Freeway, Riverside, CA

#26, Ronald Reagan Freeway, Oxnard, CA

#27, I-10, New Orleans

#28, I-91, New Haven

#29, Papago Freeway (I-10), Phoenix

#30, Penn Lincoln Parkway (I-376), Pittsburgh

#31, Capital City Freeway, Sacramento

#32, I-15, Las Vegas

#33, I-84, Hartford, CT

#34, I-94, Milwaukee

#35, East Independence Blvd, Charlotte, NC

#36, I-75, Cincinnati

#37, I-65, Birmingham, AL

#38, Loop 410, surrounds San Antonio

#39, Edsel Ford Freeway (I-94), Detroit

#40, I-10, El Paso

#41, I-195, Providence

#42, I-90, Cleveland

#43, I-26, Charleston, SC

#44, I-40, Nashville

#45, I-270, St. Louis

#46, I 4, Orlando

#47, I-24, Chattanooga

#48, I-95, Jacksonville

#49, I-65, Louisville

#50, I-40, Raleigh, NC

#51, I-84, Boise City

#52, North Freeway, Columbus OH

#53, I-235, Oklahoma City

Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 34

Worst bottleneck: Southbound, Harrison Ave/6th St/Exit 1

Length of worst bottleneck: .4 mi

Weekly hours of congestion on worst bottleneck: 8

Speed of worst bottleneck when congested: 16.1 mph

Commuter Buzz: “It’s pretty wet,” driver Mike Raglin told KOCO 5, describing the roads after early-morning storms. “We had a couple of folks running into each other and stuff.”

#54, Highway 201, Salt Lake City

#55, I-240, Memphis

#56, I-65, Indianapolis

#57, US 22, Allentown, PA

#58, I-70, Kansas City

#59, I-30 Little Rock, AR

#60, I-10, Tucson

#61, Coronado Freeway, Albuquerque

#62, I-83, Harrisburg, PA

#63, I-290, Worcester, MA

#64, Crosstown Expressway, Tulsa

Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 6

Worst bottleneck: Eastbound, I 44/Highway 66

Length of worst bottleneck: .98 mi

Weekly hours of congestion on worst bottleneck: 6

Speed of worst bottleneck when congested: 16.1 mph

Commuter Buzz: Tulsa World reader Daven suggested politicians see roads firsthand to encourage increased spending on improvements. “Just drive him on the part of the [Inner Dispersal Loop] that has not been repaired and he will see real quick why that was need. Given that he doesn’t fall into a pothole.”

#65, I-75, Cape Coral, FL

#66, I-490, Rochester, NY

#67, I-271, Akron, OH

#68, I-205, Stockton, CA

#69, I-75, Dayton, OH

#70, I-40, Knoxville, TN

#71, I-690, Syracuse, NY

#72, I-15, Ogden, UT

#73, I-26, Columbia, SC

#74, I-55, Jackson, MS

#75, I-95, Richmond, VA

Maybe you haven’t noticed, but ‘tis the time of year for never-ending lists. Best this, worst that. Notable. Quotable. Blah Blah Blah.

What’s slightly interesting, though, as the end of 2009 draws near, this year’s lists are taking on a whole new flavor, “the end of the aught era.” Yes friends, it’s the end of the first decade of the 20^th Century, counting 2000 through 2009.

Since 2009 was a rather momentous (and most would say calamitous) year, I’ve made my own little list (nothing fancy mind you) of events that topped the commercial real estate charts over the past 12 months:

The commercial mortgage meltdown. This is, without a doubt in my mind anyway, the top story of the decade, and 2009 saw more “melt” and “down” following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. When do you know a trend in the CRE industry is really significant? When mention of it appears on CNBC and other mainstream business media outlets (print and broadcast) oh, say, every 10 minutes. We’ve been hearing a lot lately about CRE being the “other shoe to drop,” but as someone far smarter than me opined recently, “how many legs do we have?”

My new book! I purposely waited until the last day of the last year of the first decade of the 20^th Century to have it released. OK, maybe not, but anyway, it will just beat the buzzer. In many ways, the story of Sam Zell is emblematic of the decade past. One of history’s great contrarian business moguls, Zell earned a fortune selling his office real estate empire at the height of the market in 2006, then promptly pissed away much of his credibility capital by zealously (pun intended) buying and bankrupting Tribune, one of America’s great media companies. Sound interesting? Please go buy/pre-order the book NOW here.

General Growth Properties files Chapter 11. I first met John Bucksbaum, CEO of GGP, back in the mid-1990s, and I’ve been a big fan of his ever since. He was always resplendent in his trademark GGP green blazer at ICSC every year, and always made time to talk with me. What has happened to his firm is truly unfortunate for such a wonderful man. May the new year bring better days!

Devon Energy’s shiny new corporate headquarters in downtown Oklahoma City. Sure, I have soft spot in my heart for OKC since I’m a native from waaaaaayyyy back, but even foreigners – I mean out-of-staters – must surely marvel that a new 50-story office building is rising in the downtown of a city of 1 million people. Devon’s tower will not only change OKC’s skyline, it’s a game changer for the local business community/economy as well.

MAPS 3. You don’t even need a hand with fingers to count the number of cities that would vote for a one-penny sales tax, in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression, for what? Seven years and nine months. Oklahoma City is that city, and hopes are high in the local business community that the new $777 million public works program, which includes a new downtown convention center and public park, will continue to rejuvenate the urban core and keep the city out of its own recession.

These were only a few highlights from the year that was. Please feel free to add your own by clicking on the comments link below.

This past weekend over the Thanksgiving holiday, I found a few of those little surprises that make me glad I’m a native of Oklahoma City.

My wife, daughter, mom, brother and I found ourselves out early on Black Friday along with a surprisingly large number of the multitudes. This has become sort of an early-morning ritual/tradition that I still can’t quite figure out. I guess the rationale has something to do with getting into the holiday spirit. Shoppers were out in galore at Quail Springs and Penn Square Malls. (Quick note to Quail Springs: You need a Starbucks.)

In the afternoon, we drove out to Rand Elliott’s landmark POPS on Route 66. For all of my “out-of-town” friends, this is truly can’t-miss attraction. Check it out online here to see what I mean. Then it was up the road a mile or so to the newly restored “round barn.” Its loft is one of the coolest event spaces I’ve ever seen.

Later Friday afternoon we all made our way downtown to see the official city Christmas tree lighting in front of the SandRidge Building. Since we’re early for everything, we made an impromptu stop through the Skirvin Hilton Hotel just a block away, just in time to see the completion of two large ginger bread houses in the lobby. As usual, the entire hotel was in full holiday mode, and congrats to General Manager John Williams and his talented team for keeping the landmark property alive and well.

The tree lighting itself was preceded by music and even a flyover by the International Space Station directly overhead. A large group of “Not This MAPS” advocates were in attendance in their black T-shirts, but kept the peace. Thankfully.

Mayor Mick Cornett rode into the proceedings with Santa Claus, lit the tree and we headed home for some warm homemade pie.

Please forgive the sappy commentary here, but hey, it’s the holidays, ok? While I’m not often given to such frivolity amid the hustle and bustle of the season, this is absolutely my favorite time of year, and it was great to enjoy a long but thoroughly entertaining day in the heart of Oklahoma. I highly recommend it to everyone.

 P.S: The photos are courtesy of my daughter, Alex Johnson, and her trusty phone.

There is no question that the construction of Devon Energy’s new 50-story headquarters office tower in downtown Oklahoma City is the biggest thing to hit the market in two decades. Not to mention one of the largest construction projects currently underway across the entire country.

It’s especially gratifying to see that those ingenious folks on OKCTalk.com have come up with a webcam to keep an eye on Devon’s new baby as it comes out of the ground.