Notes From My Desk: What’s on My Radar this October

Yet another month has flown by this year! Here are a few notes from my desk that have been on my mind. Mostly real estate, with some other random things sprinkled in that have caught my attention. I hope you enjoy it!

1. Our Q3 2026 MarketBeats are out now.  On the office side, two of the main trends we continue to see right now is a flight to quality and the gradual end of our fully remote work era. Class A rents continue to outpace the market at 14.1% above the overall average, up from 12.2% in the second quarter. Tenants are finally starting to come back into the office, but they’re now looking for less space than pre-COVID. Vice President, Eric Schreibman, J.D. weighed in, “if a user needed 5,000 square feet before, maybe it’s only 2,000 to 3,000 now.” On the industrial side of things, builders are getting brave again. The construction pipeline nearly doubled to 1.8 million square feet, spec building jumped from 22,000 to more than 238,000 square feet, and leasing was up 28%. Vacancy sits at a tight 4% and rents keep on climbing.

2. Two landmarks, two second acts. We’ve been spending lots of time lately inside two different properties that carry an enormous piece of Cleveland’s history. Nela Park in East Cleveland, longtime home of GE Lighting and the world’s first industrial park is available now, a campus setting nobody could replicate today. Our team is also leasing the Downtown Cleveland Rotunda Building, the 1908 Cleveland Trust Bank at Euclid and East 9^th, with up to 33,279 square feet under marble columns and Francis Davis Millet murals. If you know someone who wants a story nobody else can tell, I’d love to walk them through either one!

3. Sizing up incentives. We’ve been representing clients on securing incentives for projects across the region, and we built an internal tool to help us. The tool tracks incentives approved across the state, both state and local awards, with the company, the address, the dollars and the jobs promised. It’s one of many metrics we use to size up what a project could realistically get. There’s real strategy in pursuing, negotiating and securing incentives, but it always starts with knowing where incentives have landed before. If you have a project coming up and want us to size up the incentives for it, just reply to this email.

4. A podcast I enjoyed. Hidden Forces: Why the China Threat is Overblown | Logan Wright

Logan’s argument is that China’s slowdown is structural: the biggest credit binge any single country has ever run has tapped out, and the official GDP numbers hide how much pain households, local governments, and the property market are in.

5. A quote that’s resonating with me lately. “Do so much work it would be unreasonable that you don’t succeed.” Alex Hormozi

Here’s what it means to me: Overwhelm bad odds and early mistakes through sheer frequency and repetition.

I welcome your reactions to this month’s notes. Reach out on LinkedIn or reply to this email.

Take care and Happy Halloween!

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