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On Thursday, September 21 over 60 CAA members gathered at Brookside Country Club for the third General Membership Meeting of the year featuring keynote speaker Robert Weiler, Sr. CAA President Steve Papineau got the meeting started by traditionally recognizing the CAA Past Presidents and Hall of Fame members in attendance followed by the new members attending their first meeting. Next, he had the honor of awarding ServPro best booth and best use of these for this year’s CAA Expo. As a result, they will have first pick of booth location for the 2024 Expo. Papineau then welcomed CAA Board of Trustees member Noelle Smith to speak about the upcoming Bus Tour. Smith very enthusiastically encouraged members to join and see each property showcased for one or both days allowing attendees to network, gain new, creative ideas and learn more about the industry as a whole from their peers. Following the Bus Tour plug Papineau returned to introduce Weiler highlighting just a few of his numerous accomplishments during his decades in the business. Weiler began with a bit of his history stating that he was fortunate to have a real estate company to go into, one started by his father 85 years ago. Instead of trying the commercial brokerage route, Weiler tried to sell homes, joking that he flunked out of that and ended up going into appraisal and development for the company. “Since I did start in real estate not only before you were born, but before many of your parents were born, I can tell you a little bit about what the situation was back in the 1905s when I went into the business and what’s happened since then,” Weiler said. “And, what I consider to be the five or six major trends or criteria that caused the trends since that time.” Stating the great impacts that have taken place over the last 60 years, Weiler began with the internet noting that the internet has allowed the gathering of data, research and analyze it and disseminate it. With all the data, it’s gotten to the place where companies don’t set rents. As soon as units are rented, prices are adjusted accordingly and instantaneously. Second, Weiler listed marketing as one dramatic change. When he started Weiler noted that about 75% of the marketing budget went to the Columbus Dispatch, where today, there are so many other ways of marketing. Third, he noted that apartments were not the building of choice, it was single family. There was 80-90 percent single family when he started and over the years it’s swung. “Last year there were over 4,700 apartments and a little over 6,000 houses, so it was a down year for apartments, but we’ve had over 50% to 60% apartments or more. That’s been a big change.” Next, he listed the profile of the tenant as a major change. When he started his career residents wanted to be single family homeowners, but they didn’t have the down payment. However, that changed dramatically over the years. Now, there are many tenants who have the money to buy a home, but they don’t want to. “They enjoy their freedom. They want mobility. The last thing they want to do is buy a lawnmower,” Weiler said. Finally, his last notable trend is the age of residents with the urbanization of older residents and a return to higher density. “I was also asked as part of my talk for a W.T.F. You know what W.T.F. means, don’t you,” Weiler joked. “What’s the Future. The future, sometimes when you’re in the middle of the forest you can’t see the trees. We are in one of the hottest markets here.” Reluctantly discussing the impacts of COVID, Weiler stressed that it did make offices obsolete. The industrial market and the housing market are strong while office space “I know rents in office space today are less than they were, believe it or not, 50 years ago,” Weiler said. “Inflation has not affected it. Today, we have a situation where what was office space is now residential. The reason residential is so strong is that we have a two-bedroom apartment and one of those bedrooms is the office space that used to be in the office building. I’m trying to look forward and I don’t see that changing.” Weiler said he doesn’t see offices coming back for a long time, change will be inevitable, but it won’t come back soon. Seeing downtown office space bolstered by Attorneys, Government, banks, and the like. With the future of downtown being residential. However, it is still lacking retail emphasizing the need for more retail development downtown. “Lastly, we have a housing crisis. The biggest challenge we have today is providing affordable housing. That’s our challenge for the future,” Weiler said. “It’s not affordable housing, it’s an oxymoron. When you look at the cost of some of the new housing, it’s something we need to address. All of us here have benefitted from living here and the good times. We’ve got to put our collective brains together to find a way to try to meet that crisis because it’s getting worse. We’re not building enough units to satisfy the growth. I don’t have the solutions, but before you find a solution you have to recognize the problem.” Weiler opened the floor to questions and the first was a request that he speak to the properties he’s transitioning to naturally affordable housing. With his partner, Don Kelly, they were building a couple hundred apartments every few years beginning in the 1960s, having never sold property. Realizing now, they’d like to see the benefit of their accomplishments while they’re still alive and start divesting of some of the apartments, particularly in the suburbs, where affordable housing is often not welcome. They transferred units in the Dublin school district and some in the Hilliard school district later this year. “I hope we live long enough to keep divesting ourselves. It’s not like we’re heroes. The Kelly’s and Weiler’s have more dollars they we need, and you get to a place where you say why not see the benefit of this while we’re alive,” Weiler said. “You can’t get into these communities. We’re putting a restriction as we transfer these apartment to a non-profit called Columbus Housing Enterprise, the tenants that we’re targeting are going to be anywhere from 60-80 percent AMI. No evictions.” After three or four years of discussion the first property transferred last year, the second later this year and the third next year, hoping that this will start a trend. Weiler closed with some statements about how the real estate industry in Columbus is a tight knit community who all work together to create the “Columbus Way.” CAA Executive Director Laura Swanson thanked Weiler for his time and members for attending before reminding them about the upcoming CAA events.