Results Show Environmental Design Not Relevant to One-Third of Real Estate Professionals NEW YORK, May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- More than one-third of real estate professionals said that "green construction" would not be in their real estate development plans in the next 12 - 18 months, according to the fourth annual Bryan Cave Real Estate Executives' Forecast Survey. The study, released today, surveyed real estate executives from across the country. "The fact that the survey reveals such a substantial level of reluctance to embrace green construction is surprising," said Barry Ross, a partner in Bryan Cave's Real Estate Group. "Previously viewed as prohibitively expensive by the real estate community, green construction is not universally gaining ground because the true cost-effectiveness of green construction is still a matter of debate." In addition, the research demonstrated that the Southwest continues to be a dominant region for development, with 21 percent of respondents planning to invest in that area of the country. The investment interest in the Southwest is particularly striking given that only one percent of survey respondents are based in the Southwest. The survey also found that when asked about the region in the United States they would invest, 33 percent said the Northeast, 16 percent mentioned the Pacific Coast and 10 percent named the Southeast. Real estate respondents were particularly interested in investing in metropolitan office buildings (21 percent) and metropolitan and suburban multi-family, high-rise residential buildings (23 percent). On the foreign investment front, 55 percent of real estate executives are likely to invest in land outside the United States within the next 12 months. Thirty-eight percent are highly likely and 17 percent are somewhat likely to invest abroad, despite threats of terrorism and continuing military conflict in certain parts of the world. Respondents expressed the greatest interest in investing in one of three countries: Canada (eight percent), England (eight percent) and Mexico (eight percent).
