Kim Preston and Bob Bodansky Quoted in GlobeSt.com

The article ("Condos See Construction Cost Pinch") in the May 5, 2006 issue of the online commercial real estate news outlet GlobeSt.com notes "the peak building period typically starts in May. But as the cost of construction materials continues its sharp ascent, the Washington market is bracing for an impact. That’s especially true as signs emerge that certain segments are already starting to slow. Already the DC condo market is showing signs, if not of distress, then of declining growth, as prices have been flat since August 2005. Richard Preston and Robert Bodansky, attorneys with Seyfarth Shaw’s Washington, DC office, believe that fewer new condo projects will be entering the pipeline over the next six months and construction costs will indeed play a role. “It discourages people from taking on projects,” Bodansky says. “There has been a slowdown in demand already,” Preston notes. “So purchase prices are coming down as costs are continuing to rise. That leaves a big question mark for developers and for the near-term prospects of that market. The most sophisticated and experienced condo developers are being more discriminating on what they take on.”