George J. Carter
Analyst · BMO Capital Markets
That -- boy, that's a great -- I'd like to have that -- those glasses. Your great economist, Brian Belski, is somebody that we actually agree with a lot at BMO. And what Brian says is this up cycle, he agrees that this is probably a long up cycle, has got 3 traditional phases in it: one, is the phase that we're in now is sort of the uncertainty phase or the denial phase; and then you have this phase where everybody agrees that we are, in effect, a good uptrend; and then you have usually the euphoric phase, where underwriting and lending gets a little nuts at the end. And I don't know time frames here, but I do believe that when you start to see in Office, particularly, significant speculative construction coming onboard, and when you start to see employment hit that point where employment is starting to actually push the inflation gauge a bit, those are 2 great signals. We're not seeing those signals yet. Not on speculative construction, certainly not on employment. But that would be the tipoff for us that we are starting to hit sort of the mid part or the meaty part of the up cycle, and then you start to probably acquire less, or more strategically acquire, or more strategically dispose of and reacquire. We did that in the last cycle, I think very effectively as a company, and we certainly are focused on at this cycle. But if you said to me, Rich, 2 to 3 years, I wouldn't argue with that. But again, opportunity, comes in many places at many different times for many different reasons. And regardless of the part of the cycle, if you find the right opportunity, you certainly take it. But right now, you're seeing significant properties in markets that we want to be in that have these drivers that we think are really going to push the needle faster than the averages. Coming to market, and people are calling us on these. These are properties that are fairly stabilized, 80% to 90% leased, with rents below the markets and replacement cost. Just excellent, excellent value. So that will end, whether it's 2 years, 3 years or 5 years. It will end if the cycle continues.