Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/100792
BY DEBORAH PARKER WONG Searching for Balance Expansion signals a shift as wineries heat up real estate market Kevin Foster, senior sales associate of Cornish & Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank���s Wine Services Group, compares the behavior of the wine industry to the action of a Slinky toy: brief moments of balance, with forces building momentum and sudden bursts of action. Foster���s analogy depicts a constantly moving target, one that expands and contracts in response to market forces the way a Slinky responds to gravitational pull. Last October Foster teamed up with Preston Smith, a senior vice president at the company���s office in Santa Rosa, Calif., to establish the wine service group, and they brought in Brian Gleason, senior vice president for Cornish & Carey���s office in Larkspur, to round out the team. ���We���ve got a lot of research at our disposal because of Newmark Knight Frank���s global platform,��� said Smith, who has access to a proprietary index of prices paid per acre for vineyard land in Europe. The company also has offices in major winegrowing regions around the world. AT A GLANCE + Wineries are emerging as commercial buyers. + Lifestyle sales are riding high on foreign investment. + Most growth is predicted for sub-regions in Sonoma County and the Central Coast. + The Willamette Valley in Oregon and the Finger Lakes in New York are also seeing increases in real estate values. Cornish & Carey���s Wine Services Group, comprised of (left to right) Brian Gleason, Preston Smith and Kevin Foster, is seeing fewer commercial sales compared to lifestyle purchases. 112 V I N EYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT | Jan - Feb 2013 w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m