NAIOP Urges Congress to Pass Legislation that Will Positively Impact Real-estate Development

With the Senate Finance Committee poised to consider legislation to renew current tax policy, NAIOP, the voice for the commercial real estate development industry urged Congress to pass bipartisan legislation that includes provisions essential to continued growth in the industry.

“Our economy is heading in the right direction, but it would greatly benefit from consistent tax policy in Washington. We support the goal of comprehensive tax reform that continues to incentivize investment and development, but in the absence of that we need to know that current policy will be renewed. Investing and developing in an unsteady tax policy environment is unsettling at best. Not knowing the near-term tax environment really does affect the ability to make good long-term investment decisions that create jobs and help grow the economy,” says Thomas J. Bisacquino, president and CEO of NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.

NAIOP is working to renew the following tax provisions, which all have positive impacts for commercial real estate development:

• Fifteen-year qualified leasehold improvement depreciation
• Existing bonus depreciation provisions to spur investment
• Incentives to promote energy-efficient buildings
• New Markets Tax Credit to spur investment in our communities

In 2012, the commercial real estate development sector added $303.4 billion to the U.S. GDP, up from $261.6 billion in 2011, a near 16 percent increase, according to a 2013 NAIOP Foundation report. This addition to the economy generated $96.7 billion in new personal earnings and supported 2.3 million full-time equivalent, year-round jobs.