The Man Behind Bars (and Graphs)

In just two years, Colliers Monroe Friedlander has become one of Hawaii’s leading sources of commercial real-estate data. In fact, that is about how long Michael Hamasu has been serving as the company’s director of consulting and research.

No coincidence. Hamasu boasts more than 18 years of marketing-and-research experience. Prior to moving to the Islands, he was the marketing research director for Whitney Cressman Ltd., a San Francisco boutique real estate firm that, under his leadership, established a national reputation for accurate forecasts and analysis. Hamasu also has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Real Estate Forum, Commercial Property News and USA Today.

Forecasting the market’s performance in the San Francisco Bay Area was like monitoring an unpredictable, wild animal. The market spanned 600,000 million square feet of commercial and industrial properties. And vacancy rates were always in a state of flux.

“San Francisco went through a tumultuous time,” Hamasu recalls. “There was a 1 percent to 2 percent vacancy in the late 1990s. A 20 percent vacancy now, because of the tremendous growth of the Internet and the dotcom boom. Based on that, we were tracking trends that were vertical and horizontal.”

Hawaii’s real estate market, on the other hand, is more predictable, he says. “You don’t have to worry about pegging a vacancy rate, which people use to evaluate their companies and real estate investments, and be totally off, way off. The dynamics of the market are significantly different. Here, you have a flat line of 1 or 2 percent growth over a period of eight or nine years.”

Not that Hamasu’s research workload has slowed down since joining Colliers Monroe Friedlander. He continues to crunch data and track trends for the commercial real estate industry. The information can be found at www.colliershawaii.com.

In fact, he and his research team are the people behind Hawaii Business’ real estate lists: the Oahu Office Guide (in this issue); the Maui Office Guide (June); Kauai Office Guide (July); Hawaii Retail Guide (September); and the Big Island Office Guide (November). The Colliers’ research team is comprised of two full-time people, plus 40 part-time workers (every agent and property manager assists in research information).

Hamasu also is an unofficial adviser, a mentor to Hawaii Business’ editorial team – which occasionally picks his brain about the real estate market.

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