Matthew Ward

Matthew Ward isn’t unlike many commercial real estate professionals: He’s waiting for November, and the presidential election, to come and go.

It’s not that Ward, senior vice president with Skokie, Ill.-based The Alter Group, is frustrated with endless political ads. It’s just that he’d like to see more real estate deals take place.

And like many, he sees a reticence among some developers, municipalities and big healthcare campuses planning to wait until after the presidential election to make their real estate expansion decisions.

The reason is obvious: These real estate decision-makers want to see whether they’ll be dealing with an Obama or Romney administration when it’s time to push new projects through their pipelines.

“We do a lot of business in DC and Virginia,” Ward said. “That region right now, moreso even than others, is in a bit of a holding pattern because this is an election year. People there are saying, ‘Let’s wait until November and see what happens.’ A presidential election year stalls things a bit every year. People want to see where the chips will fall.”

And this is an especially interesting presidential election year because the race between Romney and Obama is so tight. No one really knows who’ll be declaring victory come November.

– Dan Rafter