NYC Group Gets the 411 on 1031 Exchanges

Philadelphia RPN Member Margo McDonnell, CES – President of 1031 Corp. and a Certified Exchange Specialist® – was this month’s guest speaker. She presented a full range of information on 1031 Exchanges, from their history and scope, to the impact their repeal would have on real estate and other major industry sectors. While the key focus of her talk was on the preservation efforts currently underway to retain section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code, Ms. McDonnell also addressed some of the intent of the repeal efforts; misinformation surrounding its value and the effects of repeal, and the current roles 1031s play in the real estate market. She summarized the findings of three relevant 2015 impact studies that foresee negative impact to business: 1) a Macroeconomic Study of 10 business sectors conducted by Ernest & Young (chiefly authored by Dr. Robert Carroll); 2) a Microeconomic Study of the real estate industry (authored by David C. Ling of the University of Florida and Milena Petrova of Syracuse University); and 3) a National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) 1031 Survey. At the end of the presentation, Margo fielded questions and discussions from group members.

This meeting also welcomed several new faces. Tom Gilman is one of the partners of the NYC group’s newest member company, Gilman Architects, an architectural firm that serves clients in the residential, hospitality and commercial sector. Jeff Bauman, senior business development manager at ECS Global, a business consultant firm that specializes in energy and security solutions, was a guest of Steve Mayer. Two visitors from member companies were also on hand: Brian Gallagher, a partner in the Taxation Dept. of Davis & Gilbert and Tim Lavin, senior project manager at Dresdner Robin.