Television City(James brown) In late April 1985, Frank, my real estate appraiser supervisor at Marshall and Stevens, a national appraisal company, called.

“Jim, come down to LA. We got a big assignment. It’s a rush job.

At 7 AM the next morning, I boarded a Western Airlines plane to fly from Portland’s PDX airport to LA’s LAX. After the “Fasten Seat Belts” light beeped off and the “Smoking Allowed” blinked on, I smoked a cigarette with fellow rear section passengers. With the cigarette stubbed out in the little arm rest ashtray, the stewardess served my soggy omelet breakfast. When she returned and relieved me of my food tray mess, I went to the lavatory, not to urinate, but for my flight treat, a little bar of soap.

A habitual collector, I’d started acquiring airline soap bars as a frequent traveler perk. At times it determined which airline I flew. Continually traveling around the USA doing appraisals for Marshall and Stevens, I’d accrued personal hotel stays, car rentals, and gimmick gifts. Back then, travel agents booked your itinerary at 10% of cost. I’d made a deal with my travel agent,

“Get the lowest cost itinerary and I will faithfully book with you”.

My vest pocket ticket said I was flying to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Instead, I was getting off the plane at LAX on a low fare special to Cabo that stopped in LA. In the plane’s cargo hold was my empty, checked baggage cardboard box, to Cabo, required to keep me from hopping off at LA, all part of the crazy travel world before airline deregulation.

My gold Dollar rental car card perked me to a VIP customer line as less fortunate waited in long lines and gave me unpopular looks. As a multi-day assignment, I took the “buy a tank of gas” option, a gimmick that normally benefited the rental car agency. They offered a tank of gas cheap per gallon, but it was a loser’s bet unless you brought the car back with less than a quarter of a tank. Typically, I declined to buy a tank. If I did, I prided myself in bringing the car back on fumes, having once had the car run out of gas as I drove back on the lot.

I drove on Century Boulevard to the Harbor freeway and to LA’s Marshall and Stevens office. On the 8th floor, waltzing past the receptionist, I knocked at Frank’s door and was told

“It’s open”.

As usual, he sat behind a desk stacked with files but this time there were more than normal. Even the guest chair was burdened with them. I stood and waited for the file he was going to give me.

“Jim, you have a good trip down?”

“Yeah, got a new airline soap bar to add to my collection.”

“Great, as I said on the phone, we got a big assignment. You’re going to be busy.”

“Good, what’s up?”

“Ted Turner is trying to buy CBS. CBS is attempting to take a poison pill to thwart Turner. CBS is our client and wants all their properties appraised to borrow as much as they can from banks. It’s time plus cost!”

“What’s mine?”

He handed me 2 folders, one very thick.

“Television City in LA and a leasehold interest in Radio City Music Hall in NY. Here’s the property folders.”

“Thanks, how much time?”

“It’s all got to be done in a month. It’s rush, rush.”

I took the folders and found a vacant cubical to see what I’d got. I set NY’s Radio city Music Hall aside and dove into the big Television City folder. Television City was big, very big, 25 acres and a 350,000 square foot building especially built to make television programs.

Frank assumed I knew what Television City and Radio City Music Hall were, like he assumed I knew how to write a commercial real estate appraisal when he interviewed me over 5 years earlier. I’d heard the names but that was the extent of my familiarity. As when hired, it was going to be a steep learning curve.

As I dug deeper into the folder my unease increased. It often did when starting an assignment for Marshall and Stevens. I’d already appraised an abandoned sea plane base, Prudhoe Bay oil rigs, a titanium plant, nursing homes, a potato processing plant, thousands of acres of swamp land, beach front hotels and everything in-between all in different states.

Each required my learning about an economic niche of USA. I flew in, inspected the property, got educated, wrote an appraisal, and concluded a value within time and budget allowed and submitted it to Frank. He managed a covey of appraisers, was time stressed and never questioned my appraisals, if they were acceptable to 3rd party readers and the client. I tried to make his job easy to better my annual salary review.

Another appraiser explained why my appraisals of unique properties were acceptable.

”Jim, when you appraise a rocket launching pad, you have no clue what it’s worth when you start, when you write the report and when you conclude your value. Fortunately, no one else does so they don’t question you if you tell an acceptable story.”

With the insight I needed an acceptable story for Television City, my mind flashed back to when I interviewed with Frank to work for Marshall and Stevens. I’d written an acceptable story back in October 1979 when I desperately sought to be hired.

I’d driven the 50 miles from my home in Salem, Oregon to Portland for an employment agency’s referred job interview with a company unknown but heard of, Marshall and Stevens.

Napoleon was asked, “What is the most important quality you want in your generals?” He answered, “Good luck!” I don’t know if this tidbit is historically true but in life, it’s true, luck, good or ill, is the deciding factor in much of life, at least for me and I suspect, for you too.

When I’d called the employment agency, I knew it was a long shot, probably a waste of dimes and quarters into the courthouse pay phone booth. The Oregon economy had collapsed when the annual Spring lemming run of rich California homeowner equity failed leaving new homes, shopping centers and office buildings unneeded and vacant. In addition, timber, the “official” mainstay of Oregon’s economy, hit the skids with the prime interest rate climbing above 20 percent.

Many neighbors were “moving on” which meant moving out of Oregon. A newspaper classified job opening for a janitor at a nursing home resulted in line of applicants a block long at 7 AM.

I still had a few cards to play. I had a job, even if a bad one, I had about half my California home equity in cash and could tuck my tail and plead to be rehired by the California office I’d quit. So, I told myself.

Stacked against me was a dwindling cash reserve, inability to sell our house, employment experience limited to assessor offices, uncertainty if the Santa Clara County Assessor would re-hire me, and the old maid card of inane current job.

Lady luck, however, dealt a good hand, the first was an ace when the headhunter proffered real estate appraiser employment. The second ace was it paid twice my current salary.

I expected a block long line of other applicants at the interview and knew I’d be at an experience disadvantage. The proposed job description, real estate appraiser, was for a different employment slot than property tax form appraiser. My work experience matched the job description in name only.

The job interview was for a job working nationally at a private company as an appraiser who would estimate values of major industrial and commercial properties in a narrative format, not on a form. I knew I was in a crap shoot with the dice loaded against me.

I surreptitiously surveyed the office building for the job interview. There was no line of want to be applicants. Luck held when I got to the second floor, walked down the corridor, and fronted the suite. There was still no line of other job seekers.

The secretary greeted me, said they were expecting me, said I was to meet Larry, went to his office, returned smiling, and ushered me in. I took a deep breath, wiped my right hand on a pants leg to remove sweat and entered.

Larry jumped up to greet me, shook my still wet hand and sat me down. I let him talk. He explained Marshall and Stevens was a national real estate appraisal company, it had offices throughout the United States, they were growing, the job was a great opportunity and, did I have any questions. Luckily, he didn’t ask about me.

I was desperate but wanted to appear eager. He already had my puffed-up resume. I thought it was best not to endanger what I’d presented by attempting to elaborate on it. I responded with petty lies about how I thought working for Marshall and Stevens was a great opportunity to expand my real estate appraiser experience. My only question was,

“If I’m hired, who would I report to?”.

He smiled, looked askance to avoid my eyes, and dealt me a third ace card,

“I’m the office salesman, I sell appraisal assignments and don’t do appraisals. You will report to the Los Angeles, California office even though you’ll work out of Portland.”

The vast difference between my governmental tax assessment real estate appraising experience versus proposed new employment was not a topic of our interview!

He concluded our conversation by saying he was satisfied with me but the person who made the final decision was the West Coast real estate appraiser manager in Los Angles, California, Frank.

The next day, Frank called. He didn’t ask about my experience either. He gave me a Salem appraisal assignment for a potential Kaiser Hospital site. My experience would be judged by what I did, not what I’d done, and offered $2,000 for the appraisal.

I countered, “No, instead of paying me $2,000, you pay the $5,000 headhunter’s fee and reduce my first year’s salary by that amount.”

Unlike government, he asked only to repeat the proposal then said,

“Okay”.

When I hung up the phone, if I played my cards correctly, I would draw the fourth ace, however, for me to deal a hand I had to write a commercial real estate appraisal, something I’d never done.

A commercial real estate appraisal is a valuation term paper that estimates value in a convincing manner. The property is described, an analysis of macro and micro economic characteristics impacting the property’s neighborhood is done, what the best use of the property is concluded, and a value is estimated using the Cost, Market, and or Income Approaches, all in a narrative format. You “prove” to the reader your estimate of value is what the property would sell for if exposed for sale.

Appraising a vacant site was more luck. The property description was limited to a site, making an inventory of its location, street access, size, shape, terrain, soil, zoning, and easements. The best use was obviously medical or hospital use for Kaiser. Only one approach to value was necessary, the Market Approach using comparable land sales.

I thanked God for my high school English and typing classes. I could pass the experience test with a little help from a friend.

While no good deed may go unpunished, they can accrue goodwill. At the assessor’s office I inspected properties, collected property sales information, set assessed values, and served as a flack catcher to irate taxpayers while public officials promoted their inane spending programs.

There was also another task, helping people, even talking to lonely people who called to have someone listen to them more than have their property taxes reduced. There were also those who came to the assessor’s office to make a buck.

Much of the assessor’s information is available to the public at the counter in accessible files. Real Estate agents, mortgage brokers, attorneys, and fee real estate appraisers knew how to cull public records on their own. They were the ghosts scurrying around the front lobby for public information, scanning the microfiche, map books, paper files and now computers.

Most were in a hurry and paid scant attention to assessor personnel with the exception of commercial fee real estate appraisers. There are 2 types of fee appraisers, residential and commercial. They don’t usually mix.

Residential appraisers are typically hired by banks to estimate the value of homes using forms, and comparison sales data. They get their sales from the broker’s multiple listing service. It’s not that much different than what a residential appraiser at the assessor’s office does. After culling assessor’s public records data there is little need for them to “go behind the counter”.

Commercial fee appraisers are different. They complete narrative appraisals which are detailed and bound like a book estimating value using the Cost, Market, and Income Approaches with the 3 reconciled into a concluded value.

While some commercial sales are reported in the broker’s multiple listing service, most are not. Those reported sold by a broker’s listing service usually have the sales terms, including price, kept confidential. Commercial fee appraisers, therefore, vie for accurate sales data for their Market and Income Approaches.

The Assessor’s office has sources of commercial sales and income data. This semi-confidential information creates commercial fee appraisers in need of assessor appraisers.

To get behind the assessor’s counter and mine commercial property data, commercial fee appraisers are wont to come with pastry, invitations for lunch or other petty bribes. They also provide their bribe treats, semi-confidential commercial property data of their own, making it a two-way street. The result is a symbolic relationship with the commercial fee and assessor appraisers.

Most personnel in the assessor’s office pay scant attention to the commercial appraiser ghosts lurking behind the counter other than joining in pastry feeds. I actively sought their sales data, suffered from a pastry addiction and actively befriended them.

John was a Salem, Oregon MAI, (Member Of appraisal Institute) commercial fee appraiser. He often flitted in and out of the assessors’ office for information and brought pastry. He’d even bought me lunch a few times. Now it was time to see if he was a friend indeed.

I went to his office with a bag of cinnamon rolls. I wanted an example of one of his commercial narrative appraisals I could plagiarize. I don’t know if it was the pastry or my past assistance but, he gave me a copy of a commercial vacant land appraisal near my subject property plus a recent land sale. His only admonishment was not to copy it verbatim and conceal him as a source. I mused if I’d bought lunch, perhaps he’d have his secretary type the report for me.

With his example of what to do, I inspected the property, took pictures and completed “my” appraisal within the weeks’ time limit of my test assignment.

Frank called after receiving the report. He wanted me to do more work. They would pay the headhunter’s fee.

It was not a formal hiring like government. It was close enough. I gave the county my 2 weeks’ notice.

After 2-weeks, I started many firsts, flying to LAX, renting a car, getting a hotel room, and finding the Marshall and Steven’s office in LA’s traffic maze.

I flew down Sunday and scouted out the Marshall and Stevens building at 7 AM and was the second person in after a secretary opened the door. At 9 AM Frank arrived, introduced himself and then passed me on to the West Coast Manager, Pearce. Pearce asked 2 questions,

“Jim, do you know where Redlands is?”

I didn’t want to sound stupid. I’d heard of a place called Redlands, knew it was somewhere in southern California but decided honesty was best.

“No sir.”

“Have you ever appraised a medical office complex adjacent to a hospital?”

That was easy.

“No sir.

“Well, the next time I see you, you can say yes to both.”

He reached behind his desk and handed me a bound folder. The interview was over. I had another exam to pass. I got up and left the office to figure out what next. By now the office had filled with others.

As I read through the folder in bewilderment another appraiser, Gary, came over and asked who I was. After welcoming me aboard he asked what I was apprising. I told him I wasn’t sure and didn’t even know where Redlands was. He took me to an office filled with file cabinets containing completed appraisal and explained Redlands was in Riverside County and the file cabinets were organized by property types and location. Sorting through Riverside County and then medical offices there was a file for a medical office complex in Redlands. It was the property I was to appraise! It had been appraised a year previously. More luck, a milk run, appraise a property recently appraised.

In the assignment folder was the name of the property contact. From the Marshall and Steven’s office I phoned the name shown to introduced myself.

“Mr. Garth, this is Jim Brown. I’m to appraise the Redland’s Medical Office complex. To do so, I need to inspect the property. Your name is shown as the contact person.”

“Yes, I’ve been expecting someone to come. How about 9 AM tomorrow?”

“That’s great. I have the building and site descriptions from a prior appraisal. Has there been any changes in the last year?”

“We added a wing recently. I’ll have the blueprints and have the accountant get the current rent roll and historic income and expenses.”

“Thanks, I’ll see you at 9 AM.”

I spent the rest of the day at Marshall and Stevens office culling medical office sales from appraisals in Riverside County but there wasn’t much. That afternoon, I drove on Interstate-5 sixty miles east and learned where Redlands is. I scouted out the property, it was big and hard to discern where the hospital ended, and the property appraised began. Confused, but with the old appraisal for backup, I checked into a motel, grabbed a couple of hamburgers, munched them down as I watched TV, and tossed and turned in fretful sleep for my big test the next day. I wondered if I could get past employment back if I failed.

Mr. Garth was the complex manager, a real estate broker, and knew what appraisers needed better than I knew. He had a little diagram of the addition, historical income and expense data, rent roll for the offices, a comparable rental survey and explained why the property was being appraised.

As we walked through the complex, I took pictures, and he gave me the background.

“Jim, there are a group of investors who own this property, mostly doctors who work out of the hospital. If one wants to sell out or buy in, they use the most recent appraisal to determine what is a fair price. If you need any help, that’s what I’m here for.”

That was it! Follow the old appraisal, add in the addition, tweak rents and expenses, toss in his rental survey, add new sales in Riverside County, if any, and don’t go too far astray from his suggested assistance, all the while learning about the economics of Redlands, California and how to appraise a large medical office complex.

After 2 days of driving around Riverside County getting chamber of commerce economic data, checking with Redlands City Hall for zoning, stopping at the county assessor’s office for current property taxes, taking pictures of medical office buildings while checking his rental survey, visiting real estate agents he recommended who specialized in office real estate brokerage, and visiting commercial appraisers with a bag of pastry for sales data, it was back to LAX and PDX.

At home, I updated the old appraisal, bounced conclusions off Mr. Garth to ensure I’d not wander too far astray, and completed my report within time and budget. I waited for Frank’s approval. It came as another assignment in San Antonio, Texas. I’d passed Mr. Pearce’s test. I was a Marshall and Stevens appraiser.

Since 1979, I’d moved up in Marshall and Stevens to a business card title, Senior Appraiser, a sop for not getting last year’s salary increase sought.

The Television City and Radio City Music Hall assignments were votes of confidence in me by Frank. They were crown jewels in CBS’s property portfolio and the battle between CBS and Ted Turner was a billionaire public war. He trusted me to not “F” it up.

From the Marshall and Stevens office cubical I’d expropriated; I called the contact for the Television City folder, David. He had to be somebody important at CBS because he had a private secretary screen his calls. I was immediately put through after explaining my reason for calling, meaning for the moment, I was somebody important too.

“Mr. Brown, good morning, I’ve been waiting for your call. When will you come and what do you need. Whatever it is I’ll be sure it’s ready for you.”

“I’m pleased to hear that. I’m at the office and would like to come around say 1:30 after lunch if that’s okay?”

“No problem”

“Can you have site data and brief improvement description with building construction and square footage details.”

“Our building engineer will meet with us and have blueprints for you.”

“How about leases. Is the building or parts of it leased?”

“We occupy all of the offices and one stage, but the other stages are leased.”

“Can you have copies of the leases and any rental survey data available?”

“I’ll have the building manager meet with us and have that ready for you too.”

When I set the phone down a feeling of power surged over me. Important people, more important than me, were jumping to assist me. It was like having the red pencil at the assessors’ office where I changed the amount of taxes a property owner paid with the flick of the red pencil. My band of power over others was extremely narrow but ran very deep in a media battle of media titans.

At 1:30 I was greeted by David, the building engineer, property manager and their assistants, the latter who did what I asked for. After an hour of asking everything I could possible want done to help write the appraisal, David and I did the tour.

It was a maze, no, a labyrinth of offices and tech rooms with 4 huge stages brimming with cameras, sound equipment and electronic wizardry, none of which I had a clue of what they were. The endless offices each had 3 TVs clicked on. Bedazzled, I made no comment to avoid exposing my ignorance of what I was viewing, something I’d learned inspecting a titanium plant.

As we passed behind the stage while the “Price Is Right” was being broadcast I made sure to act uninterested, avoided staring at celebrities, as if close up media intricacies and personalities were unimportant and common experiences for me to enhance my credibility while uncomprehending what I was viewing.

There was even an oddity on the roof, a singly family wood frame, 3 bedrooms, 2 bath track house designed residence where Danny Kay lived, a big star at the time of the appraisal. He wanted his kids to experience a “normal” LA childhood.

It was after 5 when I left burdened with papers providing all the information I’d requested plus 3 rolls of exposed film I’d taken wandering in the complex with David.

Television City was at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles. Hollywood was just to the north and Beverly Hills just to the west. Back then the historic Farmers Market was adjacent to the east. Nearby to the northeast was Paramount Studios. I checked into a hotel on Hollywood Blvd to get the “feel” of Hollywood.

What did I know about Hollywood, the television media, movie studios, other than the obvious. LA was the center for the media industry and they were interrelated as if all wrapped up in a ball of twine.

From prior Marshall and Steven appraisals, however, I knew you could distill from the billions of people on earth the few people who knew how the ball of twine was threaded. I had to find them to tell the Television City story. At 9 AM the next morning, after a Hollywood style sidewalk café breakfast, I started calling. I started with a few confidential numbers David had given me and used these phone calls to get others, all to winnow out from the billions the few who could tell me how to appraise Television City.

After 3 days holed up in the hotel, both ears sore from phone listening, fingers sore from dialing, over $150 in additional motel phone calling expense, the story began to jell.

In 1985 there was more turmoil in Hollywood than Ted Turner’s attempt to buy CBS. Many media moguls were attempting to leave Hollywood for North Carolina. The large back lots of movie studios were being sold off or converted in use like Universal Studios switching to first attempting to make money by entertaining the public on how movies are made but quickly switching into an amusement park of rides and carnival stands. The attitude was Los Angeles no longer appreciated the media industry while North Carolina was actively pursuing them.

These calls went back and forth on the possibility of leaving LA, but wiser heads said no, not because of the big people, but the little people. These were those shown as the long list of credits that scroll down after the end of the movie. If a media mogul moved his studio to Ashville, North Carolina where was he going to find the costume designers, the special effects people, the bit character actors, the music composers and last, but big, the cars. Only in LA can a director garner a gaggle of cars for an era or design with a few phone calls to start filming.

I was in a quandry and first attempted to learn if there was any sales data of movie studios. I kept going back to what was Television City.

Television City was built in 1952 on a former football field when land in LA was cheap. It explained the spread-out landscaping and parking surrounding the building and its small foot print on the 25-acre site.

Despite being 33 years old it looked new and was the pride and joy of William S. Paley, president of CBS, a media pioneer who had made CBS the king of television and radio While stationed in NY, he insisted it be kept in perfect condition as the symbol of CBS on the West Coast.

I was a surprised, however, CBS only used one of the stages. The other 3 were leased, one even to NBC. I called the property manager and asked the obvious.

“How come you don’t use all 4 stages and even lease to a competitor, NBC at a rate that is too low to make sense.”

“It’s complicated but the short answer is things have changed in Hollywood.”

“How so?”

“Don’t quote me but the stages are too expensive to operate. You see, we buy most TV programs now from independent producers. They get an old retail building like a closed grocery store, paint out the windows, move their recording and lighting equipment in, shoot and can a couple test programs, usually a sitcom, and pitch it to us. If we think its got traction we do a test run in a small market section. If it goes over good, we give them a contract and run it nationally.

It avoids hiring our own actors and actresses, writers, support people, in other words it’s much cheaper.”

“Why do you still use one stage?”

“It documents how much money we save.”

Boom, there it was, Television City was a vast special purpose property constructed at tremendous cost, in perfect condition, that was obsolete and worthless. The most complicated appraisal I’d ever been assigned to do was actually a simple one.

I only had to estimate what the 25 acres or 1,089,000 square feet was worth. The building was not worth anything. Large tracts of land were rare in LA. When they did sell, they tended to sell for more per square foot than medium sized parcels due to their rarity. Due to location, terrain, zoning, $50 a square foot was reasonable or $54,450,000. I rounded that down to 54 million and called David.

“David, it’s Jim the Marshall and Stevens appraiser. I want to talk to you about Television City’s value.”

“I’m all ears.”

“The buildings obsolete.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s worthless.”

“Are you going to tell Paley?”

“I’ll leave that to you.”

“No, you’re the expert. I’ve hinted it to him before, but I like my job.”

I called Frank. It took longer to convince him but he then asked,

“How about Radio City Music Hall?”

“I’m flying to NY tomorrow. It’s just a leased fee, present worth analysis until the end of their lease.”

I got to see the highlights of NY, including Times Square which was tawdry before Rudy cleaned it up, and another airline soap bar.

CBS successfully thwarted Ted Turner.

After Radio City Music Hall, Frank sent me to Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, an Aleutian Island, to appraise water area adjacent to a pier for a factory fish processing ship lease.

After my appraisal, CBS increased the size of Television City to a million square feet and sold it all in 2017 for 750 million. The buyer added another million square feet. Considering real estate inflation in LA, my value conclusion in 1985 was correct.

The reason the building size increased six fold from 350,000 to 2 million square feet was the city of Los Angeles made Television City an historic site. CBS and the buyer could not demolish the obsolete building only add to and build around the original structure.

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