Greg Junek: Sunday Briefing

Marion Dingler of Winona received the Texas Bankers Foundation’s 50-Year Banker Award on Thursday during a luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort near Austin.

The award honors bankers with a half-century or more of service and dedication to the banking industry.

Dingler began his career at the Big Sandy branch of First State Bank in Frankston. He was hired as a bookkeeper and after a few years was promoted to president, a title he held until 1999. Since then, he has served as an advisory director of Austin Bank, Texas NA in Jacksonville.

He received many awards over the years, the latest bring the Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year and the Golden Trowel Award presented by the Masonic Lodge in Big Sandy.

Serving Texas bankers since 1885, The TBA is the largest and oldest state bankers association in the country. It has served bankers since 1885.

The 2008-2009 slate of Texas Restaurant Association leaders includes two East Texans.

Gerard Cace of Johnny Cace’s Seafood & Steak House in Longview assumed the office of president.

Mark Maguire of Maguire’s Restaurant Concepts in Dallas is the president-elect.

Bob Westbook of WR Ventures Inc., dba CiCi’s Pizza in Tyler, is one of two vice presidents.

Lisa Perini of Perini Ranch Steakhouse in Buffalo Gap is the other vice president.

And Russell Ybarra of Gringos Mexican Kitchen in Houston is the newly elected secretary-treasurer.

The new slate took office during the TRA’s annual meeting, conducted during the Southwest Foodservice Expo, June 22-24 in Houston.

“The quality of these leaders reflects how highly the TRA is regarded in the industry,” said

Ritchie Jackson, TRA executive vice president and chief executive officer. “We are truly fortunate that such high-caliber people choose to be involved, to give generously of their time and expertise. They bring great energy and creativity to the organization and will help us to continue to serve the dynamic $33 billion Texas restaurant industry.”

The TRA was formed in 1937 to serve as the advocate in Texas and resource for the hospitality and food service industry. The Texas restaurant industry is composed of more than 55,000 locations and a workforce of more than 985,000 employees. It also represents the Texas Restaurant Association Education Foundation.

A survey released last week by an accounting, tax and business advisory organization shows six in 10 real estate executives have a pessimistic outlook regarding the nation’s economy for the next year, and 48 percent feel the same way about the real estate industry’s business outlook.

Those executives, however, are more optimistic in their attitudes toward their own companies.

Grant Thornton LLP’s 2008 Real Estate Survey found 57 percent of the executives with the pessimistic outlook on the economy, and 48 percent expressed similar feelings about their own industry’s outlook.

The numbers showed a sharp decline in optimism from 2006. That year, 15 percent of respondents had a pessimistic outlook about the economy, and 5 percent were pessimistic about the real estate industry’s outlook.

But when answering a question of their own companies, half of the respondents expressed an optimistic outlook, and 12 percent had a pessimistic outlook. In 2006, 80 percent of respondents had a positive outlook for their own companies in the next year.

More than a third of those surveyed, 36 percent, said the national economy was the single most important issue facing their industry. Twenty-one percent said it was earnings and operation results, 19 percent said the ability to access capital, 10 percent said tenant relationships and 5 percent said rising costs.

Survey respondents also answered questions pertaining to rate changes in the market, with 69 percent saying they believed unemployment rates in their market would increase. Sixty-one percent believed vacancy rates in their market would rise.

Seventy-nine percent said they expected capitalization rates to increase nationally, while 76 percent predicted a capitalization rate decrease. Fifty one percent said they believed interest rates would decrease.

The real estate executives were polled in two ways.

An invitation to participate in the online survey was sent to nearly 1,900 real estate contacts in Grant Thornton’s database. This was followed up with a communication to 4,000 developers, owners and investors who are members of the

National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. NAIOP members include developers, owners, investors and other professionals in the industrial, office and mixed-use real estate industry.

The survey drew 341 responses between March 2 and March 26.

Greg Junek
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