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By ELIZABETH HAYES

Staff Reporter

When commercial real estate broker Carl Muhlstein was shopping in the Hong Kong jewelry district for a ring for his wife, he couldn’t help noticing that the building’s operating expenses were posted on the elevator wall. That led to the discovery that, because it’s so difficult to lease office space in Hong Kong’s tight real estate market, whole floors or individual offices are sold outright to tenants, much like condominiums.

“I discovered it’s very common in Asia. I researched some of the larger groups that do that and followed up with discussions on (whether the concept would work for) domestic properties,” Muhlstein said.

Cut to the capital of haute couture, the rue Faubourg St. Honor & #233; in Paris, where retail broker Matthew May was vacationing with his fianc & #233;e.

“We literally drove down the street in a taxi and I said, ‘Drive slower so I can write down the names of the stores,’ ” May said. “Initially, it was like, ‘What are you doing?’ Now she realizes it’s part of what I am.”

Two countries, two brokers, but Muhlstein and May share an occupational hazard or passion. When real estate people go on vacation, they often can’t shut down the broker-developer-investor part of their brains. Nor do they want to.

“Real estate is a big part of life and when I’m on vacation, I don’t just turn it off,” Muhlstein said. “This is great stuff. I love shopping. I love what I do,” May said. “It broadens your horizons and gives you ideas to bring back here and I can write off part of it.”

Whether consciously or unconsciously, it’s tough for a lot of real estate types to visit a city and not size up the real estate: How it’s laid out, the architecture, what restaurants and retailers there are, how people use public spaces, and which brokerages have the most signs posted on buildings.

“You don’t necessarily take your work with you, but the work and your life get integrated into the same thing,” said John Long, managing partner of the El Segundo-based real estate firm Highridge Partners. “The key is balance. You don’t want to be consumed by it.”

For some, it’s a matter of absorbing new ideas in a relaxed environment. For others, it’s a matter of breaking away from sight-seeing with the family to meet with potential clients and fellow brokers.

Jim Travers, president of Travers Realty Corp., has a well-entrenched reputation for coming back from vacation with a pile of contacts and leads. That’s especially true when he visits his hometown, New York, where he gazes at the skyline and sees 450 million square feet of office space and annual rents pushing $70 a square foot.

“I try on vacation to get away from it all if I can. The reality is, I don’t,” Travers said. “I meet with other brokers and we discuss shop talk. I learn and see what’s happening and it’s very helpful.”

If it’s tough for brokers to forget what they do for a living while on vacation, imagine the challenge for a hotel-casino consultant.

“My husband is always complaining about the time we went to Las Vegas and I dragged him on a casino tour when he was in the first day of a flu,” said Karen Johnson, managing director at Landauer Real Estate Counselors, a hospitality-industry consulting firm.

But her husband’s 102-degree fever didn’t stop them from traipsing through no fewer than four hotel-casinos that day. “I didn’t realize how sick he was. Of course, I wasn’t paying a lot of attention,” Johnson admitted.

But it’s not just Vegas where she does reconnaissance on the side. Whenever Johnson and her family travel to Hawaii, they hit any hotels that may have recently undergone major renovations or changed hands.

“It’s compulsive. I used to turn the china over if it had an attractive pattern and see if the utensils were burnished, and I had to check if the water in the vase was changed,” said Johnson. When her daughter was only 4 years old, she was well acquainted with the joys of room service.

“I like it, but it would be nice to be able to walk away from it. That may explain why we’ve been using more condo rentals. I don’t have room service to start critiquing,” Johnson said.

Retail brokers also are hard pressed not to size up the shopping scene wherever they are, and to see what new concepts they can introduce to their home market.

Developer Rick Caruso said he discovered a burger joint in Hawaii called Cheeseburger in Paradise, which he’s looking into importing. Traveling to new places is so productive for those of the retail ilk that Caruso recently took a group from his company on a four-city tour to gather ideas for the Grove at Farmer’s Market and other projects.

“We want to figure out how great streets have worked for so long,” he said. “You’ve got to get out of the office.”

Retail broker Dan Blatteis is no different.

“My wife is always on my case that we’ll get in a car crash because my head’s on a Lazy Susan looking at the stores,” said Blatteis. “Whenever I go to a new city, I want to see the newest urban projects. For me, it’s bringing fashion tenants to California that aren’t here.”

While strolling around London, he hit upon an elegant men’s clothier called Thomas Pink. “I would love nothing else than to bring them here,” Blatteis said.

At least Blatteis’ family can thank their lucky stars he’s not an industrial broker. “They enjoy the shopping, too,” he said.

Broker Michael Zugsmith, however, couldn’t resist taking a spin around an industrial park while visiting Cape Ann, Mass. “I can compare how they lay things out, are they doing concrete tilt-up or block buildings?” he said.

Then there are the rare few in the real estate world who can completely tune out when on vacation.

“I can honestly say, when I’m on vacation, I’m so on vacation,” said Shaul Kuba, a principal at Westwood-based development firm CIM Group. “The last time (on vacation), I went with my kids and wife to a resort for a week and I was focused on how much more do I work out and spend time at the beach.”

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