Features

InterFace: Concessions Remain an Operational Necessity for Multifamily Stakeholders

by John Nelson June 11, 2026

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Midway through a panel discussion comprising apartment operators, moderator Stephanie Garris, director and head of North Carolina at property management firm Arqline, asked the panelists for one thing in multifamily operations that they wish they could stop doing tomorrow. “Offering concessions,” said Dallas Green, regional vice president of RPM Living. “Dallas stole my answer,” said Sherry Yarborough, director of multifamily management Southeast at Drucker & Falk. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. The panelists were part of InterFace Carolinas Multifamily, an annual networking and information conference held on May 21 at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown. The conference, hosted by InterFace Conference Group and Southeast Real Estate Business, brought in 273 attendees. Concessions often take the form of free rent for a set period, typically one or two months. Renters at newly delivered properties can get up to three months of free rent in some markets today, with longer rent-free periods reserved for those who sign longer term leases or for signing a lease within 24 to 48 hours of touring the property. Yarborough said …

June 11, 2026

Development Features

How Developers Can Prioritize Successful Adaptive Reuse Lending Relationships

by Taylor Williams June 9, 2026

By John Garrett of Enterprise Bank & Trust Driven by an ongoing shift in demand and industry-specific needs from commercial real estate space, adaptive reuse projects can transform existing underutilized buildings into new and more functional spaces. Offices and retail properties can be reimagined for shared or added functionality, or in some cases, reconfigured for entirely different purposes, including residential use. These projects allow developers to capitalize on opportunistic investment into value-add acquisitions, as well as tenant-driven opportunities. However, the size of these transitional, sub-institutional development projects creates a unique financial challenge. Many traditional lenders see these as too small and risky, with an aversion to arranging moving pieces to creatively manage tailored financing solutions that are needed to acquire and alter spaces for new opportunities. Transitional development projects don’t involve stabilized properties. Instead, the opportunity lies in repositioning the space to add value, which often means limited cash flow for an interim period while needing immediate access to funds. Creating efficient and flexible banking partnerships can allow real estate developers that are interested in pursuing these projects to scale business in a manner that helps meet a growing demand. How Lending Can Differ Both the complexity and varying size …

June 9, 2026

Affordable Housing Conference Coverage Features Southeast Feature Archive

InterFace Panel: Affordable Housing Deal Flow Gains Momentum as Brokers Turn Bullish

by Abby Cox June 4, 2026

ATLANTA — For much of the past two years, affordable housing transactions in the Southeast moved at a measured pace, slowed by severe cost burdens on both renters and prospective buyers and widening supply deficits. But inside this year’s InterFace Affordable Housing Southeast show, a networking and information conference held at The Westin Buckhead Atlanta on May 12, the tone has shifted. Phones are ringing again, deals are re-entering the pipeline and investors are showing a renewed willingness to chase affordable housing opportunities across the region. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. Rachel Chapman, national account executive of Stewart Title Guaranty Co., moderated the discussion, entitled “Brokers, Buyers and Capital.” The investment sales panel notably reverted to a subject and question that’s shaping much of today’s affordable housing market: with elevated borrowing costs and general economic uncertainty, why is transaction activity accelerating? Necessitating that question for developers and brokers are the thorns still present in the industry, such as the lengthy process of securing and pricing loans, interest rate volatility and capital markets shifts. Even with these headwinds, …

June 4, 2026

Affordable Housing Conference Coverage Features Multifamily Multifamily & Affordable Housing Feature Archive Southeast Feature Archive

InterFace Panel: Architects Share Solutions to Affordable Housing Delivery Gaps

by Kristin Harlow June 2, 2026

Affordable housing developers are under pressure to deliver more units at a time when financing, approvals, construction pricing and long development timelines can easily slow projects down. At InterFace Affordable Housing Southeast, architects and construction leaders emphasized the importance of early collaboration among developers, designers, lenders and public-sector partners. They also explored how modular construction, mass timber, light-gauge steel framing and energy-efficient strategies are being used to control costs, shorten schedules and improve long-term operations. The panelists agreed that design decisions in affordable housing are increasingly tied to insurance costs, maintenance expenses and resident quality of life. The panel’s central message: affordable housing must pencil out financially, but it also must be built to best support all aspects of the communities it serves. Read the full story here.

June 2, 2026

Conference Coverage Features Industrial North Carolina Southeast Southeast Feature Archive

Utilities, Infrastructure Can Make or Break the Next Cycle of Industrial Development, Say InterFace Panelists

by John Nelson May 28, 2026

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The U.S. industrial real estate sector has been on a long rebound from the supply wave following the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 2.5 billion square feet of industrial space was delivered between 2020 and 2025, according to data from Cushman & Wakefield. In the Southeast, deliveries were especially pronounced, most notably in the high-growth I-85 industrial corridor that spans from Montgomery, Ala., to south Richmond, Va. The 666-mile interstates traverses through Atlanta, Greenville-Spartanburg, Charlotte, the Piedmont Triad (Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem) and Raleigh-Durham. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. Gregg Healy, executive vice president and head of industrial services at Savills, says that since the beginning of 2022, nearly 250 million square feet of industrial space has been delivered along the I-85 corridor, which has taken longer to be absorbed than anticipated. “We were oversupplied, not just in the I-85 corridor, but nationally, because of the post-COVID boom when everyone was developing,” says Healy. “But vacancy rates did drop in the first quarter of 2026 for the first time in three …

May 28, 2026

Features Heartland Feature Archive Office

A Winning Recipe for Office Conversions

by Kristin Harlow May 19, 2026

The number of underutilized office buildings being converted into apartment units continues to steadily rise, largely due to the acceptance that the post-COVID hybrid work format is here to stay. At the start of 2026, the national office-to-apartment conversion pipeline reached 90,300 units, up 28 percent year over year and nearly four times larger than in 2022, according to RentCafe, a sister company of Yardi Matrix. Office conversions now account for almost half (47 percent) of all planned adaptive reuse projects nationwide (roughly 90,300 apartments out of 193,900 planned projects). Behind New York City and Washington, D.C., Chicago ranks third on the list for the largest office-to-apartment conversions pipeline, according to RentCafe. Cleveland and Cincinnati round out the top 10. Five other Midwest markets — Detroit, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee and St. Louis — are included in the top 20. These cities are deploying combinations of tax-increment financing (TIF), local tax abatements, Housing Trust Fund dollars and historic tax credits to support office conversions in their downtown districts, says Al Fiesel, commercial business unit leader at Chicago-based LJC Design & Engineering. “The specific tools differ by market, but the underlying premise recognizes that public participation is the mechanism that makes …

May 19, 2026

District of Columbia Features Healthcare Industrial Loans Multifamily Office Retail Southeast Southeast Feature Archive

MBA: Commercial, Multifamily Borrowing Increased 52 Percent in First-Quarter 2026

by John Nelson May 12, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations were 52 percent higher in the first quarter of 2026 compared to first-quarter 2025, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations. First-quarter production falls in line with the organization’s 2026 forecast made in February that commercial and multifamily loan originations this year would increase by 27 percent compared to 2025. Among capital sources, the dollar volume of loans originated for investor-driven lenders increased by 133 percent year-over-year in the first quarter. There was also an 80 percent increase in loans for depositories (i.e. banks and credit unions); a 38 percent increase in government-sponsored enterprises (i.e. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac); and a 9 percent increase in life company loans. There was also a14 percent decline in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans compared to a year ago. “The most notable increase was the 80 percent rise in depository lending, driven in part by the large volume of bank-held loans maturing this year and the need to refinance those positions,” says Reggie Booker, MBA’s associate vice president of commercial research. “The slowdown [from fourth-quarter 2025] is consistent with typical first-quarter seasonality and does not detract from …

May 12, 2026

Features Office Retail

Inside the New Office Playbook: Designing for Today’s Tenants

by Taylor Williams May 5, 2026

With flexible work schedules now the norm, today’s modern office buildings must justify the commute. According to the Flex Index Q1 2026 report, a quarterly workplace trends report, 67 percent of U.S. companies now use a hybrid model. Gensler’s Global Workplace Survey 2026 also underscores a shift in employee priorities, with nearly half of employees (46 percent) noting that wellness amenities matter more than high-tech features in the office. To explore how these trends play out locally in leading commercial real estate markets, REBusinessOnline talked to Bill Baumgardner, who leads VanTrust’s Texas office as executive vice president, and Guy Grivas, vice president of Hillwood’s retail division. Those priorities are on display at Frisco Station, where VanTrust, Hillwood and The Rudman Partnership are developing a 242-acre mixed-use destination in Frisco’s North Platinum Corridor, about 30 minutes north of Dallas. Centered around The Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ world headquarters, the development brings together Class A office space, a mix of residential options and modern hotels — all within walking distance of dining, shopping and entertainment options — creating a seamless, experience-driven workday. REBusinessOnline: What are the top priorities for today’s employers when selecting an office building? Bill Baumgardner: To succeed, today’s workplace …

May 5, 2026

Affordable Housing Features Multifamily

C-PACE and Gross Leases: An Affordable Housing Solution

by Hayden Spiess April 30, 2026

By Bert Belanger, PACE Equity Seemingly every week, a commercial real estate publication publishes a story warning that nine out of 10 markets in America need more affordable housing units. Switching to an “all-bills-paid” mindset and utilizing Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing can help address this quandary. Going Through the PACEs In early 2021, after a 40-year career as a real estate lawyer, consultant and developer focused on affordable housing, I began “selling money.” By this, I mean that I was sourcing capital for PACE Equity, a Milwaukee-based private debt firm focused on providing C-PACE funding. Since C-PACE was new to my home state of Oklahoma, I was initially unfamiliar with its characteristics, but the practice of so-called “green building” was something I had experienced firsthand. I hoped that my mixture of experience might make me a unicorn — a guy who knew how to meld obtuse government subsidized housing tools with C-PACE, all for the greater good. However, I have quickly learned that mixing C-PACE with government-assisted housing financing tools is a non-starter. Why? Because cash flows within government-subsidized financings are thin by design, leaving no room for debt service beyond a small senior loan. Real Deals and Real Savings …

April 30, 2026

Features Retail

Inside the Shifting World of Retail Construction

by Abby Cox April 28, 2026

Let’s get down to brass tacks: there’s not a lot of new retail space being built. What is getting developed reflects a fundamental shift in how retail functions. At the same time, construction itself is becoming more strategic and tech enabled. Developers and contractors are leveraging data, artificial intelligence (AI) and flexible design approaches to better predict demand, reduce risk and adapt spaces for multiple tenants or uses over time. The result is a sector that is leaner, more intentional and increasingly focused on creating places people want to visit. The Big Picture: How the Market Has Changed Retail construction has shifted significantly from the pre-pandemic era to today, shaped by higher material costs, disrupted supply chains and evolving consumer demand. Before 2020, projects benefitted from relatively stable pricing, predictable timelines and a strong emphasis on in-person shopping environments. Since then, inflation and global supply chain volatiltiy have driven up the cost of key materials, while also extending lead times and forcing developers to plan more conservatively. Carolyn Shames, CEO and president of Shames Construction, shared an anecdote about two identical Walmarts that were built by her company — one before the COVID-19 pandemic and one after. The difference in price …

April 28, 2026

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