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San-Antonio-Multifamily-Conference-Developers
Conference CoverageMarket ReportsMultifamilyTexasTexas Market Reports

InterFace Panel: Austin, San Antonio Multifamily Markets Face Looming Supply Glut

by Taylor Williams

By Taylor Williams The multifamily markets of Austin and San Antonio — two of the fastest-growing cities in the country over the last decade — are on pace to deliver above-average volumes of new apartments in 2024, causing some industry experts to express concerns of potential oversupply. The origins of oversupply are not hard to trace, assuming the average apartment project in those markets takes about four years to complete from the time the site is identified and the entitlement and permitting processes begin to when the property is stabilized. Call it five years for some projects that experienced delays due to COVID-19. But in either case, the current wave of new product was largely financed at historically low interest rates at a time when healthy rent growth was easily underwritten. Demand was there, so developers supplied. And for similar reasons, the distress should be short-lived. With interest rates having risen by 400-plus basis points over the last two years and cuts for 2024 looking increasingly less likely, 2025 should be a year of very few new construction starts. Many owners that are delivering product this year will want to allow time for excess supply to be absorbed and see …

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Affordable HousingConference CoverageDevelopmentFeaturesMultifamilySoutheast Feature Archive

Construction Experts Emphasize Teamwork as Key to Meeting Affordable Housing Building Standards

by Jeff Shaw

ATLANTA — In order to satisfy long-term affordability commitments, builders and designers of affordable housing must be well educated about the sector’s exacting design and construction rules, which are typically driven by the source of a project’s funding. A panel of construction experts speaking at the InterFace Affordable Housing Southeast conference held Thursday, May 9 at Cobb Galleria Centre shared insights about how their industry is meeting these standards today. The inaugural conference hosted by France Media’s InterFace Conference Group and Southeast Multifamily & Affordable Housing Business drew approximately 170 industry professionals. Energy efficiency, teamwork and accessibility were three themes running through the discussion. Accessibility in multifamily construction refers to features that enable people with disabilities or limited mobility to navigate common areas and individual units comfortably and safely. Many of these building features are required by various laws. “Get your consultants, architects and contractors to help you put the deal together,” advised Ross Haynes, chief executive officer of Roswell, Georgia-based Community Construction Group. The company focuses on construction and renovation of affordable housing projects.  “That team is there to understand the code requirements that affect the job, including energy programs and accessibility,” added Haynes. Specific energy-efficiency requirements for affordable housing vary. …

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AcquisitionsAffordable HousingConference CoverageFeaturesGeorgiaMultifamilySoutheastSoutheast Feature Archive

Volatility Disrupts Investment Sales Activity in Affordable Housing Market, Says InterFace Panel

by John Nelson

ATLANTA — The investment sales market for the affordable housing sector remains muted for one overarching reason: volatility. Cory Sams, executive managing director of GREA (Global Real Estate Advisors), said that a lack of certainty, especially in the capital markets, is giving buyers and sellers of affordable housing properties pause. “The worst thing for a deal is [interest rates] constantly moving around,” she said. “When they were running up and down, every deal fell apart.” Doug Childers, senior managing director of JLL, estimated that affordable housing transaction volume fell 40 percent in 2023 compared with the prior year. For context, multifamily investment sales overall declined by 61 percent year-over-year in 2023, according to MSCI Real Assets (formerly Real Capital Analytics). Childers and Sams made their comments during the investment sales panel of Interface Affordable Housing Southeast, an information and networking conference held at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta on Thursday, May 9. Interface Conference Group and Southeast Multifamily & Affordable Housing Business hosted the event, which drew approximately 170 industry professionals from across the region. Brian Flanagan, regional director of RBC Community Investments, moderated the investment sales panel. Fittingly, Flanagan kicked off the investment sales discussion by asking the …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesStudent HousingTexasTexas & Oklahoma Feature Archive

InterFace Student Housing ‘Power Panel’ Provides Optimistic Outlook for Year Ahead

by John Nelson

AUSTIN, TEXAS — It’s no secret that today’s commercial real estate market can be challenging, whether you’re looking to break ground on a new project or close a transaction. But there’s plenty to be optimistic about in the student housing sector moving forward, according to Peter Katz, executive managing director of Institutional Property Advisors. Katz moderated this year’s “Power Panel,” which kicked off the first full day of the 16th annual InterFace Student Housing conference, held at the JW Marriott in Austin. The panel brought together a consortium of high-level executives to provide their thoughts on the current dynamics in the sector and their outlook for the year ahead.  “I always feel the energy and the excitement in the student housing sector,” began Katz. “And while we feel a sense of tempered exuberance this year, the investment community is still extremely enthusiastic. Consumer strength is coming in hotter than expected and inflationary readings are pushing out the timing of proposed interest rate cuts from The Fed.” Two years into the cycle of tightening from The Fed, investors are recognizing that the price adjustments that have already occurred have now become an acquisition opportunity, Katz continued. “And while there’s still pain …

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Austin-Industrial-Panel
Conference CoverageIndustrialMarket ReportsTexasTexas Market Reports

InterFace Panel: Infrastructure Development Is Crucial to Industrial Supply Growth in Central Texas

by Taylor Williams

By Taylor Williams When it comes to industrial supply growth in Central Texas, the usual suspects — land availability, interest rate movement, time-consuming permitting and approval processes — are all secondary to the need for more infrastructural development to support these projects. Roadways, public transit systems, electrical capacity, sewerage and water services — these are the key ingredients in the recipe for successful industrial development in Central Texas that can sometimes be overlooked or understated in importance. As such, economic development corporations (EDCs) in the area are prioritizing infrastructure development in their work as they help developers add much-needed industrial space to support the area’s burgeoning population.  While underlying, efficient infrastructure is critical to all real estate developments and human occupation, it is especially crucial to industrial projects. Large-scale manufacturing facilities — think Tesla in East Austin and Samsung in its northern suburb of Taylor — employ thousands of people. Housing hasn’t caught up to population growth in many of the surrounding communities, necessitating alternate means of commuting. In addition, manufacturing and e-commerce facilities tend to have above-average electrical capacity requirements. Financially, meeting that demand might be made somewhat easier in a state that has a deregulated power grid, but logistically, …

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AcquisitionsConference CoverageFeaturesMultifamilySeniors Housing

Seniors Housing Investors Are Ready to Switch to Acquisitions Mode, Say InterFace Panelists

by Jeff Shaw

LOS ANGELES — In 2023, particularly in the second half of the year, a combination of forces slowed property sales to a crawl in the seniors housing sector. Amy Sitzman, executive managing director of seniors housing and care at Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors, laid out the laundry list of challenges. “The bid-ask spread conversation really has everything to do with what’s gone on in the market the past year and a half,” she said. “It has been trying for everybody dealing with interest rate hikes, inflation, operations, staffing challenges, expenses going out of control, the minimal lack of stabilized assets out on the market. We’re just trying to get our head around the value of assets today.” Sitzman made her comments as moderator of a panel titled “Investment Outlook: When Will the Bid-Ask Gap Narrow and Transactions Resume in Earnest?” at France Media’s InterFace Seniors Housing West conference, held Feb. 1 at the Omni Los Angeles. Speakers at the session included Michelle Kelly, senior vice president of investments, NHI; Darrin Smith, executive vice president of Investments, Sabra Health Care REIT; Bryan Schachter, chief investment officer, Watermark Retirement Communities; and Clint Malin, co-president and chief investment officer, LTC Properties. While …

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Austin-Retail-Panel
Conference CoverageMarket ReportsRetailTexasTexas Market Reports

InterFace Panel: Macroeconomic, Institutional Market Obstacles Hinder Retail Supply Growth in Austin

by Taylor Williams

By Taylor Williams The Austin retail market is in dire need of more quality space, but between the newfound volatility in the U.S. capital markets and longstanding local policies that have hamstrung commercial developers in the state capital, delivering that space is no easy feat. The city’s remarkable growth story is well-documented. Big Tech has made Austin its home away from home, spearheading what was a 33 percent increase in population between 2010 and 2020, according to the Austin Chamber of Commerce. But the paces of growth of housing and infrastructure — two crucial prerequisites for retail development — haven’t kept up with the surging head count. In addition, the Austin bureaucracy is notorious for slow-moving entitlement and permitting processes, at least in the eyes of Texas developers who have done business in zone-free Houston or certain municipalities of Dallas-Fort Worth that make it a point to fast-track new projects. These issues at the local level have merged with debt market disruption on the national circuit, rendering a scenario in which the process of financing and building new retail space is fraught with headaches, delays and pitfalls. The number of ways in which new projects can be killed in action …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesRetail

EEE Panelists: Today’s Premier Entertainment Experiences Merge the Physical, Digital Worlds

by Jeff Shaw

LOS ANGELES — Brick-and-mortar spaces aren’t the only areas where consumers exist nowadays. There’s the omnichannel approach that includes online shopping, yes, but today’s forward-thinking landlords and tenants know that the digital sphere is the next great conquest.  This was one of the primary arguments made at InterFace Conference Group’s Entertainment Evolution Experience (EEE), which was held at the J.W. Marriott at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles this week.  “Consumers are back and looking for experiences, but it really has to mean something to leave the sofa and comfort of Netflix and go into a shopping center,” said Benjamin Calleja, founder and chief experience officer for Livit Design, as well as the conference keynote speaker. “Digital is blurring the lines between the physical and virtual worlds, creating more ways to transform spaces.” One only needs to look as far as the latest entertainment concepts to see how digital assets are playing an integral role in today’s shopping centers. Concepts like Dreamflyer, a virtual reality (VR) flight simulator, and the immersive Elvis Evolution that includes a “concert” from the late Elvis Presley illustrate how digital displays can merge with sensory experiences to create a new entertainment opportunity.  Travis Cloyd, CEO …

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The-Great-290-Distribution-Center
Conference CoverageIndustrialMarket ReportsTexasTexas Market Reports

InterFace Panel: Positive Absorption Illustrates Health of Houston Industrial Market, But Sublease Supply Is Worth Monitoring

by Taylor Williams

By Taylor Williams The Houston industrial market has generally performed quite well over the past few years, even as a global pandemic, record inflation and hard-hitting interest rate hikes have rocked the commercial real estate industry as a whole. Demand for industrial space has held firm due to rebounding energy prices and expansions in infrastructure and traffic at Port Houston, as well as organic population growth and economic diversification that has elevated the market’s role as a distribution hub. According to data from CBRE, the market has a 6 percent vacancy rate and posted 5.1 million square feet of positive net absorption through the first three quarters of 2023. The volume of new construction was on track to outpace absorption in 2023 when the report was released. But that was not the case in 2021 and 2022, years in which net absorption equaled and exceeded 7 million square feet, respectively. New deliveries totaled approximately 5.6 million and 5.4 million square feet in each of those years, driven not only by the aforementioned factors but also by a temporary uptick in demand for e-commerce services in the wake of the pandemic. In any market or asset class, when absorption exceeds supply …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesMultifamily

Multifamily Operators Had to Work Smarter, Harder This Year, Say InterFace Panelists

by Kristin Harlow

ATLANTA — Shortened attention spans and the desire for instant gratification are a couple of the changing consumer behaviors that impact the multifamily operations industry. Karen Key, a president with Houston-based Asset Living, said that 75 percent of consumers expect a response time in less than 24 hours from a business. Twenty percent expect a response time within minutes. “If you’re missing that mark and someone else is responding to them, whether it’s a client, prospect or resident, you’ve lost them. They’re gone.” Key’s remarks came during the operations panel at the 2023 InterFace Multifamily Southeast conference, which took place Thursday, Nov. 30 in Atlanta. France Media and Southeast Real Estate Business hosted the event at the Westin Buckhead hotel. Ed Wolff, president of California-based LeaseLock, moderated the panel, which was entitled “What’s Changed and What’s Not Changed in Terms of Occupancy, Rental Rates and Operations?” Key emphasized that many of these changes resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. “When the pandemic happened, everyone got spoiled in terms of having everything at their fingertips. They were tied to a computer all day every day,” she said. As such, Asset Living’s use of social media as an advertising tool increased significantly ever …

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