Content Partner

Content Partner Features Loans Midwest Multifamily Northeast Office Southeast Texas Walker & Dunlop Western

“State of CRE” Webcast Frames Market Trends in Face of Potential Downturn

by Sarah Daniels May 23, 2023

By Willy Walker, CEO of Walker & Dunlop I recently had the pleasure of sitting down to talk with some prominent members of the Walker & Dunlop team, including Kris Mikkelsen, executive vice president of investment sales, Aaron Appel, senior managing director of capital markets, and Ivy Zelman, executive vice president of research and securities. In this episode of the Walker Webcast, “State of CRE,” we covered some of the most prominent issues the commercial real estate industry is facing, as well as some headwinds it will continue to face in the future. Changes in Homebuilding and Consumer Spending Although homebuilders had to offer incentives when rates first started increasing last year, they are still seeing a steady demand for homes, as demand still heavily outpaces supply. This imbalance is seen in the new and existing home market. Single-family homes in many markets across the country are in multiple offer situations, indicating that single-family residential real estate is still strong. This is incredible, given the fact that many existing homeowners are locked into mortgage rates in the 2-5 percent range, giving them little reason to move out of their current home. How Mortgage Deals Are Currently Financed Although we are …

May 23, 2023

Bohler Content Partner Development Features Life Sciences Midwest Northeast Southeast Texas Western

Part 1: Life Sciences Innovation Districts — Planning Optimizes Development, Fosters Collaboration

by Sarah Daniels May 11, 2023

Life sciences-anchored innovation districts are becoming increasingly popular as hubs for research and development in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. These districts, also known as “innovation districts,” are characterized by clusters of companies, research institutions, supporting organizations, living areas, amenities and offices all located in close proximity. This grouping requires detailed planning and design strategies to maximize their potential for scientific exploration and success on an enormous, ambitious scale. Master planning and engaging site civil engineering partners early on in the process can save time and money once a project reaches the design stage. This article is the first installment in a two-part series on life sciences innovation districts to discuss, first, the planning, and, then, the design elements required by these districts. Fostering innovation, collaboration and productivity is at the heart of planning for life sciences innovation districts. The successes of famous examples such as North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, Kendall Square in Cambridge, Mass. and Mission Bay in San Francisco indicate how beneficial a melting-pot mix of residential, commercial and research spaces can be when they concentrate talent from research institutions, life sciences innovators, universities and the surrounding community. “Many life sciences institutions want to co-locate all aspects …

May 11, 2023

Content Partner Development Features Industrial Leasing Activity Lee & Associates Midwest Multifamily Northeast Office Retail Southeast Texas Western

Lee & Associates’ First-Quarter 2023 Sector-by-Sector Analysis Indicates Market-Wide Cooling

by Sarah Daniels May 2, 2023

High interest rates and economic uncertainty in the first quarter of this year contributed to lower absorption and declining rent growth in industrial, retail and multifamily sectors across the country, with some regional exceptions, according to Lee & Associates’ 2023 Q1 North America Market Report. Meanwhile office continues to struggle. The sector experienced its third-largest quarterly contraction since the beginning of the pandemic, as work-from-home preferences decoupled office occupancy from job growth numbers. The full Lee & Associates report is available (with further breakdowns of factors like vacancy rates, market rents, inventory square footage and cap rates by city) here. The analysis below provides an overview of four major commercial real estate sectors alongside trends, economic background and exceptions within each sector. Industrial Overview: Sharp Decline Hits First-Quarter U.S. Demand There was a sharp first-quarter decline in U.S. tenant demand for industrial space as wholesalers and retailers reconsider their inventory levels out of caution over the economic outlook. Net absorption in the first quarter totaled 39.4 million square feet, a 57 percent drop from the record set a year ago. The overall U.S. vacancy rate settled at 4.4 percent, an increase of 40 basis points from the close of 2022, comfortably …

May 2, 2023

Acquisitions Content Partner Features Midwest Northeast Office Southeast Texas Walker & Dunlop Western

Willy Walker, CEO of Walker & Dunlop, Outlines Capital Flow Issues, Market Pressures with Economist Dr. Peter Linneman

by Sarah Daniels April 27, 2023

On the April 12 episode of “The Most Insightful Hour in CRE” webcast, Willy Walker, CEO of Walker & Dunlop, spoke to renowned economist Dr. Peter Linneman, founding principal of Linneman Associates, about pressing issues facing the economy, pandemic repercussions, market predictions and much more. The discussion began by diving into the economy and real estate market in its current state of flux, with many challenges facing both investors and developers. Walker outlines the unease created by the recent Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank crises. “One of the data points announced by the Fed is that since the crisis, bank lending in the United States has gone down by $110 billion over the two weeks since the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Banks borrowed $160 billion in the two-week window prior. There’s a big drive toward liquidity; and yet there’s no new liquidity going out into the market.” “There’s 4.4 trillion dollars of commercial real estate (CRE) loans outstanding across all lending sources — CMBS, life insurance companies, banks, etc.,” continues Walker. “About half of that is non-multifamily properties. Banks hold about 40 percent of total outstanding loans on commercial properties.” If banks were to pull back from holding 40 percent …

April 27, 2023

Content Partner Features Midwest Multifamily Northeast Pavlov Media Southeast Student Housing Texas Western

Pavlov Media Ramps Up Multifamily, Student Housing Fiber Expansion with Equity Partner

by Sarah Daniels April 25, 2023

Pavlov Media is accelerating the expansion of its fiber network and fiber-to-the-home initiatives with a key investment from the world’s largest infrastructure investor, Macquarie Asset Management. The funding will help Pavlov Media augment its coverage of student and multifamily housing, developing and broadening resident access to high-speed Internet across a variety of property types. “We are ramping up our growth plans with a combination of building municipal fiber networks in college towns and extending service to underserved areas adjacent to our core markets,” says Glenn Meyer, board member and president of Pavlov Media. “It’s basically more of what we have already been doing but on a larger scale.” Pavlov Media is already the nation’s largest private provider of fiber-based Internet and video services to off-campus student housing, connecting properties in more than 150 U.S. markets and Canada to its national backbone via its own last-mile, municipal fiber networks and third-party circuits. The Champaign, Illinois-based company serves approximately 1,000 multifamily and student buildings encompassing more than 285,000 beds, and in recent years has begun extending fiber to customers in areas adjacent to its core student-housing markets. Now the broadband service provider is poised to quicken the pace of its growth with …

April 25, 2023

Acquisitions Content Partner Features Industrial Midwest Multifamily NAI Northeast Office Retail Southeast Texas Western

Tax-Efficient Investment Strategies Open New Opportunities Despite High Interest Rates

by Sarah Daniels April 20, 2023

The recent Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapses — and the takeover of First Republic Bank — have revived regulatory scrutiny on bank risk to a degree that is reminiscent of the financial crisis 15 years ago. Suddenly, it seems, everyone is concerned about the trillions of dollars in commercial real estate debt held at banks — and regional and community banks in particular — and whether it can be refinanced at higher interest rates as it matures over the next couple of years. The same holds for hundreds of billions of dollars of commercial mortgage-backed securities. The conditions are exacerbating a pullback in credit that started last year, which, along with the elevated interest rate environment, has depressed commercial real estate investment sales. In February, property sales dropped 51 percent, from $54.9 billion to $26.9 billion from a year earlier, according to MSCI Real Assets. Taken together, the wall of maturities, higher interest rates, bank collapses and a slumping economy have largely spooked the investment market, suggests Spencer Lund, chief investment officer with NAI Legacy in Minneapolis, Minn. (which also serves Chicago, Denver and Scottsdale, Ariz.) Still, it’s also the type of environment that breeds opportunity as prices …

April 20, 2023

Cliff McDaniel Lument Affordable Housing

Acquisitions Affordable Housing Content Partner Features Lument Midwest Northeast Southeast Texas Video Western

Higher Interest Rates Cause Affordable Housing Values to Return to Old Norms

by Sarah Daniels April 18, 2023

Rising interest rates dinging commercial real estate and multifamily assets have plunged low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) properties back into reality, especially those coming to the end of their 15-year compliance periods. “There were some huge profits made in the affordable housing space over the last two or three years,” says Cliff McDaniel, a managing director with Lument, which is representing Harmony Housing in the $1.4 billion sale of its affordable housing portfolio to the Michaels Organization. “We sold a lot of properties for $60,000 a unit or even $120,000 a unit, and the debt was $40,000 a unit. But the mania over that type of profitability is over, and values are going back to where they were before.” Up until about five years ago, the phrase “huge profits” and “affordable housing” would rarely if ever have occurred in the same sentence. Or even in the same story. Prior to that, affordable housing properties typically had very little value at the end of their initial 15-year compliance periods, and limited partners who provided equity to the project by buying tax credits routinely agreed to sell their interest to the general partner for a nominal fee. At that point, the …

April 18, 2023

Bohler Content Partner Development Features Midwest Multifamily Northeast Retail Southeast Texas Western

Savvy Developers Stay Active Even When the Easy Sites Are Gone

by Sarah Daniels April 13, 2023

As vacant sites become rare and cost-prohibitive, commercial real estate developers need to be creative when it comes to bringing a new project out of the ground. Unconventional development sites offer cost savings and location advantages, and in-depth due diligence and creativity on the part of developers can make for sites that can allow an elegant union of lower costs and strategy. With limited room for delay, how can developers think critically about available sites and leverage existing conditions to their advantage? Katherine Roberts, senior project manager at Bohler’s Warrenton, VA office, and Gregory Roth, principal at Bohler’s Tampa office, offer their expert advice on threading this needle. Bohler specializes in land development, especially making development work when conventional sites aren’t an option. Prioritizing Development Needs When Assessing Red Flags Certain project factors can be red flags if time or cost are obstacles to a developer, including These points of concern are usually knots that can be untangled if a developer has the time, money and appetite to move forward in spite of these interruptions, but each factor does bear watching. “Developers should understand where their limits are and where they’re willing to negotiate. Ideally, anything you’re developing should be …

April 13, 2023

Matt Mimnaugh Pavlov Mutlifamily Internet reviews

Content Partner Features Leasing Activity Midwest Multifamily Northeast Pavlov Media Southeast Texas Western

Service Providers Keep Multifamily Owners, Residents Happy with Proactive Approach to Internet Challenges

by Sarah Daniels March 30, 2023

By Matthew Mimnaugh, account management manager, Pavlov Media Account management, or the work to ensure repeat business and expand each client relationship, requires more than simply satisfying customers. For Internet service providers (ISPs) to the multifamily industry this means helping property managers succeed by maximizing their residents’ connectivity. Excellent Internet service leads to positive property reviews and renewed leases. Property ownership and management win. Providers that serve landlords best not only respond to service requests, but also employ a deductive approach to diagnose root problems, discover unreported deficiencies and take preemptive actions that allow smooth property operations. Below is an overview of best practices for account management and a discussion of Pavlov Media’s data analysis and behavioral pattern recognition tools we’ve developed to uncover trends and issues that can threaten connectivity and, ultimately, property performance. First Responders Giving housing managers and their residents access to a technology support team is a standard practice for many ISPs. Typically, a request generates a service ticket, and a team member responds to gather basic information before walking the customer through a scripted trouble-shooting tree to either solve the problem or elevate the ticket for more advanced assistance. This approach can be highly effective …

March 30, 2023

Pavlov Media Diversifying the Technology Workforce

Content Partner Features Midwest Multifamily Northeast Pavlov Media Southeast Texas Western

How a Fiber Provider to Multifamily Housing Is Diversifying the Technology Workforce

by Sarah Daniels March 23, 2023

It’s little wonder that the fiber optic business is booming. American appetites for high-speed, high-volume Internet connectivity have skyrocketed in recent years, making fiber essential to provide Internet service across commercial property types. Employment for the linemen who build out and maintain those networks will grow 6 percent between 2021 and 2031, while telecommunications equipment installation jobs in general will expand to an even greater 8 percent, according to projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Factor in the ongoing exodus of skilled workers from all trades as more of the nation’s Baby Boomers enter retirement, and many broadband providers may struggle to fill job openings in the coming years. That’s one of the reasons Pavlov Media, a Champaign, Ill.-based Internet service provider, is partnering with a Texas university to put students on career paths in fiber technology. Its partner in this endeavor, Prairie View A&M University, was founded in 1876 and is the second oldest public institution of higher education in Texas and one of the earliest 1890 Land Grant Institutions. Because it is a historically black institution, the program will be helping to address a longstanding need for greater diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DEI) in the technology sector. …

March 23, 2023

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