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FeaturesMultifamilySeniors HousingTop Stories

Seniors Housing Developers Find Big Opportunities in Small Markets

by Taylor Williams

The high-profile cities that line both coasts aren’t the only places where the development of new seniors housing product is proving to be a smart investment. Less populated areas are also welcoming new communities that are designed and operated just like those facilities opening in popular urban markets. But seizing opportunities in smaller markets is a different ballgame than it is in high-density areas. A smaller list of prospects and a shorter supply of qualified talent are among the drawbacks. Still, many owners find that the pros outweigh the cons. They cite pent-up demand for newer, more modern product, lower land costs, quicker permitting and faster lease-ups among the perks of a small market. And these less populous areas are gaining in popularity among many investors. The National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) tracks 31 markets that make up the largest metropolitan areas in the United States. It also tracks 68 secondary markets. NIC defines a secondary market the same way the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) does. The OMB divides smaller economic areas into core-based statistical areas (CBSAs), each of which consists of a county or counties that share an urbanized area of at …

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FeaturesLoansMultifamilyTop Stories

Fannie Mae Off to Hot Start, Freddie Mac Pushing Past Market ‘Disruption’ That Slowed Its First-Quarter Production

by John Nelson

Fannie Mae started off the year with a bang, producing $17.4 billion in multifamily financing in the first quarter, up about 38 percent compared to the first quarter of 2016. The quarterly total was also up 20 percent from its fourth-quarter 2016 production. Compared to its counterpart, Freddie Mac had a slower start to the year, producing $12.7 billion in the first quarter, down about 28 percent from both first-quarter and fourth-quarter 2016. Hilary Provinse, Fannie Mae’s senior vice president of customer engagement, says the driver of Fannie Mae’s hot start is the increased activity in its green product lines, which incentivize borrowers to perform energy and water efficiency improvements at their properties to qualify for financing with reduced interest rates. “Fannie Mae is the market leader in green rehab financing,” says Provinse. “In 2016, we did $3.6 billion in green financing volume. In the first quarter of 2017 alone we did $5 billion.” David Brickman, executive vice president of Freddie Mac’s multifamily business, says that Freddie Mac’s first-quarter production was more affected by the “pause” in the market in late 2016 and early 2017 than Fannie Mae. “There was a little disruption in the fourth quarter of last year …

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Company NewsFeaturesRetailTop Stories

Amazon-Whole Foods Merger ‘Reinforces Importance of Brick-and-Mortar Presence,’ Says Marcus & Millichap

by Jeff Shaw

The recent announcement that online retail giant Amazon plans to acquire upscale grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.7 billion sent ripples through the commercial real estate industry when it was announced in June. The move signals a lot of trends and changes within the retail sector, according to a newly released report by real estate brokerage firm Marcus & Millichap. “The purchase highlights the importance of omnichannel platforms, which incorporate a blend of brick-and-mortar establishments with an online footprint to drive traffic and sales,” states the report. “In addition, grocery stores are typically retail center anchors, underscoring the importance of strip and neighborhood centers in the retail landscape.” The 11 largest grocery chains in the country all plan to expand this year, with many doing so aggressively. Discount grocer Aldi, which already has more than 1,600 locations, expects to open 900 new stores by 2022. This expansion within the grocery sector is snapping up a lot of available real estate. Combined with a low rate of new retail construction over the past seven years since the Great Recession, retail vacancy has reached a 16-year low of 5.4 percent. The flip side is that existing space is extremely constrained, and increased …

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FeaturesSingle-Family RentalTop Stories

Was Accelerated Job Growth in June a Sign of Things to Come? Economists Weigh In

by Kristin Harlow

If Steve Hovland’s near-term outlook for U.S. job growth is correct, the second half of 2017 looks quite promising for the commercial real estate industry. “The pace of hiring should accelerate in the second half of the year as Congress moves past healthcare reform and begins to lift regulations that stymie growth,” says the director of research at Irvine, California-based HomeUnion Inc., an online real estate management firm that helps individuals invest remotely in rental properties. “Furthermore, companies will have a better understanding of how policy changes will evolve with the new administration, giving them more confidence to resume hiring,” continues Hovland. “We expect 1.4 million new jobs to be created over the final two quarters of 2017.” The comments from Hovland come on the heels of the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which shows total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 222,000 in June, beating economists’ expectations. Leading up to the release of the report last Friday, the consensus among the nation’s top forecasters was that the U.S. economy had added 180,000 jobs in June. The BLS also revised the job gains for April and May upward by 47,000. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate rose slightly …

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FeaturesMultifamilyTop Stories

Robust Apartment Demand Leads to Healthy Occupancy, Stabilizing Rent Growth, Says RealPage

by Kristin Harlow

RICHARDSON, TEXAS — Apartment demand surged to a near-record volume during second quarter of 2017, according to real estate technology and analytics firm RealPage Inc. With demand topping completions by a wide margin in the quarter, occupancy is essentially full and the annual pace of rent growth has stabilized. Richardson, Texas-based RealPage tracks the 100 markets with the most existing apartment units. Santa Rosa/Petaluma, California is the smallest market RealPage tracks, with 25,144 apartments units. New York City, spanning nearly 2 million units, is the largest market. In order for an apartment building to be tracked, it must consist of at least five units, but the average property size is approximately 200 units. RealPage reports that renters absorbed 175,645 apartments across the United States in the second quarter, up one-third from the performance level seen at the same time a year ago. “Today’s strong demand for apartments reflects the combination of solid job formation, continued limited loss of renters to home purchase and widespread availability of appealing new apartments,” says Greg Willett, chief economist for RealPage. Demand in the second quarter exceeded the 86,431 units completed in the same period, according to RealPage. However, the market is still working through the surplus …

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FeaturesTop Stories

Regional Malls Live On Through Reimagining, Repurposing, says Transwestern

by Katie Sloan

We’ve all been subject to the doom and gloom reports surrounding the retail sector. E-commerce is going to be the end of brick-and-mortar retail; retailers are going bankrupt; regional malls are no longer viable. While some of this talk is true — the retail sector is undoubtedly undergoing an evolution — statistics on malls tell a more positive story, according to a recent report by Transwestern. The report — “Why Mall Reuse is Just Beginning” — opens with the fact that regional malls have had a positive net absorption since 2010, and saw a national occupancy rate of 95 percent at the end of 2016. Much of this continued success has been found through reconsidering and repurposing the traditional regional mall to fit the changing desires and needs of the community. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), of the $4.7 trillion in retail spending in 2015, only 8.3 percent occurred online. Furthermore, only 3.3 percent of that spending was transacted with “pure-play” online retailers like Amazon, meaning that 96.7 percent of all retail spending happened in brick-and-mortar stores or on websites affiliated with brick-and-mortar stores. Convenience and the ability for consumers to physically browse, return and interact with …

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FeaturesRetailTop Stories

Repurposing Malls Among Retail’s Biggest Challenges, Says Coldwell Banker Commercial’s Schmidt

by Taylor Williams

Given his background in business development, Fred Schmidt, president and chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker Commercial Affiliates, is accustomed to analyzing real estate trends over his 36 years in the industry. Schmidt, who joined Madison, N.J.-based Coldwell Banker Commercial in 2003 as vice president of business development, is not nearly as surprised by the spate of retail store closures as some of his colleagues seem to be. REBusinessOnline.com sat down with Schmidt at the International Council of Shopping Center’s RECon event in Las Vegas in late May. In addition to discussing his firm’s push into retail markets in major cities, Schmidt shared his insights on how to repurpose malls. REBusinessOnline.com: Why are we seeing so many store closures and retail bankruptcies at this time? Fred Schmidt: It’s not a new discussion. It’s common knowledge that Class A malls are doing very well and that the discounters — the top end and bottom end — have been doing well over the years. But there was a prediction four or five years ago that the Class B and C malls were going to suffer because they didn’t have the right merchandising. These changes are now manifesting themselves in terms of the …

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FeaturesOfficeTop Stories

Rethinking Physical Workspace Helps Improve the ‘Human Experience’ for Employees, Says JLL

by John Nelson

CHICAGO — In its most recent study on the workplace, JLL has found that helping people feel good on the job is more than a ‘box-ticking” exercise in trying to achieve work-life balance. A place of work is far more than a property. It is a living environment that helps individuals and businesses craft and experience a better fusion of life and work. One of the key findings from the report, entitled “Workplace Powered by Human Experience,” is that workplaces must provide a broader range of innovative spaces to meet employee expectations and attract and retain talent. The design and configuration of workplaces will evolve to put human experience at the heart of modern workspaces, and understanding the ecosystem in which employees operate and thrive is critical to business success as aesthetic solutions alone are no longer enough. The report finds that an ideal work environment is a mixture of collaborative space and support services, including coffee and tea shops, lounges, terraces, war rooms, service desks, creative spaces and “incubators” that feature dedicated space for employees and external talent to develop personal projects. The space provided by a company can directly impact employee experience levels. New types of spaces can …

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FeaturesLoansMultifamilySeniors HousingTop Stories

FHA’s Latest Revisions to Lean 232 Address Owner Issues

by Taylor Williams

Recent changes to the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Lean 232 program provide owners with more options, all of which a lender offering a full suite of financing options can act upon. Owners who anticipate future cash-out needs are in a good position to benefit. The program was made easier for owners to work with through several additional changes. For owners of residential healthcare facilities that offer services like skilled living or memory care, FHA Lean 232 loans are of exceptionally high value. Because the FHA is committed to ensuring an adequate supply of affordable beds for seniors, nursing home borrowers can secure terms that are unheard of in other CRE markets. Early this year, the FHA made changes in its official Section 232 Handbook that make these loans even more attractive, especially for owners who wish to take cash out of their properties. In order to understand the significance of these changes, it helps to see them in the context of baseline Lean 232 loans. These FHA-insured loans are non-recourse and assumable, offer maturity schedules of up to 35 years and loan parameters of up to 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV), as well as 1.45 debt service ratio coverage. Best of …

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FeaturesRetailTop Stories

Lease Restructuring Increasingly Common in Today’s Retail Market, Says Gordon Brothers’ Mark Dufton

by Taylor Williams

LAS VEGAS — As a specialist in lease mitigation and restructuring for retailers who are closing or relocating their stores, Gordon Brothers’ CEO of Real Estate Mark Dufton has represented dozens of retailers in the market for new or smaller spaces. In his 25-plus years in the business, Dufton has mitigated or restructured more than 1,500 leases, saving his clients more than $100 million. Northeast Real Estate Business sat down with Dufton of Boston-based Gordon Brothers during the International Council of Shopping Centers’ RECon event in late May in Las Vegas to pick his brain on how brick-and-mortar retailers facing heavy store closures can minimize financial losses. Northeast Real Estate Business: How do you measure success at a conference like this? Mark Dufton: We had a great day yesterday. The retail world is in a fair amount of turmoil, and that’s our space. We do lease valuation, disposition and restructuring work. So it’s been pretty heady times for us in this environment. NREB: DJM Real Estate changed its name about a year ago to Gordon Brothers. Can you walk me through what led to the transition of the company name? Dufton: DJM Real Estate was a stand-alone real estate company. It got bought by …

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