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PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — The average sales price per room for U.S. hotels in 2014 was $156,002, up a whopping 20.6 percent on a year-over-year basis. According to Lodging Econometrics (LE), the healthy increase stems from record-setting hotel revenues and profits, low interest rates and the availability of attractive financing terms. LE reports that the total investment in the U.S. lodging industry was an estimated $30.8 billion last year. In 2014, of the 1,292 total hotel assets that transacted or transferred ownership, 935 reported a sales price. The Portsmouth, N.H-based firm anticipates that hotel prices will accelerate for the next several years as hotel performance continues to shine in the absence of any significant new supply. A critical part of the equation is that interest rates, although expected to rise, still remain attractive causing competition to intensify for prized single assets and portfolios. Since the market bottomed out in 2009 with 528 total transactions, deal volume over the last five years has ranged between 1,261 and 1,457 transactions. It is a narrow range far distant from the 3,218 transactions and transfers reported in 2007, according to LE. There were 799 single-asset transactions and another 481 hotels that changed ownership as part …

The retail sector of commercial real estate continues to recover strongly, but the economic improvement is not universal and lags behind other property types, according to Integra Realty Resources (IRR). In its annual Viewpoint study, the commercial real estate valuation, consulting and advisory firm reports that all but one of the major U.S. markets it tracks are in either the recovery or expansion phase of the real estate lifecycle. One city — Greensboro, N.C. — is in the final phase of recession, and no markets are currently experiencing hypersupply. Notably, Atlanta became the last huge market to leave the recession phase and officially enter recovery. Only New York is in the last stage of expansion, leaving the vast majority of tracked markets in late recovery or early expansion stages. Although the news is positive, retail’s recovery is slower than the other real estate sectors. Multifamily, for example, has all but three markets currently in the expansion phase. Patrick Kerr, a senior managing director for IRR in Washington, D.C., says retail is one of the slower sectors to rebound because it’s location-based more than other sectors. This leads to fewer variables to lead to recovery. “The variables are pretty constant in …

By Nellie Day Integrating retail with entertainment districts and sports venues dominated the stage on Feb. 19 at InterFace’s “Entertainment Experience Evolution” conference at the JW Marriott LA Live. Executives from sports and entertainment provider companies, Major League Baseball teams, development firms, architects and REITs came together to offer the best advice they’d received when undertaking some of their most ambitious projects. The diverse group also shared the lessons they wished they’d learned the easy way. Below is a compilation of their best advice. 1. Test the Market —Innovative concepts and new-to-market retailers have to start somewhere, but their big break doesn’t need to involve a risky lease neither side is confident it can fulfill. That’s where incubation comes in. “We are bringing shipping containers to the ballpark to test out concepts,” said Larry Baer, CEO of the San Francisco Giants and a participant in the “Leading the Way” panel. “We want to maximize our investment, and we can create an urban environment with great amenities. Big national chains don’t really work in retail in San Francisco the way they do in other communities. That’s why we do lots of incubation.” The pop-up shipping container village called The Yard at …

For the 18th time in 20 months, the delinquency rate for U.S. CMBS loans 30 days or more past due has decreased. The Trepp CMBS Delinquency Rate fell nine basis points from December to January to 5.66 percent. What’s more, the delinquency rate is now 159 basis points lower than it was in January 2014 when it stood at 7.25 percent Across property types, lodging continues to be the best performing asset class, with a delinquency rate of 4.40 percent, down 37 basis points in January, according to New York-based Trepp, which closely tracks the CMBS industry. The industrial delinquency rate saw the second-largest decrease last month, with a 35-basis-point drop to 7.2 percent. The office delinquency rate was the only major property type to increase in January, with a 10-basis-point increase to 6.18 percent. CMBS loans that were previously delinquent but paid off either at par or with a loss totaled almost $1.2 billion in January, according to Trepp. Removing these previously distressed assets from the equation helped lower the rate down by 22 basis points. More than $500 million in loans were cured in January, which helped push delinquencies lower by 10 basis points. At the same time, …

The accelerating labor market is bound to stoke tenant demand for all types of commercial real estate, says Robert Bach, director of research for the Americas at brokerage services firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. The veteran economist’s assessment comes on the heels of a better-than-expected Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report released last Friday that shows U.S. employers added 257,000 net new payroll jobs in January, beating the 230,000 jobs forecast by Bloomberg in its survey of economists. In another sign of momentum, the November and December totals were revised upward by a combined 147,000 jobs. Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses since the last published estimates and the monthly recalculation of seasonal factors, according to the BLS. The annual benchmark process also contributed to these revisions. The strong performance in January and revisions to the prior two months lifted the three-month moving average to 336,000, its highest level since November 1997, according to Bach. The annual benchmark revisions to the data, completed every January, raised 2014 job growth from 2.9 million to a 15-year high of more than 3.1 million jobs. “Job growth last month beat analysts’ forecasts, which was unexpected given that analysts had overestimated …