Features

How to Reduce Student Housing Property Tax Assessments Post-Pandemic

by Katie Sloan June 6, 2023

Not long ago, assessors’ student housing properties valuations generally struggled keeping pace with the rising market. College enrollment was high, rent growth outpaced expenses and student expectations lined up with most newer facility amenities. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout changed the game. Property taxes are often the single highest expense on a property’s profit and loss statement. When market changes make student housing less profitable, the tax burden should not be allowed to remain high. When this occurs, the assessor’s property valuation needs to be challenged and reduced. Projecting Income: Look Forward, Not Back Many jurisdictions assess student housing properties’ value using a cost approach. A computer system estimates the cost to build the property new, then deducts physical depreciation based on the property’s age. Due to skyrocketing construction costs, those depreciation deductions are outpaced by base cost increases. It is common to see cost-based values increase despite struggles facing the real estate market. Owners can combat increases by appealing the assessor’s value. When a student housing property owner files an assessment appeal, the appeal review board often evaluates the three prior years’ operating income. This allows the appeal board to develop an income model intended to represent …

June 6, 2023

Interstate 85 Corridor Industrial Markets Aren’t Overbuilt Yet, Say InterFace Panelists

by John Nelson June 1, 2023

Interstate 85 traverses through the heart of the Southeast, the fastest-growing region in the United States by way of population. The southern terminus of the 666-mile interstate is in Montgomery, Ala., home of the mega Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama plant, and it travels north to just shy of Richmond, Va., the site of North America’s first LEGO factory. Along the way, I-85 connects through Atlanta and the Carolinas markets of Greenville-Spartanburg, Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh-Durham. These I-85 Corridor markets have seen their fair share of industrial development in recent years, so much so that for the first time this cycle, some experts are worried about overbuilding. Steven McGee, vice president of Southeast development at Rockefeller Group, said that half of the nation’s population growth has been coming to the Southeast region, and that faucet isn’t expected to be shut off anytime soon. “America is getting bigger, and half of that growth is occurring in three or four states,” said McGee. “I don’t see any real structural elements that are stopping that growth. It’s a challenge on the timing [for industrial deliveries], but in almost every market we have record vacancy. We have very few options for occupiers coming into the …

June 1, 2023

Life Sciences Innovation Districts Danvers quote

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

Part 2: How to Promote Collaboration, Efficiency in Life Sciences Innovation Districts Via Design

by Sarah Daniels May 31, 2023

In the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors, life sciences innovation districts have become hubs not only for research and development but also for cooperation and inspiration between cohorts. These districts, often called innovation districts, collect together companies, research institutions, supporting entities, housing and more. Innovation districts necessitate meticulous planning and design strategies to promote scientific inquiry and efficiency. “Municipalities, schools, corporations and organizations that have close ties to their state are piloting life sciences innovation district development, allowing them to group otherwise separated uses — work, recreation, living areas and more — together. When you pair these institutions and include innovative site and building programming in a single location, you move beyond disconnected projects and amenities to a united innovation district that can magnify benefits across organizations,” explains Dan Danvers, a landscape architect project manager with Bohler, a land development consulting and site design company. This article is the design-focused component of our two-part series on life sciences innovation districts. If you would like to read about the planning component of these complex developments, please read our first article here. Moving Life Sciences Innovation Districts Forward Innovation districts must keep pace with evolving technologies and research. Life sciences industries are continually progressing, …

May 31, 2023

Features Retail

Open-Air Lifestyle Centers Take Over U.S. Suburbs

by Taylor Williams May 30, 2023

By Ed Coury, senior managing director, RCS Real Estate Advisors Open-air lifestyle centers can be defined as intentionally designed spaces that are set against beautiful landscapes and house high-quality dining, retail, entertainment, health and wellness uses. These centers are being developed or redeveloped at an increasing rate across the country. Lifestyle centers are particularly popular along “smile” states: California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina. This particular transformation has been a result of “de-mallification” in the suburbs, in which malls that were once largely indoors and anchored by big department stores are now being converted into mixed-use lifestyle developments. For background, lifestyle centers are not a new phenomenon; they have been gaining popularity since the early 2000s. While few new malls have been built in the last two decades, new lifestyle centers and conversions to lifestyle centers continue to emerge every year. So why are these lifestyle centers so popular, and what does the future of suburban retail look like? Shifting Tastes For one thing, consumer preferences have changed. Today, there is high demand for wellness. In a 2022 consumer report by IT consulting firm Accenture, 80 percent of people surveyed stated that wellness was an …

May 30, 2023

Features Multifamily Seniors Housing

Residents Share Insightful Firsthand Accounts of Life in Active Adult Communities

by Taylor Williams May 25, 2023

By Taylor Williams Aging is something that happens to all of us physically, but according to some residents at active adult communities in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area, the psychological and emotional difficulties of growing older are easier to bear in the company of others. Operators of this asset class are making this possible by delivering products and services that reflect the name “active adult.” Shared fitness classes, walking groups, book clubs, card games, communal gardening and organized shopping trips are but a few of the ways in which active adult owner-operators keep their residents’ bodies and minds fit and sharp. Happy hours, dance parties and holiday shindigs — all taking place in an environment devoid of children — ensure that residents have very grown-up ways of relaxing and having fun. The average age of a resident in an active adult community is 72 to 74, according to research conducted by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care. The growth of active adult properties, which tend to be age-restricted hybrids of traditional multifamily and independent living product, is often linked to convenience for older households whose children have left the home. The prospect of having a smaller space …

May 25, 2023

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

Features Office

Six Ways in Which Office Users Can Increase Efficiency of Space Usage

by Taylor Williams May 22, 2023

By Wes Snow, co-founder and CEO, Ascendix Technologies For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, offices are 50 percent occupied nationally as companies push harder for returns to their buildings — which is good news. Still, amid this encouraging development, inflation, interest rate hikes and general fears of recession might impede businesses planning to align their office rent expenses with the pre-pandemic rates. Can businesses optimize the space they’re already utilizing without renting more? At Ascendix Technologies, a company that has been specializing in custom real estate software development for two decades, we’ve seen a variety of space extension practices applied by office owners and managers. Here are some methods that users can employ too maximize efficiency within their existing footprints. Implement Open Floor Plans Not only do wall-less spaces encourage collaboration among teams and reduce the need for spacious individual offices, they also increase flexibility in terms of how space is utilized. Reconfiguring spaces is easy with movable walls and modular furniture and represents an option that helps growing businesses align their changing needs with the spaces they’ve got. Upgrading open-floor space management with automation is another viable option. With a technology like floor management software or …

May 22, 2023

Features Retail

How Retail Owners Can Identify, Establish True Differentiators in Their Centers

by Taylor Williams May 16, 2023

By Barry Caylor, vice president of business development, Outside the Lines Inc. From the rise of online shopping to the pandemic to inflation, retail real estate has weathered a series of challenges in recent years. Yet, despite being knocked down multiple times, the owners and operators of brick-and-mortar retail keep discovering new ways to adapt to shifting demands and needs, especially as consumers spend more on services and experiences than physical goods. One way in which retail owners can continue to keep their centers relevant is by leaning into what attributes make them different. By continually supplying the market with fresh concepts and new ways of presenting them, landlords can keep consumers coming back again and again, generating foot traffic and sales for tenants and driving ROI for investors. In addition, shopping centers can distinguish themselves by providing consumers with something they can’t get anywhere else. As a design-build construction company that specializes in delivering one-of-a-kind water features, rockwork and themed environments, our company has seen retail centers transformed by incorporating unique offerings that consistently draw people in from miles around. Here are a few ways brick-and-mortar retail owners can stay ahead of the game as the sector continues to …

May 16, 2023

Features Heartland Feature Archive Retail

APTC: Airport Concession Fees Aren’t Rent in Property Taxation

by Kristin Harlow May 12, 2023

By Timothy Rye, Larkin Hoffman A recent Minnesota Supreme Court ruling requires tax assessors to exclude an airport’s concession fees from rent-based valuations for property tax purposes. The case offers a flight plan to lower taxes at many of the nation’s transportation hubs and underscores the importance for all taxpayers to exclude business value from taxable property value. Every major airfield collects fees from food-and-beverage providers, retailers, banks and other businesses that provide goods or services on airport property. Concessionaires, or those who pay the concession fees to the property owner, commonly pay these charges in addition to rent owed for the real estate where they operate. Many of these businesses are also responsible for property tax that passes through to tenants in a commercial lease. The cases leading up to the March 29 state Supreme Court decision involved two car rental companies that challenged their 2019 tax assessments, claiming the assessor’s office had overstated their property values by including concession fees in its income-based valuation. High-Flying Fees Both Enterprise Leasing Co. of Minnesota and Avis Budget Car Rental pay a concession fee equal to 10 percent of gross revenues in addition to real estate rent for their operations at …

May 12, 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. Read about design in Part 2, here. 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 …

May 11, 2023

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