Features

Rosewood-Bakersfield-California

By Taylor Williams ATLANTA — Even before the pandemic struck the United States in early 2020, rising labor costs were putting downward pressure on margins for seniors housing owners and operators. The public health and economic crises stemming from COVID-19 have only amplified the problem, say seniors housing professionals. In an industry where renters overwhelmingly belong to one of the most COVID-19-susceptible demographics, seniors housing operators are now wrestling with the question of whether to require staffers to get vaccinated. At the same time, they are battling widespread wage increases brought on by a labor shortage compounded by the steady flow of federal unemployment benefits. The net result is that both third-party operators and owner-operators of seniors housing properties — from independent living to skilled nursing — are seeing their costs rise. Simultaneously, these groups are also struggling to recoup occupancies and revenues lost to COVID-19. And while labor is not the only operating expense on the rise within the seniors housing space, it’s a unique line item in the sense that it has dual external forces acting upon it. This realization was not lost on a “power panel” of executives who own and operate seniors housing properties and who …

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By Sudha Reddy, Haven Realty Capital Single-family rentals have taken off in various areas across the country. But they’re boiling in the Southeast. The strength in the Southeast shouldn’t be a surprise as the region has enjoyed substantial employment and population growth over the past decade — well before COVID-19 hit last year. In 2018, the Southeast led other regions in net inflow, gaining around 959,000 new residents from different areas of the United States and around the globe, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This strong growth showed up in cities and states throughout the region. Among states, Florida led the way, with 566,476 people moving from another state. Of the cities with a population of 50,000 or more, the Southeast had 10 of the top 15 fastest-growing large U.S. cities between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. While the region was flourishing before COVID-19, the pandemic accelerated its population gains and spotlighted them. This migration has created a fertile climate for single-family rental builders and investors. Despite the intense interest, investors have been able to find many great opportunities in the region over the past year with even more properties coming in the pipeline. Moving …

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Northstar-Georgetown

By Taylor Williams As a concept, the term “active adult” supports the notion that age is just a number. As an evolving subcategory of seniors housing, active adult is a property type that means different things to different people. For that reason, designers and builders of this asset class face the unique challenge of visualizing and delivering communities that appeal to a broad range of renter profiles. Effective, consistent branding is one of the biggest challenges within the active adult sector, which is very much in its infancy relative to other commercial property types. As such, it’s critical that these properties, from their ambiances to their amenity packages, have a sense of versatility, a feel of a community in which 30- and 60-year-olds would feel equally at home. The ways and means through which that wide-ranging appeal can be achieved accounted for much of the discussion among a panel of architects, designers and a builder who spoke at the inaugural InterFace Active Adult conference on Aug. 4. Held at the Westin Galleria hotel in Dallas and hosted by Seniors Housing Business and the InterFace Conference Group, two business units of Atlanta-based France Media, the event drew more than 300 attendees …

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Quarton Walker Dunlop bank lender

The third quarter of 2020 was the beginning of a significant rebound for capital markets in commercial real estate. After banks and other lenders slowed their activity during the pandemic, lenders and equity investors regained their momentum — particularly in multifamily and industrial — a trend that has continued through the third quarter of 2021. It’s a good time to be a borrower, explains Mark Strauss, managing director of capital markets, and Rob Quarton, senior director of capital markets, with Walker & Dunlop’s Irvine, California, office. Vigorous Lending Markets Currently, Quarton explains, “Banks are really competitive. Debt funds are also aggressive — their funding mechanisms, like collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), have come back strong. Further, insurance companies are under allocated to real estate, which increases their annual volume targets and desire to win more business. Consumers have been purchasing more life insurance policies and insurance in general post pandemic, which provides dry powder for insurance companies to invest. In general, lending markets are very robust today, with ample options for lenders up and down the capital stack.” “Lenders have yearly production quotas, and I don’t think any of them hit their quotas last year,” adds Strauss. “This caused an overhang of …

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Megan Eckart Baird Datacenter Development

As more aspects of our lives become digital, the need for data centers is increasing exponentially. COVID fast-tracked the upsurge in data center demand, as businesses worldwide transferred communications and operations to digital platforms — but the need for data centers is permanent. “With an increase in devices needing to connect to each other and the Internet of Things (IOT), the amount of data needed to do this will always be growing, furthering the demand for additional space within data centers,” says Megan Baird, Professional Engineer (PE), a senior project manager at Bohler, a land development consulting and technical design firm. Getting the right space with the right zoning, utilities and market timeline can be a daunting task that requires extensive planning. Baird says three major factors determine whether a site is a prime data center opportunity: utilities, zoning and space. Plus, Baird explains how to get a property to market once the planning is done. [box style=”4″] What’s Available to Help Developers Tax incentives vary by state and locality and can depend on the number of jobs created, equipment used or amount of money invested. Overlay districts are a regulatory tool where jurisdictions specify additional restrictions/allowances in addition to …

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InterFace-Active-Adult-Panel

By Taylor Williams While the product’s definition and brand identity can be obscure and subjective and the amount of data available on it is limited, the asset class known as active adult is experiencing healthy growth in development and resident demand. In turn, those positive vital signs are making both institutional and private investors increasingly comfortable with the property type. This is particularly the case among investors with significant allocations of capital in the multifamily sector and that are seeking yield within that highly competitive space. The amount of available data on the asset class is minimal — at least according to lenders that dabble in the space and researchers that track it. But there is enough statistical information on occupancy and lease-up rates to appeal to institutional players, industry professionals say. For starters, the property has some major demographic tailwinds. According to a February 2021 report from CBRE, by 2030, the 65-plus age cohort will comprise 21 percent of the total U.S. population, a 50 percent increase from the 2020 proportion. The report also found that the average occupancy rate of 95 percent across the active adult sector is higher than other subtypes of seniors housing. In addition, active …

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Chris Destino SoCal Orange County Industrial

Industrial real estate in Southern California has become what one might conservatively call a “fast-paced atmosphere.” The presence of multiple offers, sellers pushing up values and buyers continuing to chase deals have made for constantly increasing values and activity. Christopher J. Destino, SIOR, principal at Lee & Associates, spoke to REBusinessOnline about making strategic decisions in this unusual environment. REBusiness: What is the forecast for demand in industrial properties in Southern California? Destino: The future of demand in the area is very strong, with developers seeking new sites aggressively and underwriting steady future rent growth over the next couple of years. A lot of that is driven by e-commerce, and there’s still so much room to grow in the e-commerce world. E-commerce accounted for approximately 13.6 percent of retail sales in the first quarter of 2021 (a number that is steadily increasing). There is still a lot of room for that percent to increase, and that’s what is driving most industrial demand. REBusiness: What are the types of tenants have the most demand for space right now? Destino: The big three are distribution companies, contractors and service-type industries.  There is a still a small manufacturing base, but those are the …

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TUCCI

By Louis A. Tucci, Prestige Wealth Group The calendar year 2021 is shaping up to be an interesting point in the history of Section 1031 of the U.S. Tax Code. This year not only marks the 100-year anniversary, but also the potential beginning of the end of the provision, which has helped countless commercial real estate investors defer capital gains taxes via a swap for like-kind properties. But the new presidential administration has declared tax reform to be a cornerstone of its legislative agenda, and the revising or repealing of laws governing capital gains lies at the center of the initiative. Specifically, the administration has said that it is considering eliminating the 1031 loophole on deals in which investors gross more than $500,000 in profit. Historically, under that section of the tax code, investors have been able to defer payment of taxes on those capital gains if they hold the property until their death or pass it on to an heir. Certain segments of the real estate investment community — particularly smaller, private investors — may understandably be fretting over this news. To hedge against this risk, investors that have long relied on 1031 exchanges to bolster their bottom lines …

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Hiring and retaining good employees was already one of seniors housing operators’ top challenges before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Despite the many new problems that the outbreak presented, many in the seniors housing industry saw a potential silver lining: With so many losing jobs in the hospitality sector, among others, would this be a chance for operators to snatch up those workers? Unfortunately, it appears that did not come to fruition. “When the pandemic started and there were so many layoffs in the hospitality industry, I thought ‘Here we go. We’re going to have this influx of people into senior living. This is really going to help our staffing challenges,’” said Lisa Lacy of Discovery Senior Living. “A year-and-a-half later we’re seeing the opposite of that. We’re competing with organizations that we didn’t compete with before. It’s not the community down the street. It’s fast food, Amazon, companies like that.” Lacy’s comments came during a webinar titled “Invigorating the Seniors Housing Workforce: Strategies to Inspire, Engage and Retain Talent” held July 22. Other panelists included moderator Gary Pederson of MatrixCare, Candace Matsuura of Westmont Living and Julie Podewitz of Vitality Living. Pederson echoed Lacy’s concerns about new competition. “There are …

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Post-Oak-Plaza-Houston

By Jonathan Fishman, co-founder, Bizydev Every business-oriented publication for the last 18 months has almost certainly churned out dozens, if not hundreds, of articles detailing how they believe COVID-19 will or has or might affect their market or industry. Real estate publications have exhaustively covered the deceleration of commercial office leasing, the population outflow in urban cities and corresponding battering of the multifamily market and the lack of business travel and tourism resulting in catastrophic conditions for the hotel sector.  And of course, analysts and experts have been quick to note the sharp decline in physical retail space success thanks to the onslaught of e-commerce, further fueled by social distancing measures. Facing these challenges, many retail landlords have been forced to ask themselves what advantage they provide for their tenants. Given the realities of the commercial real estate market, landlords must explore ways to create value for their tenants and seek common ground with them to keep afloat. It’s no longer acceptable for landlords to just provide a storefront, a door and a raw space if they expect to be competitive in the retail leasing market today. They need to find new ways to market their spaces and highlight their …

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