Features

InterFace Keynote Address: Panic Over E-Commerce’s Effect on Retail Real Estate is Full of Myths

by Jeff Shaw October 11, 2018

NEW YORK CITY — News headlines such as “Retail Is Dead” have painted a picture of desolation and destruction for the current state of retail real estate in the United States. However, while e-commerce “is the most discussed, it’s also the most misunderstood,” according to Melina Cordero, global head of retail research for CBRE. Cordero’s remarks came during her keynote address at the InterFace Net Lease conference held on Wednesday, Oct. 3. The ninth annual event drew 265 real estate professionals to the New York City Bar Association. Cordero listed a series of myths about retail and e-commerce that lead to apocalyptic headlines that she says are simply not accurate. Myth 1: E-Commerce is Taking Over To illustrate her point, Cordero displayed a chart tracking growth, showing e-commerce outpacing in-store sales. However, when the actual sale totals rather than growth percentages are compared, only 10 percent of retail sales are online. Furthermore, 50 percent of online retail sales go to companies with a brick-and-mortar presence. “Less than 4 to 5 percent of total retail sales are going to online-only players. This is a very different picture than what we’re usually presented,” said Cordero. She cited specific retailers who, while known …

October 11, 2018

Features

To What Degree Did Hurricane Florence Impact September Jobs Report? Economists Weigh In

by Jeff Shaw October 9, 2018

The national unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point to 3.7 percent in September, the lowest level since 1969. That’s the same year that Apollo 11’s lunar module, Eagle, carrying U.S. astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. Employers added 134,000 jobs in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), well below economists’ expectations of 180,000. But the effects of Hurricane Florence that struck the Carolinas during the month, plus worker shortages in some industries, likely were factors, according to knowledgeable observers. Despite the less-than-expected increase in September, job gains have averaged 190,000 per month over the last three months after revisions, reports the BLS. To get a better perspective on what the latest jobs data means for commercial real estate, REBusinessonline.com reached out to two economists: Ken McCarthy, principal economist and head of applied research for the Americas at Cushman & Wakefield; and Ryan Severino, chief economist for JLL. What follows are their written responses to questions posed by REBusinessonline.com. REBusinessOnline: Hurricane Florence affected parts of the East Coast during September. To what degree did the hurricane cause the monthly gains in nonfarm payroll employment to fall short of expectations? Ken McCarthy: First, I …

October 9, 2018

Features Retail

Mattress Firm Files for Bankruptcy Protection, Will Close Up to 700 Stores

by Taylor Williams October 5, 2018

HOUSTON — Mattress Firm has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of the Houston-based retailer’s plan to restructure its balance sheet and ultimately close up to 700 stores across the country. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware has appropriated approximately $250 million in debtor-in-possession financing to Mattress Firm to support the company’s operations during the Chapter 11 proceedings. Mattress Firm has also received commitments for $525 million of senior secured credit facilities to support its post-bankruptcy operations. The company expects to complete the restructuring process within the next 60 days. Mattress Firm currently has more than 3,000 stores in the U.S., and will remain the largest specialty mattress retailer in the country following the Chapter 11 proceedings. The company will close 200 underperforming stores immediately and then will determine the fate of the remaining 500 stores in the coming weeks. According to Jeff Green, partner with Hoffman Strategy Group, one positive aspect about the Mattress Firm locations are that they are typically on the pad of a shopping center, which makes them more visible and therefore more valuable. However, the chain is significantly overbuilt given the company’s “propensity to locate stores too close to existing stores and the …

October 5, 2018

Conference Coverage Features Multifamily

InterFace Panel: Technology Can Optimize Multifamily Lease Renewals

by Taylor Williams October 4, 2018

DALLAS — Multifamily development in the United States has been on a tear over the last five years, increasing competition for renters and making lease renewal rates a casualty of war. According to an August report from rentcafe.com, American multifamily developers delivered about 318,000 new units in 2017, more than double the deliveries from five years earlier. New multifamily construction between 2014 and 2016 averaged about 275,000 new units per year. That’s more than double the yearly average of 136,000 units per year that were delivered during the down years of 2011 through 2013. In addition, according to the National Apartment Association (NAA), the U.S. will need to add about 4.6 million new units by 2030 to keep up with demand. In most urban markets, this pace of development has either led to concessions or discounts on rent. This problem is compounded by the fact that in high-growth markets, renters usually have access to newer, competing multifamily product within a few miles. So long as they’re willing to move, renters can in theory receive new rounds of concessions from year to year. To recoup income lost from concessions, as well as to post strong occupancies if a property is put …

October 4, 2018

Features Georgia Restaurant Retail Southeast Southeast Feature Archive

Communities’ Appetite for Food Halls Grows But Risks Abound, Says IEDC Panel

by John Nelson October 2, 2018

ATLANTA — Five years ago, there were about 30 food halls across the entire country. By 2020, Cushman & Wakefield predicts there will be 300. “I agree we have a lot of food halls coming,” said Jamestown president Michael Phillips. “In some regards it signals the end of the food hall.” The comments from Phillips came Monday morning during a panel discussion at the annual conference of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). The four-day conference, which ends Wednesday, has drawn 1,600 economic developers, city planners, marketing professionals, consultants and community leaders to the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta. It’s the largest number of conference attendees ever and the first time in a decade that Atlanta has served as the host city for the annual gathering. The panel Phillips participated in was titled “Intersection of Food and Economic Development.” His fellow panelists included Adam Schwegman, senior vice president of Brookfield Properties Retail, who is stationed in Atlanta; Thomas McNair, executive director of Cleveland-based Ohio City Inc.; and Haile Johnston, founder of The Common Market in Philadelphia. Catherine Timko, CEO of Wilmington, Del.-based economic development consulting firm The Riddle Co., served as panel moderator. Food traffic, the right demographics, and a community …

October 2, 2018

Conference Coverage Features Healthcare

InterFace Panel Ponders How Mergers, Consolidations Will Impact Healthcare Real Estate

by Taylor Williams October 2, 2018

DALLAS — The past 12 to 18 months have seen a strong uptick in the number of mergers and consolidations among healthcare providers in the United States, and industry experts are still trying to figure out how this activity will impact cash flows, pricing and cap rates for healthcare properties. A recent report from the Health Research Institute at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) identified 255 healthcare merger and acquisition deals in the second quarter of 2018 alone. That figure actually represented a 7.3 percent decline in this kind of deal volume from the first quarter of 2018. The PwC report noted that healthcare providers are facing declining revenues driven in part by lower reimbursement rates for both public and private payors, forcing them to cut costs to stop the bleeding. Mergers, partnerships and strategic alliances provide conduits for this kind of cost cutting. Larger deals proposed or closed this year include the $69 billion merger between Aetna and CVS, as well as Cigna’s $67 billion acquisition of pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts. Rite Aid also cast merger bids with Walgreens and Albertsons, though both failed to reach completion. And on Oct. 2, two Texas-based healthcare providers, Baylor Scott & White and Memorial …

October 2, 2018

Conference Coverage Development Features Multifamily Texas Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive

Panel: Multifamily Developers in DFW Should Focus on Costs, Not Revenue

by Taylor Williams September 27, 2018

DALLAS — After experiencing exceptional rent growth between 2014 and 2017, it may be time for developers of multifamily product in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex to shift their attention from the revenue side of the equation to the expense side. According to CoStar Group, average asking rents across DFW rose by about 12 percent between 2014 and 2017. The year-over-year rent growth of 6.3 percent that occurred between 2014 and 2015 marked a 10-year high for the market and kicked new development into high gear. Now, however, the metroplex has become inundated with new multifamily supply — nearly 22,000 new units delivered in the past 12 months. Rent growth has slowed to about 2.2 percent year-to-date and vacancy is inching upward. But rather than pump the brakes on building, developers should be looking for ways to cut costs, not push rents, if they want to maintain their current levels of profitability. Such was the conclusion of six multifamily developers who gathered at the seventh annual InterFace Multifamily Texas conference on Sept. 26. Held at the Westin Galleria hotel in Dallas, the event drew roughly 250 attendees. Matt Brendel, divisional president and managing partner at Irving, Texas-based JPI, was the …

September 27, 2018

Conference Coverage Features Georgia Multifamily Seniors Housing Southeast Southeast Feature Archive

Seniors Housing Development Costs Dictate Market Entry, Says InterFace Panel

by Kristin Harlow September 25, 2018

ATLANTA — The pace of seniors housing development has accelerated sharply in recent years. Approximately 396 seniors housing properties came online or opened in the top 100 metro areas in the country from the fourth quarter of 2016 to the fourth quarter of 2017, according to data from Plante Moran Living Forward, a senior living development consulting firm. During the two years prior, about 596 communities opened. What’s more, approximately 65 percent of those newly added properties were from operators that only had two or fewer properties, according to Dana Wollschlager, practice leader for the firm and moderator of the development panel at the 2018 InterFace Seniors Housing Southeast conference. The significant number of developments and new entrants to the seniors housing space were major discussion points for the panel, which took place on Wednesday, Aug. 29 at the Westin Buckhead in Atlanta. The one-day conference drew nearly 520 developers, lenders, investors and operators in the senior living space. Joining Wollschlager on the panel were Richard Ackerman, managing partner of Big Rock Partners; Jeff Arnold, chief operating officer of United Group of Cos.; Blanding Beatty, chief investment officer of Traditions Senior Living; Andy Isakson, managing partner of Isakson Living; and …

September 25, 2018

Arizona Conference Coverage Features Industrial Western Western Feature Archive

InterFace Brokerage Panel: Phoenix Industrial ‘Moving Up the Food Chain’

by Jaime Lackey September 21, 2018

The InterFace Phoenix Industrial conference and networking event was held on Wednesday, Sept. 12, featuring three panel discussions. The brokerage panel, moderated by Rob Martensen, executive vice president with Colliers International, featured a lively discussion about activity in local submarkets and a recap of the reasons Phoenix is winning deals over Southern California and Nevada. Industrial Activity in Arizona Microsoft recently purchased 267 acres for a data center in the West Valley, said Anthony Lydon, national director, Industrial Supply Chain & Logistics Solutions with JLL. Qualified data centers receive waivers on personal property tax for 10 years, Lydon said, noting that each rack in a data center is approximately $1 million in personal property, so data centers are certainly enjoying the benefits of locating in Arizona. Arizona will also be a huge winner in the manufacturing sector, Lydon added. He cited Colorado-based food packaging provider Ball Corp. as an example of a company that was looking at Mexico for space before the 2016 election but has since opened a plant in the West Valley submarket of Phoenix due to the strategic location between Mexico and Southern California. Minnesota-based Andersen Windows & Doors is buying 64 acres from Opus to build …

September 21, 2018

Conference Coverage Features Multifamily Western Feature Archive

It’s All About Job Growth for Phoenix Multifamily, Say InterFace Panelists

by Amy Works September 20, 2018

With moderator John Lotardo, senior vice president of Commonwealth Land Title Co., at the helm, owners and developers dove into a discussion about Phoenix’s multifamily market — current trends, future activity and more — at the InterFace Phoenix Multifamily Conference on Sept. 11 in Scottsdale. And the main consensus for the Phoenix market? It’s all about the job growth, absorption is steady and the current activity should continue for the next few years. Decrease in Homeownership, Increase in Jobs Overall the marketplace has experienced an increase in job growth, particularly throughout the workforce sector, resulting in a steady need for multifamily housing options across the area. “Homeownership has gone down approximately 12 percent overall and jobs are increasing,” noted John Rials, executive vice president of Western Wealth Capital. This trend is creating a more complex demand for housing throughout the market. While there is an increase in jobs, it’s important to note that the majority of those jobs are workforce-level. Developers and owners need to be cognizant of rent ceilings for residents, explained Nicole Wray, senior director with Greystar. New Audiences, New Exposure Along with meeting the needs of the continuing influx of renters, owners and developers are navigating the …

September 20, 2018

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