Badiee Development has logistics and industrial projects throughout the Western U.S., but its current focus is the region’s three S’s: San Diego, Sacramento, Calif., and Salt Lake City. “Badiee Development is prioritizing leasing at our existing projects in San Diego and Sacramento, and entitling future projects in San Diego, Sacramento and Salt Lake City,” says Ben Badiee, the firm’s founder and CEO. “Our company holds a ‘land bank’ with plans to develop more than 2 million square feet across four distinct projects in three markets.” San Diego Badiee’s headquarters is ripe with industrial ventures for the firm. These include the two-building, 242,969-square-foot Sanyo Logistics Center and the 38-acre Britannia Airway Logistics Center, both of which are being built near the Mexican border in Otay Mesa. Britannia Airway has also been entitled for an interim use of industrial outdoor storage (IOS), allowing the project to accommodate about 1,000 trucks and trailers. “Being in our ‘backyard,’ Otay Mesa has proven to be a highly successful market for the firm,” Badiee says. “It is at the forefront of the onshoring/nearshoring trend for the U.S. and Mexico, and land availabilities are scarce.” Sacramento Land scarcity has also been a driver for Badiee in Sacramento …
Market Reports
— By Anthony Pappageorge, Managing Director, NorthMarq — The Bay Area multifamily market is showing signs of stabilizing, although there are some persistent challenges present in the market that will impact operations. With 2024 likely to be a period of slower economic growth, there will be a continued emphasis on multifamily property operations. The challenges in the Bay Area rental market have shifted somewhat in recent years. In the period immediately following the pandemic, owners of rental properties were focused on maintaining occupancy levels and rent collections. In the current environment, added pressures surrounding rising property insurance costs and the prospect for additional rent control measures are increasing uncertainty to the Bay Area multifamily market. Occupancy: A Bit Lower than Usual, but Bouncing Back One multifamily property metric where the Bay Area routinely outperforms nearly every other part of the country is occupancy levels. Conditions remain tight at the beginning of 2024, with average occupancies ranging from about 96 percent in the South Bay and San Francisco, to about 94.5 percent in the East Bay. Current occupancies are about 50 basis points lower, on average, than in 2019. This is welcome news to operators who saw rates decline to about 90 …
— By Taylor Stokes, Market Intelligence Analyst, Avison Young — The Los Angeles office market continues to struggle with a 24.7 percent vacancy rate at the end of the first quarter of 2024, according to Avison Young’s first-quarter Los Angeles office market report. Leasing activity picked up slightly in the first quarter of 2024 with 951 leases recorded. This equated to 3.5 million square feet, up 5.4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2023 when there were 902 leases signed. To put the decline of occupancy in perspective, the first quarter of 2022 ended with a 15.4 percent office vacancy rate, which was up from 15 percent at the end of 2021. It was also up from the previous high of 13.1 percent that was recorded in 2010. There were a couple lease transactions to highlight in the first quarter of 2024. Snap picked up 400,000 square feet in Santa Monica, while Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi signed a nearly 62,000-square-foot lease in Downtown Los Angeles. Downtown continues to struggle with the highest vacancy in the market at 28.6 percent. The anticipated return to office hasn’t happened, as many users see the hybrid work schedule continuing for the long-term. They, therefore, …
— By Kirsten Grado, Toss Vallentine and Wing Lee of JLL — The resilience of the South Bay/Silicon Valley economy has been tested with the dramatic change in hybrid work formats that enabled employees to work from anywhere. While office vacancy has hit near record levels over the past year, signs of strengthening fundamentals are pointing to a bottoming of the market and a period of opportunity for companies and investors with long-term views. So, what is marking the signs of optimism? Leasing activity has continued to improve as companies in technology, professional services, financial services/consulting and other sectors leased 865,000 square feet across 61 transactions in the first quarter of 2024. The largest leases were PwC agreeing to move from downtown San Jose into 141,000 square feet within the top three floors of One Santana West, as well as a confidential tech firm leasing 162,000 square feet at Coleman Highline, also in San Jose. Other notable leases were TDK InvenSense renewing its 82,000-square-foot space in San Jose, as well as KMPG and the 49ers organization each taking about 50,000 square feet of space in new leases in Santa Clara. Premier space remains in high demand as companies look to …
— By Gary Baragona, Vice President of Research, Kidder Mathews — Home to an eclectic mix of local retailers, award-winning restaurants and the world’s most prestigious brands, Los Angeles has long been one of the most dynamic retail markets in the country. However, sector dynamics significantly shifted during the pandemic as retailers began to rely heavily on their online sales to stay in business and remain profitable. While consumer preferences further evolved in 2022 and 2023, there has been a noticeable slowdown in consumer spending, largely due to ongoing economic challenges, reduced buying power, decreased savings and increased credit card debt. On the surface, overall market fundamentals within the commercial real estate retail sector appear to be relatively stable. Some key indicators illustrate market resiliency, but other trends demonstrate the recent struggles felt by the retail sector and the challenges that may lie ahead. For example, total leasing activity across the Los Angeles region was down 15 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, and down 25 percent compared to pre-COVID averages. The total vacancy rate across Los Angeles increased to 5.3 percent during the first quarter of 2024 and has consistently hovered between 5 percent and 5.3 percent …
— By Edward F. Del Beccaro, Executive Vice President, TRI Commercial — The major Northern California industrial markets contain a total of more than 860 million square feet of industrial buildings. The San Francisco Bay Area, North Bay, Silicon Valley, Sacramento and Central Valley have all experienced a falloff in tenant demand from 2021 to 2022 pandemic highs. Most markets experienced negative absorption in fourth-quarter 2023, including sublease space coming on the market that resulted in rents either plateauing or decreasing. Nevertheless, the outlook is still positive based on the various economic drivers pushing the market. For instance, manufacturers are benefitting from onshoring, with a projected 40 percent reduction in sourced material from China, per a recent report from Alix Partners. In addition, declining interest rates and continuing inflation will cause institutional money to flow into the industrial sector versus the office sector, according to a March 2024 ProLogis report. Below are various industrial submarket reviews: In the Oakland/East Bay Industrial I-80/880 Corridor, year-end 2023 experienced a slowdown in demand due to new construction and existing space becoming available. More than 10.2 million square feet is available, reflecting negative absorption of more than 778,000 square feet last year. The Port …
— By Robert Peddicord, Executive Managing Director, CBRE South Bay — The Greater Los Angeles (GLA) industrial market is showing stability while enduring challenges like higher vacancy rates, negative absorption and an anticipated decrease in lease rates. Markets across the country continue to adjust post-pandemic, and GLA is no exception. Nevertheless, the GLA industrial market is poised for long-term resilience, thanks, in part, to its proximity to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, while LA’s large population base drives the need for warehousing. San Pedro Bay Ports The GLA industrial market continues to rely on the San Pedro Bay ports, the two largest ports by volume in the U.S. Although there has been an average decrease of 1.9 percent in cargo volume over the past five years, the San Pedro Bay terminal operators and dockworkers moved 16.6 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in 2023, outpacing the TEUs moved at other ports. Disruptions from the Suez and Panama canals may divert more U.S.-bound cargo ships from Asia to West Coast ports. The West Coast benefits from lower shipping container costs, with about a 40 percent discount shipping to the West Coast compared to the East Coast. U.S. importers, shippers …
— By Pat Swanson, executive vice president, Colliers International — As Orange County enters 2024, its multifamily market stands at the brink of transformation, confronting challenges like softened rents, affordability dynamics and the resilience required in the face of tenant-related complexities. In the midst of a robust economy, the region grapples with obstacles and opportunities that will significantly shape the future of its real estate sector. Orange County’s economic vitality is evident, with a 5.2 percent growth in U.S. GDP and a thriving job market. However, the looming shadow of interest rate fluctuations and inflation above 3 percent has briefly slowed down real estate transactions. While rates are predicted to stabilize, the potential for modest reductions later in the year signals a period of nuanced economic growth and sustained higher rates. In 2024, Orange County’s multifamily housing market is set for change, departing from previous trends of rent increases. The region anticipates modest growth that will be influenced by factors like slower job growth, an influx of 510,000 new units and the mounting challenge of finding qualified tenants. Affordability takes center stage, with rent-to-income ratios reaching 29.8 percent. The widening affordability gap between owning a home and renting is further …
— By John R. Read, senior vice president, CBRE Retail Investment Properties-West — Undoubtedly, 2023 proved to be a volatile year. It was marked by persistent inflationary pressures, four 25-basis-point interest rate hikes by the Fed and a surge in the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield (from the high 3 percent range in January to peak levels near 5 percent in October). These changes had a pronounced impact on retail real estate investors, businesses occupying retail centers and consumers who frequented these establishments. The real estate sector particularly grappled with the cost of financing in an environment of higher interest rates. While these challenges did temper Orange County’s retail market to some extent, it largely remained resilient due to its strong underlying fundamentals. These include a substantial population of high-income earners, flourishing industries like tourism and destination-oriented shopping centers, as well as a supply constrained retail property base with limited large-scale retail development. The unemployment rate in Orange County remained steady at 3.8 percent in December 2023, unchanged from November’s revised rate. This rate is notably higher than the year-ago estimate of 2.7 percent. In comparison, California’s unemployment rate stands at 5.1 percent rate, while the national rate during the same …
The South Coast Metro area — consisting of north Costa Mesa and south Santa Ana — has been a hotbed of activity lately. Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas (TTHA) leased 60,000 square feet in the Harbor Gateway Business Center in early January. The Gateway is situated at the northwest corner of Harbor Boulevard and Sunflower Avenue near freeways, major thoroughfares, apartment communities, shopping, dining and entertainment. In addition to that, the 2,500-acre, 3.5-square-mile Metro area is home to a Theater & Arts District that boasts performance venues like the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall and the Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory. It also has South Coast Plaza, a retail mecca that includes 280 boutiques and restaurants, with an additional 100 restaurants situated within about a one-mile radius of the shopping center. This activity has not only benefitted the nearby businesses, residents and visitors, but the South Coast Metro Alliance as well. The non-profit corporation of property owners and major businesses added three new corporate partners last year, including Related California, Travel Santa Ana and Breeze IT. Related California is the West Coast affiliate of Related Companies, a fully integrated real estate firm that develops multifamily residential and mixed-use properties …