Market Reports

National Retail Tenants Enter, Expand Into Kansas City Market

by Kristin Harlow September 21, 2017

The greater Kansas City area retail market remains solid as a rock, despite CoStar Group’s mid-year report showing a slight decline in the average asking rental rate and a slight increase in vacancy. The retail vacancy rate in the second quarter of 2017 stood at 5.7 percent, up slightly from the previous quarter’s 5.5 percent. The average asking rental rate for retail is $13.05 per square foot, down from $13.07 in the previous quarter. Local, regional and national restaurant chains continue to expand with strong success throughout all areas of the Kansas City market, and “new-to-market” users continue to open their doors. Currently, there is approximately 570,000 square feet of retail space under construction in the Kansas City area and various mixed-use projects under development. Additionally, several new shopping center projects have recently been announced and are quickly gaining traction with restaurant and retail users. One of the major catalysts for the widespread retail and mixed-use boom throughout greater Kansas City is the various incentives that have been made available to developers including tax increment financing, community improvement districts, transportation development districts, tax abatement and other incentives. On both sides of the state line, as sites become more expensive and …

September 21, 2017

Kansas Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri Office

Myriad Factors Help Explain Why Kansas City Office Market Has Not Reached Full Altitude

by Kristin Harlow September 14, 2017

The Kansas City office market is poised for increasing rental rates and decreasing vacancy rates for the remainder of 2017 and into 2018. Kansas City has realized its 14th consecutive quarter of increased rental rates (through March 2017), while vacancy has decreased in the overall metro area due to lack of new office construction and a steady pace of absorption. Several factors contribute to the complexity of why the market is good but not great, steady but not dynamic, with no one factor driving the steady upward climb. It has been like a plane taking off but never reaching full altitude. A contradiction of sorts is contributing to the rental rate increases and vacancy decline, while there is still a lack of newly constructed space. Bread-and-butter leasing absorption and a lack of new speculative development have been the main ingredients in the overall solid market for office activity. The velocity in the market is doing its job of generating positive absorption each quarter while rates inch up. The lack of large blocks of space has created a few new construction projects, but not as many as experts had predicted and hoped for. Costs on the rise Higher construction costs and …

September 14, 2017

Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri Office

Dramatic Rise in Tech Jobs Propels Growth in St. Louis Office Market

by Kristin Harlow August 24, 2017

Rapid growth in the tech sector is dramatically impacting the St. Louis office market. The city boasted an increase of 6,220 high-tech jobs during the last four years, over 2,000 of which were generated in the past year alone. Given the total number of tech jobs in St. Louis is 57,300, this amounts to a healthy growth rate of 10.9 percent. From well-known companies like Square Inc., Yurbuds and Answers.com to newer ones such as LockerDome, Aisle411 Inc. and MediBeacon Inc., the St. Louis region is a growing hot spot for innovative, new and expanding companies. These companies include leaders in the areas of plant and life sciences as well as financial services, information technology, advanced manufacturing and even rapidly growing pet care industries. Significant healthcare and biotechnology institutions in the region include Pfizer, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Solae Co. and Sigma-Aldrich. As capital injections slow in the coastal markets, St. Louis’ startup scene is thriving, attracting talent, new companies and investors from across the globe. According to Forbes, the city was named the fastest-growing metropolis for startups in 2016. Analytical website fivethirtyeight.com reaffirmed St. Louis’ increased appetite for startups, attributing the uptick in part to a combination of …

August 24, 2017

Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri Office

Specialty Practices Drive Growth in Kansas City Medical Office Market

by Kristin Harlow July 27, 2017

Kansas City is in the midst of an aggressive expansion of capital investment in medical office space that is consistent with national activity. A variety of factors drive these developments, including patients’ expectations for medical care, a change in how large-scale healthcare operators view their networks and the growth of specialty practitioners. The evolution of medical space created by these forces leads to an entirely new development approach. The most obvious evidence of this change in the Kansas City market is located along the Interstate 435 corridor between State Line Road and Metcalf Avenue. Every major healthcare operator in the metro area either has an established presence there, is in the midst of an expansion project, or both. Within that area, the new medical office building for St. Luke’s Health System at Mission Farms was completed in the second half of 2016. Further west, the 76,000-square-foot Quad Six medical office building, located at 6650 W. 110th St., delivered in June of this year. To the south, at 159th Street and Antioch Road, the first phase of the BluHawk project recently delivered for Shawnee Mission Health – Overland Park. The project includes a 75,000-square-foot medical office building, along with a separate …

July 27, 2017

Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri Multifamily

Vibrant Economy Underpins Healthy Apartment Market in Kansas City

by Kristin Harlow January 26, 2017

Without a doubt, 2016 was a year to remember for the Kansas City apartment market. Employers, builders, operators and investors all had an eye on the flourishing metropolitan area and contributed to its ongoing strength, leading to a 20-year high for apartment occupancy. But in order to assess if 2017 will be as fruitful, a review of how each of these groups fared in 2016 and an analysis of the current economic climate should be taken into account. Employers A healthy economy underscored by an active employment market generates a cyclical effect whereby employers seek talent, talent seeks housing, and developers seek residents. According to Moody’s Analytics, total nonfarm payroll employment in the Kansas City metropolitan area in 2016 expanded by 1.5 percent following a 1.3 percent increase in 2015. Virgin Mobile USA, to name one active area employer, relocated its corporate headquarters from Warren, N.J., to downtown Kansas City as part of the company’s re-launch of its new brand under Sprint. The long-term location for the new headquarters is undetermined, but temporarily at least 50 new employees now work out of the One Kansas City Place building at 12th and Main streets. By year-end 2017, Berkadia Research projects total …

January 26, 2017

Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri Retail

Strong Retail Absorption Jump-Starts Development Activity in Metro Kansas City

by Kristin Harlow January 19, 2017

Nearly all of Kansas City is seeing a significant increase in retail and restaurant construction, with many new development projects now coming to fruition. Several of these new construction projects incorporate apartments and other types of entertainment, office or residential space above first-floor retail. Propelled by the recent opening of the streetcar and new apartment complexes across the city, retail in downtown Kansas City received a lot of leasing attention in 2016, according to CoStar Group. “More people are moving downtown for walkability and a taste of urban living, so retail positioned near the streetcar route or on the ground level of apartment buildings could see more demand,” wrote CoStar in its third-quarter overview of the Kansas City retail market. “In the area running from River Market down to Country Club Plaza, as much space leased in the first three quarters of 2016 as did in all of 2015.” Meanwhile, we are experiencing a number of projects where the traditional, older enclosed malls and retail strip centers are being torn down and redeveloped as mixed-use properties across the Kansas City retail market. Standout submarkets, corridors Annual deliveries in greater Kansas City averaged just over 1 million square feet per year …

January 19, 2017

Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri Multifamily Office

Office, Multifamily Sectors Lead Expansive Growth in Clayton Submarket of St. Louis

by Kristin Harlow January 12, 2017

An influx of new workers and residents is expected in the Clayton submarket of St. Louis thanks to more than $630 million in office, residential and mixed-use development that is in the planning stages or currently under way. Health insurer Centene Corp. has announced that it will build a new 16-acre, $450 million campus expansion on the east edge of downtown Clayton at Hanley Road, Forsyth Boulevard and Carondelet Plaza. The project, set to break ground early this year, stands to effectively shift the center of Clayton while adding a mixed-use, Class A office-anchored business and lifestyle development to the submarket. Delivery of the 500,000-square-foot Phase I tower is set for late 2019. At the opposite end of the submarket, Koman Group expects to break ground on its proposed 330,000-square-foot, 14-story office and retail project, situated at the corner of Forsyth and Brentwood boulevards. Just across the street is another $68 million, 233,000-square-foot office project likely to begin in 2018. Proposed by Jared Novelly and Apogee Associates, the project would bring the total proposed office development to a robust 1 million square feet of new Class A space in downtown Clayton. As the premier office submarket in St. Louis, Clayton …

January 12, 2017

Industrial Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri

Falling Vacancies, Strong Demand Spur Industrial Construction in St. Louis

by Kristin Harlow January 5, 2017

The St. Louis industrial market is in the midst of historic development and deal making. As witnessed in many markets, “big bombers” — industrial facilities 500,000 square feet and larger — are coming out of the ground at a record pace. Better still, they are being leased and pre-leased at a record pace. By all accounts, the driver here is the new e-commerce phenomenon with major players like Amazon taking nearly 1.5 million square feet in the Metro East submarket. The two major developments in this submarket are Gateway Commerce Center, developed by TriStar, and the adjacent Lakeview Commerce Center, developed by Panattoni. In addition to Amazon, Gateway Commerce Center boosts a host of big box users such as P&G, Unilever and Saddle Creek Corp, the latter of which took 673,137 square feet last year at the Center. Tri-Star is in the process of completing two additional buildings in the Center: Gateway East 520 containing 520,000 square feet, and Gateway East 624 containing 624,000 square feet. In neighboring Lakeview Commerce Center, Amazon occupies additional space along with World Wide Technologies, occupying 769,500 square feet in the Center. Analyzing the data Let’s drill down further and let the numbers speak for …

January 5, 2017

Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri Office

Downtown Kansas City Office Market Rebounds, While Suburbs Continue to Shine

by Kristin Harlow December 22, 2016

Kansas City’s central business district (CBD) has received a great deal of media attention over the past two years for good reason. With over 3,000 new residential units delivered, the new KC Streetcar and the national trend of Millennials moving to urban areas, there has been plenty of momentum for the area and much discussion of the “live-work-play” environment. After a long period of decline, the urban core of Kansas City is experiencing a powerful revitalization. In all the excitement surrounding the CBD, however, another trend may be getting overlooked. Through the first three quarters of 2016, absorption in the CBD (the Downtown, Crossroads and Crown Center submarkets) was more or less flat after accounting for the conversion of office space to residential use and a unique listing in the Crown Center complex. Meanwhile, the suburban office market posted 580,000 square feet of positive absorption during the same period. Yes, Kansas City is in the process of rediscovering and reinventing the CBD, but the performance of the suburban market remains strong. Construction Boom The first indicator that tenants are still attracted to key suburban submarkets is the number of recent construction projects. Earlier this year, Burns & McDonnell completed a …

December 22, 2016

Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri Retail

New Development, Healthy Leasing Activity Powers St. Louis Retail Market

by Jeff Shaw September 22, 2016

Retail development in the St. Louis metro area continues to gain momentum. Rental rates are strong, with triple-net asking rents averaging $12.30 per square foot, and are expected to trend upward as the retail market continues to grow. Absorption of existing product along with multiple new developments has created a positive forecast for the St. Louis retail market. In the second quarter of 2016, the St. Louis retail vacancy rate dropped to 5.9 percent from 6.1 percent the previous quarter with positive net absorption of 449,056 square feet. Leasing ramps up Contributing to the healthy retail market are several tenants moving into large blocks of space including two 41,921-square-foot Walmart Neighborhood Market stores now open in St. Peters. Among other store openings: • At Home has announced two 100,000-square-foot locations on the site of a former Walmart in Town & Country and a former K-Mart in O’Fallon, Mo. • Academy Sports will open two 62,000-square-foot locations in Manchester and O’Fallon, Ill. • Camping World will move into 34,710 square feet in Wentzville. • Stein Mart will occupy 31,000 square feet in Town & Country. • Bob’s Discount Furniture has signed a 28,035-square-foot lease in Manchester and a 30,000-square-foot lease at …

September 22, 2016

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