Local market conditions are always related in some way to what’s happening on the national stage, so let’s first acknowledge our new leadership. Trump has continued talking like the businessman he is and in very much the same style that got him elected. In reaction, equities markets have continued to boil over into record-setting heights as the business sector embraces the potential for more business-friendly stances that will sooner or later emerge from Washington. Business resurgences always impact Northern Nevada, thanks to both its strategic location advantage in distributing to the 11 Western states and its highly business-friendly state climate. As for Tesla, 2016 showcased increasingly tangible direct and indirect effects from the expanding Gigafactory. Tesla leased a large warehouse in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center near the Gigafactory to receive product for several years. Panasonic, Tesla’s quieter partner in the Gigafactory, also leased a large warehouse in the same park that is close to the plant. Another Tesla vendor, Daehan Solutions America, an international company supplying the automotive industry and headquartered in South Korea, leased a large space in the vacant ex-Amazon space in Fernley. These three transactions alone comprise a large portion of the market’s total quarterly absorption. …
Market Reports
Market Moves There is so much fascinating discussion happening around the Las Vegas office market: what is the future of the suburban office? How does layout truly affect the culture of a company? Is parking a dying amenity? For the Las Vegas office market, it is just as easy to be captivated by imagining the possibilities of tomorrow. The post-recession recovery has seen office as the last product type to get healthy. The resort corridor led the way with a few new developments, like the T-Mobile Arena and Lucky Dragon Hotel, but there were many significant rehabs and upgrades as well. Multifamily and industrial followed closely behind, not surprisingly. What is interesting is that multifamily developers, as well as industrial, have been delivering product classes the valley has not experienced in any previous cycles. These include integrated apartment communities with over-the-top lifestyle amenities, and big bomber industrial buildings with the latest fixings of the day. Office development completions, however, have been limited to niche plays like the 140,000-square-foot Federal Justice Tower, and relic projects like Downtown’s 200,000-square-foot One Summerlin. Some of these projects were carried out by new owners, some with a lower basis. These buildings filled up and are …
After finishing 2016 with a bang, 2017 is shaping up to be another great year for retail real estate in Las Vegas. Tourism, construction, population growth, infrastructure improvements and business growth are all cause for excitement. The Strip is once again predicted to dazzle retailers. There are currently more than $9 billion in construction projects underway or scheduled through 2019. The development lineup is dominated by Resort World, Steve Wynn’s Paradise Park and a hopeful sale of Fontainebleau. Alon is another exciting project that is looking to replace a major funding source so it can begin construction. Several other important, but smaller projects are scheduled to come on line later this year and into 2018. These include infrastructure, retail expansion and additional hotel room projects. New retail and food arrivals to the Strip include Skechers, Walburgers, Morimoto, Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill, Giordano’s and John Rich’s Red Neck Riviera. Around 42 million visitors from the U.S. and around the world enjoyed Las Vegas in 2016, and we are anticipating even more in 2017. Las Vegas population growth also continues. The city was ranked the 28th largest in the U.S. in 2016, while housing sales and construction continue to have healthy growth. …
There are two trends that describe the current state of retail development in Southern Nevada: restaurants are expanding and some junior boxes are closing. Ecommerce competition and the consolidation of retailers nationally has caused junior box tenants to continue to struggle. It is odd to see a new development like the 1.6-million-square-foot Downtown Summerlin open on the affluent west side of the Valley in October 2014, only to see two junior boxes close since then. The Sports Authority shuttered its doors earlier this year, while Golfsmith just announced it would cease operations by the end of 2016. Other retailers in the development are doing very well, but it is an unfortunate sign of the times to see junior anchors close in good retail developments. When analyzing ecommerce vs. bricks and mortar, retailers are paying more attention to the facts listed in the table below. The example compares Amazon to Walmart — both great businesses but differing models. The reason is clear why it is difficult to compete when Amazon is able to produce 165 percent more per employee. This analysis does not include the difference in fixed assets, which only further exaggerates the advantage for Amazon when considering what a …
Though there was a slight decline in Las Vegas’ overall industrial market activity in the first half of 2016, the remainder of the year will finish strong as the region continues to see significant expansion. Despite aggressive market conditions, demand continued to outpace new supply during the third quarter of this year, while asking rates rose and large distribution centers dominated market activity. Demand for industrial space in the Las Vegas market increased during the third quarter, with 787,582 square feet of net absorption, bringing the total net absorption year-to-date to more than 2 million square feet. New completions totaled 642,571 square feet and vacancy rates decreased to 4.4 percent, the lowest since the first quarter of 2007. The average asking triple-net lease rate climbed to $0.62 per square foot, per month, the highest since the fourth quarter of 2009. There are currently nine industrial projects under construction throughout the Las Vegas Valley, totaling nearly 4.8 million square feet. New construction activity has been well above the long-term average since 2015, and will continue to outpace historical levels through 2017. The increase in construction activity has largely been fueled by a combination of a lack of available large bulk distribution …
The Reno industrial market continues to grow at a steady pace. Numerous developers are building new speculative warehouse/distribution facilities in many of the submarkets in Reno, Sparks and nearby outlying areas. With an industrial base of more than 80 million square feet and a vacancy rate of 8.2 percent (which continues to recede), the region is experiencing a healthy demand for space ranging from 50,000 square feet (divisibility) up to 150,000 square feet. Demand exceeds supply for product of this size. Current rental rates have steadily pushed upward over the past 18 months. Depending on the location of the business parks and its proximity to Interstate 80, the major east-west trucking artery, or I-580, the quoted asking rental rates range from about $4.20 per square foot, per year, up to $5.04 for the aforementioned divisibility ranges. New speculative Class A industrial product in the Reno market offers 32’ to 36’ clear height, as well as ESFR fire sprinkler technology, state-of-the-art LED high bay lighting, fiber optics communications, cross-dock configurations, ultra-wide column bay spacing and ample trailer parking onsite. Panattoni Development built Red Rock 200, which includes a 750,000-square-foot, built-to-suit fulfillment center for Petco, as well as a 200,000-square-foot speculative distribution …
The Southern Nevada industrial market has continuously seen improvement through the second quarter of 2015 with a positive absorption of 878,151 square feet. The overall vacancy rate followed suit and decreased to 8 percent – down 2.1 points from the 12 previous months, which ended at 10.1 percent. The asking lease rates also increased to an average of $6.38 – up almost 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014 when it stood at $6.16. A new addition to the healthy market is the growth in new projects that are either planned or under construction. There is an estimated 2.4 million square feet currently under construction, with deliveries anticipated from the third quarter of 2015 through the second quarter of 2016. Big box distribution demand continues to climb, and most developers now believe “if you build it, they will come.” One of the largest deliveries planned for the third quarter of this year is Prologis’ 3700 Bay Lake Trail. Bay Lake was originally planned as a 464,203-square-foot, speculative project. The entire development was leased by Cushman & Wakefield to the Global Equipment Company (GEC), a subsidiary of Systemax, prior to the official groundbreaking, however. This deal was an expansion for …
The Las Vegas retail market is transitioning from recovery to stability. Based on CoStar’s second-quarter report, the overall vacancy rate was 9.9 percent, a slight decrease from the 10 percent experienced at the end of the second quarter of 2014. The decrease is impressive considering the 2 million square feet in net absorption that occurred during this same period. Rental rates have continued to average around $1.30 per square foot, per month for the past 2.5 years, although we are hearing about newer centers achieving impressive rate increases. There was 822,512 square feet of retail space under construction at the end of the second quarter of 2015. Ikea is the largest retail project currently under construction in Southern Nevada, which is expected to open next summer. The second largest project is Tivoli Village’s 117,516-square-foot expansion. Restoration Hardware also signed a lease this quarter for 77,000 square feet at Tivoli. It is expected to take up occupy during the first quarter of 2016. Though private investors dominate the market, we are seeing more institutional investors who are interested in acquiring newly stabilized product. Cap rates have continued to decline, averaging 6.53 percent for 2015, compared to a 2014 average of 6.99 …
The Las Vegas office market continues to recover and stabilize, capping off 2014 with the 12th consecutive quarter of positive net absorption. Initially slow to recover following the recession, the area’s rebound has recently quickened. The market has an unemployment rate of 7.1 percent, with 2014 being the first year since 2008 to see a rate below 8 percent. Office-related jobs represented 20 percent of the workforce, second only to hospitality, proving the office market is an important part of the area’s growth and vitality. Class A office space along the I-215 Beltway currently shows strong activity. Las Vegas is home to two suburbs that historically were among the fastest-growing communities in the nation: Green Valley in the southeast and Summerlin in the west. Initially built as a means to connect the populations of these communities, the Beltway now extends around the city, connecting to I-15 in the northern valley. Notable recent developments along the Beltway include Krausz Companies’ and WGH Partners’ Gramercy, a mixed-use office, retail and multifamily project in the southwest that added 175,000 square feet of Class A office space in the third quarter of 2014, and The Howard Hughes Corporation’s Downtown Summerlin, a mixed-use project that …
It is great to be in Las Vegas and witness the city’s strong recovery from the economic lows of a few years ago. Exciting projects like the $500-million LINQ entertainment and retail promenade, the 1.6-million-square-foot Downtown Summerlin lifestyle center and the market’s first IKEA, now under development, are filling the region with promise. Las Vegas added more than 25,000 jobs between 2013 and 2014, a 3.3 percent increase, representing the third highest growth rate in the country during that time. As opposed to the previous economic boom that was largely driven by construction growth, the job growth in this recovery has been evenly spread across several sectors like general services (retail), professional/business, education, healthcare and leisure/travel. Las Vegas also hit a milestone in 2014 when it reached a record-setting 41.1 million visitors for the year. Those visitors included 5.2 million conventioneers, the highest total since 2008. As the Las Vegas economy continues to expand, retail is leading the pack with taxable sales that have already increased an astounding 29.4 percent from the recession low, including an 8.1 percent year-over-year increase in the past 12 months. Total taxable spending in the region is near its highest levels in history, reaching $36.2 …