Midwest Market Reports

Demand Drives Bulk Industrial Construction in St. Louis Region’s I-70 Corridor

by Kristin Harlow October 8, 2020

By Allison Gray, Steadfast City Economic & Community Partners The growing demand for distribution space and the related importance of freight logistics and a healthy supply chain have remained steady even though the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shake up markets across the U.S. and around the globe. This demand is evident in the bi-state St. Louis region, where more inventory of bulk distribution space has been added in the five-year period between 2015 and 2019 than at any other point in St. Louis history, totaling more than 18 million square feet of top-of-the-line modern bulk space. Recent construction and development trends in the bi-state St. Louis area reveal that bulk distribution buildings — those that top 250,000 square feet — have been the highest growing sector for the regional inventory. Since 2016, 94 percent of all bulk construction has been focused along the vital I-70 corridor, while 90 percent of the new major industrial parks with significant construction are located within 10 minutes of the I-70 corridor. This corridor, which includes portions of I-170, I-270 and I-370, is a development hotspot that links Illinois and Missouri. It has emerged as a major logistics corridor supported with more than $600 million …

October 8, 2020

Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri Office

St. Louis Office Market Remains Flexible Amid COVID-19

by Kristin Harlow October 1, 2020

By Brandon Wappelhorst, Sansone Group In nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives, 2020 could unequivocally be summarized as certainly uncertain. The rapid onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the world and has caused significant disruption to everyday life. While likely further down the list of today’s topical issues, the overall effect of COVID-19 on the office market in St. Louis is still to be determined — but it will undoubtedly have an impact. Over the last few years, the commercial real estate market in St. Louis, much like the rest of the country, had been riding a wave of economic success. Demand for office space was high and the region was experiencing record-low vacancy rates, increasing rental rates, positive absorption, increased volume of office sale transactions and new buildings coming out of the ground. Construction of Edge@West, a 110,000-square-foot office building in Creve Coeur, began in late 2019 after a lease was signed with lead tenant SM Global. Breaking ground at less than 25 percent pre-leased was indicative of the strength of the office market at the time. Clayton, the strongest submarket in the St. Louis metro area, also saw the beginnings of …

October 1, 2020

Iowa Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports

Cedar Rapids Shows Resilience, Growth in Times of Crisis

by Kristin Harlow September 17, 2020

By Scott Olson, Skogman Commercial Since starting a series of annual articles on Cedar Rapids in 2013 after the recovery from the historic floods of 2008 and 2016, I never anticipated the city would be facing an event in 2020 that would reach beyond those levels of flood impact. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has given our city new challenges for this year and beyond. Hopefully this is a once-in-a-lifetime health event that, unlike the floods, has impacted nearly every city in the country in many ways. But there is a reason Cedar Rapids was named “All America City” in 2014. Here is why I make that statement. In February 2020, SmartAsset.com named Cedar Rapids the No. 2 “Most Recession-Resistant City in America.” Then as the pandemic spread, Business Insider named Cedar Rapids the No. 11 “Top American City to Live in After a Pandemic.” With the historic low interest rates created by the pandemic and a decade-low inventory of listed residential properties, Cedar Rapids was ranked by lendedu.com as the No. 34 city with the most affordable homes in the U.S. That report showed that 96 percent of our homes are affordable for the average household living in the city. …

September 17, 2020

Iowa Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Mixed-Use

Downtown Sioux City Experiencing Explosive Growth, Transformation

by Kristin Harlow September 10, 2020

By Marty Dougherty, City of Sioux City Downtown Sioux City, Iowa is currently experiencing growth and transformation on an unprecedented scale. This emerging and vibrant place is not only celebrating its rich and colorful history with multiple historic property renovations, but has made strides to re-invent itself and take the downtown to new levels. These efforts include the growth of new residential options, an increasing number of cultural attractions and quality-of-life amenities, new entry corridors and a commitment to an extraordinary and ever-evolving riverfront park. This energy and economic activity offers a range of development opportunities, including residential, office, retail and entertainment. While COVID-19 has had some minor impacts, all of the ongoing downtown construction projects have been able to stay on track and are being completed on schedule, as of the writing of this article. Reinvestment district Over $150 million in public and private capital is currently being invested in a 25-acre downtown reinvestment district. This entertainment, cultural and residential district has been designed to extend from the downtown’s entryway directly into the heart of downtown. The district features four signature projects, with a total of 10 public or private buildings that will be fully completed in 2020. These …

September 10, 2020

Indiana Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Multifamily

Opportunity in the Midwest: Why Indiana Is Gaining Favor with Investors

by Kristin Harlow September 3, 2020

By Chris Bruzas, Berkadia While the COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the commercial real estate industry, bright spots have emerged across the multifamily landscape. Nationally, secondary and tertiary markets demonstrate resilience and strong performance, despite challenging circumstances. One of these bright spots is Indiana. Since the start of the year, Berkadia’s investment sales and mortgage banking teams have closed more than $498 million in combined sales and financing across the state. While Indiana has long been a solid market in the Midwest, in recent years it has emerged as particularly attractive to investors for a few key reasons. Available scale The ability to acquire scale is increasingly important to investors looking to break into new markets and MSAs. Immediate scale is attractive for several reasons. For investors, acquisition at scale enhances geographic and unit diversification at the outset. It also allows investors, specifically those new to the region, to maximize business efficiencies on expenses. If a new buyer can acquire 1,000 units in proximity, they can reduce the burden of staff, construction costs and travel costs, to name a few. Additionally, it helps with leasing. If a prospective tenant tours a property that doesn’t have floor plans …

September 3, 2020

Industrial Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Ohio

Three Reasons Cincinnati Is Industrial Hot Spot of America

by Kristin Harlow August 20, 2020

By Brian Leonard and Mark Volkman Tides are changing throughout the U.S. as companies work to confront COVID-19 and its implications on the national supply chain. Changing consumer preferences are forcing businesses to reevaluate their current supply chain and diversify their sources of supply. Since COVID-19, retailers across the country have experienced a 54 percent increase in online sales. This shows the value shoppers place on convenience and accessibility — the only missing factor from online shopping is the immediacy of a physical store. As a result, 51 percent of global retailers now offer same-day shipping to available areas, and 65 percent plan to offer same-day delivery services within a year. These factors, combined with the expectations of a “next normal,” will require fulfillment centers to be positioned close to customers to ensure timely deliveries. And finding a well-equipped, centrally located space can be a challenge. Luckily for investors, the Cincinnati market is emerging as a destination for warehouse and fulfillment centers. Cincinnati is nationally recognized for its accessibility to major markets, talented workforce and plentiful intermodal properties. Because of these reasons, major retailers like Wayfair and Hayneedle are dominating the market, making larger footprints harder to come by. Here …

August 20, 2020

Market Reports Michigan Midwest Midwest Market Reports Office

Can America’s Comeback City Get off the Mat Again? Yes — But Uncertainty Reigns

by Kristin Harlow August 13, 2020

By Garrett Keais In my 25 years in commercial real estate, I’ve never seen the economy — and our industry — come to a standstill the way it did this spring after the coronavirus hit. With so much uncertainty in the market, Detroit’s office sales and leasing activity slowed considerably. But as the last decade has shown us, if ever there was a city that could take a punch and get back up swinging, it’s Detroit. Comeback before the virus Fueled by a strong economy and low unemployment, America’s “Comeback City” was posting first-quarter 2020 office vacancy rates as low as 7 percent in one central submarket, according to Cushman & Wakefield research, and seeing rising property values and rents before the coronavirus hit. It was a striking change from a decade earlier, when the Detroit area was struggling after the Great Recession. Unemployment was 3.7 percent in February 2020, compared with 17.2 percent in June 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The city’s GDP had climbed steadily over those years. Tech giants like Quicken, Google, Twitter, Microsoft and Amazon moved to the city’s central business district, boosting downtown office occupancy and helping to diversify the local …

August 13, 2020

Illinois Industrial Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports

Pandemic Shines Light on Lack of Cold Storage Space

by Kristin Harlow August 6, 2020

By Brian Niven As we begin to reopen most parts of our society following the COVID-19 pandemic that devastated our country and economy earlier this year, many in the commercial real estate industry are beginning to take stock of the massive shifts it may have put into motion. While the pandemic has decimated many sectors — shuttering retail shops, leaving offices empty and setting off an exodus of urban apartment dwellers — prospects for industrial properties have remained strong. Demand for warehouses of all kinds has been soaring in recent years, largely on the back of the growing e-commerce industry, and the sidelining of brick-and-mortar stores has only strengthened those tailwinds. However, that does not mean that the sector will not face challenges in the years to come. While most of the country’s core markets have a healthy pipeline of dry warehouse development that will help meet demand from users, the same cannot be said for an increasingly essential part of our supply chain — cold storage facilities. Vacancy for cold storage was already at or near zero across the country, but the pandemic has set off a chain of events that is likely to place significant stress on our …

August 6, 2020

Market Reports Michigan Midwest Midwest Market Reports

Despite Costs, Developers Pursue Rehab Opportunities for Detroit’s Historic Buildings

by Kristin Harlow July 30, 2020

By Steven Phillip Siegel Mies van der Rohe. Yamasaki. Kamper. Kahn. Portman. Gyllis. Some of the biggest architects in the world have a presence in Detroit. Motown’s exceptional confluence of architects and designers earned the city a UNESCO City of Design designation, the only city in the United States to receive the UN’s award for design excellence. However, beginning in the early 1970s, many of the city’s finest architectural works slowly sank under a weakening market amid tenant (and residential) flight to the suburbs. In the aftermath of the Great Recession, developers, led by Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock, began slowly redeveloping Detroit’s architectural gems. Historic properties like downtown’s David Stott Building or New Center’s Fisher Building saw massive capital investments in recent years. Yet, many city residents and tenants find it hard to comprehend why rents on these new projects are so much higher than the rest of the market. The narrative of Detroit’s architectural gems — and the financial Jenga it takes to make them succeed — tells the story of the city’s modern-day renaissance. “To us, it’s a passion project,” says Brett Yuhsaz, Bedrock’s director of construction, who has worked on some of the city’s most notable historic rehabs, …

July 30, 2020

Healthcare Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports

COVID-19 Interruptions Are Largely Short Term for Medical Office Sales

by Kristin Harlow July 9, 2020

By Mike Wilson, Principal, Avison Young As the commercial real estate industry shifts toward a new normal, there are several changes occurring in the medical office sector. This asset class has long been considered a safe haven, even in recessionary times, given its ties to the healthcare system and overall population growth. The onset of COVID-19 and the subsequent stay-at-home orders in many states have created challenges that also touch the medical office sector, although not nearly as deeply as other asset classes. One shift occurring is a varying level of activity among medical office tenants, depending upon whether their services are deemed essential or nonessential. Tenants in essential buildings, particularly those tied to large healthcare systems, are still seeing patient throughput activity as healthcare needs remain. Some elective surgery centers and outpatient testing facilities, however, have seen a temporary pause as medical professionals retrenched due to the state closures. Landlords in turn have had to manage rent relief requests from tenants. These changes are considered short-term and are not expected to have long-term effects on tenant activity or property investment levels. The medical office sector continues to draw the attention of a wide range of investors, due to its …

July 9, 2020

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