Midwest Market Reports

Strong Demand, Limited Inventory Spur New Construction in West Michigan

by Christina Cannon April 15, 2016

The commercial real estate market in West Michigan was quite active in 2015 across all property sectors, including one massive data center deal that is expected to spur billions of dollars in investment. Both new development and transactions involving existing facilities drove deal volume in 2015. Consequently, vacancy rates dropped while leasing rates generally rose. We expect a high level of commercial real estate activity this year as well. A lack of inventory for existing product will continue to drive new development in 2016. Industrial Strength The industrial market, in particular, has experienced a shortage of quality product to satisfy the demands of distribution companies from across the area. The greater Grand Rapids industrial market consists of approximately 115 million square feet. At the end of 2015, the vacancy rate was 4.1 percent. This marks a significant improvement compared with the depths of the Great Recession when the vacancy rate approached 10 percent. For the first time in years, we are seeing speculative development across all sizes of industrial properties. Lease rates for these speculative buildings are significantly higher than what we have experienced in the recent past due to the relatively high cost of construction. The good news for …

April 15, 2016

Industrial Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Nebraska

Omaha’s Thriving Industrial Market Shows No Signs of Slowing Down

by Christina Cannon April 7, 2016

It is difficult to find one aspect of the Omaha industrial market to highlight when recapping 2015. Quite frankly, about every single facet of the market improved last year: sale prices ticked up, land prices rose, absorption was positive, the vacancy rate was low, asking rental rates climbed, and there was plenty of new construction. There are no signs of this momentum slowing. What is even more telling is the steady trend in the same direction — the market has shown signs of improvement each of the last five years. There have not been one or two transactions skewing the metric. Sales prices of existing industrial property averaged $56 per square foot in 2015, and over 2 million square feet of inventory was sold. This is quite a jump over the average of $47 per square foot in 2014. We believe this uptick in sales prices is due to a number of factors, but most notably a combination of high demand, low inventory of platted industrial lots and high construction costs. Users have been forced to make a choice — build new product or rehab existing buildings. This dilemma has created a bit of an odd and possibly concerning scenario: …

April 7, 2016

Industrial Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Ohio

Speculative Construction Remains Rare Despite Toledo’s Tight Industrial Supply

by Christina Cannon March 31, 2016

The Toledo industrial real estate market continued its steady improvement in the second half of 2015. Tenant demand for space was solid at a time when virtually no new speculative space was added, which led to a shrinking vacancy rate. At the end of 2015, the vacancy rate stood at 6.8 percent, down from 7.2 percent at mid-year and 7.7 percent at the end of 2014. The market absorbed 564,947 square feet in the last half of 2015 on top of the 632,775 square feet absorbed in the first half of the year. With vacancy rates contracting, the overall average asking rental rate in the Toledo industrial market rose 10 cents to $3.14 per square foot between June 2015 and the end of the year. We have commented in prior reports on the dearth of new speculative construction in the region. This trend continues. Only one speculative building has been constructed in the market since well before the Great Recession. That building — a 100,000-square-foot warehouse/distribution building located in Overland Industrial Park in the North Toledo submarket and developed by Harmon Family Properties — was delivered in the second half of 2015. As of December 2015, the building was still …

March 31, 2016

Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Multifamily Wisconsin

Milwaukee Apartment Market on Track to Post Another Strong Year in 2016

by Christina Cannon March 24, 2016

We can expect to see a combination of new and familiar trends in the Milwaukee apartment sector in 2016 that will continue to attract investors to the local apartment market. What makes the start of 2016 different from 2015 is progress toward the normalization of monetary policy. In December, the Federal Reserve Board decided to raise the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point, the first such increase in nearly a decade. The Federal Reserve Board’s widening may have an impact on the short-term rates, but the long-term interest rates that impact real estate values the most are influenced by the yields on the long-term U.S. Treasury bonds. We expect the long-term interest rates to stay low for the foreseeable future. When there is high demand for the Treasury bonds, the price of the bonds increase and the yields decrease, keeping long-term lending rates low. The two factors responsible for driving rates down in early 2016 are the high levels of volatility in stock markets around the globe and the drastic drop in oil prices. The volatility in the stock markets drives global capital to flow into the safe haven of bonds, and specifically the U.S. Treasury bonds, as …

March 24, 2016

Indiana Industrial Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Uncategorized

Why E-Commerce Will Drive Growth of Indianapolis Industrial Market

by Christina Cannon March 10, 2016

The greater Indianapolis industrial market has experienced incredible growth over the past three years, and it continues to be one of the most sought-after industrial markets in the country. Supply and demand is the big story in early 2016. Because shovel-ready land is difficult to find, demand for land alternatives is pushing development further and further away from the beltway while simultaneously causing land prices to escalate. Local communities that figure out how to competitively bring shovel-ready land to the market will reap great rewards. There is strong demand for space across the industrial sector, with second-generation and medium-size distribution space outpacing the other industrial product types. Those seeking smaller, single-tenant buildings under 50,000 square feet are realizing how difficult they are to find. Additionally, the supply of available speculative space in the greater Indianapolis market has been on everyone’s radar for the past two years. Demand for spec space is catching up to the supply as evidenced by several new leases signed since the end of 2015. Currently, there is approximately 2.2 million square feet of industrial product under construction, including 1.4 million square feet of speculative development and 800,000 square feet of build-to-suit construction. Game changer The e-commerce …

March 10, 2016

Industrial Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Wisconsin

Milwaukee Industrial Market Is Primed for New Round of Development

by Christina Cannon February 25, 2016

Metropolitan Milwaukee has experienced a robust industrial real estate market for the past several years. This strength should continue in 2016 and for the foreseeable future. Like many other metro areas, Milwaukee’s industrial sector experienced slow but steady economic growth as it emerged from the Great Recession. However, unlike many other metro areas, Milwaukee has not yet exhibited a strong uptick in new industrial development. Minimal speculative construction has occurred during the past few years. Consequently, while demand for industrial space has continued to increase, supply has remained fairly flat. This phenomenon of increased absorption without a corresponding increase in new product coming to market has driven down the overall vacancy rate to slightly under 5 percent, near a record low, according to Xceligent. Moreover, the new industrial development that has occurred has been primarily driven by users expanding, relocating or consolidating existing facilities, or by new build-to-suit or speculative developments undertaken by Milwaukee-based firms such as Zilber Property Group, Luterbach Properties, Briohn Building and Wangard Partners. Larger regional and national industrial developers such as Centerpoint Properties and First Industrial Realty Trust, which once drove industrial development in Milwaukee, ceased construction in Milwaukee during the Great Recession and have not …

February 25, 2016

Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Ohio Retail

Cincinnati, Dayton Retail Markets Thrive Despite Changing Consumer Preferences

by Christina Cannon February 11, 2016

When talking about the retail sector, the economy has to be part of the conversation. Trends in retail concepts follow consumer behavior. In 2010, when the recovery began, wealthy consumers were the first to return to the marketplace. Not surprisingly, luxury retail concepts followed these wealthy shoppers. To appeal to consumers who were experiencing a slower recovery and to address the concerns of consumers who were still budget-conscious coming out of the downturn, discount retailers and off-price concepts also flooded the market at the same time. These two ends of the spectrum have dominated the retail landscape, leading to challenges for the middle-priced retailers. Despite the acceleration of the economic recovery, these retailers will continue to face challenges as many consumers have maintained a fiscally conservative, or even frugal, mindset. E-Commerce Has Clout The prediction that the advent of the Internet would spell the death of the brick-and-mortar store has not come to fruition. However, e-commerce’s impact on retail is certainly undeniable. Although 75 percent of retail sales still take place in stores, consumers are becoming more educated about products and prices as a result of the Internet. Consumer surveys show that 75 percent of millennials use the Internet to …

February 11, 2016

Hospitality Illinois Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports

Is the Current Bull Run for Chicago’s Hotel Sector Nearing an End?

by Christina Cannon February 4, 2016

The hotel industry has gained momentum over the last few years, with impressive increases in revenue per available room (RevPAR) and a continuing development boom in virtually all major markets across the Midwest and the nation. In the Chicago hotel market, RevPAR increased 7.2 percent in 2014 on a year-over-basis, according to STR Inc., and RevPAR was up 7.7 percent through the first 11 months of 2015. With consumer demand so strong and the development pipeline quite active, it might feel like the challenges of the last recession are long in the past. The reality, however, is that in a cyclical market the next downturn is never too far away. There are some indications that the ride may be slowing down and that the good times the region and the industry have enjoyed in recent years may be coming to an end. Oversupply Concerns While Chicago’s construction pipeline is smaller than a number of other metropolitan areas, it is the Windy City’s most robust development pipeline in recent memory. In aggregate, there will be a 20 percent increase in the room supply over three years. That could easily balloon to 25 percent with projects recently announced. This is very likely …

February 4, 2016

Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri Multifamily

St. Louis Apartment Builders Play Catch-Up

by Christina Cannon January 21, 2016

Strong renter demand in the metro St. Louis apartment market helped boost annual effective rent growth by 3.6 percent in 2015, 200 basis points above the market’s long-term average, according to Axiometrics. An estimated 1,012 apartment units were delivered to the St. Louis market for all of 2015 compared with 2,378 units of absorption during the same period, reports Axiometrics. But with numerous projects in the pipeline, that ratio is likely to change over the next few years, say real estate experts. “We expect supply levels to increase in 2017 and for absorption to begin to struggle to keep up due to slowing job growth,” says Sophie Zatterstrom Gore, analyst with Axiometrics. But 2016 is a different story, she points out. Robust job growth will help absorption outpace new supply by about 600 units in 2016: 1,587 units of absorption versus 990 units of new supply. Such strong demand is giving a strong lift to real estate fundamentals in the local apartment sector. The average effective rent in the third quarter of 2015 was $914, which Axiometrics projects will rise to $948 by the end of 2016. The average vacancy rate is projected to fall from 6.3 percent at the …

January 21, 2016

Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri Retail

IKEA Leads Retail Development in St. Louis

by Christina Cannon January 7, 2016

Without question 2015 was a “great year” for the St. Louis retail market, says Adam Glosier, senior vice president with Colliers International. “New users entered the market and few vacated. The St. Louis retail landscape benefitted from the continued expansion of organic grocers, sporting goods operators, quick service restaurants and soft goods retailers.” At the end of the third quarter, the vacancy rate stood at 7.1 percent, unchanged from the prior quarter but down from 8.2 percent a year earlier, according to CoStar Group. Net absorption totaled 579,206 square feet during the third quarter, bringing the year-to-date total to just under 900,000 square feet. Six new retail buildings were delivered in the third quarter, which collectively brought 612,595 square feet to the market. The gross leasable area (GLA) of the 29 buildings under construction at the end of the third quarter totaled 915,751 square feet. “There was a lot of activity in 2015 in the freestanding and small retailer market, as well as activity from junior anchors,” says Christopher Zoellner, senior vice president of retail with Balke Brown Transwestern. “This has created strong activity and a good pipeline going into 2016.” IKEA Makes ‘Big Splash’ A few retailers opening new …

January 7, 2016

Newer Posts

Older Posts