The old adage that every cloud has a silver lining holds true for the St. Louis industrial market. After posting positive absorption during every quarter of the current recession, the industrial market got cloudier when Chrysler shuttered its St. Louis plants during the early part of the third quarter. That placed more than 5.1 million square feet of space on the market and boosted the vacancy rate a couple points. The auto industry’s woes trickled down to a number of Chrysler’s suppliers as well. Another 2.1 million square feet of auto supplier buildings also became available. So where’s the silver lining? Actually, there are several. For starters, Chrysler’s plants and its suppliers are primarily located in the South County submarket. Historically, South County has been one of the area’s strongholds for industrial, with a vacancy rate of only 4.2 percent at the end of the second quarter. The availability of space now opens opportunities for large and small users. A number of companies have already taken advantage of these opportunities. Colt Industries, the area’s distributor for Corian countertops, purchased a nearly 100,000-square-foot building formerly occupied by Dakkota Integrated Systems, which supplied vehicle interiors. An aerosol can supplier has signed a …
Midwest Market Reports
Several factors have contributed to the softness in the St. Louis apartment market and are expected to continue to present operational challenges in the near term. A spike in construction has been met with the weak demand caused by the slumping labor market. In fact, demand for rental housing contracted 2.2 percent year over year in the third quarter — the largest decline in more than 20 years — and will likely fall until payrolls begin to expand. As a result, owners have increased concessions to roughly 26 days of free rent. With vacancy on track to rise further this year, concessions will remain elevated, particularly in the Maryland Heights/Northwest County submarket. Area operators are currently offering renters nearly 40 days of free rent, the most of any submarket in the metro area. Nonetheless, many residents are opting to relocate out of the area and into St. Charles to capture lower rents or into Clayton to be near the metro’s healthiest employment corridors. As such, owners in the Clayton/Mid-County submarket have kept concessions relatively flat during the past 12 months. Turning to investment sales, transaction velocity has slowed in the St. Louis market due primarily to reduced pricing and increased …
Chicago, the nation’s third-largest metropolitan area, is known as a legendary shopping destination. Occupying a glamorous stretch along Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, the Magnificent Mile is lined with fabulous shops, exciting sightseeing activities, restaurants, luxury hotels and even flagship boutiques for some of the world’s most luxurious brands. But the Windy City, like most of the nation, remains mired in a depressed real estate market and faces the worst slump in retailing growth in at least a decade. Vacancies across the Chicagoland market have increased and are currently hovering between 10 and 12 percent. But because the city is so large, there are varying degrees to which areas are affected. The outlying suburbs, where clusters of homes sprouted from farm fields just as the recession began, seem to be faring worse than the downtown area and the more densely populated suburbs. Retailers are taking advantage of the current conditions and many are leaving the “green,” suburban areas and repositioning within the city or upgrading their locations if they already have an urban presence. In the city proper, a massive new Barneys New York emporium opened its doors earlier this year. The 90,000-square-foot store occupies a new six-story building on the corner …
The hottest trend is to simply not develop! This holds true for all types of speculative development and is currently the case for build-to-suits. There is just nothing being built. Contemplated projects are more complex than ever. To get a development out of the ground, it now takes a true partnership between the user, developer, broker and lender. Having all the parties at the table to structure the deal is key to success in this environment. Four speculative projects, totaling approximately 1.45 million square feet, have been built since third quarter 2008 — the projects are currently 5.3 percent occupied. Facilities recently built include the 533,520-square-foot Allpoints Midwest Building 2 built by Duke and Browning in Plainfield; two buildings built by Browning in Mt. Comfort — a 423,000-square-foot modern bulk facility and a 250,000-square-foot hybrid-bulk facility; and Precedent’s 245,041-square-foot building, which is also in Mt. Comfort. These projects added 2.5 percent to the vacancy in the modern bulk product type. The above projects are located within the southwest and east submarkets of Indianapolis and situated along the Interstate 70 corridor, which is the jugular vein for commodities flow. Browning is the most active developer and is involved in three of …
Chicago’s downtown and suburban office markets continue their dynamic path through an unpredictable and unprecedented economic environment. Although no one can predict the future, it is difficult to argue with the opportunities of a tenant in the current market. New supply in Chicagoland has increased by 3.9 million square feet in the past 2 years. Historically, new space is absorbed quickly; however, 2009 met this new supply with a different embrace than before. Space demand has not been as robust, and positive absorption enjoyed in the years past has decreased. This excess space, coupled with added sublease space, is contributing to Chicago’s pain. Given the tumultuous economy, the sublease market (both CBD and suburban) soared to 6.5 million square feet in second quarter 2009. The sublease market has become such a force in volume and quality that it competes with direct space, resulting in a downward push of overall effective rates. While tenants stand to reap the benefits of the subleases available, current market dynamics reveal the risks associated with leasing and subleasing space. A tenant’s credit has never been scrutinized more closely. Furthermore, the credit of the landlord/sub-landlord and tenant/sub-tenant is a major concern. A Subordination Non-Disturbance & Attornment …
Caution is the course that many industrial tenants are pursuing in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, especially when it comes to leasing or acquiring new space. This is partly to do with being prudent and partly to do with firms' continued inability to dislodge money from the frozen capital markets. “More so than I have ever seen in the market, companies are very reluctant to consider relocating,” says Bill Ritter, senior vice president of Welsh Companies. “Any company that has the ability to consolidate or renew is looking at that versus the cost associated with physical relocation.” For those that are in the market for space, Ritter has optimistic news. “I have never seen a better time to be a tenant in over 25 years of experience leasing and selling industrial real estate,” he says. Ritter goes on to say that a unique trend is developing in which landlords are trying to get their tenants to renew 12 to 18 months before the end of their lease terms, and they are willing to rewrite the current rental agreement — with discounted rates — if the tenant agrees. “Sure, the landlord is giving something up, but if that …
Few parts of the country have been harder hit than Detroit in the current recession. While it appears at first glance that the industrial sector has had it worse, the office sector has felt the pinch as well. Vacancies and downsizing are seen at the office buildings occupied by third-party vendors, advertisers, lawyers and accountants related to the auto industry. “There is a large trickle-down effect in just about every segment of the office market,” says Fred Klugman, president of Detroit-based Klugman Commercial. Office vacancies continue to creep up in the Detroit office market, but new leases are hard to come by. “There just have not been that many tenants in the market to fill up all the vacant space that is available,” Klugman says. “What’s happening is there are not many new tenants in the market, and most of the existing tenants’ landlords are able to retain them by offering aggressive deals. So, you’re not seeing a bunch of movement.” Landlords have not given up, though. As a way to persuade tenants to sign at their properties, many landlords are offering bigger and bigger concessions in the form of lower rental rates and increasing amounts of free rent. This …
While the Wichita industrial market may lack the size of its neighbor to the east — Kansas City — it still has a strong and relatively stable presence. Wichita is driven by the aviation industry, and several major aircraft manufacturers and suppliers call the city home. Overall, Wichita has traditionally been an owner-use market with some leasing from larger national companies. With the credit markets dried up and a construction pipeline that has never been that large to begin with, most activity in Wichita lately has been leasing. “January through April, leasing activity was pretty slim, but we are starting to see a lot more inquiries; there are a lot more people in the market looking to relocate, mostly to keep their rents the same in a newer facility,” says Bradley Tidemann, an associate with locally based J.P. Weigand & Sons. Some notable transactions include Weckworth Manufacturing’s purchase of a 100,000-square-foot facility south of the city in Haysville. The owner-user had previously been leasing. In addition, a 50,000-square-foot office and flex warehouse deal is expected to close this month to a local owner-user. On the leasing side, Associated Materials has relocated from a 12,000-square-foot facility to a 35,000-square-foot facility. Additionally, …
Despite a lack of sales or new construction projects, the Milwaukee office market has maintained a steady level of activity this year. “We’re busier this year than we were last year. Whether it’s productive for the economy is debatable, but it is productive for brokers,” says Bill Bonifas, executive vice president with CB Richard Ellis’ Milwaukee office. Many of the deals Bonifas and other brokers in the city are working on are blend and extend deals, in which the landlord renews a tenant early and for a longer term in exchange for concessions, usually consisting of free or discounted rent. “Right now, the psychology is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so the smart owners are doing what they have to do to complete deals and keep their existing tenants,” Bonifas says. Tenants in Milwaukee are happy to sign these deals, since it provides them with savings today. Landlords are also content because they have tenants secured in their properties, which helps keep the asset stable and puts the landlord in a better position to refinance the property. The landlord may be giving up some rent, but the tradeoff is worth it. “It looks like …
The Kansas City apartment market continues to hold its own despite economic challenges and uncertainties. While occupancy and rental rates have remained steady, development has been tempered by a tight lending environment. The pace of planned construction has slowed dramatically as a result of market fundamentals. The first half of 2009 showed the lowest level of permits, a mere 78, in the past 20 years. The lack of liquidity and tougher underwriting standards are halting development. The uncertainty in asset values plays a part in this as well as lenders underwriting deals more conservatively. As a result, banks are requiring developers to contribute a greater amount of equity, thus decreasing project risk for both parties Market fundamentals have remained steady. Rents are averaging $0.79 per square foot, unchanged from the start of the year. Rates vary widely from $1.14 per square foot at the Country Club Plaza, which has 95 percent occupancy, to as low as $0.64 per square foot for Class C apartments in the Northland submarket. These rates, though, are offset by concessions. At the end of June, nearly three-fourths of the area’s multifamily properties offered concessions, up noticeably from the 56 percent that used concessions to attract …