Large-Format Retailers Find Turnkey Spaces, Expansion Opportunities in Northern New Jersey

By Taylor Williams Demand for retail and restaurant space in Northern New Jersey has long been buoyed by spillover tenants that find themselves priced out of premium spaces in New York City. Yet despite the fact that retail rents throughout the city have been depressed for the last 18 months, users have not flocked to Manhattan and Brooklyn at the expense of the fringe markets of Northern New Jersey. In fact, brokers in the latter region see a healthy level of demand from a wide range of …

December 21, 2021Market Reports, New Jersey, Northeast, Northeast Market Reports, Restaurant, Retail

Food & Beverage Leads New York City’s Retail Comeback

By Taylor Williams The fervent desire that many Americans have to make up for lost eating, drinking and socializing time has New York City’s food and beverage (F&B) market roaring back to life, prompting tenants to revisit growth plans, landlords to aggressively market their spaces and the brokers who represent the two sides to sharpen their pencils. In mid-August, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that residents wishing to eat or drink inside a restaurant or bar would have …

December 16, 2021Market Reports, New York, Northeast, Northeast Market Reports, Restaurant, Retail

Affordable Housing Lenders, Investors in New York City Face Underwriting Challenges

By Taylor Williams For lenders and investors in New York City’s affordable housing market, accurately underwriting rent growth, operating costs and long-term asset appreciation can be a tricky proposition in today’s economic environment. To be fair, buyers and financiers of affordable housing properties in many U.S. markets are being forced to adjust and recalculate their metrics due to forces they can’t control. Yet macroeconomic factors like rising inflation, which puts heavy …

November 2, 2021Affordable Housing, Market Reports, Multifamily, New York, Northeast, Northeast Market Reports

Philadelphia’s Growing Demand for Industrial Space: Is There an End in Sight?

By Richard Gorodesky, SIOR, senior managing director, Colliers International; and Adam Gorodesky, associate, Colliers InternationalCommercial real estate is historically a cyclical business. There is a fairly predictable pattern of oversupply, recession, recovery and finally expansion before starting all over again. While the cycle isn’t always this cleanly defined, it generally follows this pattern, and has done so for decades.While this formula can be very useful for understanding …

October 15, 2021Industrial, Market Reports, Northeast, Northeast Market Reports, Pennsylvania

Downtown Philly Retailers, Restaurants Wait Out Delta Variant

By Taylor Williams Relative to a year ago, life is much better right now for many retailers and restaurants in Philadelphia’s Center City district, but the recent surge of transmission of the Delta variant is keeping a key ingredient of the demand recipe at bay: office users. According to CBRE’s second-quarter report on the Philadelphia office market, the most current data available at the time of this writing, the marketwide vacancy rate was 18.9 percent at the end of that period. …

October 8, 2021Market Reports, Northeast, Northeast Market Reports, Pennsylvania, Restaurant, Retail

The Open-Air Advantage: Flexibility, Diversity and Adaptability Drive Sustained Appeal

By Matthew Harding, CEO, Levin Management Corp.Serving as one-stop destinations to meet consumers’ daily needs, open-air shopping centers — especially those with grocery anchors — have long been a fan favorite of shoppers, tenants and investors. Over the past 18 months, this asset class has again proven its ability to adapt and serve in any market climate — and under the most challenging of circumstances. Operational Flexibility Is KeyBy their nature, neighborhood, …

September 13, 2021Market Reports, Northeast, Northeast Market Reports, Retail

How New York City Construction Firms Can Position Themselves for Leadership Transitions

By Phil Ross, CPA, accounting & audit partner, Anchin, Block & Anchin LLPAfter nearly 15 months of shutdowns and restrictions, New York City has taken a major step forward. Seventy percent of the city's residents are now vaccinated, and restrictions significantly reduced across the area’s commercial spaces, from offices and retail to dining and hospitality.Mask mandates have been lifted and the hum of the metro area’s business districts is growing loud again. With an …

August 25, 2021Market Reports, Northeast, Northeast Market Reports

How Multifamily Owners Can Cater to the Northeast’s Growing Base of Life Sciences Renters

By Justin Wybenga, vice president of asset services, GMH CommunitiesEvery day, we see the world constantly changing. Whether it’s advancements in technology, culture, arts or sciences, there are many things to look forward to as life and business return to normal.One sector of commercial real estate that continues to experience breakthroughs is life sciences. Case in point: Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYC Economic Development Corp. announced that the organization would double its …

August 17, 2021Healthcare, Life Sciences, Market Reports, Multifamily, Northeast, Northeast Market Reports, Office

Commercial Borrowers in the Northeast Benefit from Elevated Liquidity

By Taylor Williams After months of disruption and uncertainty, commercial lenders throughout the country and the Northeast are eager to deploy funds, creating an environment in which borrowers are somewhat insulated from economic and geopolitical forces that threaten to derail the recovery. With interest rates still at historic lows and investors of all types looking to recoup returns unexpectedly lost to COVID-19, there is tremendous liquidity in the market. There’s also the simple fact …

August 13, 2021Market Reports, Northeast, Northeast Market Reports

Low Interest Rates Spearhead Uptick in Retail Investment Throughout Boston

By Taylor Williams The business of trading retail properties is booming across the greater Boston area, and the combination of cheap capital, a desire to recoup lost business and potential changes in tax law are prompting buyers and sellers alike to transact at a frenetic pace. As is often the case in times of robust investment sales activity, low interest rates are the straw that stirs the drink. At its latest meeting in June, the Federal Reserve opted to hold the federal funds rate — the …

August 6, 2021Life Sciences, Market Reports, Massachusetts, Northeast, Northeast Market Reports, Retail