Milwaukee has experienced development at an unbelievable rate, and within the past couple of years there has truly been a downtown renaissance worth bearing witness. The city has done an excellent job of creating value, attracting jobs and spurring development that has led to unprecedented economic and social revitalization. With both local and national headlines praising Foxconn, Amazon, Northwestern Mutual and the Milwaukee Bucks, it is no wonder things have changed. While Milwaukee continues its quest to establish itself as the Great Lakes capital, the changes happening to its culture are what appear to have everyone on their feet. Between the East Side, downtown, Historic Third Ward, Walker’s Point and Bay View, there are so many cool concepts coming online, each of which showcases the unique character of the area it serves. From the Bucks Entertainment District to Zocalo food truck park (Phelan Development), there is something different in just about every corner. It comes as no surprise much of the action is coming from the food and beverage segment, as Milwaukee is after all “Brew City.” One of these concepts is Crossroads Collective. Crossroads is the brainchild of developer Tim Gohkman with New Land Enterprises. The food hall took …
Market Reports
Georgia’s secondary and tertiary multifamily markets continue to demonstrate growing attraction as capital flows from investors leaving the Atlanta metro area in search of higher yield transactions. The greater Georgia market, which spans the state excluding the 29-county Atlanta metro area, has become a destination for investment due to growing capital inflows to the Southeast and cap rate compression in metro Atlanta. Multifamily transaction volume in the Southeast totaled $11.8 billion in second-quarter 2019, up 25 percent year-over-year, allowing more capital to enter Georgia’s secondary and tertiary markets. The trickle-down effect of investment into these markets, boosted by strong job growth and increasing renter households, works to promote a strong renter marketplace with increasing returns in the region. Georgia markets demonstrated tightening fundamentals and noticeable rent gains in recent years, particularly south of Atlanta, due to supply-side pressure and limited new deliveries. According to CoStar Group, metro Atlanta delivered nearly 11,000 units, up 15 percent year-over-year through the second quarter, while Georgia’s secondary and tertiary markets delivered roughly 2,200 in total, down 40 percent. Greater Georgia’s lack of supply has generated pent-up demand in multifamily, resulting in residents who are willing to pay more for higher value assets while landlords …
Home of the Louisville Slugger and Muhammad Ali, sports is engrained in the identity of Louisville. Derby City continues to make a big push to bring in an NBA team, but a different professional team is already in town. Louisville City FC, also known as LouCity, is Louisville’s professional soccer team. The club is not only a two-time champion of the USL, the team is now in the process of building a new $65 million stadium with seating for more than 13,000 spectators. Dubbed Lynn Family Stadium, the new arena will be the centerpiece of a 40-acre, $200 million mixed-use development in Louisville’s Butchertown neighborhood. Construction of the stadium is on schedule and should open for the 2020 season. The stadium will have amazing views, including the skyline of downtown Louisville and the waterfront area overlooking the Ohio River. The project should spur other retail, housing and offices to be constructed to revitalize Butchertown. Additional sports/entertainment is moving into Louisville’s malls as anchors. The vacant Sears location at Oxmoor Mall in the St. Matthews area will have Topgolf as a new anchor tenant. Topgolf has been working to come to Louisville for 18 months and was recently granted the approvals …
Between 2014 and 2016, the Houston multifamily market struggled with an issue of oversupply as a result of accelerated apartment construction. When Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017, Houston residents displaced by the storm produced a surge in apartment demand that helped fill thousands of empty units over the ensuing 12 months. Fast forward to 2019, and two key factors are keeping a strong apartment pipeline flowing and forcing developers to play catch-up: new residents and more jobs. Over the past two years, demand has outpaced deliveries, a welcome sign for investors following the 2014-2016 era. More than 20,000 units came on line in 2016 alone and caused absorption to lag. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, steady increases in population have Houston competing with Chicago for the title of third-most populous city in the country. This demographic trend, coupled with the city’s strong labor market, has created a setting wherein capital keeps trying to find its way into the Bayou City. Underpinning the need for more housing product was the 94,000-plus new residents added during the last year, which ranked Houston’s net migration in the top three of U.S. metros. Given the rise in demand stemming from jobs and in-migration, …
Employers throughout Orange County continue to seek ways to attract and retain the best and brightest talent as unemployment dropped to 2.4 percent in the second quarter, below both the California and U.S. rates. That, in turn, has resulted in landlords reinvesting in their properties, providing creative and flexible work spaces, and offering a variety of onsite amenities and service that help companies fulfill that goal. Landlords continue to seek out creative competitive advantages by improving the actual employee experience within the workplace. This often results in amenities like gyms, fitness classes, outdoor work areas, restaurants and collaborative open spaces. Add to that complimentary concierge and personal services, dog-friendly campuses, onsite hosted events and entertainment opportunities and it’s evident to see that property owners are stepping up their tenant services game, thereby enhancing employee innovation and productivity in the workplace. With all that in mind, three new office projects completed construction in the second quarter. FLIGHT at Tustin Legacy added 457,217 square feet of unique, creative office space with 26 percent already pre-leased. The major warehouse-to-office conversion project at 2722 Michelson was delivered fully leased to Anduril, an aerospace defense firm, which subsequently subleased 47,733 square feet to advertising technology …
Despite the headwinds facing retail real estate, including the continued rise of ecommerce, the Orange County retail market remains resilient. Statistics are favorable. Vacancy is low at 3.7 percent and average market rent is $32.29 per square foot, up 1.15 percent from last year. Cap rates remain nearly 200 basis points below the national average, signaling buyer sentiment that OC retail is a relatively safe haven. Ground-up development is slow and selective, shoring up demand and keeping rates up for the foreseeable future. The interesting thing is that the market trends are pervasive. Let’s identify a few. Drive-thru restaurants are on fire. Tenants like Chick Fil-A, Raising Cane’s, Starbucks, In-N-Out, Panera and others are performing much higher in SoCal as compared to the rest of the country. Good sites are commanding competition, driving ground rents and drive-thru build-to-suit rents higher each of the past three years. Fitness, grocery, discount and entertainment uses are the most active players in the box category. It’s amazing to think the 1.5 million square feet of big boxes that were dumped on the market in 2017 and 2018 are now mostly accounted for thanks to these new users. EOS Fitness, Planet Fitness, ALDI, Burlington, At …
Elevated consumer spending tied to a strong job market in the greater Houston area is driving retail investment and tenant demand in suburban and urban submarkets alike. As a result, it’s one of the nation’s top MSAs for retail development, with more than 3 million-plus square feet under construction market-wide. From an investment perspective, single-tenant and ground-leased assets remain favorable with investors. E-commerce-resistant tenants like fitness, restaurants, automotive service centers, car washes/detailing and dialysis facilities command the most attention with cap rates between the mid-5 to mid-6 percent range. Cap rates tend to be 25 to 50 basis points lower for ground leases because there is no landlord responsibility. Credit, guarantee, location, lease term and landlord responsibility are the biggest factors affecting value. Following Grand Parkway In greater Houston, the majority of retail development recently has been in high-growth submarkets along the 180-mile Grand Parkway/TX 99, which loops through seven counties. National brands like Target, Ross Dress for Less, T.J. Maxx, Burlington, Ulta Beauty and Five Below are continually scouting sites in high-density suburban markets along the Grand Parkway. The exponential growth in the entertainment, fitness, dining and medical/healthcare sectors is an equally strong catalyst for retail and mixed-use development …
Even in the context of a sustained stretch of national economic growth and a Midwest region where there are plenty of high-performing markets, Minneapolis-St. Paul stands out. The commercial real estate market in and around the Twin Cities is thriving, in large part due to some impressive structural fundamentals. Metrics and measurables The state of Minnesota — especially the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area — has a very diverse base of employment, with a long list of significant Fortune 500 companies, including familiar and even iconic names like Target, Best Buy, 3M, U.S. Bancorp, General Mills, Medtronic, C.H. Robinson and United Health Care. United Health Care alone generated $226 billion in revenue in 2018. The economic and market diversity of the Twin Cities stands in contrast to some other Midwest markets, even some that are experiencing significant growth. The market has also experienced an exciting and ongoing uptick in workforce numbers and population growth, elevating Minneapolis-St. Paul far ahead of U.S. averages for both numbers — surpassing cities like Seattle, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Forbes lists the state of Minnesota as among the nation’s top 10 “Best States for Business.” With 65 percent of the state’s population living in the Minneapolis-St. …
With older, pure-play retail space being repurposed into mixed-use developments and e-commerce-resistant users growing their regional footprints, the Boston retail market is evolving in lockstep with that of the United States. At the same time, new, trendy retailers and restaurant concepts are vying to get their feet in Boston’s door, drawn to the market’s healthy fundamentals and above-average levels of disposable household incomes. The net result of all this activity is a revitalized retail landscape that is defined by rapid absorption and rent growth within quality existing spaces, the repurposing of older spaces into different uses and the rise of mixed-use developments as backdrops for new supply additions. According to World Population Review, Boston, a city spanning some 100 square miles, is the fourth-most densely populated metro area in the country. Fueled by a vibrant education scene that includes more than 20 colleges and universities, as well as the addition of 25,000 new jobs in 2019, the population is growing. These geographic and demographic fundamentals have all but ensured that demand for retail space in Boston is perpetually strong, even during economic downtimes. According Marcus & Millichap, the city proper’s retail vacancy rate currently sits at 3.3 percent, though it …
Louisville continues high occupancy levels throughout the metropolitan area in all apartment types as the market continues to enjoy record-level rent growth and new development. This is enhanced by low unemployment and rising wages throughout the Louisville metropolitan area. The diverse local economy from worldwide distribution at UPS and high-tech manufacturing at Ford Motor Co. and General Electric Appliance Park, as well as innovation in the medical industry, continue to provide high-paying jobs and a highly desirable employment base that can drive occupancy and rents for apartment owners in the Louisville metropolitan area. Integra Realty Resources reports an overall occupancy level of 96 percent for the Louisville metropolitan area, which has seen mid- to high-single-digit rent growth on an annual basis over the last three years. This high occupancy level and rental growth rate have attracted a number of new developments around the metropolitan marketplace. In 2018, there were 2,173 units completed and an additional 898 have been delivered in 2019 as of this writing. Most of the larger scale developments have been completed by regional developers such as Nashville-based Bristol Development and Indianapolis-based Cityscape Residential. Local development companies, such as Denton Floyd, LDG Development, Hagan Development and NTS Development, …