As job growth supports a healthy economy in Southwest Florida, the region is experiencing major population growth, causing a surge in new Class A multifamily construction. The number of new construction Class A units in Southwest Florida has increased by nearly 150 percent year-over-year. In first-quarter 2018, there were 257 Class A units completed, and in first-quarter 2019, that number rose to 622. With this increased supply of Class A properties, there is now more demand in Class B properties among renters, and ultimately from investors. Class B properties tend to have more affordable rental rates, and investors have now noticed the potential for higher investment returns. Illustrating this demand, in the first quarter of 2018 in Southwest Florida, there were 17 Class B properties sold that totaled nearly $39 million. In first-quarter 2019, the sale volume increased to $68 million with nine properties sold. Also, investors were willing to pay more for these assets if they had a value-add component With Class B vacancies being tight at 4.6 percent, investors are making interior and exterior improvements to properties and gradually raising rental rates to increase their returns. For example, a value-add Class B multifamily property in Fort Myers recently …
Greater Phoenix has re-cast itself in this real estate cycle. It is no longer expected to play the “boom-to-bust” role in the office sector. The metro area has definitely expanded its breadth of industries, reaching beyond homebuilding and professional services to now feature some of the country’s leading insurance corporations, technology companies and medical innovators. This diversification promises to buffer any future fall in nationwide economic activity. Greater Phoenix continues to lead the country in job creation, adding an estimated 66,500 net new jobs between May 2018 and May 2019, marking a 3.2 percent increase. These jobs are coming from companies like Carvana, AllState and WageWorks. Phoenix has benefitted from great exposure from in the national media, which has matriculated to corporate America and attracted broad attention. The Greater Phoenix MSA boasts a phenomenal combination of attractive cost of living, growing wages and an enviable lifestyle. This package of appealing factors has allowed Phoenix to garner more than its fair share of corporate expansions and relocations throughout the Western U.S. Demand has been strong for office space in the area. However, a diminishing availability of quality, speculative space is creating a battle for the tenants. Sizable users wanting signature spaces …
For the year ending in March, multifamily vacancy in the Cleveland metro area tightened to the lowest level since 2016, keeping annual rent growth climbing. Measured supply gains amid increased renter demand over the past four quarters have resulted in steady vacancy and rent improvement. These trends should continue over the next several quarters, holding vacancy below the 5 percent threshold. Favorable apartment operations are capturing investor attention. Demand for apartments is coming from an increase in employment that is allowing more people to move into rentals. Employers added roughly 14,200 positions year over year in May, nearly double the previous year’s growth. Another encouraging sign for Cleveland is that most employment sectors added jobs during this period. The heightened hiring has kept the unemployment rate below 5 percent for the past five months and the rate is down 80 basis points since May 2018. Education and health services is the most dominant employment sector, and the construction segment led employment gains during the past 12 months, staffing more than 5,300 new positions, followed by professional and business services with nearly 4,200 people. New apartment projects contribute to some of the construction jobs. Over the past four quarters, builders added …
On June 14th, the New York State legislature passed a series of stringent rent regulation reforms. The laws damaged property owners’ means of making money by strengthening tenant protections, capping rent increases and keeping units permanently stabilized. A quick Google search will explain the specifics regarding IAIs, J51s, eviction, buyouts, vacancy bonus and decontrol. In short, landlords will face rising taxes, higher water and sewer bills and elevated construction costs with no mechanism to raise rents to outpace or even match these expenses. Gloom was in the air until an auspicious turn of events occurred on June 21st, just one week after the new rent laws passed. A Pennsylvania woman won a momentous victory in the U.S. Supreme Court that opened the doors for property owners to go directly to federal court without going to state court first. The timing was nothing short of incredible. Essentially, the decision paves the way for New York City landlords to get a fast-track hearing by the Supreme Court, which may view the these new rent laws as going too far and violating owners’ constitutional rights. In weeks to follow, property owners spoke with each other and with major law firms to get a …
If you have visited Chattanooga in the past year, it should come as no surprise that you are in fine company. Mayors and Economic Development executives from across the nation have been flocking to the Scenic City. Envious of the Chattanooga success story, they have come to witness firsthand the ongoing transformation that has made Chattanooga one of the most livable, sensational and progressive mid-sized cities in America. The Chattanooga retail market is strong, chiefly due to the overall health and culture of the entire city. River City Co., a longtime successful, private nonprofit led by CEO Kim White, touts itself as the economic development engine for downtown. It reports the cost of living in vibrant downtown Chattanooga is 15.9 percent less than the national average. This has drawn everyone from millennials to retirees to the vibrancy and livability of the city. Tourism in a non-coastal Southern city with fewer than 180,000 residents may seem not even worth pursuing, but Chattanooga hosts more than 3 million annual visitors. Travelers are lured by destinations such as the Tennessee Aquarium, Children’s Discovery Museum and the IMAX. There are also events such as the Ironman; the Head of the Hooch, which is one …
There is a lot of buzz about the dominance of e-commerce and its effects on the industrial market. Columbia has its fair share of retailers with e-commerce distribution facilities as Amazon, The Home Depot and Target all have major distribution centers in the Midlands region of South Carolina. However, retail distribution is not the main driver of this industrial market. The heart and soul of the central South Carolina industrial market is manufacturing. Manufacturing properties make up approximately 35 percent of the 70 million square feet of industrial product in the Columbia metropolitan statistical area. While the balance of space is classified as warehouse/distribution, a large portion of that is used to service manufacturers, pushing the total amount of manufacturing-related space well above 50 percent. Since 2013, the pace of South Carolina’s manufacturing job growth has been four times faster than the national growth rate. This manufacturing renaissance has created demand for Class B multipurpose buildings that have manufacturing infrastructure, such as heavy electric services, cranes, HVAC and support facilities including locker rooms, restrooms, cafeteria and parking to handle larger employee requirements. In the 1970s and 1980s, industrial buildings constructed in central South Carolina were part manufacturing facility and part …
Seattle has always been a strong industrial market, known for its busy ports and, more recently, its position as one of the most successful tech hubs outside of Silicon Valley. As the global economy continues to shift toward the Internet of things (IoT), Seattle industrial space is catapulting into a new category of demand. That growth is spurred on by companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google, which continue to expand their footprints here and generate a growing inflow of technology, population and industrial requirements. The ports of Seattle and Tacoma were ranked among the busiest in the nation at the end of 2018. They collectively processed nearly 3 million TEUs (or 20-foot equivalent shipping container unit) in volume. Year-over-year, Seattle’s TEU has also grown by 27.5 percent, one of the fastest growth rates of all U.S ports. This activity has kept the Puget Sound industrial vacancy rate at 4.9 percent as of the second quarter of 2019. Industrial inventory in close-in areas of South Seattle like the Georgetown submarket has tightened to an even lower 1 percent vacancy rate. Rents, meanwhile, have increased north of $1.20 per square foot as more and more buildings are converted to creative office and …
Notions of Seattle as a grunge-rock town with logging roots are in the rear-view mirror. While Seattle’s past is marked by the 1850s Klondike Gold Rush, 1970s Boeing Bust and 1990s Microsoft Millionaires run, today’s economy is dotted with news of exceptional growth from Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Salesforce. To say that Seattle’s economy is both booming and diversified is an understatement. A benefactor of such continued growth is the regional rental market. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs Ecommerce juggernaut Amazon has assembled 12 million square feet of Class A office space in Downtown Seattle over the past several years. Now, Bellevue — not more than 10 miles from Downtown Seattle — is receiving attention from Amazon with commitments for 2 million square feet. Adding to that, Apple is committing to more than 625,000 square feet of office space; Facebook’s footprint is around 2.7 million square feet; and Salesforce has chosen Seattle as its second global headquarters. Given high wages and more economical for-rent and for-sale office and housing space (on a relative basis), it’s no surprise Seattle still has runway for sustainable economic growth. Development Pipeline Apartment developers seized upon Seattle’s modern day Gold Rush. Developers added 55,000 apartment units …
While there are mass retail closings around the country, in Miami, there is typically someone waiting on space to become available. Think about it: In Miami, there is actually a shortage of retail space. Uber luxury markets in Miami are performing extremely well with Bal Harbour Shops (owned by Whitman Family Development) being one of the top retail complexes in the country, followed closely by Dadeland Mall and Aventura Mall. These malls are continuously reinvented and expanded, adding various entertainment and diverse dining options to their multi-level retail outlets. The Dolphin Mall, a 1.4 million-square-foot mixed-used complex owned by Taubman Cos., continues to be its No. 1 performing mall in the country, with over 240 retail shops, dining and entertainment venues to choose from including Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, Cobb Dolphin 19 Cinema, The Cheesecake Factory, Dave and Buster’s, Texas de Brazil, Bloomingdales The Outlet Store, Neiman Marcus Last Call and Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5th. Miami is cruising There are several factors driving this phenomenon. First, Miami International Airport traffic is setting month-over-month and year-over-year records, according to the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. Traffic in February 2019 was 5.7 percent higher compared to February 2018. Cruise …
“The retail landscape is changing.” How many times have we, industry professionals especially, heard these words over the past several years? But the reality is, it’s true. There have been countless articles, blogs and lectures blitzing us with arguments supporting or arguing against the notion that brick-and-mortar retail is fighting a losing battle against a burgeoning e-commerce industry. As many of us in the industry know, brick-and-mortar stores still hold a 90 percent market share of retail sales. While that number is shrinking, it is shrinking at a slower pace with each passing quarter. So, rather than talking about e-commerce and its potential negative impact on physical stores, I’d prefer to focus on the categories that are thriving, and in many cases benefiting from e-commerce. The fact is that pressures of e-commerce, coupled with changing consumer preferences driven by millennials and Gen Z, have forced retailers to adapt. The Cleveland market is an excellent microcosm of this retail evolution that has swept through the U.S. Here are the most notable retail trends in Cleveland. Health and beauty Perhaps the hottest category in retail right now is health and beauty. In plain terms, Americans today, more than ever, value being healthy …