Tuesday, January 7, 2025
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Market ReportsMarylandMultifamilySoutheastSoutheast Market Reports

Why Multifamily Investors Need to Take a Deeper Dive Into Charm City

by John Nelson

By Christine Espenshade of Newmark Baltimore is an often-overlooked gem of a city along the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C., and New York City. This waterfront town is home to two major sports teams, a world-class symphony and art museums that rival those in the best cities around the world.  Baltimore is more often referenced as the location for various crime TV shows rather than being known as home to two of the top medical facilities in the world — Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of Maryland Medical System — Johns Hopkins University, and headquarters for famous companies such as Under Armour, T. Rowe Price and McCormick Spices.  The multifamily market in Baltimore is also often overlooked by investors in favor of larger cities. However, to spur the development of top-quality rental products, Baltimore City and Baltimore County offer lucrative property tax abatements for new developments.  The region continually sees consistent population growth due to the “eds and meds” nature of the economy, and the lower cost of living when compared to D.C. or Philadelphia attracts a well-educated workforce looking to enjoy the live-work-play lifestyle. The popularity of Baltimore for employers and employees is evident when considering the 35,000 …

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CaliforniaIndustrialMarket ReportsWesternWestern Market Reports

State of the Industrial Real Estate Marketplace in Northern California

by Jeff Shaw

— By Edward F. Del Beccaro, Executive Vice President, TRI Commercial — The major Northern California industrial markets contain a total of more than 860 million square feet of industrial buildings. The San Francisco Bay Area, North Bay, Silicon Valley, Sacramento and Central Valley have all experienced a falloff in tenant demand from 2021 to 2022 pandemic highs. Most markets experienced negative absorption in fourth-quarter 2023, including sublease space coming on the market that resulted in rents either plateauing or decreasing.  Nevertheless, the outlook is still positive based on the various economic drivers pushing the market. For instance, manufacturers are benefitting from onshoring, with a projected 40 percent reduction in sourced material from China, per a recent report from Alix Partners. In addition, declining interest rates and continuing inflation will cause institutional money to flow into the industrial sector versus the office sector, according to a March 2024 ProLogis report. Below are various industrial submarket reviews: In the Oakland/East Bay Industrial I-80/880 Corridor, year-end 2023 experienced a slowdown in demand due to new construction and existing space becoming available. More than 10.2 million square feet is available, reflecting negative absorption of more than 778,000 square feet last year. The Port …

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Market ReportsMidwestMidwest Market ReportsNebraskaOffice

Omaha’s Office Market Continues to Buck National Trends

by Kristin Harlow

By Kristi Andersen and Melissa Torrez, CBRE The office market remains one of the most uncertain commercial real estate sectors across the country. Facing declining asset values, rising interest rates and the increase of remote and hybrid work, many of the nation’s office markets are struggling.  Key indicators that typically track the health of the market include net absorption, rental rates and vacancy rates. Not surprisingly, given the recent challenges, net absorption of office space nationwide is currently negative, rents have gone down and vacancy is high. However, Omaha continues to buck those trends. A solid, steady economy The midwestern city boasts a diverse economy with agriculture, food processing, insurance, transportation, healthcare and education all being leading drivers. Warren Buffett calls Omaha home, as do several Fortune 500 corporations such as Berkshire Hathaway, Union Pacific Railroad, Mutual of Omaha and Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc.  The Omaha economy consistently outperforms other metro areas, particularly during economic downturns. In December, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released 2022 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data for counties and metropolitan areas. Douglas County, the most populous county in Nebraska, had the highest annual GDP growth at 9.2 percent for U.S. counties with populations greater than …

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CaliforniaIndustrialMarket ReportsWesternWestern Market Reports

Greater LA’s Industrial Market Shows Resilience in a Changing Landscape

by Jeff Shaw

— By Robert Peddicord, Executive Managing Director, CBRE South Bay — The Greater Los Angeles (GLA) industrial market is showing stability while enduring challenges like higher vacancy rates, negative absorption and an anticipated decrease in lease rates. Markets across the country continue to adjust post-pandemic, and GLA is no exception. Nevertheless, the GLA industrial market is poised for long-term resilience, thanks, in part, to its proximity to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, while LA’s large population base drives the need for warehousing.  San Pedro Bay Ports The GLA industrial market continues to rely on the San Pedro Bay ports, the two largest ports by volume in the U.S. Although there has been an average decrease of 1.9 percent in cargo volume over the past five years, the San Pedro Bay terminal operators and dockworkers moved 16.6 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in 2023, outpacing the TEUs moved at other ports.  Disruptions from the Suez and Panama canals may divert more U.S.-bound cargo ships from Asia to West Coast ports. The West Coast benefits from lower shipping container costs, with about a 40 percent discount shipping to the West Coast compared to the East Coast. U.S. importers, shippers …

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Market ReportsMarylandMixed-UseRetailSoutheastSoutheast Market Reports

Adaptive Reuse Projects, Value-Oriented Concepts Star in Baltimore’s Retail Story

by John Nelson

Mirroring sentiments expressed at the year-end ICSC conference in New York City, with the national vacancy rate hovering around 5 percent and new concepts anxious to take a foothold in the area, there continues to be tremendous optimism for the retail sector in the greater Baltimore metropolitan region.  Although ground-up development projects remain rare locally, several high-profile adaptive projects are in the works that are placing smiles on brokers’ faces because they have something to lease. Value-oriented retailers, together with quick-service restaurant (QSR) concepts, are showing the most activity.  Adaptive reuse The redevelopment of the iconic Harborplace festival marketplace (more on that later) is grabbing all the headlines in Charm City, but the adaptive reuse of Baltimore’s Penn Station — the epitome of a transit-oriented development and the renovation of a historic industrial building at Riverside in South Baltimore — are happening now.  Beatty Development Group and Cross Street Partners are partnering with Amtrak to transform the train station originally developed in 1911 into a mixed-use project combining 1 million square feet of commercial office, retail and residential space. Destination retail and restaurants are a central core of the program. Urban Pastoral and The Wilhide Family are transforming the 135-year-old …

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Market ReportsOfficeUtahWesternWestern Market Reports

As the Global Office Landscape Changes, Salt Lake City Responds with Resilience

by Jeff Shaw

— By Nadia Letey, senior vice president, CBRE — The global office landscape has markedly changed post-pandemic. Now, amidst economic headwinds and the ongoing stabilization of return-to-office mandates, U.S. office markets like Salt Lake City are undergoing various shifts that are set to shape real estate dynamics in 2024. At the same time, Utah’s economy remains a highly desirable location to do business, in large part bolstered by an exceptionally strong talent pool. What’s Changing: Development Slowdown Poised to Ease Supply Demand Imbalances Salt Lake City saw a 42 percent year-over-year decrease in total office space under construction in fourth-quarter 2023, marking an all-time low. High interest rates, along with record-high vacancies, will continue to deter developers from breaking ground in the near term without significant pre-lease activity. This thinning construction pipeline will likely reduce supply side risks over the next several years as demand can be placed within second-generation space with elevated vacancy. Existing properties — especially in amenity-rich locations — will do well to attract tenants. The emphasis on creating a collaborative and inviting workspace will continue to be important to bring employees into the office.  Projects that are moving from planned to under construction are hedging their risk by …

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Market ReportsMidwestMidwest Market ReportsNebraskaRetail

Tenant Demand, Construction Slowdown Lower Omaha’s Retail Vacancy Rate

by Kristin Harlow

By Mandi Backhaus, The Lerner Co. As we finish out the first quarter of 2024, we reflect on the Omaha retail real estate market with consideration to the internal and external factors of trends, challenges, opportunities and the state of the economy. It can be said that the Omaha metropolitan area remains steadfast throughout difficult times. With its robust and diverse nature, anchored by industries such as healthcare, technology and finance, Omaha, although sometimes called a “flyover city,” remains a hidden gem for those looking for a steady yet vital lifestyle at an attractive cost.  This favorability trickles down to how real estate is valued and utilized in the area. According to a Merrill Lynch article, approximately $84 trillion in assets is set to change hands over the next 20 years, from baby boomers onto their children and so on. While the various generations may invest differently, one constant remains: real estate.  From a national standpoint, the unstable scenario results from a blend of factors, with inflation, interest rates and the collapse of banks in early 2023 being particularly prominent. This perfect storm had left the industry in a precarious position. The Mortgage Bankers Association revealed a 56 percent drop …

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Constellation-Eldridge-Houston
DevelopmentIndustrialMarket ReportsTexasTexas Market Reports

Combination of New, Old Factors Reinforce Appreciation of Industrial Growth Drivers in Texas

by Taylor Williams

The more things change, the more they stay the same. More than 150 years after the old French proverb was coined, industrial real estate professionals in Texas who have a penchant for philosophy may well be seeing its application play out in real time.  While the industrial market has cooled from 2021 and early 2022, when insatiable demand drove record rent growth, there are still enough positive fundamentals within the space to counteract the likes of inflation, interest rate hikes and geopolitical uncertainty during an election year. Against that backdrop, owners and brokers are frequently reminded of how fortunate they are to be doing business in the Lone Star State. Muchos Gracias Job and population growth are the Letterman guests who need no introduction, as they have always driven expansion and value creation in Texas across all sects of commercial real estate.  But as powerful as those drivers are, they’ve been there all along. In recent years, as disruption in debt markets has slowed industrial supply growth and inflation has put pressure on tenants’ costs of occupancy, other macro-level forces have also emerged to buoy the market. Specifically, the impacts of a growing concentration of manufacturing operations in Mexico have …

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Crow-Holdings-Elmwood-Park
IndustrialMarket ReportsNortheastNortheast Market Reports

Industrial Development, Leasing Trend Smaller Throughout Northeast Markets

by Taylor Williams

Sometimes smaller is better.  “Sometimes” is of course the operative term in that controversial and wholly non-salacious statement. But in the context of industrial real estate, it’s becoming increasingly clear that at this point in the cycle, smaller buildings make more sense for developers to deliver as e-commerce and distribution users actively consolidate their footprints.  “Most leases in New Jersey and Pennsylvania over the last 12 months were for less than 500,000 square feet, with 50,000 to 200,000 square feet being the ‘sweet spot,’ for leasing,” says Anthony Amadeo, executive vice president at New Jersey-based developer Woodmont Industrial Partners. “There is strong demand [for that product type], but other developers are now building it too, so we’re going to see some elevated competition in that space.” This activity is occurring across the country in varying degrees. But in markets like New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania, where sites that can support large-scale developments are extremely scarce and entitlement and permitting processes tend to be long and arduous, the trend is perhaps even more pronounced. Yet those longstanding characteristics of the Garden State and Lehigh Valley industrial markets are only partial reasons as to why new developments and deals are effectively downsizing.  …

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AlabamaIndustrialMarket ReportsSoutheastSoutheast Market Reports

Industrial Owners Seek to Find Balance at Their Facilities in Metro Birmingham

by John Nelson

By Henry Graham of Graham & Co. As a reminder to those who may have missed my colleague Sonny Culp’s article from last year, 2021 and 2022 saw the delivery of more than 10 sizable build-to-suits to the Birmingham/Central Alabama region. Such rapid growth in the industrial sector grabbed the attention of larger industrial developers that have generally allowed Birmingham to fly under the radar. Case-in-point, in the years from 2008 through 2016, the greater Birmingham metropolitan area was essentially devoid of any speculative industrial development. Instead, the pipeline of industrial projects was centered around owner-occupied spaces and the occasional build-to-suit related to the automotive sector or light manufacturing. On the tailwinds of the recent build-to-suit frenzy and COVID-fueled supply demands, Birmingham experienced a flurry of speculative activity in 2022 and 2023 as regional and even national developers like Scannell Properties tested the waters alongside Alabama-based industrial developers.   Along a half-mile stretch of Daniel Payne Industrial Boulevard that sits just north of the central business district (CBD) and not far from the intersection of I-65 and I-20/59, four Class A spec buildings came up in rapid succession totaling 737,000 square feet. Two of those buildings are now fully leased …

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