Market Reports

Lenders and borrowers alike have come to recognize some fundamental truths of the retail financing market in the e-commerce era: Most big box users need to right-size their store footprints and prototypes; new construction in urban settings needs food and entertainment components; and friendly loan terms are increasingly predicated on the sponsor’s track record. In Texas, direct lenders of all types have remained active in the retail arena, with certain capital sources aligning themselves with specific sub-types of the asset class. For example, CMBS lenders often focus on stabilized properties with cash flow concerns, whereas regional banks might be better bets for new construction or redevelopment deals in high-growth markets. Properties distressed by tenant turnover or rent roll uncertainty can appeal to debt funds, and life companies seem to have a soft spot for grocery-anchored product. “The biggest point of optimism for the property type in 2019 lies in the fact that lenders are still lending on retail,” says Chad Owens, vice president in NorthMarq Capital’s Houston office. “Specifically among smaller life insurance companies, CMBS lenders and banks, retail is still a big part of their businesses.” Owens says that in Texas and beyond, there is ample capital available for …

Twenty years ago, if you were to make the 100-mile drive along Interstate 5 from Los Angeles to San Diego, you’d be driving through crop fields, ranchlands and vast tracts of undeveloped land. Today, that same corridor in southern California is defined by commercial and residential development, so much so that it’s hard to tell where one city ends and another one begins. In recent years, California has become a feeder of the growing Texas population as businesses and households alike seek the tax benefits of relocating from the West Coast to Texas. Central Texas has been the landing spot for many of those firms and families as well. Consequently, the region’s overall population growth is laying the groundwork for a similar type of transformation along the Interstate 35 corridor connecting Austin and San Antonio. While retail normally follows rooftops, in Central Texas we see retail developers and investors — as well as their counterparts in the industrial space — targeting these markets in advance of the residential building boom that they feel is sure to come. In addition, the remarkable population growth of both of the corridor’s anchoring cities has cemented its role as a rising star in terms …

In cities around the country, growing numbers of developers are prioritizing the inclusion of local and independent boutique retail tenants in centers with more recognizable national chains. At a time when the retail industry is undergoing some profound changes, it should not be surprising that we have seen a correspondingly significant shift in conventional wisdom about how to build a tenant roster. That shift is especially evident in adaptive reuse projects, and in retail and mixed-use developments located in more urban areas. Consequently, we have some great real estate in the country being occupied by largely unproven brands and businesses. These local or up-and-coming retailers may not have extensive backgrounds or long and proven sales histories, but they do have the exclusive, authentic feel that developers — and communities — are looking for. Projects like Heights Mercantile, a low-rise urban market district in Houston’s Heights neighborhood, are thriving through tenant rosters populated largely with chic and exclusive independent brands. Even the small handful of national names at Heights Mercantile — Lululemon Athletica, Warby Parker, Marine Layer Inc. — are either exclusive to the region or have the kind of “cool” factor consumers are drawn to. There are a number of …