Market Reports

Miami-Dade County’s Office Market Fueled by Solid Local Economic Fundamentals

by John Nelson June 11, 2018

Driven by population and job growth, Miami-Dade County is one of the strongest and most sought-after commercial real estate markets in the Southeast. As of February 2018, the county’s unemployment rate stood at 4.7 percent, which, while only a 10-basis point decline from the rate in February 2017, represents continued positive movement. The metro’s economic stability and growing employment base are significant factors when analyzing the tightening office market. Miami-Dade County ended the first quarter with an overall office vacancy rate of 9.67 percent, a 106-basis point decline from the previous year. Also, net absorption was positive with suburban areas such as Airport/Doral, Coral Gables and South Gables/South Miami remaining primary contributors to the county’s growing office sector. The trend continued from 2017, as the year ended strong with nearly 1.5 million square feet of total net absorption countywide. As overall vacancy declines and rental rates rise, development in Miami-Dade remains active with 717,000 square feet under construction, 657,000 square feet of which is being developed within the top five most in-demand submarkets for corporate growth. Projects such as Two MiamiCentral, Giralda Place and Mary Street are redefining South Florida’s office landscape as mixed-use environments become more ubiquitous. Record-Low Vacancy …

June 11, 2018

Market Reports Retail Texas Texas Market Reports

Retailers That Cater to Single-Family Homes Find Success in Rio Grande Valley

by Taylor Williams June 8, 2018

As the number of jobs and people in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) grows, the region’s retail market holds steady. Historically, vacancy in this market tends to hover between 5 and 7 percent. So the current retail vacancy rate in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission MSA, which according to CoStar Group is 4.5 percent, represents a couple different trends. First, the vacancy figure illustrates positive absorption of newly constructed retail space. In 2016 and 2017, the market added about 770,000 and 675,000 square feet, respectively, its highest supply additions in nearly a decade. Second, the diminished vacancy rate suggests that new retailers are entering the McAllen MSA, which can be a gauge for the rest of the RGV. In actuality, much of the new space is being leased to retailers that already have a presence in the valley. One might think the RGV is too small a market to support healthy same-store operations, but this is not the case. Best Buy, Walmart and Ulta Beauty can attest to this. A Dominant Sector There is a common thread that unites these newcomers, and it involves single-family development. According to the latest HUD data available, single-family home sales increased 3 percent year-over-year in 2017. More …

June 8, 2018

Illinois Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Multifamily

Deconversions, Adaptive Reuse Drive Chicago Multifamily Investment

by Kristin Harlow June 7, 2018

Resilience in the Chicago apartment market amid a historic construction boom is creating opportunities for multifamily investors, particularly those who are willing to go the extra mile — sometimes literally — to capitalize on rent growth outside the downtown core. Across the city in outlying neighborhoods like Uptown, Rogers Park and Pilsen, value is being discovered in vintage buildings due to their high appreciation potential. In addition to circumventing rising material and labor costs, buyers of existing buildings are benefiting from their ability to collect rents now, while there’s still room for growth, rather than going through the time-consuming development process that has cast a shadow over some pipeline projects. Wave of deconversions Condo deconversions have been a popular choice among investors in recent years, with nearly 2,000 units deconverted at a combined market value of approximately $437 million since late 2016 in Chicago, according to data from CoStar Group and Interra Realty. When executed well, these transactions create a win-win for both parties involved. Condo owners, some of whom are still trying to recover value lost during the recession, can usually sell their units at a higher price than they would have achieved on their own, particularly in older …

June 7, 2018

Industrial Market Reports Northeast Northeast Market Reports Pennsylvania

Pent-Up Demand Spurs Growth in Pittsburgh’s Industrial Sector

by David Cohen June 6, 2018

The Pittsburgh industrial market has historically been a relatively small property sector due to several limiting factors, including difficult topography, infrastructure constraints and Pittsburgh’s location between two major industrial markets (Columbus to the west and Pennsylvania’s Central Valley to the east). However, with the emergence of e-commerce fulfillment centers, the growth of the Pittsburgh economy and major infrastructure improvements, we are starting to see strong demand for well-located industrial properties in the region. The size of the industrial market for the greater Pittsburgh metro is 185 million square feet. of which, 23.6 million square feet is flex and 161.1 million square feet is warehouse. Flex vacancy rate is currently 9.4 percent with 98,000 square feet under construction while warehouse vacancy is 5.8 percent with 263,000 square feet under construction. Based upon the tight vacancy and limited new construction in the warehouse space, there is believed to be significant pent-up demand, particularly for Class A users requiring 250,000 to 500,000 square feet. Accordingly, there are a number of planned speculative projects in this size range in the Airport, Butler County and Beaver County submarkets breaking ground in 2018. Lenders in the region are also bullish on the strength of the Pittsburgh …

June 6, 2018

Market Reports Nevada Office Western Western Market Reports

Reno’s Office Market Successfully Rebounds From The Great Recession

by Taylor Williams June 5, 2018

I have had the pleasure of selling commercial office space in Northern Nevada for nearly 15 years. During this time, I saw the peak of the market from 2003 to 2008 wherein construction was at an all-time high, lease rates were reaching unseen heights and absorption was setting records. Then we all got to experience the Great Recession from 2008 through 2012. This saw nearly half of the buildings that were constructed during the previous peak become empty. Vacancy rates hit 20 percent, lease rates dropped to levels well below where they were in 2003, and construction came to a screeching halt. Then, magically, at the beginning of 2013 the economy took a turn and the Northern Nevada office market began its recovery. This was expedited in 2014 with Tesla making its announcement of the Gigafactory in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center and the Tesla Effect created a national buzz that hasn’t slowed. Unfortunately, this has created a new problem. The Reno office market sits at 10.1 percent vacancy, down from 20.7 percent during the recession, as net absorption has been positive year over year since 2012. The absorption has been primarily in second-generation space as there has been relatively …

June 5, 2018

Florida Market Reports Property Type Retail Southeast Southeast Market Reports

Retailers Get Creative as Miami is Hot, But Available Space is Not

by John Nelson June 4, 2018

The Miami retail market is healthy, expanding and not showing signs of a slowdown. At more than 2.8 million people with an average household income of nearly $70,000, demand for more retail continues throughout Miami-Dade County. The submarkets of Aventura, North Miami, Coconut Grove, Kendall and Pinecrest, as well as the urban core submarkets of Brickell, Midtown and Wynwood, reflect this with low vacancy rates and increasing rents. Most of the new construction projects underway or recently delivered are in the form of mixed-use projects, both within Miami’s urban core and in well-established submarkets such as Coral Gables, Doral and the Design District. The bad news? Miami is landlocked between the Atlantic Ocean and the Everglades, limiting space for traditional retail development and retailer footprints. But here’s where it gets interesting, and promising — instead of abandoning the market, developers and retailers in Miami-Dade County are simply getting creative with the limited dirt available. Building Density Because of the scarcity of land and its high price per-acre, density is the top priority, resulting in a surge of vertical, mixed-use developments with structured parking. For instance, Brickell City Centre demonstrates that if developers want critical mass, sometimes the only way to …

June 4, 2018

Industrial Market Reports Texas Texas Market Reports

Heightened Border Activity Drives Down Industrial Vacancy in Rio Grande Valley

by Taylor Williams June 1, 2018

The industrial market of the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) is off to a blistering start in 2018, thanks to a combination of increased commercial activity around the U.S.-Mexico border and renewed political and military interest in the region. We use the tri-city area of McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, now the fifth-largest MSA in Texas, as a yardstick for our regional analysis. According to CBRE, industrial vacancy in this market registered an all-time low of 3 percent during the first quarter. In addition, the market posted positive net absorption of approximately 79,000 square feet during the first quarter, a year-over-year increase of 24,000 square feet. Average asking rents for industrial space are also up 40 cents from the first quarter of 2017. Demand for industrial space in the RGV has always been a factor of the region’s proximity to Mexico. The Mexican border city of Reynosa absorbed more than 2 million square feet of industrial space in 2017. More than 1 million square feet of industrial product is under construction in Reynosa, and the pipeline includes everything from heavy manufacturing plants to rail-served distribution centers. This aspect of the RGV’s location has always played a pivotal role in generating demand for warehousing — for …

June 1, 2018

Industrial Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri

Kansas City Industrial Market Ranks in Top 10 for Speculative Construction Growth

by Kristin Harlow May 31, 2018

“If you build it, he will come.” Yes, you’ve heard the Field of Dreams reference before, but never has it rang truer than with the Kansas City industrial market. The construction of 500,000-square-foot buildings suddenly ignited tenants’ interest in that space size, so much so that in the past two years Kansas City has experienced a tremendous surge in growth. In fact, Kansas City is now ranked No. 6 on the list of the top 10 U.S. industrial markets for speculative construction deliveries, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Coming off a record 5.5 million square feet of positive net absorption in 2016, the market exceeded that number by 65.7 percent in 2017 with a staggering year-end total of 9.2 million square feet of absorption. Putting that kind of tenant demand into perspective is challenging. The consensus is that while Kansas City has enjoyed a boom period for the past few years, 2018 will prove to be the best year yet. For the past six years, the vacancy rate held steady, never going above 8.3 percent and never dropping below 7.1 percent. To better understand just how fast this market is growing, let’s examine some of the largest industrial markets in …

May 31, 2018

Florida Market Reports Office Property Type Southeast Southeast Market Reports

Tampa Bay’s Office Market is Evolving with New Spec Construction on the Horizon

by John Nelson May 28, 2018

Economic growth in Tampa Bay continues at an impressive pace, driven by strong population and employment growth over the past several years. The unemployment rate has steadily declined, dropping 110 basis points from December 2016 to a current 3.4 percent, and the strong pace of job growth continues with a rise in non-farm employment of 35,000 new jobs during the trailing 12-month period ending December 2017. As a result, leasing activity has increased, rental rates continue to show incremental growth and there is a strong likelihood of new speculative office construction in the coming year. Major corporations continue to reaffirm their confidence in Tampa with significant announcements of planned corporate expansions by MetLife, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), AAA and USAA during the second half of 2017. In fact, the Tampa Bay metropolitan area ranked as one of the top 20 “U.S. Markets to Watch” for overall real estate prospects in the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2018 report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute. Investment Activity Many investors who in years past were seeking opportunities in gateway markets are now turning their attention to secondary markets like the Tampa Bay area in search of higher yields. There were several …

May 28, 2018

Market Reports Office Texas Texas Market Reports

Fate of NAFTA, Foreign Trade to Shape Rio Grande Valley Office Market in 2018

by Taylor Williams May 25, 2018

The economy of the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) has always been closely linked to foreign trade. The region’s numerous port markets and its proximity to Mexico — in particular, the robust industrial market of the Mexican border city of Reynosa — have always ensured that international commerce plays a key role in the economic success of the RGV. Manufacturing and distribution have always been major drivers of growth in the RGV. We often analyze the performances of these sectors when gauging the health of the region’s office market, as the performance of the office market tends to trail the performance of the industrial sector, usually by a period of 12 to 18 months. The office market of the RGV consists mostly of small, Class B properties developed in the 1980s and 1990s. There are no true skyscrapers or trophy assets in this region, as office users in the RGV simply don’t demand the level of amenities and quality of space as their counterparts in major markets. Small and steady as the office market may be, it is not immune to the influence of larger political movements. Everyone with a vested interest in RGV commercial real estate is keeping a close …

May 25, 2018

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