Market Reports

Richmond Market Entering New Era of Industrial Development

by John Nelson October 9, 2017

At the mid-year mark, the Richmond industrial market has continued to strengthen, closing with an overall occupancy rate of 91 percent in the categories being tracked — Class A, B and C vacant and investor-owned product with a minimum of 40,000 square feet of total rentable building area (RBA). Class A occupancy decreased slightly from 96 percent at the end of the first quarter to 95 percent at the end of the second quarter, and Class B occupancy has remained steady at 92 percent. The year-to-date net absorption is in excess of 1.5 million square feet, in part due to lower reported vacancies in the Class C former tobacco storage complex located south of downtown Richmond. The inventory of quality, freestanding facilities available for owner/users to purchase remains in short supply, with central locations in even greater demand and experiencing a shorter shelf life. CoStar reports overall industrial occupancy at 95 percent for products of all sizes, including investor-owned facilities, but excluding flex space (minimum 50 percent office). Richmond’s strategic Mid-Atlantic location along Interstate 95 provides access to 55 percent of the nation’s consumers within two days delivery by truck. In addition to being the northernmost right-to-work state on the …

October 9, 2017

Industrial Market Reports Texas Texas Market Reports

Institutional Portfolio Trades Dominate El Paso Industrial Investment Activity

by Taylor Williams October 6, 2017

With an inventory of about 63 million square feet, El Paso’s industrial market has played a pivotal role in the business of commercial real estate for the past 10 years. During that stretch, portfolio trades have come to dominate industrial transactions in this market. For example, Dallas-based Stonelake Capital Partners recently added to its holdings by buying four buildings from 5 Star Real Estate in Vista Del Sol East totaling about 567,000 square feet. Stonelake had entered the market several years prior after buying 11 buildings totaling roughly 1 million square feet in Butterfield Trail Industrial Park from two separate entities, Louis Kennedy and Lincoln Properties. Other defining examples of trades include the activity of IndCore, a Blackstone company that began buying Industrial real estate in El Paso in 2010. The company purchased 1.2 million square feet of assets from Prologis; 1 million square feet of space from Northwestern Mutual Credit and 1.2 million square feet of product from UBS. In addition, Allstate foreclosed approximately 500,000 square feet of the KASCO portfolio in 2011, which was re-sold to Covington Capital in 2015. CIII Capital Partners absorbed eight buildings totaling 900,000 square feet from Titan Industrial in 2012. Soon after, CIII …

October 6, 2017

Indiana Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Retail

Northern Suburbs of Indianapolis See Vast Growth in Urban Core Development

by Kristin Harlow October 5, 2017

The northern suburbs of Indianapolis aren’t just following the latest trend of developing dense urban cores within suburban markets — they’re on the leading edge. In particular, Fishers and Carmel boast flourishing downtown environments that are walkable and bike-friendly. The idea is to develop a core urban area amid the suburban sprawl by creating activities and concepts that serve various community needs such as cool restaurants, shops, office and living space, evening events for adults, family activities and music and arts entertainment. It’s a lifestyle choice that more and more people prefer. While retail is struggling to regain balance in traditional environments, these mixed-use developments are resonating with their communities. Consumers are looking for experiential opportunities with multiple touch points, such as living, shopping, fitness, dining and entertainment options that integrate open green space. The suburbs of Indianapolis are responding to this trend. Grocery stores and medical facilities also are key to these types of developments, as residents desire the convenience of making one stop. Fishers blazes its own trail Fishers, located just northeast of Indianapolis in Hamilton County, officially became a city in 2015. The community elected a mayor with a strong vision. That vision included the urban core …

October 5, 2017

Market Reports New Jersey Northeast Northeast Market Reports Office Pennsylvania

Greater Philadelphia Office Fundamentals Reflect Continued Strength

by Taylor Williams October 4, 2017

The Greater Philadelphia office market is seeing a few exciting development projects and steady interest in investment opportunities. Southern New Jersey The office sector in Southern New Jersey has exhibited overall strong fundamentals, underpinned by increased new investments from outside of the Greater Philadelphia region and economic inflows to support local economic expansion. The U.S. economy continues to grow moderately and add jobs, with the national unemployment rate dropping to a 16-year low. These conditions are helping to generate demand that is reverberating throughout the real estate sector, especially for office space. Office leasing activity has been on an upswing in 2017. The overall tone is positive, and vacancy rates have been stable for the past few quarters, hovering just above 10 percent. The second quarter posted approximately 395,155 square feet of new leases and renewals. This is a 24 percent increase in activity from the first quarter and an incredible 58 percent increase compared to the second quarter a year ago. New leases represented approximately 43.4 percent of all deals for the quarter. Notable deals ranged from 5,000 to 31,000 square feet. The office investment and sales market is also showing increased activity. Buyers continue to take advantage of …

October 4, 2017

Florida Industrial Market Reports Southeast Southeast Market Reports

Orlando’s Industrial Market Finally Reaches Maturity as Demand Outstrips Supply

by John Nelson October 2, 2017

Orlando’s industrial market is coming into its own. As high-profile users such as Amazon, Samsung and Best Buy continue to enter the market, major brands are taking a fresh approach to Central Florida’s logistical advantages, and an increased number of national REITs are combing the area for any opportunity they can uncover. Despite an unprecedented boom of speculative industrial building, demand continues to outpace supply. In the industrial sphere, Orlando has become the juggernaut of Florida. This growth has been fueled by a number of overlapping factors. Tourism has always been a huge driver for Orlando’s industrial sector. Disney World remains North America’s most-visited theme park. The convention business is thriving and Port Canaveral is one of the top cruise industry ports in the world, attracting some of the largest ships. Now, the area’s tech industry is taking off as well. The $75 million, 100,000-square-foot manufacturing research center, BRIDG — just delivered in Osceola County — will be a catalyst for further growth in high-tech manufacturing and research. Add to this the second fastest rate of population growth in the nation, and the city once known primarily as Florida’s tourist mecca is primed for commercial expansion. On the national level, …

October 2, 2017

Market Reports Multifamily Texas Texas Market Reports

Close Ties to Mexico Enable Stability in El Paso’s Multifamily Market

by Taylor Williams September 29, 2017

Long-time El Paso residents frequently hear people talking about the good things happening in our city. To be sure, El Paso is an enigma and a contradiction — a big small town with its own identity. Cultural, economic, social and ethnic differences are comfortably accommodated in a “mi casa es tu casa” openness. Contrary to our “wild west” reputation, El Paso ranks as one of America’s safest cities by size. The closest major city to El Paso is Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.5 million people just across the Rio Grande River in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The economies of the two cities are inextricably linked and create a major trade area on the southern U.S. border with Mexico. Roughly 30 percent of El Paso’s retail sales come from Mexican shoppers who also access educational institutions, medical services and professional services on the U.S. side. American and multinational manufacturers employ more than 200,000 people in Juarez and rely on El Paso’s transportation and trade infrastructure. The expansion of both trade and interdiction at the border has generated thousands of new federal agency jobs paying wages above the city’s median incomes. Apartment development and ownership in El Paso are dominated …

September 29, 2017

Industrial Market Reports Midwest Midwest Market Reports Missouri

St. Louis Industrial Market Is a Force to Be Reckoned With

by Kristin Harlow September 28, 2017

The St. Louis industrial market has enjoyed robust growth in recent years in part because of a growing economy, the rise of e-commerce and 3PL activity, favorable tax incentives and abatement packages and a movement to quality from existing users. With a population of 37.5 million in a 300-mile radius and over 96 million in a 500-mile radius, St. Louis is a distribution force to be reckoned with. Over the past five years, vacancy has dropped from 9 percent to 4.1 percent as of the second quarter of 2017. This number, paired with asking lease rates rising 9 percent during that same time frame, illustrate the health of the market. With more than 2.7 million square feet of space absorbed already this year, the 4.2 million square feet currently under construction will be absorbed quickly. Low vacancies have spurred the need for speculative space, which has increased at a rate not seen before in this market. Recent ongoing or completed projects include a 548,850-square-foot space at Aviator Business Park, 158,000 square feet at Fenton Logistics Park and two 100,000-square-foot buildings at Hazelwood Logistics Center. Having spec product on the market places St. Louis on the radars of users that require …

September 28, 2017

Market Reports New York Northeast Northeast Market Reports Office

A Second Wind: Large Transactions Invigorate the Manhattan Office Market in 2017

by Taylor Williams September 27, 2017

The office market in 2017 has rebounded from the slowdown of 2016 — suggesting that Manhattan market conditions remain stronger than some might have imagined at the end of last year. Growth in office-using employment has picked up steam this year, and New York’s Gross City Product expanded at a faster rate than in 2016. Buoyed by large transactions in the financial services and government sectors, leasing activity also expanded in the first half of 2017, outpacing 2016’s mid-year leasing activity by 19 percent. Asking rents continued their trajectory of modest growth, though tenant improvement allowances have grown at a far faster rate, suggesting tenants are paying lower net effective rent; meanwhile, the number of upward repricings on existing listings fell off considerably in the first half of 2017, while downward repricings continue unabated from last year. Despite the increase in both leasing activity and velocity in the first half of 2017, Manhattan continues to see negative net absorption this year, largely due to the delivery of new office product in Midtown South and Downtown. This has pushed up the availability rate to 12.0 percent — suggesting increasingly tenant-favorable conditions in the market. New York City Employment After a relatively …

September 27, 2017

Florida Market Reports Office Southeast Southeast Market Reports

Orlando’s Suburban Office Sector is Ready for its Time to Shine

by John Nelson September 25, 2017

The Central Florida market continues to be a bright ray in the Sunshine State with 68 million plus tourists in 2016, and over $10 billion currently invested in major projects either recently completed or underway. Area theme parks, such as Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World, continue investments in new rides and attractions, drawing even more visitors to Orlando, and setting record attendance numbers on an annual basis. Tourism isn’t the whole story in Central Florida, though. Notable projects in the urban core include the University of Central Florida’s downtown campus at Creative Village for 10,000 students, the 650,000-square foot Orlando Magic mixed-use entertainment complex adjacent to the Amway Center, and the new $450 million second phase expansion to the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. All of these new urban core projects are creating a true live-work-play dynamic in downtown Orlando. The suburban market is also seeing significant activity. For example, the Health & Wellness cluster at Lake Nona; the $3.1 billion redevelopment at Orlando International Airport; the $43 million improvement of the Orlando Sanford International Airport; and the $1 billion West Orange County mixed-use community all showcase that new investment is not centered in one part …

September 25, 2017

Market Reports Retail Texas Texas Market Reports

Retail Tenant Mix Tops Mixed-Use Agenda

by Taylor Williams September 22, 2017

The terms “experiential retail” and “mixed-use development” are both thrown around heavily in the context of 21st century commercial real estate. As buzzwords for the changing landscape of retail real estate and encapsulations of the preferences of millennials, the terms are as popular in their usage as they are arbitrary in their application. Is an apartment building with a ground-floor restaurant or coffee shop really considered mixed-use? Is it actually legitimate to think of buying shoes or jewelry as an experience? The answer varies depending on who’s asked. But the fact remains that dividing lines between certain property classes are beginning to blur. Increasingly, office and multifamily projects are designed to include food, drink and entertainment options, which have become the only real common denominators among mixed-use projects. Given that those three facets of retail involve spending on one-time, consumable products and services, they have become the face of experiential shopping and spending. Integrating retail development into mixed-use projects, as opposed to standalone shopping centers or pad sites, comes with its own unique challenges: parking, noise restrictions and sourcing contractors that specialize in build-outs for multiple property types, to name a few. But developers realize that no matter how much …

September 22, 2017

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