Market Reports

By Nellie Day Metro Phoenix’s population grew to include more than 5 million people in 2023, per the Census, making it the second fastest-growing large U.S. city that year. This increase in residents and employment opportunities naturally brought new, emerging and different retailers to the area, who quickly occupied both existing centers and new developments.  Phoenix-headquartered Vestar’s activity paints a picture of how this retail market has grown with its population. In the last quarter of 2024 alone, Vestar broke ground on Verrado Marketplace, a 500,000-square-foot shopping center in Buckeye; ushered in a new wave of tenant openings at Las Tiendas Village in Chandler and Queen Creek Marketplace in Queen Creek; and brought back a seasonal pop-up inside a 50-foot spherical dome at the District at Desert Ridge Marketplace in Phoenix. Balancing Tenant Mix, Community Relevance The key to capitalizing on Metro Phoenix’s growth, the firm says, is focusing on tenant diversification and market positioning. Vestar actively seeks out curated tenant mixes that not only attract foot traffic but align with the demographic and economic profiles of each community. Las Tiendas Village, for example, recently welcomed Marshalls, beauty supply store Happy Beauty, luxury lash spa Revelashons and child-focused hair salon …

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Baltimore’s retail market is alive and well and has experienced something of a boom in retail activity, driven in large part by the thriving retail hubs in the city and in the surrounding suburbs. Demand for space continues to be robust and prospective tenants and investors alike are excited to be part of the Baltimore market.  But the reasons why are more nuanced than simply piggybacking off the overall growth that brick-and-mortar retail is seeing across the country.   Baltimore is a bargain One of the causes is the terrific value that Charm City offers when comparing prices to the major metropolises of Washington, D.C., to the south and Philadelphia to the north. The Baltimore MSA offers attractive demographics and strong retail fundamentals, making it a prime target for local, regional and national investors.  A great example is the sale by KLNB’s Retail Capital Markets team of Arbutus Shopping Center in fall 2024, a 88,000-square-foot, grocery-anchored center that attracted significant demand due to its Baltimore County location, sub-$20 million price point and the broader market’s interest in grocery-anchored retail assets. Due to these robust conditions and factors, among other reasons, owners are hesitant to sell — despite the substantial interest …

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By Lance Evinger III, Hendricks Commercial Properties In an era where consumers seek more than just products, experience-driven spaces are reshaping the commercial real estate landscape. In Indianapolis, developers and urban planners are increasingly focused on transforming some of the city’s most underutilized yet high-potential areas into dynamic destinations that foster engagement, connection and excitement. Indianapolis boasts a diverse and rapidly evolving commercial real estate market that continues to attract significant investment and development. Key sectors — including office, industrial, retail and mixed-use developments — have experienced steady growth, with a strong focus on adaptive reuse projects and innovative design concepts. The city’s strategic central location, robust infrastructure and thriving convention scene make it a prime destination for businesses and developers alike.  Named USA Today’s No. 1 Convention City in the U.S. in 2024, downtown Indianapolis attracts over 10 million visitors annually, a number that continues to grow. In the past year, downtown hotels have set all-time monthly revenue records, fueled by major events like the NFL Combine and NBA All-Star Weekend. At the same time, the Indiana Convention Center has seen a 14.5 percent year-over-year increase in visitors, further cementing the city’s reputation as a top-tier event destination. With …

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San-Antonio-CRE-Outlook-Industrial-Panel

By Taylor Williams SAN ANTONIO — Automotive parts manufacturers and data center operators both represent major sources of demand for industrial space in San Antonio, as well as major consumers of electrical resources. Both sets of users are increasingly prioritizing access to cheap, abundant electricity in their site selection and other real estate decisions. But that’s about where their similarities end. For the automotive industry has been a source of job growth and retention in the San Antonio area for decades, whereas data centers are a relatively new phenomenon that offer minimal contributions to local employment. And in between the two on the spectrum of industrial end users are third-party distribution and logistics companies, which really represent the market’s bread-and-butter tenant. But these groups typically don’t have such taxing power demands. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. For data center developers and users, the need and demand for affordable, plentiful power is nothing new. And the fact that Texas has long had its own deregulated power grid has contributed mightily to the state landing many of those …

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— Phillip Hernandez, Research Director, Colliers — The Phoenix industrial market showed resilience throughout 2024. Arizona ranked fifth in net migration as of October, with 62,533 new residents — 52.8 percent of whom relocated from California. This influx of residents has positively impacted the labor market, growing Phoenix’s workforce by 42,900 employees by November, a 1.7 percent increase from the previous year. Investor interest in Phoenix’s industrial sector also remains strong. Fourth-quarter sales volume reached $1.9 billion, a 74 percent increase compared to the previous quarter and a 91.8 percent year-over-year increase. This brought last year’s total sales volume to $4.3 billion, with average prices per square foot rising by 2 percent (to $204.20) compared to fourth-quarter 2023. Vacancy Trends and Absorption Despite strong investor activity, the Phoenix market is experiencing rising vacancy rates. New deliveries in the fourth quarter added 7.8 million square feet to the market, bringing total deliveries for 2024 to 34.8 million square feet. However, the vacancy rate increased to 10.6 percent, marking a year-over-year 390 basis points rise. This increase is largely attributed to the completion of vacant product. Net absorption reached 3.8 million square feet in the fourth quarter, contributing to a year-to-date total of …

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A major attraction within the Baltimore industrial real estate market has historically been the Port of Baltimore, as it is the most inland port on the East Coast, ranks in the top 20 nationally for tonnage and top 10 for dry bulk and attracts users and investors for its impressive capabilities. Closing on the end of first-quarter 2025,  here are a few noteworthy project and market updates: March 26, 2024: The Key Bridge collapsed due to a physical collision from the container ship Dali. The bridge collapse was a tragic event with six lives lost and shipping (both in and out) being blocked for nearly three months as crews cleared the debris. $2B Key Bridge rebuild: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore unveiled the new design for rebuilding the bridge in February. The bridge is anticipated to deliver by fall 2028 and comes with enhanced capabilities, such as a 45-foot height increase and a 300-foot width increase for the shipping channel when compared with the previous design. Kiewit Infrastructure estimates the overall project will cost $2 billion. Howard Street Tunnel: As part of nearly $500 million directed toward local infrastructure projects, CSX recently kicked off the long-awaited Howard Street Tunnel project being …

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Developers identify industrial hot spots as areas with low vacancy rates that justify speculative construction. These centrally located sites offer convenient highway access and proximity to a wide labor pool.  In the Midwest, examples of industrial development hot spots where demand has remained strong include Chicago, Minneapolis, Columbus and Louisville, according to Steve Schnur, chief operating officer with Chicago-based CRG. He cites these markets because of their affordability, business-friendly environment and robust logistics infrastructure. These areas tend to keep a healthy supply-demand balance, he adds. Luckily for those whose livelihood is tied to the industrial property type, 2025 is expected to bring a return to pre-pandemic demand drivers, according to CBRE’s “U.S. Real Estate Market Outlook 2025.” The brokerage firm states that industrial occupiers will focus on longer-term strategies to improve warehouse efficiency, ensure supply chain resiliency and meet the needs of an evolving consumer base.  At the beginning of this year, CRG inked a lease with States Manufacturing for 503,440 square feet at The Cubes at French Lake in metro Minneapolis. The 1 million-square-foot facility, completed in 2024, marked the largest speculative industrial project ever developed in the state, according to the developer.  On the other end of the …

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Texas-Affordable-Workforce-Housing-Brokerage-Panel

By Taylor Williams DALLAS — As is the case for many commercial asset classes and markets in 2025, there is an expectation of elevated deal volume for investment sales of affordable housing properties in Texas. But brokers in that space caution that the rebound will likely be marginal and is not necessarily indicative of ideal market conditions taking hold. A quintet of panelists broke down this notion and others at the InterFace Texas Affordable & Workforce Housing conference on Feb. 13 at the Westin Galleria Dallas hotel. Mary Ann Bennett, senior managing director at BBG Real Estate Services, moderated the discussion on investment sales activity. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. Panelist Michael Furrow, senior vice president of affordable housing at commercial finance firm BWE, took the audience of 200-plus back in time to illustrate just how quiet the past two years had been. He did so by providing statistics on affordable housing sales for Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) between 2021 — when multifamily rents and sales prices were peaking across the board — and 2024, when they …

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— Dave Carder, Senior Vice President, Kidder Mathews — The state of Phoenix’s office market is not easily summed up with a catchy headline or a few brief bullet points. Along with most large metropolitan areas across the country, Phoenix has struggled with lower demand, rising vacancies and a shift toward hybrid workweeks. However, several emerging trends are creating positive shifts in the market that should be noted as we look to 2025 and beyond. The average vacancy rate of the Phoenix office market over the past decade was 18.5 percent. That includes a low of 13.9 percent in 2019 and a high of 24.8 percent in 2024. Gross leasing absorption averaged nearly 7 million square feet annually, with a high of nearly 7.9 million square feet in 2019 and a low of 5.5 million square feet last year.  Net leasing absorption showed a similar pattern, peaking at 3.1 million square feet in 2019 and declining to negative 2.2 million square feet in 2024. These trends point to 2019 being the market’s best-performing pre-pandemic year across all three metrics.  Despite 2024’s gross leasing absorption (5.5 million square feet) being close to the 10-year average, the significant rise in vacancy and …

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The national office market continues to face headwinds in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Baltimore is no exception. Shifting tenant preferences and the city’s evolving economic landscape have created challenges, with rising vacancy rates in some submarkets. However, recent trends suggest that Baltimore’s office sector is stabilizing, with positive momentum in key areas. Changing office landscape For decades, Baltimore’s office market was defined by two primary submarkets: the traditional central business district (CBD) that is centered around Charles, Saint Paul/Light and Baltimore streets, and the Inner Harbor. The CBD was home to corporate giants such as Alex. Brown & Sons (now part of Deutsche Bank), USF&G (now part of St Paul Insurance), T. Rowe Price and Maryland National Bank (now part of Bank of America). In the 1980s, the Inner Harbor emerged as a national model for waterfront redevelopment, attracting major tenants and commanding some of the city’s highest occupancy rates. The early 2000s saw another shift with the rise of Harbor East and later Harbor Point, both of which drew high-end office tenants and further pulled demand toward the waterfront. More recently, Baltimore Peninsula has emerged as the next major office and mixed-use submarket.  Historically, vacancies created …

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