Lately, it has been quite challenging to pick up a newspaper, watch television or even view an online news source and not be inundated by sour economic events occurring throughout the world, as well as in the Greater Cleveland area. As we navigate our way through these uncertain times in the economy, and more specifically in the commercial real estate industry, owners and users of real estate will be faced with challenges as well as opportunities. The Cleveland industrial real estate market, which ranks as the ninth largest industrial market in the United States, remains healthy largely due to its conservative growth during the last decade. The Cleveland economy is comprised of a diverse range of businesses from many different sectors, making it less prone to volatile cycles common in other industrial-based regions. Our local industrial market, which consists of numerous submarkets, had a vacancy rate ranging from 8 to 10 percent throughout 2009. The average lease rate for industrial space was approximately $3.90 per square foot. Both of these indicators compare favorably to the U.S. average, which has slightly higher vacancy and lease rates. A major obstacle weighing on today’s real estate consumer in the Cleveland area is the …
Market Reports
The metropolitan Phoenix market differs from other western cities in terms of its affordability of housing, from first-time buyers to retirees. As the market comes out of this recession, Phoenix is poised with available, affordable residential and commercial properties. Also, there still is plenty of land area in which to expand, unlike our counterparts, who are bounded geographically from growth. Columbus, Ohio-based Glimcher Properties is developing the $270 million Scottsdale Quarter, a mixed-use, destination development that opened its first phase in March 2009. Phase II is scheduled to open this March. Located at the southeast corner of Scottsdale Road and the Greenway-Hayden Loop in the North Scottsdale submarket, the entire three-phase project totals nearly 1.25 million square feet and features retail, entertainment, residential/hotel and office components. While many other new Phoenix-area developments have been put on hold or canceled altogether, Scottsdale Quarter’s development continues. Located across from Kierland, Glimcher’s major infill development is able to piggyback on the first successful lifestyle center on the West Coast. Currently, Scottsdale Quarter has attracted national tenants new to Arizona, such as Williams-Sonoma Home, H&M, Brio Tuscan Grille, Oakville Grocery and west-elm. Others tenants, such as Gold Class Cinemas, Nike and Sunglass Hut, are …
Although retail developments and construction cooled during 2009, the Omaha retail sector is now experiencing an influx of completed projects, with most planned projects being set on the back burner. Retail projects in the final phases of construction include the 600,000-square-foot L Street Marketplace, located at the corner of 120th and L streets in Omaha; Midtown Crossing, a mixed-use project offering 200,000 square feet of retail space at 33rd and Dodge streets; and the forthcoming retail and entertainment component of Aksarben Village, which is located at 72nd and Center streets. The new projects are bringing Target, Best Buy, Sports Authority, Prairie Life Fitness Center, Marcus Theaters and Wohlner’s Grocery to the market. Neighboring retail developments in Council Bluffs, Iowa, include the JC Penney- and Shopko-anchored 24th Street Marketplace and Target-, Hobby Lobby- and Kohl’s-anchored Metro Crossing. A handful of new retailers and restaurants have entered the Omaha market, including Garden Ridge, Books A Million, Jump & Shout Play Center, Brix, Five Guys and Smashburger. Active developers include Cormac Company, Seldin Company, Noddle Company, Lerner Company and Magnum. Many developers are looking to infill sites for untapped development opportunities. Both the Midtown Crossing and Aksarben Village projects are helping to revitalize …
To take measure of the recession’s effect on office transactions in the Washington market, simply watch the city’s tenant base. In a town where the market-wide vacancy rate is 10.8 percent, lessees are being very careful about any real estate moves they make. Tenants who are active are obtaining short-term deals, hoping a brighter day is in the immediate future. “Getting decisions made takes considerably more time than in years past,” says Wendy Feldman Block of Studley’s Washington office. “Although some people feel that tenants are showing less hesitancy recently than they were 6 months ago, it’s very painful getting decisions made.” Hesitancy among landlords also is contributing to the city’s transactional slump. These owners are in financial trouble, but tenants are requiring massive tenant improvement packages and free rent before leases are signed. This culture leaves landlords in a bind; they want to get space leased up, but they also have to make money. If tenants were more prevalent, finding other interested parties wouldn’t be a problem, but the tenant pool has become smaller and smaller. “There are too few tenants for too much space — particularly for those who have requirements that are under 50,000 square feet,” she …
The Atlanta multifamily market has experienced a 200-point jump in its vacancy rate when compared to the fourth quarter of last year. The market-wide total rate is sitting at 12. 5 percent, and the rate for Class B and Class C properties is a few percentage points higher. These numbers are, of course, a function of the recession and the overall lack of job stability in the city. When the jobs return, says Andrew Mays of Marcus & Millichap’s Atlanta office, the vacancy rate will start to recede. “Unemployment is the main deterrent to multifamily growth,” he says. “It’s such a function of the job market right now, and until we work our way through this, it’s going to take a little while to get that number back in check. Ideally, Atlanta performs much better around the high single digits.” Increased transactions from high net-worth buyers from South Florida, the Northeast and Chicago, along with the occasional foreign spender, has helped prevent a complete shutdown of the market. Mays says the number of transactions, and interest from international investors, will increase once lenders release more distressed assets onto the market. “Moving forward, It’s not going to be ‘06 or ‘07 …
The Orange County industrial market continues to suffer from the effects of the national recession — widespread job losses, corporate downsizing, a lack of liquidity and an overall resetting of property values. Local businesses are postponing capital expenditures, reducing workforces and attempting to shed excess space, which has caused the availability rate for industrial product to increase by 70 percent since the first quarter of last year. North Orange County has experienced seven consecutive quarters of negative net absorption. The vacancy rate is just shy of 6 percent, while the availability rate is approaching 11 percent. The sharp increase in availability, coupled with an overall lack of demand, has created a tenant’s market where landlords are forced to be creative and are offering substantial rate reductions, free rent and moving allowances to entice tenants. Despite the aggressive attempts by landlords to lure tenants to their vacant buildings, many tenants do not have the confidence in their businesses to justify a large-scale move and are working with their existing landlords to complete short-term renewals. Although asking lease rates haven’t moved much given the lack of velocity and tenant demand, recently completed deals show that lease rates are down 25 to 30 …
The old adage that every cloud has a silver lining holds true for the St. Louis industrial market. After posting positive absorption during every quarter of the current recession, the industrial market got cloudier when Chrysler shuttered its St. Louis plants during the early part of the third quarter. That placed more than 5.1 million square feet of space on the market and boosted the vacancy rate a couple points. The auto industry’s woes trickled down to a number of Chrysler’s suppliers as well. Another 2.1 million square feet of auto supplier buildings also became available. So where’s the silver lining? Actually, there are several. For starters, Chrysler’s plants and its suppliers are primarily located in the South County submarket. Historically, South County has been one of the area’s strongholds for industrial, with a vacancy rate of only 4.2 percent at the end of the second quarter. The availability of space now opens up opportunities for large and small users. A number of companies have already taken advantage of these opportunities. Colt Industries, the area’s distributor for Corian countertops, purchased a nearly 100,000-square-foot building formerly occupied by Dakkota Integrated Systems, which supplied vehicle interiors. An aerosol can supplier has signed …
In comparison to many other U.S. markets, the Indianapolis bulk warehouse sector has weathered the financial crisis and the downturn fairly well, but in no way is the city immune to the recession. The market’s vacancy rate has crept up from 13.25 percent at the beginning of 2009 to 15.20 percent at the end of the third quarter. Some of this increase in the vacancy rate can be contributed to two new projects coming online — Browning Development’s Axcess70 Buildings 1 and 2, totaling 673,000 square feet, and Browning/Duke Realty’s 533,520-square-foot Allpoints Midwest. In 2008, the modern bulk warehouse market experienced more than 5 million square feet of positive absorption while managing reasonable growth of 3.35 million square feet. The net result was a 7.5 percent increase to the entire Indianapolis modern bulk market. Through the close of third quarter 2009, the market has remained mostly idle, while only recording two new transactions — AEL Span 144,075-square-foot deal and Niagara Water’s 226,900-square-foot deal — and only growing the overall market inventory by 2.5 percent. Only a couple of new projects have come online, but these projects were financed and under way prior to the financial crisis really hitting in the …
Several factors have contributed to the softness in the St. Louis apartment market and are expected to continue to present operational challenges in the near term. A spike in construction has been met with the weak demand caused by the slumping labor market. In fact, demand for rental housing contracted 2.2 percent year-over-year in the third quarter — the largest decline in more than 20 years — and will likely fall until payrolls begin to expand. Owners have increased concessions to roughly 26 days of free rent. With vacancy on track to rise further this year, concessions will remain elevated, particularly in the Maryland Heights/Northwest County submarket. Area operators are currently offering renters nearly 40 days of free rent, the most of any submarket in the metro area. Nonetheless, many residents are opting to relocate out of the area and into St. Charles to capture lower rents or into Clayton to be near the metro’s healthiest employment corridors. As such, owners in the Clayton/Mid-County submarket have kept concessions relatively flat during the past 12 months. Turning to investment sales, transaction velocity has slowed in the St. Louis market due primarily to reduced pricing and increased buyer caution regarding weakened fundamentals. …
With little demand for new retail space and even less money to fund new development, developers and owners have been focused on improvements at existing properties, tenant retention and strategic redevelopment. Westfield has plans to relocate the food court at Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted, Ohio, to allow for a new anchor and restaurant space with exterior entrances, which continues with the trend of turning malls inside out. In Solon, Giant Eagle has won a rezoning effort to replace its store at Solar Shopping Center with a new 99,000-square-foot store and Getgo fuel station. The remainder of the center is slated to undergo a complete redevelopment as well. Giant Eagle has also replaced its stores at Southland Shopping Center in Middleburgh Heights and the Day Drive location in Parma with new larger prototypes. Coral Company has revised its development agreement with the city of South Euclid to allow for the Cedar Center North redevelopment project to be completed in phases; leasing for the all-retail first phase is currently under way. The largest retail development in the Cleveland market is Visconsi Companies’ Plaza at Southpark in Strongsville, which has just opened with Costco, Bed, Bath & Beyond and Best Buy …