Overall, the Austin office market is facing many of the challenges that other major metropolitan areas are confronting. However, the Austin market has relatively strong employment fundamentals and continues to attract office-using employers and skilled employees. The office market should rebound earlier and stronger than the national bounceback once positive absorption returns, with the South, Southeast and CBD submarkets leading the way. Austin currently boasts the strongest employment market of any major metropolitan area in the country, though significant weakening in the office sector is projected due to overbuilding. The amount of vacant space increased by more than 1 million square feet in 2008, an addition of 14 percent to existing inventory. These additions shifted the leverage in lease negotiations to tenants, resulting in lower rents and elevated concessions; this was particularly true in the Northwest and Round Rock/Georgetown/Cedar Park submarkets, which experienced the greatest increases in inventory. As a result, asking rents are forecast to fall to $24.66 per square foot, and effective rents are projected to end 2009 at $20.72 per square foot, annual declines of 6.2 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively. Office investment sales have slowed as financing constraints hamper the market. The median sales price, however, …
Market Reports
There are several trends that are shaping the Dallas industrial market right now. The uncertainty of financial markets and lack of liquidity is certainly hampering the market. Limited access to capital is withholding business expansion. We are also working with motivated landlords that are helping make successful tenant representation transactions, whether it is a restructure or a new deal. Equity is sitting back and waiting for values to continue to fall. I’m seeing short-term commitments on renewals; tenants are reluctant to make large commitments. There is minimum activity in the market as tenants are just making do with what they have. There is growing space availability as more bankruptcies create more inventory — and also opportunities. For example, tenants like Home Interiors and Fitz & Floyd have left the market, creating more available space. There are many 30,000-square-foot to 80,000-square-foot clients in the market but not as many big deals. We have made some deals on space and land that had previously not been available. Tenants are looking for facilities with extra storage areas and ability to secure the truck court. Facilities that have access to DFW airport and 30-foot clear height or greater are a big plus in this …
While the Wichita industrial market may lack the size of its neighbor to the east — Kansas City — it still has a strong and relatively stable presence. Wichita is driven by the aviation industry, and several major aircraft manufacturers and suppliers call the city home. Overall, Wichita has traditionally been an owner-use market with some leasing from larger national companies. With the credit markets dried up and a construction pipeline that has never been that large to begin with, most activity in Wichita lately has been leasing. “January through April, leasing activity was pretty slim, but we are starting to see a lot more inquiries; there are a lot more people in the market looking to relocate, mostly to keep their rents the same in a newer facility,” says Bradley Tidemann, an associate with locally based J.P. Weigand & Sons. Some notable transactions include Weckworth Manufacturing’s purchase of a 100,000-square-foot facility south of the city in Haysville. The owner-user had previously been leasing. In addition, a 50,000-square-foot office and flex warehouse deal is expected to close this month to a local owner-user. On the leasing side, Associated Materials has relocated from a 12,000-square-foot facility to a 35,000-square-foot facility. Additionally, …
At the end of the second quarter, the total industrial square footage in Salt Lake City was more than 110.7 million with an available square footage of 7.6 million, creating a vacancy of 6.89 percent. Big box space in Salt Lake has a 7.29 percent vacancy rate, compared to 5.62 percent in second quarter 2008. Current lease rates are down 2.38 percent from the second quarter of 2008. The hardest hit industrial segment is in the 0 to 5,000-square-foot size increments, which experienced an 11.54 percent decrease in average rents from second quarter 2008. The market is down from the record years of 2007 and 2008, both in speculative development and leasing activity. Like most markets, vacancy rates climbed through the second quarter of 2009, with approximately 1.5 million square feet of existing product coming back to the market. However, the Salt Lake industrial market is in a strong position in the West; third quarter projections are strengthening. Reckitt Benckiser just broke ground on the 200-acre Phase I of Miller Sports Park Industrial Development, a $25 million, 650,000-square-foot distribution center. Another project to note is the planned groundbreaking by The Rockefeller Group on a 365,000-square-foot distribution center on a 71-acre …
Despite a lack of sales or new construction projects, the Milwaukee office market has maintained a steady level of activity this year. “We’re busier this year than we were last year. Whether it’s productive for the economy is debatable, but it is productive for brokers,” says Bill Bonifas, executive vice president with CB Richard Ellis’ Milwaukee office. Many of the deals Bonifas and other brokers in the city are working on are blend and extend deals, in which the landlord renews a tenant early and for a longer term in exchange for concessions, usually consisting of free or discounted rent. “Right now, the psychology is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so the smart owners are doing what they have to do to complete deals and keep their existing tenants,” Bonifas says. Tenants in Milwaukee are happy to sign these deals, since it provides them with savings today. Landlords are also content because they have tenants secured in their properties, which helps keep the asset stable and puts the landlord in a better position to refinance the property. The landlord may be giving up some rent, but the tradeoff is worth it. “It looks like …
While many cities in the Boston area rely on their proximity to the city to ensure economic development, outlying towns have proven equally resilient. Despite the current economic downturn, Westfield, Massachusetts, continues to secure new business due to a combination of financial incentives and its desirable location. The city has utilized these local and statewide incentives to encourage investment, including the Economic Development Incentive Program, a tax incentive program designed to stimulate business and create jobs in Massachusetts. This month, construction began on an estimated $25 million, 657,000-square-foot rapid deployment distribution center for The Home Depot. A tax incentive helped finalize plans for the new center. Westfield’s City Council and Mayor Michael R. Boulanger devised an incentive for the company that calls for a 50 percent cut in property taxes for the first 10 years of operation. The new distribution center is expected to create as many as 150 jobs. The city has also shown a willingness to go beyond tax incentives to attract business. In March, Target Corporation purchased land for the construction of a 1 million-square-foot distribution center at an estimated cost of $100 million. Before the purchase was complete, the city council passed a $10 million bond …
The Kansas City apartment market continues to hold its own despite economic challenges and uncertainties. While occupancy and rental rates have remained steady, development has been tempered by a tight lending environment. The pace of planned construction has slowed dramatically as a result of market fundamentals. The first half of 2009 showed the lowest level of permits, a mere 78, in the past 20 years. The lack of liquidity and tougher underwriting standards are halting development. The uncertainty in asset values plays a part in this as well as lenders underwriting deals more conservatively. As a result, banks are requiring developers to contribute a greater amount of equity, thus decreasing project risk for both parties Market fundamentals have remained steady. Rents are averaging $0.79 per square foot, unchanged from the start of the year. Rates vary widely from $1.14 per square foot at the Country Club Plaza, which has 95 percent occupancy, to as low as $0.64 per square foot for Class C apartments in the Northland submarket. These rates, though, are offset by concessions. At the end of June, nearly three-fourths of the area’s multifamily properties offered concessions, up noticeably from the 56 percent that used concessions to attract …
The key indicator in the retail market in Reno/Sparks is that vacancy rates have increased and are expected to continue increasing for the remainder of 2009. Vacancy rates have reached nearly 15 percent at the mid-point of 2009 and net absorption continues to be negative. The amount of space available continues to increase due to unemployment, bankruptcies, relocations and acquisitions. Area home prices continue a downtrend with the majority of sales coming from distressed properties. The good news is that unit sales are up year over year, and home affordability has never been better. Retail lease rates continue to decrease as an estimated 2.4 million square feet of space is currently available in Reno/Sparks. Cap rates have increased steadily since a low in 2007, but the increase appears to have slowed down. The Legends at Sparks Marina held a grand opening in June 2009 and will be one of the major retail locations in the Reno/Sparks metropolitan area when it is completed. Developed by RED Development, the 2 million-square-foot shopping and entertainment destination is located on 147 acres in Sparks fronting Interstate 80 and will be highly visible to out-of-state travelers passing through the area. Because the project is estimated …
In the stifling heat of August, the Charlotte office market seemed stagnant and weak. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, Charlotte lost nearly 13,000 jobs in the first two quarters of this year, pushing the unemployment rate to 12 percent. Year-over-year, second quarter office leasing activity fell 32 percent. To further paint a grim picture, Jones Lang LaSalle predicts that downtown Charlotte is in for a double-digit vacancy rate, due to the 2.5 million square feet of office space that will see completion in the next 18 to 24 months. In reality, the future of the Charlotte office market is much brighter than it looks on paper. “At the street level, a lot of brokers remain pretty busy. There are still deals being done; they’re just taking longer,” says Tim Bahr of Charlotte-based NAI Southern Real Estate. It’s also happens to be the tail end of vacation season, and everything, commercial real estate included, is a bit more sluggish during the twilight of summer than during the rest of the year. “This time of year is typically slow, and with the economy, it just seems like that’s amplified things a bit,” he says. The office spaces that are frequently being occupied …
While the San Antonio office market has not been as directly impacted by the national economic slowdown as other markets, it is being impacted by excess deliveries and slower absorption overall. This has led to slightly lower effective rents and a rise in vacancy rates. Previously stable markets, in general, are holding level occupancies; however, there are several pockets where the vacancy rate exceeds 20 to 30 percent. This is primarily a result of newly constructed space that is not being absorbed, rather than tenants moving out of existing office space. Many would anticipate a larger reduction in rents with the current vacancy levels, but rents have not declined to the extent one would expect in a down market, as newer buildings continue to market their space at higher rents and existing stable building owners have declined to reduce rates to any significant degree. Two transactions in particular have impacted the San Antonio market in a very positive fashion. The sale of the 150,000-square-foot 300 Concord Plaza, Tesoro’s old headquarters, to Whataburger, which is relocating its home office to San Antonio from Corpus Christi, is worth noting. This transaction subdued concerns of the impact this vacancy would have had on …