Over the course of this year, Greenville-Spartanburg’s industrial market is expected to continue its overall upward trajectory with increasing rental rates, record-low vacancy rates and ongoing tenant demand. The fundamentals of Upstate South Carolina’s industrial market are among the strongest anywhere in the country right now due to a myriad of cylinders on which it is simultaneously firing. The market’s plethora of demand drivers include e-commerce users, manufacturing, the automotive industry and the draw of the Inland Port located in Greer. To understand the full picture, however, it’s important to also consider what the Greenville- Spartanburg market is not firing on. The market is not stifled by unions, high regulation or the lack of viable sites, available buildings and utility infrastructure some other markets have to contend with. An important factor affecting current absorption is multiple fourth-quarter tenant occupancy dates being pushed from fourth quarter of 2022 to first quarter of 2023. There was 17.9 million square feet of industrial space under construction at year-end 2022, with approximately 4 million square feet of that already preleased but not yet delivered. Those deliveries in early 2023 will naturally lead to positive absorption and help rebalance the market. A variety of industrial …
Market Reports
By Tyler Ziebel, Colliers Following one of the most active and aggressive periods in Chicago’s industrial capital markets history, 2022 ended as a year most market participants would rather forget. As the buying community returned to their desks and fastened their seatbelts for another year of fun in 2023, industrial sales brokers across the country are starting the year posed with a question from investors that hasn’t been asked in some time: “What are we going to be able to buy this year?” It’s easy to assume that investors will remain content to sit out of the turbulent market, but the answer to where we are, and aren’t, seeing liquidity requires a nuanced answer. In order to do that, we must take a quick look at 2022 and what set this uncertain market in motion. After several record-setting years for industrial leasing and sales in 2020 and 2021, accelerated by the COVID pandemic and a historically low interest rate environment, 2022 opened with the same frenzied pace and enthusiasm of 2021. But as the Federal Reserve pivoted its focus from keeping the economy stable to taming the resulting inflation, rapidly rising interest rates grounded institutional industrial transactions and development deals …
— Scott Wetzel, Executive Vice President, JLL — Tenants and debt remain the most important drivers of the Orange County office ecosystem — both having undergone major evolutions in recent history. Maybe unexpectedly, leasing velocity improved year over year, despite the never-ending drumbeat of a pending recession. Conversely, investment markets were much more cautious as debt cost spiked and investors pumped the brakes. Leasing From Bob Iger to Howard Schultz, prominent executives are voicing frustration over the state of the office market…and rightfully so. We watched the pendulum swing from end to end as office tenants went from fully “in office” pre-pandemic, to 100 percent remote for the better part of 2020 and 2021. Today, the national office usage rate still hovers around 50 percent, according to the most recent Kastle Systems report. Orange County reflects this national trend, meaning it’s stuck in the middle between in-office and in-home. Tenants are also on divergent paths as some seek quality, while others prioritize value. New Orange County office developments like Flight (Lincoln Property Company), Boardwalk (AEW) and Spectrum Terrace (the Irvine Company) are fully leased and have achieved premium rental rates, typically 70 percent-plus above average market lease rates. Large contiguous …
As someone who has lived here for the past decade, I regularly hear phrases like, “It’s an exciting time to live, work and play in Nashville.” I love hearing those comments and am honored that our team plays a role in the city’s growth. However, is that optimism cooling, or is Nashville uniquely primed for continued success in the multifamily space? Following a white-hot streak of rent growth and transaction velocity during the economy’s resounding pandemic recovery, Nashville joins the rest of the nation in a transitionary period influenced by interest rate hikes and inflation. But for many reasons, our city is better prepared than most. Approximately 130,000 residents have moved to Nashville in the past five years, resulting in some of the highest apartment construction rates in the country. In fact, according to Marcus & Millichap’s Research Services division, Nashville is expected to take over the top spot for inventory growth nationwide in 2023, with roughly three-fourths of the metro’s new construction located in Nashville proper. While those numbers are certainly impressive, Marcus & Millichap’s National Multifamily Index, which ranks major markets based on forward-looking economic indicators, places Nashville in only the No. 28 position for 2023. This is …
By Jennifer Hopkins, MBA and Olivia Czyzynski, SVN Chicago Commercial The commercial real estate (CRE) industry has traditionally been relatively stable but can be impacted by the economy with normal ups and downs based on economic fluctuations. However, when COVID-19 hit, it was unprecedented and something the world had not seen in many years. The CRE industry started preparing for the changes that came along, including business shutdowns and many employees working from home. Although it was expected that the retail market would be the hardest hit sector, it turned out that the office market ended up being significantly impacted. The overall issues and pending work-from-home approach have had a major ripple effect on office markets across the nation. The Chicagoland market was impacted particularly hard, and this included the suburban Chicago markets. Chicagoland is broken out into several main commercial hubs: the city of Chicago, the East-West Corridor, the O’Hare market, the Northwest suburbs and the North suburbs. According to CoStar, office vacancy rates increased in all these markets. In 2020, the vacancy rates ranged from 7 to 20 percent, but currently stand at 18.8 percent, 17.3 percent, 16.9 percent, 23.2 percent and 11 percent, respectively. While no market …
— By Shane Shafer, Managing Director, Northmarq — Orange County remains a highly desirable market for multifamily investors — and for good reason. It’s a flight-to-quality market with a strong employment base and continued expectations of future job growth. This drives demand for rental units and pushes rent growth and occupancy. Add to that a severe shortage of rental housing supply, more would-be homebuyers remaining renter, and Orange County’s affordability compared with other Southern California markets, and it points to a robust investor market. The employment market continues to show signs of growth and resurgence, adding 73,000 jobs in 2022. Unemployment is an extremely low 2.5 percent. Orange County is long known for its tech startups, tourism and hospitality sectors, though healthcare and bioscience are expanding here as well. For example, Washington-based health system Providence is investing $712 million in Orange County to build two new multi-specialty medical centers and a new patient care tower for Providence Mission Hospital. The centers will be in San Clemente and Rancho Mission Viejo. This strong job market gives multifamily investors confidence in their expected returns as they aggressively pursue assets when they hit the market. Central OC Leads in Rental Gains Central Orange County experienced a …
Nashville’s economy experienced some of the healthiest growth in the nation in 2022, with an annual job growth rate of 5.8 percent, exceeding the U.S. growth rate of 4.1 percent, based on data from Oxford Economics. Nashville also received high marks from the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers, ranking as the No. 1 Market to Watch in their 2023 Emerging Trends in Real Estate report. The report credited Nashville’s tremendous and sustained population growth, and its economic diversity. Referred to as a “Supernova,” Nashville grew by an average of 5 percent since 2019 — four times faster than the national rate — due to rapid net in-migration. These fundamentals have helped boost the retail market in Nashville over the last several years. Post-pandemic, market-wide retail vacancy decreased to 3.3 percent at the end of 2022, which is two percentage points less than the rate at year-end 2020, but in line with the 15-year record low mark set in 2018. While Nashville’s retail sector took a hit along with others across the nation, it continues to rebound and perform due to a rise in dense communities where developers and owners are being strategic and thoughtful in retail curation. As such, the …
— By Shane Shafer, Managing Director, Northmarq — The Inland Empire submarkets have maintained rent increases, low vacancy rates and employment growth. Plus, unlike other Southern California markets, the IE has seen a migration into the area — not out. The population of the Inland Empire region in an average year expands by about 50,000 residents. This is the fifth largest gain among the largest 50 metros, per 2021 Census numbers. A Jobs-Rich Market Gaining Momentum Local employment showed signs of growth and resurgence, adding jobs each of the past four quarters. Year-over-year total employment increased by more than 83,000 positions, which equates to a gain of more than 5 percent. Contrast this with other markets, and you can see why the Inland Empire is on most investors’ top 10 lists for buying, and why expectations are so high for the market to have continued rental growth. The logistics sector is one of the biggest and fastest growing in the United States. These jobs have consistently grown over the past 10 years, increasing by more than 10 percent. This year, Amazon inked a record-setting 4.1-million-square-foot facility in Ontario, while companies like Target, Shopify, Best Buy, AutoZone and others also made large commitments. The …
— By Shane Shafer, Managing Director, Northmarq — The Inland Empire submarkets have maintained rent increases, low vacancy rates and employment growth. Plus, unlike other Southern California markets, the IE has seen a migration into the area — not out. The population of the Inland Empire region in an average year expands by about 50,000 residents. This is the fifth largest gain among the largest 50 metros, per 2021 Census numbers. A Jobs-Rich Market Gaining Momentum Local employment showed signs of growth and resurgence, adding jobs each of the past four quarters. Year-over-year total employment increased by more than 83,000 positions, which equates to a gain of more than 5 percent. Contrast this with other markets, and you can see why the Inland Empire is on most investors’ top 10 lists for buying, and why expectations are so high for the market to have continued rental growth. The logistics sector is one of the biggest and fastest growing in the United States. These jobs have consistently grown over the past 10 years, increasing by more than 10 percent. This year, Amazon inked a record-setting 4.1-million-square-foot facility in Ontario, while companies like Target, Shopify, Best Buy, AutoZone and others also made large commitments. The …
By Kent Elliott, principal, and Chase Fryhover, director, RETS Associates While December’s national jobs report painted an optimistic picture of the employment landscape, some sources have noted that workers in commercial real estate are leaving the industry. Yet although some national brokerage firms may be trimming the fat to cut costs in light of recent economic uncertainty, this trend does not seem to apply to Texas-based commercial real estate companies. In fact, according to Estateserve, with the Texas office market booming, vacancy rates dropping and rents rising, “Texas’ commercial real estate is experiencing a resurgence.” As a national executive search firm that has served the industry for more than two decades, RETS Associates has a seasoned perspective on job markets throughout the country. Here are the trends we are noticing throughout the industry in Texas and why we believe the market is poised for ongoing strength and stability. Continued In-Migration Texas is the ninth-largest economy in the world, as well as one of the leading markets in the country in job and economic growth. The Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area in particular, the fourth-largest MSA in the country, led the country in population growth in March 2022 and in post-pandemic job …