What a difference a year makes! Retail real estate in Miami is not dead nor in the depths of huge vacancy rates and declining rents; current vacancy rate is 4.3 percent and rental rates have slipped by 0.1 percent over the past year. Let’s explore several indicators of the value and use of the current state of the shopping center industry, restaurant space, entertainment space and big-box retailers. South Florida restaurant space, due to COVID-19 restrictions, was not open to customers over the last 18 months. Many anticipated only a few restaurants to survive with lots of second-generation restaurant space expected to be given back to landlords. Due to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program and restaurateurs flocking to Miami from across the country — mainly the Northeast, especially New York City — the glut of restaurant space vacancy never occurred. When there is available second-generation restaurant space, it gets leased quickly. South Florida has seen national chain quick-service restaurants (QSR) looking for ghost kitchens which restricts customers to pick-up and delivery. Restaurant sales are back to pre-COVID-19 levels beginning the second quarter this year. The restaurant market appears to be healthy, again. News is not so great …
By Ryan Mueller and Mitch Faccio, vice presidents of acquisitions, MLG Capital There’s no end in sight for the rising competition among multifamily investors in the desirable Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) market. These days, it’s common for a fully marketed multifamily property in the DFW metroplex to receive upwards of 50 offers during the first round of the sale process alone. This sheer competitiveness in acquisitions has forced sellers to pursue several rounds of bidding and buyers to differentiate themselves through pricing and terms. In addition, the level of competition has made it difficult for new buyers to participate in the market at all. The metroplex has been, and continues to be, the top transactional market in the country for multifamily. In the last 12 months, sales volume across Texas has exceeded $19.2 billion, with DFW accounting for $9.6 billion, or approximately 50 percent of the Lone Star State’s total sales volume. DFW has outpaced both Atlanta and New York City by more than $1 billion in sales volume in the last year, with those markets seeing $8.6 and $8.4 billion in multifamily sales, respectively. At the same time, we are seeing capitalization rates compress across the metroplex. In the last …
By Chris Curran and Mark Mills, R&R Realty Advisors Would you rather earn more money or have a more flexible work/life balance? Before the pandemic, many employees gave the latter as their answer. But the amount of money employees claimed they would forego wasn’t exactly peanuts. According to a pre-pandemic study by career site Joblist, the average employee was willing to give up around $10,000 per year to have better work/life balance. Fast forward to the present day and employees continue to express this desire. The isolation felt by many when working from home has increased the blurriness of the line that separates work from life. In fact, a survey conducted by TELUS International found that isolated workers reported a nearly 80 percent increase in work-related stress and anxiety when working from home. Given these findings, perhaps it shouldn’t surprise anyone that three out of four office employees express a desire to return to in-person work. If there’s a silver lining to the unprecedented year we’ve been emerging from, it may be that employees and employers alike are coming to understand the value in providing a balance between work and personal time. And, when it comes to the office market …
By Brendan Carroll, director of research, Cushman & Wakefield The rapid emergence of greater Boston in the first two decades of the 21st century as a global center of advanced, technology-assisted biology has been followed by an even faster rate of growth since the start of the new decade. We have reached a critical mass in the greater Boston market, where we have developed a combination of skills, institutions and collaboration between companies that is supported and financed by an investor base that is qualified to evaluate the potential efficacy of new innovations. This landscape has created a self-propagating ecosystem for development and absorption of life sciences properties. The region’s large inventory of lab space has also evolved as a driver of new users into the market as biotechnology groups increasingly focus on speed to market for promising scientific breakthroughs. In response to these drivers, the inventory of biotechnology-focused laboratory space in greater Boston, which eclipsed 20 million square feet in 2016, is now on pace to reach 30.7 million square feet by 2023. Furthermore, the current inventory levels will likely approach and surpass 40 million square feet this decade, as a sizable set of projects are expected to move …
By Chris Curry and Todd Marix, senior managing directors of investment sales, Berkadia Things are looking up in Houston, and that rings especially true for the city’s growing multifamily sector. In-migration, a rebounding labor market and a high concentration of Fortune 500 firms and talent have made the Bayou City an attractive place for investors and residents alike. Recently, a slowdown in deliveries of new apartments has coupled with strong demand to bring rent levels to historical highs and elevate absorption across all asset classes. Part of this trend can be attributed to the continuing return of urban renters — those who left for suburban submarkets but are making a comeback into dense city centers. Houston has earned a reputation for being a compelling market in the Sun Belt region. Aside from basic fundamentals that have buttressed its apartment market, the city’s low cost of living and outward expansion have historically offered developers and investors plenty of room to operate while increasing returns in the process. Now, with demand easily surpassing supply, occupancy rates are over 90 percent for the first time in two years, which is truly remarkable considering how much more supply exists today. Even more resounding is …
The past year has been a long and winding ride, and some unexpected trends have been taking place in the Miami office market, between the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and through its recovery to date. Logically, one would expect that an ongoing pandemic keeping corporate offices closed and employees working from home would negatively affect occupancy levels and lead to a deceleration in asking rents for office space. On the contrary, the Miami office market has remained solid, and while the area is a natural draw for tourism and entertainment, an increasing number of companies also recognize it as a sought-after location from which to operate their businesses. Tech’s influence on rents Miami has been one of the most active office markets in the nation thus far in 2021. While office markets in the Northeast and California remain partly closed due to several public health initiatives and related business constraints, Miami’s pro-business culture — coupled with Florida’s lack of state income taxes and business development efforts rolled out by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and the Miami-Dade County Beacon Council — have ensured that the city’s economic engine kept running. Case in point, not only did Class A rental rates …
By Taylor Williams In an era in which land and construction costs are perpetually on the rise, developers of affordable housing must be able to navigate a complex web of federal, state and local programs in order to secure gap financing — the capital that covers the delta between total development costs and those covered by tax credit equity, municipal bonds or other types of subsidies. Understanding and effectively utilizing the various initiatives and incentives — density bonuses, private activity bonds, tax increment reinvestment zones, energy efficiency compliance — is no easy task. Time and manpower aside, this process is further complicated by the fact that state and municipalities have their own laws and regulations when it comes to these programs. But successfully navigating them is key to eliminating development costs not covered by tax credits — the critical piece of financing that lies at the heart of virtually every affordable housing project in Texas. For without these subsidies, the economics of paying market-rate land prices and record-high construction costs to develop housing in which rent levels are capped simply doesn’t work. “As developers that want to build high-quality affordable housing that’s basically indistinguishable from market-rate product, what we need …
By Christopher Stafford, Cushman & Wakefield The Greater Des Moines retail market continues to emerge from the pandemic and is quickly regaining its footing from the closures and challenges experienced by many retailers, restaurants and businesses alike. Despite a few setbacks, occupancy rates and rents have generally held steady. Consumer spending is surging and according to a WalletHub study, Iowa’s COVID-19 recovery is the quickest in the nation, earning a total score of 75.25 out of a possible 100. The study compared all 50 states across three categories: COVID health; leisure and travel; and economy and labor market. Trends, observations A local real estate mogul recently made the analogy that the Des Moines retail market is currently much like a chessboard — lots of moving pieces and strategic repositioning by the current players. Greater Des Moines, like other Midwest cities, is experiencing a handful of post-pandemic retail trends that include: • Integrated retail approach (omnichannel): Bricks & mortar + online presence and ordering + apps + delivery/pickup. The presence of drive-thru and pickup services will shape the future of retail and are in high demand by restaurants and retailers. • Space transformation: Spaces once occupied by traditional retailers are now …
There are multitudes of ways for property owners to reduce their tax burdens, as well as missteps that can derail a tax strategy. With that in mind, taxpayers should beware of trying to prove a low value for a tax appeal while simultaneously claiming a higher value in another proceeding. And here is how it can happen. Protesting a High Assessment Most real estate taxes in the Northeast — including those in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts — have an “ad valorem” or “value-based” assessment method. Thus, the greater a property is worth, the higher its real estate tax burden. A property tax bill is calculated by multiplying the property assessment by the tax rate. The assessment or taxable value is determined by the local assessor or board of assessors and is typically a percentage of market value. This percentage varies among states and even municipalities. In New York, it is based on a comprehensive analysis of sales. The percentage is released annually by the state’s Office of Real Property Tax Services and is different for each municipality. For example, Connecticut sets its percentage by statute. In Pennsylvania, it is set by the state’s Tax Equalization Board. But regardless …
By Bobby Weinberg, senior vice president of debt and equity, NorthMarq Employment growth is providing a powerful tailwind for the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) commercial real estate market. And while Dallas may be the headline name that is attracting employers and investment capital to the metroplex, Fort Worth is commanding attention as a formidable market in its own right. DFW embodies a classic story of a high tide raising all boats. The metro has been one a national leader in terms of employment growth for several years, and the region is expected to add another 150,000 jobs this year. Employers that are looking to tap into that workforce are finding that Fort Worth checks all the right boxes. It has an educated labor pool with colleges and universities that include Texas Christian University and the nearby University of Texas-Arlington, among others. Furthermore, the city has a business-friendly government. An important third leg to that stool involves the affordable cost of living for workers. Fort Worth offers a multitude of workforce housing options — both in its single-family residential and its growing multifamily sector — that provide lifestyle choices for workers that employers like. Investors are discovering that there is not a …