South Florida multifamily fundamentals are, and will continue to be, the single biggest driver of performance in the market. Strong rent collection and occupancy performance through the pandemic, population and household growth, low homeownership rates, increasingly expensive home prices, an improving job market, higher wage growth, limited land and a wonderful lifestyle all contribute toward sustainable long-term growth. Demand for multifamily rentals will increase post COVID-19 as South Florida becomes a hotbed of population growth from people migrating from other states due to the business-friendly environment and tele-workers who are choosing South Florida as their new home. In fact, household formations in South Florida are expected to increase more than 44,000 each year over the next five years. Assuming this projection materializes, at 60 percent homeownership rate (consistent with historic homeownership rates) represents over 17,000 new renters per year in South Florida. Investment sales skyrocket In the span of less than 12 months, the South Florida multifamily market went from near-record sales activity to virtually none before rebounding again to close the year. Last year ended with 254 multifamily sales totaling $3.1 billion. Despite almost six months of virtually no investment activity from April through September, total sales volume was …
By Simon Butler, vice chairman, CBRE; Biria St. John, vice chairman, CBRE; John McLaughlin, senior vice president, CBRE; and Colleen Pentland Lally, vice president, CBRE As we emerge from pandemic-era lockdowns and restrictions, Boston’s multifamily market is proving once again to be extremely resilient. With businesses, offices, restaurants and leisure activities rapidly returning to normal, both the overall economy and multifamily fundamentals are rebounding with a velocity that has far outpaced industry expectations to date. Throughout the winter and spring of 2021, job recovery has been swift in the metro Boston region, with employment levels now over 92 percent of pre-pandemic levels, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The positive momentum is translating into remarkable near-term recovery and growth within the multifamily market. The overall health, stability and resiliency of the greater Boston region is a direct result of the highly skilled and educated labor force, which continues to attract high-paying jobs across the technology, medical, pharmaceutical and educational sectors, among others. Metro Boston is also home to the largest life sciences cluster in the nation, where the local economy has benefited and will continue to benefit from the stability and growth in this industry. In fact, according …
By Adam Haefner, Avison Young The Chicago industrial market continues to move at full speed at mid-year 2021, with strong tenant demand keeping vacancy around 6 percent, despite 64.7 million square feet of new construction added since 2018. At this stage in the pandemic recovery, large corporate healthcare, retail, logistics and e-commerce businesses continue to drive much of the leasing activity, which totaled 27.5 million square feet near the mid-point of 2021. Companies such as Wayfair, which is building a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution facility in the I-55 Corridor, are joining the ranks of Walmart, Target, Amazon, Home Depot and others that are expanding their industrial space in the Chicago market to keep pace with soaring demand. There are also many small to mid-sized industrial businesses that are increasing their output and expanding their space after seeing slowdowns due to the pandemic. While the industrial sector is navigating some supply chain disruption and fluctuations in construction materials costs, those headwinds are not enough to slow market activity. Given the boost in consumer and business activity from the vaccine rollout and subsequent reduction in the state’s pandemic mitigation measures, demand for industrial space should be strong for the foreseeable future. Avison Young …
By Chris Doggett, executive vice president, Stream Realty Partners The allure of the Dallas-Forth Worth (DFW) market continues to make it one of the top corporate destinations in the country. This past year, DFW ranked number one in the nation in raw population growth. Specifically, an average of 328 people per day were added to the DFW fold, which equates to approximately 119,748 more residents this past year. This is truly an incredible stat and reflects the fact that the consistent, historically growth of DFW shows no signs of changing course. The cost of living, tax benefits and incredibly convenient location — directly in the middle of the Central Time Zone allowing for a three-hour flight time to anywhere in the continental United States — are second to none. The vast majority of new, Class A office transactions, including relocations from other states, have landed in new office developments in Irving, Uptown Dallas, the greater Legacy/Frisco area, Allen and Cypress Waters along the LBJ Freeway. This begs the question — why is the Fort Worth area not front and center for these deals? While many companies in Fort Worth have already returned to their offices, the thinking and processes behind …
Following a challenging year in 2020, momentum in the Atlanta office market is beginning to trend upwards. The COVID-19 pandemic forced office users and owners to sideline their business plans and made tenants reevaluate their office needs. As government restrictions have lifted and vaccines for COVID-19 have become widely available, many companies in Atlanta are going back to the office and the “new normal” for the workplace is here. There have been several notable office announcements made in Atlanta this year. Two large technology corporations announced they were expanding their plans for major hubs in Atlanta, and companies including Adecco and Minute Maid announced plans to make Atlanta their headquarters or a hub. In total, there have been over 20 major relocation or expansion announcements in the past year, accounting for more than 3 million square feet of recent or anticipated near-term absorption. Atlanta’s most significant office lease in 2021 has been Global Payments’ 206,542 square-foot commitment at 5995 Windward in the North Fulton submarket. Other notable leases include Soliant Health’s 87,419-square-foot deal at Summit at Peachtree Parkway in the Peachtree Corners submarket and ServiceMaster’s 53,440-square-foot lease at One Glenlake in the Central Perimeter submarket. Other companies including Centene and …
By Ben Reinberg, CEO, Alliance Consolidated Group of Cos. Healthcare real estate has proven to be one of the most resilient asset classes, able to bend but not break in the midst of global economic upheaval. Investors have become keenly aware of this fact, perhaps even more so during the latest downturn brought on by COVID-19. According to the 2021 U.S. Medical Office Trends report by CBRE, year-over-year investment volume for medical office properties fell 12.7 percent between the fourth quarters of 2019 and 2020. However, that’s far better than the 27.6 percent, 40.2 percent and 42.8 percent declines in investment sales volume that were respectively felt by the multifamily, office and retail sectors. Medical office buildings (MOBs) even beat out the white-hot industrial sector, which saw a 15.9 percent fall in annual investment volume last year. For developers eager to satiate this investor appetite for medical real estate, what is it that experienced buyers and newcomers to the space actually want in a healthcare asset? Ultimately it comes down to three things: location, size and use of space. Go Where the People Go “If you build it, they will come” may have worked for Kevin Costner’s cornfield baseball diamond, …
By Mark Fogel, founder, ACRES Capital Despite the pandemic-related uncertainty that dominated the markets in 2020, the student housing sector consistently displayed strong pre-lease occupancy rates among properties under construction, suggesting that the asset class would be well-positioned to hit the ground running in 2021. According to RealPage Analytics, students, encouraged by the prospect of fully reopened campuses, fueled a nearly 10 percent nationwide increase in pre-lease occupancy at off-campus housing between March and April of this year. This data in particular seems to support improvement for the student housing sector overall. Research organization RealPage has tracked student housing occupancy rates at 175 major universities across the country, a sort of barometer for the larger industry. As of March, the company’s data showed that 59.6 percent of beds at those universities were preleased for the fall 2021 semester. While that figure is still 200 basis points below the March 2020 level, it seemingly speaks to students’ preference to get back to living on campus. And while this is good news for operators and developers, the resiliency of the student housing market is bringing forth an unintended, but positive effect on one of the hardest-hit rental markets in the country: New …
By Chris Irwin, Colliers International As we begin to lower our masks, breathe fresh air and see smiles on everyone’s faces, there are strong signs that better than pre-COVID retail activity in Chicago is here. With the expanded vaccine rollout, a decrease in unemployment plus the added boost of stimulus checks, the surge in retail sales in the city and surrounding areas has been measurable. The demand for retail space increased in fourth-quarter 2020 and first-quarter 2021 significantly, with the first quarter recording a 650,000-square-foot increase in overall absorption, which pushed the trailing 12-month absorption back to positive territory — and its highest level since 2017. Increased leasing activity continued to drive new demand as net absorption totaled almost 1 million square feet in the first quarter. Vacancy in Chicago retail has flattened and currently is holding at 6.1 percent over the past year compared with a rate of 5.1 percent nationally. Leasing activity was driven by the expansion of essential retailers throughout the first quarter, similar to first-quarter activity levels registered in 2017, 2018 and 2019. However, the most important step toward recovery happened June 11 when the State of Illinois moved its Coronavirus response from Phase 4 to …
By Taylor Williams As consumers throughout the Northeast move closer to returning to their pre-pandemic lifestyles, unleashing pent-up demand on the retail, restaurant and entertainment sectors, owners of mixed-use properties are gaining a renewed appreciation for local concepts that create a special sense of identity. Of course, the inclusion of local uses and concepts in the larger overall retail tenant base is nothing new in the world of mixed-use development. And sources agree that having some marquee, national brands is also a critical ingredient in the recipe for a successful retail roster and experience. “High-quality retail creates places where people want to live and work, but unless you’re committed to doing a couple hundred thousand square feet, most of your retail component is going to be food and beverage (F&B),” says George Banks, founder of Revel, an Atlanta-based firm that provides food hall consulting services. “Everybody loves Shake Shack and Jeni’s [Splendid Ice Creams], but we advise our mixed-use clients to go as hyper-local as possible when it comes to F&B.” But in general, the COVID-19 pandemic hit local mom-and-pop operators, which often lacked the cash and credit to cover their revenue losses, much harder than their national counterparts. More …
Atlanta is a city that is always evolving. Even prior to the pandemic, rapid change seemed to be the one constant thing about the market. This continues to be true today; from downtown to the furthest suburban reaches, Atlanta’s retail landscape is vibrant with new brands and ambitious projects. One of the most notable areas of growth in greater Atlanta is the expansion of single-tenant operators, especially quick-service restaurants. New national players such as Whataburger and Raising Cane’s are entering the metro Atlanta market, as other popular chains such as Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers and gusto! continue to expand. Evolving faster than restaurants, however, are discount retailers. Forbes recently noted that The TJX Cos., Ross Dress for Less, Burlington and Five Below are among the chains with active expansion plans. Dollar Tree also recently announced Family Dollar Tree, a new concept that combines its flagship brands into a hybrid shop for more rural communities with less convenient access to necessity retail. While some grocers such as Kroger and Sprouts Farmer Market have slowed growth, Publix is picking up the slack, opening and planning multiple locations throughout greater Atlanta. German discount grocer Lidl, which opened its first U.S. store just …