Southeast Market Reports

Richmond’s Multifamily Sector is the Best-Kept Secret in the Southeast

by John Nelson November 8, 2021

Mention “rising secondary multifamily markets in the Southeast” and what might come to mind are markets such as Charlotte, Raleigh, Nashville or Orlando. A less discussed candidate is Richmond, which has a case to be considered the multifamily sector’s best-kept secret. It’s a secondary market that’s moving forward full steam ahead for two primary reasons: supply and demand. More people = demand According to the 2020 Census, the population of the city of Richmond stood at 232,226, a 12.7 percent increase from the 204,375 reported in 2010. Richmond is the county seat of Henrico County, which had a population of 333,766 as of 2020. This is an 8.6 percent increase over the 2010 population count of 307,201. More residents are moving to Richmond, mainly for one reason: jobs. But the metro has other appealing factors as well, incuding its geographic location and low costs of living and doing business. In addition to being the site of growing employment centers, Richmond is proximate to major East Coast cities. New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., are easily accessible via train or airplane. But Richmond is relatively affordable, especially compared to other Mid-Atlantic markets and gateway cities on the East Coast. With …

November 8, 2021

Market Reports Restaurant Retail Southeast Southeast Market Reports Virginia

Redevelopments and Backfills Drive New Retail Activity All Around Richmond

by John Nelson November 1, 2021

“Infill, redevelopment and reuse” are the mantras in the city of Richmond and even in some suburbs, where new construction continues to follow residential growth in nearly all the surrounding counties, with Chesterfield and Henrico being the most active. The municipalities themselves play key roles as well. Costs for land and construction continue to escalate, so creativity is key no matter what avenue pursued in the retail world. And like most of the United States, Richmond’s developers and property owners are getting creative to keep their centers relevant. Short Pump Town Center, Richmond’s darling mall that is owned by a partnership of Brookfield Properties, QIC and local developer Pruitt Cos., is not immune to closures and felt the pain when Nordstrom announced it was not reopening after shuttering the store during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with the strength of the retail market in Short Pump, the mall and the surrounding market continue to perform. The Container Store and an expanded Arhaus backfilled a vacant hhgregg, and the mall has recently announced deals with Fabletics and Warby Parker. ShopCore Properties, which owns West Broad Village anchored by Whole Foods Market, REI and HomeGoods, struggled for years with vacancy …

November 1, 2021

Data Centers Industrial Market Reports Southeast Southeast Market Reports Virginia

Richmond Industrial Pipeline Shows No Sign of Slowing Development, Leasing

by John Nelson October 25, 2021

At the mid-year mark, industrial occupancy in the greater Richmond area remains strong, closing with an overall occupancy rate of 93 percent in the categories we track (Class A, B select C vacant and investor-owned product with a minimum of 40,000 square feet total). Class A occupancy increased to 96 percent at the end of the second quarter, up from 93 percent at the end of the first quarter. Class B occupancy experienced a slight decrease to 91 percent, down from 92 percent at the end of the first quarter. CoStar Group reports overall industrial occupancy at 95 percent for product of all sizes, including investor-owned facilities, but excluding flex space (minimum 50 percent office). Richmond’s strategic Mid-Atlantic location along Interstate 95 provides access to 55 percent of the nation’s consumers within two days’ delivery by truck, and in addition to being the northernmost right to work state on the Eastern seaboard, Virginia has once again been named as the top state for business by CNBC. Business Facilities also ranked Richmond as one of the top locations for corporate headquarters. With 12 Fortune 1000 companies located in the region, Richmond is home to the most Fortune 1000 headquarters compared to …

October 25, 2021

Florida Life Sciences Market Reports Retail Southeast Southeast Market Reports

Orlando Retail Market Experiencing Record Investor Demand and Pricing

by John Nelson October 18, 2021

As COVID-19 took hold in early 2020, the Orlando retail market only saw a modest dip in fundamentals where metro-wide rental rates fell by 5 percent and occupancy dropped 100 basis points during the second and third quarters. Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2020, rental and occupancy rates began an extraordinarily strong comeback, climbing 12 percent and 140 basis points, respectively, from the COVID-19 lows. According to data from CoStar Group, the metro’s average rental rate of $15.84 per square foot in the second quarter is more than 7 percent higher than the pre-pandemic peak. And occupancy rates are 40 basis point higher than the pre-COVID-19 peak, currently standing at 96.4 percent. With escalating land prices and shortages in raw materials and labor, we anticipate overall construction costs will continue to increase, stalling deliveries and further advancing rental and occupancy rates. Last year, some retail owners (sellers) and investors (buyers) focused on asset management within their portfolios and reevaluated the perceived investment risk due to the pandemic, which caused a sharp dropoff in 2020 investment activity, despite an abundance of capital available to invest. After a couple quarters of fundamentals bottoming out, owners and investors had confidence in their …

October 18, 2021

Florida Market Reports Office Southeast Southeast Market Reports

Metro Orlando Office Market Caught in Limbo Due to COVID-19, Remote Workforce

by John Nelson October 11, 2021

Contrary to what is often portrayed in the national media, the Orlando office market is not a monolith. It instead comprises multiple submarkets, many of which are recovering quite differently. For example, according to data from CoStar Group, Winter Park had a 4.7 percent availability rate (that’s direct and sublease space combined). The Downtown Orlando market, on the other hand, had a rate of 16.9 percent. The total Orlando MSA office availability rate was 11.5 percent, which compares to the national rate of 16 percent. All of these numbers just prove that the recovery from the pandemic is uneven, even in areas in close proximity. It’s easy to get lost in analysis, but the basic answer is that the office market in Orlando, just like in the entire country, will recover in time. Not all areas will be on the same timeline, and the office market will never look entirely the same. Between working from home and companies deciding to relocate their offices or headquarters entirely, there will be some short-term winners and losers. Texas, for instance, is having a relative boom in new tenants. Los Angeles, and indeed California in general, on the other hand, is not. Many companies …

October 11, 2021

Florida Industrial Market Reports Southeast Southeast Market Reports

By the Numbers: Orlando’s Industrial Fundamentals Remain Strong

by John Nelson October 4, 2021

Orlando’s industrial market emerged from the early panic of 2020 in solid shape, and both occupier and investment activity have continued in earnest ever since. While the preceding year has brought its share of pandemic-induced challenges to the Orlando market, the industrial sector itself has not been adversely affected, other than by labor shortages and the escalating prices of construction materials for new development. Sector fundamentals remain strong, with healthy leasing and positive net absorption of space, robust tenant activity and continued speculative development that is focused primarily along the 429 Corridor and in the Orlando Central Park and Airport/Southeast submarkets. Economic fundamentals are also sound. The unemployment rate in Orlando as of June 2021 was 6 percent, down an impressive 1,300 basis points from the height of pandemic unemployment in May 2020. Oxford Economics projects that Orlando is expected to see job growth of 2.1 percent in 2021, 9.1 percent in 2022 and should recover all of its lost jobs by third-quarter 2022, a majority of which are in the leisure and hospitality sector. Central Florida is the state’s fastest-growing region, and the U.S. Census Bureau expects its growth to outpace South Florida by a factor of two to …

October 4, 2021

Industrial Market Reports Mississippi Southeast Southeast Market Reports Tennessee

High Demand for Memphis Industrial Leading to Another Record-Shattering Year

by John Nelson September 27, 2021

Fueled by the acceleration of e-commerce amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Memphis industrial market’s record-setting momentum continued into the first half of the year. Demand fundamentals are the strongest they’ve ever been, with lease transaction volume at mid-year exceeding 12.2 million square feet for the second year in a row and total market direct net absorption reaching an unprecedented 5.3 million square feet. To put these numbers in perspective, lease transaction volume and direct absorption through June of pre-pandemic years averaged 5.8 million square feet and 1.6 million square feet, respectively. The market’s direct vacancy rate has hovered around 6.5 percent since the end of 2019, an impressive feat given the exceptional amount of speculative product that has been added to inventory over the past year and a half. New to the market The region’s central location, complemented by its world-class transportation infrastructure and low rental rates, make Memphis an attractive option for industrial users. Notable deals that have occurred since the beginning of 2020 include Milwaukee Tool’s 1.1 million-square-foot lease at I-269 Industrial Park, as well as two new Amazon leases totaling nearly 2 million square feet, growing the e-commerce giant’s Memphis-area footprint to more than 6.7 million square …

September 27, 2021

Industrial Market Reports Mississippi Office Southeast Southeast Market Reports Tennessee

Memphis is Well-Established for Industrial Owners and Users to Win

by John Nelson September 20, 2021

Momentum in the local industrial market has been maintained because of Memphis’ world-class infrastructure offering the “four Rs” of transportation: river, road, rail and runway. Thanks to Memphis’ central location, truck freight can reach 65 percent of the nation’s population in 24 hours. The Port of Memphis is the fifth-largest inland port in the United States and an east-west highway spans the width of the country. As home to FedEx Global Headquarters and a UPS hub, Memphis International Airport surpassed Hong Kong International Airport this year as the busiest cargo airport in the world. The direct vacancy rate of the metro industrial market went from 6.5 percent in 2020 to 4.8 percent by mid-2021. Currently, there is 13.7 million square feet of inventory under construction with over 75 percent of it being speculative. The demand and recent growth continue to improve in 2021. Net absorption is above 5.3 million square feet with tenants like Yeti, Walgreens, Hamilton Beach and Amazon moving into new facilities mid-year. Rents have also continued to rise faster than the national average in many years. The average rent growth over the past 12 months is 6.9 percent, or $4 per square foot. Large preleased facilities are …

September 20, 2021

Affordable Housing Market Reports Multifamily Southeast Southeast Market Reports Tennessee

Robust Memphis Apartment Demand Continues to Push Rents Across Classes

by John Nelson September 15, 2021

The Memphis multifamily market has recently captured attention from prospective buyers with some impressive statistics. With 2020 rent growth at 6.6 percent and year-to-date 2021 at 10.5 percent year-over-year, the metropolitan showed resiliency through a turbulent period as peer Sun Belt cities experienced stagnancy and even decreases in rents. This trend has put the metropolitan area on acquisition radars and garnered sales to new-to-market buyers looking to plant a flag in the market. But it raises questions concerning the longevity and sustainability of the rent growth. By taking a further look at the market’s fundamentals, economic drivers and rent trends across market segments, we can shed some light on this over-arching question. Logistics and healthcare Memphis’ stable 2020 and 2021 multifamily performance is grounded by an economy rooted in logistics and medical services. Within the Memphis metropolitan area, 42 percent of the workforce is in the transportation/logistics or education and health service industries, compared to a national aggregate of 20 percent. The growing reliance of these industries insulated the Memphis economy from the worst of repercussions stemming from the pandemic-induced recession. While quarterly wages decreased an average of 6.5 percent in peer markets in the second quarter of last year, …

September 15, 2021

Market Reports Retail Southeast Southeast Market Reports Tennessee

From Urban Core to the Suburbs, the Memphis Retail Market is Poised for Growth

by John Nelson September 6, 2021

Memphis is a city with a soul and is internationally famous for music, food and entertainment. The city draws over 12 million tourists annually, but less publicized is that Memphis is home to six Fortune 1,000 companies (FedEx, International Paper, AutoZone, Terminix, First Horizon and Sylvamo). Additionally, the city’s employment base includes a robust healthcare community with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the University of Tennessee Medical School and Regional One Health. Plus, Memphis is known as “America’s Aerotropolis” with the second busiest cargo airport in the world, Memphis International Airport. The Memphis metro statistical area (MSA) has jobs, low cost of living and a relatively young population with an average age of 34. There is a perception that the population is flocking to Nashville, but the latest Census Bureau statics show that between 2013 and 2017, slightly more Nashvillians moved to Memphis than the reverse. Memphis’ unique trade area encompasses parts of Arkansas and Mississippi, leveraging Interstates 40, 55 and 22 with the new Interstate 269 Corridor, a 60-mile half loop around southern Memphis and north Mississippi. The I-269 Corridor links to a web of seven converging highways, serving 152 metro areas and two-thirds of the nation’s population that …

September 6, 2021

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