Industrial leasing activity in the greater Baltimore metropolitan region last year began with a whimper thanks to the federal government shutdown in January and February, but quickly gathered steam and never looked back, even in the final days to close out the year. In fact, the pace was record-breaking and historic by any measurement, with more than 9.5 million square feet of space absorbed. This figure was approximately 40 percent higher than 2018, which was also a tremendous year. There is more good news locally for companies that make their living developing warehouse and industrial space, brokers who match end-users for the available spaces and related professionals. Central to this activity is that fact that lots of people live in the Combined Statistic Area of Baltimore-Washington, D.C. region, which is the fourth largest MSA in the country and is still growing. A certain Seattle-based online retail company is establishing its second headquarters just down the road in Northern Virginia and its positive impact is being felt throughout the region. The central Maryland marketplace boasts an enviable transportation network led by major north-south axis Interstate 95, is within close proximity to several major seaports (Baltimore, Wilmington and Philadelphia) and one-third of …
As real estate becomes more operational, a trend has emerged of major investors migrating away from big metros into secondary and tertiary markets. Occasionally, those markets move out of the shadows of their larger neighbors and acquire their own identity. Enter Columbia, Maryland, which initially attained national attention and acclaim as one of the first master-planned communities in the United States. Columbia is now in the midst of a major transformation. Built from the ground up in then-bucolic Howard County, Columbia was founded by developer James Rouse in 1967. Strategically located between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the now 53-year-old community is blossoming with its own talent creators, talent attractors and 14 million square feet of new live-work-play development in a downtown transformed by The Howard Hughes Corp., a successor to The Rouse Co. The beginnings of Downtown Columbia’s emergence include the Merriweather District, which opens this spring. The first of three neighborhoods planned for downtown Columbia, the Merriweather District is being developed as a regional hub of culture and commerce. Talent creators The Howard County market is already home to cybersecurity incubators and cyber-focused venture capitalists like DataTribe and AllegisCyber. These companies consistently house and fund entrepreneurs developing innovative approaches …
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Washington’s Tech Boom Changes the Multifamily Investment Calculus
Washington and Northern Virginia are among the nation’s most expensive places to rent an apartment, which in part explains the billions of dollars being spent on apartment construction there. But Capital Area asset returns in the post-recession era haven’t clearly supported these decisions. From 2013 to 2018, rents in Washington and NoVA increased at respective compound annual rates of 3.2 percent and 2.6 percent, tabulating Reis data, materially slower than the 4.7 percent average growth recorded by the 50 largest U.S. apartment markets. Likewise, occupancy trends were no better than average, muted by heavy supply, suggesting that Washington NOI growth in most cases was measurably slower than in alternative markets. But everything changed last year. Although Washington has been a technology player for decades, the region’s strengths fell primarily in telecom and defense, markets in which proximity to government was a competitive advantage. But the region’s growing prowess in private applications of digital technology reached critical mass in 2019 with Amazon’s decision to site its East Coast headquarters in Northern Virginia, specifically with a view toward tapping its deep reservoir of high-tech talent. The impact on economic growth in the capital is only beginning and seems likely to fundamentally alter …
The Charlotte industrial market continues to see strong construction activity, as developers look to tap into demand for modern space. Approximately 12.7 million square feet has been delivered in the last two years, most notably in the Cabarrus County, Stateline and Airport/West submarkets. Overall construction in the pipeline jumped by 32 percent from third-quarter 2019 to fourth-quarter 2019, reaching 7.2 million square feet. As the first quarter of 2020 takes shape, this development expansion should continue, with an expected 7 million square feet of additional deliveries by year-end. Overall leasing activity in Cabarrus County was strong in 2019, with vacancy declining from 15 percent to 11 percent, which is notable given the 4 million square feet of construction seen in that submarket in the past two years. The Cabarrus County vacancy rate is set to decline significantly when two large deals, totaling more than 800,000 square feet, are factored into the statistics. Once Pactiv (441,000 square feet) and Reynolds (360,000 square feet) are incorporated into the research, the rate will decline to 5.7 percent, as we expected going into year-end. This activity will quickly tighten up the submarket and will open the door for new development. The recent high vacancy …
Perhaps there is no better way to describe the Nashville office market and its progression than to examine the recent transaction history of two of Nashville’s older generation office buildings, Fifth Third Center and Bank of America/Philips Plaza. Both of these office towers are 1980s vintage with significant renovations in the last three to four years. However, no renovation can cure some of the obsolete issues with these buildings: limited parking, inefficient floorplates and old “core” locations. Nevertheless, these buildings have enjoyed rental growth, occupancy strength and consequently excellent sales transaction history. On a more macroeconomic level, investor activity remained on the rise in 2019 as Nashville has become a global real estate investment target with Nashville being in the top 10 list of markets in Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCooper’s Emerging Trends report for the past five years. Nashville’s presence on this list is supported with its business-friendly environment, population growth, growing IT workforce and appeal as a leisure and meeting destination. In 2010, Nashville’s overall office vacancy rate was 12.2 percent with its Class A rents averaging $22.41 per square foot. Today, the market’s vacancy rate is 8.4 percent with Class A rents averaging $31.20. Clearly, the Nashville …
Nashville ranked as the No. 3 Market to Watch in 2020 according to Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCooper’s report, Emerging Trends in Real Estate. The report credits Nashville’s population growth, investor demand, development opportunity and job growth. According to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, 100 economic development projects — including industrial-space-users ICEE, Togo North America and A&C Business Enterprises — announced relocations or expansions in Middle Tennessee, representing $3.2 billion in investment and 14,000 jobs. Nashville’s industrial market is firing on all cylinders. Demand for space has been met with elevated rent growth throughout the market, keeping Nashville’s industrial rates among the highest in the Southeast. The 755,314 square feet of absorption that occurred during the fourth quarter marks the 23rd consecutive quarter with an increase in occupancy, raising the 2019 net absorption to over 5.5 million square feet, resulting in a market vacancy of 3.8 percent. Investor volume in Middle Tennessee exceeded $962 million in transactions at the close of 2019. This is the region’s highest industrial sale volume in the last five years, with the second half of 2019 accounting for 75 percent of the deals. Big-box users including Amazon, CEVA Logistics and Geodis have …
Nashville has experienced record multifamily demand in recent years, largely driven by an influx of young professionals and the growing presence of high-earning jobs within the urban core. With investment activity flourishing at more than $2 billion in sales volume year-over-year as of the third quarter, Nashville remains poised as a city on the rise. Nashville investors have continued to aggressively pursue the value-add and suburban submarkets in search of higher yield transactions, as the market’s average price per unit increased by over 15 percent year-over-year. Momentum continues to build in Nashville, making it an attractive destination for national investors looking to maximize their investment potential. Migration expansion One of Nashville’s greatest strengths remains its ability to attract and retain its highly educated, millennial workforce. Nashville is among the fastest growing markets in the United States, with over 58,500 people projected to enter the workforce between 2019 and 2024. The market consists of a highly educated resident pool, with 33.1 percent having earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. That number is expected to increase by 13.4 percent through 2024, with four major universities producing college graduates who enter the Nashville workforce. With such a sophisticated talent pool to occupy the …
The surge of momentum happening in Miami’s office market is undeniable with the metro emerging as a new international hub for startups and regional companies alike. Fueled by a multilingual workforce and easy access to Latin America and the Caribbean, Miami’s status as an international gateway is drawing the attention of office landlords and investors from around the country, as well as a wide variety of office users. Investors like Starwood Capital, Appaloosa Management and Icahn Enterprises are leaving their traditional New York and New Jersey locations to come to Florida, one of just seven states that do not impose state income tax. Paired with favorable weather and a high quality of life, Miami is a desirable destination for businesses and its workforce. Entrepreneurial activity in the region is also helping to fuel the office market, as the number of foreign business owners who choose to relocate to Miami and set up shop continues to grow. Hot submarkets Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood has quickly earned the reputation as one of the city’s up-and-coming places to be. The district is poised to become the next 24/7 hotspot thanks to a healthy pipeline of residential development underway that will support office growth in …
In Raleigh-Durham, there is approximately 58 million square feet of retail space with year-end vacancy at 4 percent. The consistently low vacancy has helped drive rental rates up to an average of $22 per square foot. The Raleigh area had approximately 460,000 square feet of retail space constructed in 2019 that was more than 80 percent preleased. The largest projects included the completion of Midtown East in the Wake Forest/Falls of Neuse Road submarket, which heralded the arrival of North Carolina’s first Wegmans store. This also marks Wegmans’ 100th U.S. store and set an opening day record with more than 30,000 shoppers. Wegmans expects to open five additional stores in the Triangle, including locations in Holly Springs, Wake Forest, Chapel Hill and two stores in Cary. Another large project was the new Publix supermarket that opened recently at Leesville Market near Interstate 540. And according to some sources, Hobby Lobby will be moving into the space formerly occupied by Toys ‘R’ Us in the Cary Crossroads Plaza. In Durham, Chapel Hill-based developer Beacon Properties Group is building a project called Oakridge directly off US 15-501. Tentative plans for the 108-acre property include a walkable mixed-use village with residential units, office …
The Raleigh-Durham region’s strong job growth is fueling sustained demand from tenants, keeping the office market firmly in favor of landlords despite a notable increase in construction activity in recent months. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the region added 24,200 nonfarm payroll jobs between October 2018 and October 2019 for a growth rate of 2.5 percent. Unemployment rose slightly from 3 percent to just 3.1 percent during this time as nearly 36,000 people entered the local labor force. Raleigh-Durham continued to witness economic development wins in 2019 as well. Major job announcements came from office-using tenants such as Xerox (600 jobs), Q2 Solutions (700 jobs), Parexel (260 jobs), AmeriHealth Caritas (300 jobs) and HZO (500 jobs). In its recently published Emerging Trends in Real Estate report, the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) named Raleigh-Durham as the No. 2 market in the United States to watch for overall real estate prospects in 2020. The region’s quality of life, robust population and job growth and highly educated workforce are supporting sustained business expansion and healthy leasing fundamentals across all asset classes. Raleigh-Durham’s office market continues to experience the most landlord-favorable conditions since the dot-com boom in the late 1990s. …