While the Savannah retail market has felt the impact of the recent economic downturn, the overall market has maintained its equilibrium, driven by key economic engines such as the Georgia Ports Authority/Port of Savannah, Fort Stewart, Hunter Army Airfield, the tourism industry and The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). The Savannah Area Chamber and Visitors Center announced that June 2012 was a record-breaking month with 87 businesses joining the Chamber. Savannah also consistently makes top ten lists for best travel destinations. These constants have served as a steadying influence as various segments of the retail market have reacted and adapted to the evolving marketplace. Though downtown Savannah and the Historic District have seen property values decline during the last 36 months, the retail market has taken steps forward and backwards, and the general arc seems to be positive. Levy Jewelers, an upscale local jewelry store, has acquired a prime location at Broughton and Bull streets, the nexus of the main shopping district. Marc Jacobs Boutique and Urban Outfitters lead a list of national retailers that have set up shop in the downtown area. Whole Foods will mark its entry into the Savannah market with a 35,000-square-foot store at …
Southeast Market Reports
Savannah’s industrial market has a symbiotic relationship with the ships that navigate the city’s much-debated river channel. In the fiscal year of 2011, $54.1 billion in value and 8.7 percent of U.S. containerized cargo moved through the port of Savannah. This makes Savannah the fourth largest container port in the nation. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave its final recommendation to deepen the channel to 47 feet and the president recently signed an executive order fast-tracking approvals by no later than November. This will keep the port competitive for larger Post-Panamax ships that will need to access the Savannah port after the Panama Canal is widened. The channel deepening project will not be completed prior to the completion of the Panama Canal widening, but Panama officials just announced the opening has been delayed by at least six months to April 2015. With port activity continuing to improve, so goes the area economy and warehouse occupancies. Market-wide, vacancy rates have ticked down to around 15 percent from highs in the low 20s just two years ago. There is a good supply of high-quality distribution space, thanks to the building boom started in 2005, which nearly doubled the inventory. There is …
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” The old adage is certainly taken to heart in Jonesboro. Amid the uncertainty of the recent recession, Jonesboro has become a beacon of resiliency and steadfast performance, resulting in much-deserved attention in nearly every aspect of commercial development. In fact, the Jonesboro MSA is one of only 54 U.S. metros that had gains in total employment between pre-recession November 2007 and post-recession November 2011. According to Garner Economics, a look at November 2011 employment shows that only 54 metros, or 15 percent, are at levels exceeding their November 2007 totals, which was one month before the recession officially started. Jonesboro has continued to increase its population, growing at a very respectable 2 to 2.5 percent per year for the past three decades and counting. This steady, consistent growth in population and tax base has made Jonesboro a huge attraction for expansion, particularly in the retail and healthcare segments of the market. 2011 saw just under 300 commercial building permits issued at a value of more than $250 million dollars, and nearly $40 million dollars worth of permits were issued in the first quarter of 2012. Investment in new infrastructure and facilities …
Limited multifamily rental development and additional hiring by local employers will sustain another strong year for the Louisville apartment sector during 2012. Despite a slight increase in vacancy during the first three months of the year, tight conditions prevail as many residents moved into apartments during the past two years. Local employers expanded payrolls during the past two years and more than half of the jobs lost in the metro during the recession have been recovered. The market continues to benefit from the revival of Ford, while the area’s logistics and transportation employers have added workers as more packages and freight move through Louisville en route to other markets. The reinvigorated drivers of apartment demand continue to benefit most locations around the metro, but none more than the submarkets encompassing suburban communities located beyond the inner beltway. Overall vacancy in this area, which contains about three-fourths of the market’s apartments, sits at less than 4 percent, with the Class A rate closer to 3 percent. A lack of new construction will keep rents and vacancies healthy in the Louisville metro area. The 35-unit Whiskey Row Lofts in the West Central submarket delivered in the first quarter, becoming the only market-rate …
As the economy picks up in Columbia, South Carolina, the area’s multifamily market shows improvement. Columbia’s unemployment rate has declined steadily over the last year to its current rate of 8 percent. The largest employers in Columbia — which is the largest MSA in the state of South Carolina — are the state government, the University of South Carolina, Fort Jackson, Palmetto Health Baptist, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina. Columbia also showed an increase in manufacturing jobs over the past year. The area also benefits from recent economic development announcements. In May 2011, Michelin North America announced a $200 million dollar investment in its Lexington facility with 270 new jobs. Nephron Pharmaceuticals plans to build a $313 million manufacturing and research campus in Cayce’s Saxe Gotha Industrial Park, creating 700 new jobs. The University of South Carolina plans to build a state-of-the-art $91 million Moore School of Business to be located downtown at Assembly and Green. The former business school location will be leased to the Department of Justice for 20 years, which will bring in an additional 250 jobs. Amazon.com built a distribution facility in Columbia, which currently employs 600 workers, will eventually create up …
The return of development in the Raleigh-Durham apartment market should not be surprising to anyone familiar with the market, and neither should the pace of development, which leads the nation when judged by some metrics. Raleigh-Durham has become one of the most popular markets in the nation for investment over the last decade due mostly to its high-growth status. The Triangle’s existing inventory is relatively young which is appealing to a large number of investors seeking newer product, and this has propelled investment activity. More than $1.2 billion worth of apartments have traded in Raleigh-Durham since the beginning of 2011. Prospects of continued job and population growth are promising, and an analysis of these local trends indicate a need for new development that meets the changing preferences of renters in one of the nation’s fastest growing markets. Currently, 3,453 new units in 12 communities are under development in the Triangle. This accounts for 3.2 percent of current inventory of nearly 108,000 units. An additional 3,733 units are likely to break ground within the next 18 months. These projects generally represent the most desirable sites within their respective submarkets, are led by well-capitalized developers, and, in most cases, are backed by …
We've all said time and again that the key to recovery in office real estate is continued and significant increase in employment rates. Like much of the rest of the country, Memphis has begun to see an uptick in employment in the professional and business sector. In the Memphis MSA, employment in this all-important sector for office real estate jumped from 73,400 to 87,100 during 2011, approaching pre-recession highs of 88,800. Additionally, on May 3, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that productivity in the U.S. fell at an annual rate of 0.5 percent for the first 3 months of 2012, after steady growth during 2011. This is the first sign that corporations have achieved the efficiency they desired and needed to weather the latest economic storm. As demand increases, corporations will be forced to hire to fill the gap between demand and capacity, so the good news for the market is that employment rates, the most fundamental drivers of office real estate, should continue to improve. There are a couple of black swan events, the outcomes of which will shape the immediate future of the office market in Memphis, and specifically the Central Business District. The first is …
Trends in multifamily development and demand mirror both changing mentalities in a post-recession era and dynamic population shifts. There are an estimated 80 million echo boomers (Americans born between 1980 and 1995) that are beginning to move out of their family homes or college dorm rooms and into a very challenging job market. Most rent because they are either unable to buy or they consider owning a home low on the list of their financial goals at this stage in their lives. Even those older than the echo boomers have changed their ideology as it relates to homeownership after suffering through a collapsed housing market. The result of these shifts has kept the demand for multifamily housing high on both local and national levels. Current apartment developments are also responding to the demand for affordable luxuries. They now offer green efficiencies that will reduce utility bills and access to transit nodes that cut down on gas costs. Amenities such as fitness centers, coffee shops and pools with outdoor areas that allow residents to socialize on-site have become commonplace. In the Greenville market, the downtown apartment activity is bustling. Hughes Investments recently delivered the Riverwalk at Riverplace, a mixed-use development that …
The dust seems to be settling in northeast Florida’s industrial market after the recession. Sales are still down and asking prices continue to decline for traditional industrial properties, but institutional investors throughout the state seem to be in acquisition mode. While investors are looking, there are not many properties for sale. Despite the fact that Jacksonville is the third largest industrial market in Florida, not many institutional-quality industrial properties come onto the market frequently. Rental rates seem to have stabilized for quality properties and landlords are beginning to reduce the value of concessions offered to tenants. The current overall industrial vacancy rate for northeast Florida is about 9.6 percent compared to 9.7 percent this time last year. Although this is still on the high side for our market, it is still much more favorable than Savannah, Georgia, where the reported vacancy rate is close to 16 percent. Savannah is one of the more competitive markets with Jacksonville, due to its vibrant port traffic. Recent transactions that have helped northeast Florida maintain single- digit vacancy rates include Saddle Creek Corp.’s 213,000-square-foot lease in the former General Motors parts distribution center, which is owned by Cabot Properties and located in the Flagler …
The Upstate area of South Carolina finished 2011 with quite a bit of retail activity and good news on the retail front has continued into 2012. Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson saw positive retail absorption of 233,144 square feet in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to CoStar, and vacancy rates declined to 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 from 6.6 percent the previous quarter. The housing market seems to have stabilized and is showing positive trends, which is good news for retailers. And the Upstate has had a number of new economic development announcements including BMW’s facility expansion and Amazon’s new 1 million-square-foot distribution center, which is under construction in Spartanburg. The Upstate Alliance reported that 2011 brought the creation of more than 5,000 new jobs and capital investment of more than $805 million in investment and expansions. The Upstate South Carolina region has already announced more than $1 billion in capital investment thus far in 2012. The newest announcement is in Union for Belk Inc.’s new distribution center, which brings $4.5 million in capital investment and more than 120 jobs to the area. The Upstate has had success backfilling some big box vacancies. buybuyBABY took over the …