Evan P. Kristol is senior vice president of Investments and Still Hunter, III, is first vice president of Investments for Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 1. What area is your expertise South Florida Apartments and Distressed Multifamily Properties (Broward County) 2. What trends do you see presently in multifamily development in your area? In recent years, strong population growth and an expanding job market drove demand for apartments in South Florida. Economic uncertainty involving the residential market has created an unstable situation for local developers causing them to become guardedly optimistic regarding their future construction plans. There is not much new development taking place. Unsold condos continue to compete with apartments. The positive aspect of supply-side fundamentals is an ongoing reduction in permit issuance. In Broward County 1,400 multifamily units were issued last year, an amount that is expected to fall to fewer than 1,000 units in 2009. 3. Who are the active multifamily developers in your area? Minto Group Inc, Altman Development Corporation, Gables Residential and ZOM are a few active developers in South Florida. 4. Please name one or two significant multifamily developments in your area. What impact will these projects have …
Southeast Market Reports
The Birmingham industrial market was much like the rest of the country in 2008. The recession reared its head in Birmingham, resulting in an overall decline in average rental rates and occupancy levels. The multi-tenant bulk distribution sector was the hardest hit, falling to 82.4 percent occupancy with a negative absorption of 206,000 square feet compared to the previous year’s 600,000 square feet of positive absorption. Surprisingly, the service center market showed positive absorption for the second year in a row, settling at 91.7 percent occupancy for the year end. There were no new developments completed in 2008, as landlords struggled to retain tenants and conserve cash. Other than the delivery of a 150,000-square-foot building currently under construction in Shelby County, we anticipate much of the same for 2009. Despite these challenges currently facing our market, several significant transactions completed in 2008 meant that the market was certainly not stagnant. Brookwood Pharmaceutical, a manufacturer and leading provider of surface modification and drug delivery technologies to the healthcare industry, acquired the former Saks corporate headquarters facility in the Lakeshore corridor. This 286,000-square-foot office and warehouse will receive an additional $30 million of capital investment. It is a prime example of Birmingham’s …
Kirk D. Olson and Drew Kristol are senior associates in Marcus & Millichap’s Miami office. What area is your expertise? • Miami-Dade County retail properties. What trends do you see presently in retail development in your area? • The only major retail developments in the area are those that were started prior to the market correction that occurred in fall 2008. There is an increase in vacancy rates — anywhere from 5 percent to 15 percent — in Miami-Dade County. Many shopping centers that have not had vacancy issues in the past 5 years are now experiencing vacancies for the first time. Owners are lowering their rents to keep current tenants and are not generating much interest from leasing signs and advertisements. What type of retail product is doing well in your area? • Centers in prime locations remain relatively well occupied compared to areas that have been harder hit by the softening economy. Even though the spending power of shoppers is less due to the economic downturn, Miami-Dade County is very dense and there are too many people shopping for there to be mass vacancies. Dollar stores are still in expansion mode, as are some restaurant chains, Applebee’s and …
Douglas K. Mandel is associate vice president investments director, National Office and Industrial Properties Group, in Marcus & Millichap’s Fort Lauderdale, Florida office. What area is your expertise? • South Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach) office properties What trends do you see presently in office development in your area? • The development pipeline for new office development has slowed dramatically, largely attributed to the lack of debt for new construction. There is demand for LEED-certified office development and some projects are underway or are about to be under construction. Who are the active office developers in your area? • Stiles Corporation, Proccaci Development Company and Butters Construction & Development are three active office developers in South Florida. Please name one or two significant office developments in your area. • A joint venture between Related Companies and Croker Partners has just completed CityPlace Tower, an 18-story Class A office building in downtown West Palm Beach. The building, which includes 300,000 square feet of office is located at the south entrance to CityPlace, a 72-acre mixed-use complex with retail, restaurants and entertainment venues. Stiles Corporation has just completed 200 Las Olas Circle, a 17-story Class A office building in downtown …
Greg Zeifman is a senior associate in Marcus & Millichap’s Miami office. What area is your expertise? • Miami-Dade County Industrial Properties What trends do you see presently in industrial development in your area? • I do not foresee any new starts in the Miami-Dade industrial market. Although developers will finish projects that have already begun, there will be no new significant development. The recent addition of institutional, big-box product in the northwest Miami-Dade Medley submarket will lease-up its vacant space. What type of industrial product is doing well in your area? • Newer, Class A and B product continues to do well. However, owners must keep rents stable or lower them. Small to mid-range tenants who previously occupied Class C or functionally obsolete properties now have renegotiating power and are able to move to nicer locations. Properties in close proximity to the airport will enjoy higher occupancy rates; whereas, properties in the east Miami-Dade market, such as Hialeah, where product tends to be functionally obsolete, will experience the highest vacancies. Who are the active industrial developers in your area? • Flagler Development Group is an active developer in the Dade market. Please name one or two significant industrial developments …
Industrial properties in the Upstate region of South Carolina continued to perform at a steady if unspectacular rate through 2008, and this trend is expected to continue through 2009. The market will continue to see good activity on the leasing side of the business. This activity, while driven by the confusion of the credit market, has still reflected the desirability of the area as a place for new businesses and the continued growth of key industries. The current expansion of BMW’s facilities has heightened the likelihood of both secondary and tertiary suppliers opening or expanding locally in anticipation of the plant’s growth. This is further intensified as the International Center for Automotive Research complex continues to grow. The recent opening of the Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Graduate Engineering Center will further improve local research and development capabilities. This strategic investment was cited as one of the reasons the Upstate area was chosen for a multi million-dollar titanium manufacturing facility. Equally impressive has been the announcement that Fitesa, a Brazilian manufacturing company, also plans to establish a presence in the region. Another source of growth has been from foreign-owned corporations that view this as a good time to expand in the …
Howard Bissell of The Bissell Cos. sums his take on the Charlotte office market by echoing a concern voiced by developers all across the country. In nearly every major market and in a vast array of property types, developers are hurting because of rampant economic uncertainty. Tenants and investors simply don’t know what’s next, so they aren’t making any moves. “There’s a lot of concern over the unknown,” Bissell says. “Depending on where you are in the Charlotte market, you can point to slow downs in the velocity of leasing. What we started seeing last year has just accelerated into 2009.” For developers like Bissell, the main concern in Charlotte isn’t that the office market has slowed, but that it’s taken a rapid course downward, a quick pace that nobody quite anticipated. Tenants are on the sidelines looking in. Bissell has had to put two of his developments on hold due to the recession. “We’re out there trying to capture every deal that we can, so long as it makes sense,” he says, noting that he foresees pursuing deals more aggressively in the next year. At the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Jeff Edge takes a brighter point of view toward …
The Memphis industrial market, comprised of 176 million square feet of warehouse space and 7.7 million square feet of flex space, reached a total of just more than 184 million square feet at the end of 2008. Deliveries during that time included just more than 2.8 million square feet in nine new buildings, including the 1.1 million-square-foot Nike Footwear Distribution Center in the Northwest submarket. In the DeSoto County, Mississippi, submarket the 800,000-square-foot Building F in the Crossroads Distribution Center and the 600,000-square-foot Building 3 in the Olive Branch Distribution Center were added as well. Annual deliveries have been in steady decline since hitting a 5-year peak of 6.9 million square feet in 2005. More than 1 million square feet of industrial space is currently under construction in the market, and more than half of the space is pre leased. Virtually all speculative building deliveries in the market have been occurring in DeSoto County, where the business environment is friendly and tax incentives are healthy. During the second quarter of 2008, 16 buildings were delivered in DeSoto County, driving the vacancy rate in the submarket to a high of 23.4 percent, as of the end of the quarter. Three straight …
The Charlotte industrial market has continued to weather the global economic storm with relative stability. Experts in the market believe this is by design and is not just good fortune. A disciplined development community that did not over-build the city is the foundation for the stability. The market size for institutional grade industrial product in Charlotte is approximately 30 million square feet. The entire market is well more than 100 million square feet, which comprises user-occupied and manufacturing product that institutional investors are not trading day-to-day. With 3.3 million square feet available, the institutional market stands at 11 percent vacant. Given the gloomy economic news that we have all grown accustomed to hearing, an 11 percent vacancy rate is not particularly unhealthy. The key statistic is this: in a 30 million-square-foot market, only 250,000 square feet is being constructed, representing less than 1 percent of the market. In addition, only 1.7 million square feet of product is in the planning stages, with no assurances that it will go vertical in the near future. If all 1.7 million square feet of product were to be built — which won’t happen — it would represent a 5.7 percent increase in inventory. There …
To most people, the word Baltimore conjures up images of the city’s vibrant downtown and historic areas, including Fells Point, the Inner Harbor, Federal Hill and Canton. In recent years, a number of significant multifamily developments have contributed to the rejuvenation of these trademark neighborhoods, bringing new households to areas previously dominated by daytime office workers and tourists. Recently completed multifamily projects in Baltimore include The Eden, Elm Street Development’s 270-unit project in Fells Point and The Zenith, Legacy Harrison’s 191-unit tower near Camden Yards. These properties have all leased briskly since opening in mid-2007. Across the Inner Harbor, Mark Sapperstein’s 250-unit project at the McHenry Row mixed-use development promises to be a major catalyst for the Locust Point neighborhood. Baltimore has experienced an unprecedented amount of development activity during the last 5 years, as nearly 3,000 new multifamily units were recently delivered inside the city’s boundaries. The Baltimore region is also home to the Baltimore-Washington Corridor, which runs along Interstate 95 in Howard and Anne Arundel counties, another hot spot that stands to see an even greater volume of construction and investment during the next 20 years. Among the major catalysts for the Baltimore-Washington Corridor’s rapid growth during the …