Texas Market Reports

New Tenant Mixes Drive Retail Redevelopments

by Taylor Williams September 10, 2019

A persistent need for a tenant mix that is resistant to e-commerce and which facilitates a unique, authentic experience is prompting owners of older retail centers and malls to assume high levels of risk and redevelop their properties. While there can be a plethora of non-tenant-related factors that spur redevelopment projects — the basic need to charge higher rents, the structural and aesthetic deterioration over time, a desire to restore a public perception of vibrancy — the ultimate success of almost every retail redevelopment project hinges on the tenancy. For shopping centers, this typically entails adding more restaurant users and other retail categories that offer a critical service or a unique shopping experience, as well as integrating open recreational spaces. For malls, adding entertainment uses is becoming increasingly important, particularly when an anchor space has been vacated or sold back to the owner. When paired with a telltale sign like sluggish sales and/or negative rent growth, any of the aforementioned factors can be the catalyst for pulling the trigger on a redevelopment project. But whatever the impetus for the project, without marketing to and leasing tenants that can afford market-rate rents, align with the surrounding demographics and drive foot traffic throughout …

September 10, 2019

Industrial Market Reports Self-Storage Texas Texas Market Reports

Texas Self-Storage Markets Respond to Saturation

by Taylor Williams September 6, 2019

Developers of self-storage properties in major Texas cities are consciously putting the brakes on new construction as they wait for excess supply to be absorbed and for positive rent growth to return to the market. The market has been moving in this direction for some time. While property owners have generally maintained occupancy rates that meet pro forma thresholds for profitability, rent growth has been and will likely remain stunted. Supply growth has led to competitors cannibalizing each other’s market shares. In addition, ever-rising construction costs and a dwindling inventory of buildable sites are also governing the pace of new self-storage development. While certain pockets of developable sites still exist here and there, lenders and equity providers have also taken note of the saturated landscape and are tightening their purse strings for self-storage projects. “With respect to major markets, there’s no question that the pipeline is thinning out, and for projects that haven’t yet started construction, probably half of those proposed won’t come to fruition during this cycle,” says Bill Brownfield, owner of Brownfield & Associates, the Houston-based branch of industry-tracking firm Argus Self-Storage. “Markets are largely stabilized in terms of occupancy. But rent concessions and discounts have not only …

September 6, 2019

Market Reports Multifamily Texas Texas Market Reports

Up To the Challenge: Dallas Apartment Market Absorbs Record Levels of New Supply

by Taylor Williams September 2, 2019

In 2019, Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) once again represents the nation’s top metro for job creation and net migration. These market conditions are occurring at an opportune time as more than 26,000 multifamily units have been completed throughout the market this year, marking a record wave of annual deliveries. This influx of new apartments will increase the metro’s rental inventory by 3.3 percent, yet robust demand for new supply allows net absorption to match delivery volume, lowering overall vacancy by 20 basis points. Prolonged Absorption Over the past three years ending in June, DFW’s apartment stock expanded by 10 percent, or 74,000 units, yet vacancy adjusted moderately during this period. Unit availability hovered in the high-4 to high-5 percent range, with demand supported by the creation of 400,000 jobs, robust in-migration and the widening gap between a monthly mortgage payment and average rent. The extended period of strong leasing velocity was highlighted by the second quarter of 2019, when a record 12,000 apartments were absorbed. Performance during this three-month stretch lowered vacancy by 90 basis points on a quarter-over-quarter basis. With employment growth slated to further improve during the second half of this year — the result of corporate relocations and …

September 2, 2019

Industrial Market Reports Texas Texas Market Reports

Diverse Mix of Industries Propels Dallas Industrial Market to New Heights

by Taylor Williams August 30, 2019

Until about six years ago, the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) industrial market was considered a second-tier market, lagging behind the likes of New York-New Jersey, Chicago and Los Angeles in terms of investor interest and demand. Today, the metroplex is not only holding its own with the traditional gateway markets, but in some cases surpassing them, thanks to growth from an exceptionally diverse group of tenants and industries. Natural population growth throughout North Texas has prompted stronger demand for industrial space across a range of user bases: e-commerce, global logistics, consumer products, building materials, pharmaceuticals, food, furniture, aviation. Some notable, six-figure leases that have been executed in the metroplex over the last 12 months and which reflect the diversity of tenant demand — as well as the geographic range of submarkets seeing strong activity — include the following: Smuckers (1.1 million square feet in south Dallas), furniture provider Steelcase (618,000 square feet in Carrollton), marketing firm Taylor Communications (232,000 square feet in south Dallas), ITW Food Equipment (184,000 square feet in Fort Worth), Alliance Glazing (137,000 square feet in Garland), Panoramic Doors (127,500 square feet in Fort Worth) and CEVA Logistics U.S. (100,000 square feet in Coppell). As these deals illustrate, …

August 30, 2019

Market Reports Office Texas Texas Market Reports

Dallas Office Market Grows Its Share of Tech Firms

by Taylor Williams August 27, 2019

While Austin is the Texas city that has become most synonymous with a tech-heavy office market over the last decade, the remarkable amount of overall job growth in the metroplex is allowing Dallas to slowly grab a larger piece of the tech pie. While some of the fastest-growing tech firms in the market right now — Google, Facebook, Indeed — have committed to larger office footprints in Austin, many of these firms still retain offices in Dallas due to its strong supply of qualified labor and relatively cheaper cost of doing business. However, in addition to having offices in Dallas, these firms have contributed to commercial real estate growth in the metroplex through build-to-suit data center developments and large colocation leases with established data center operators in the market. Facebook’s $1 billion data center development in Fort Worth is among the largest in the country, and construction recently began on Google’s $600 million data center campus in the southern suburb of Midlothian. IBM SoftLayer, Rackspace, and LinkedIn are other examples of technology firms taking large data center leases in the Dallas metroplex, North America’s third-largest data center market, according to 2019 figures from DataCenter Hawk. Outside of the context of …

August 27, 2019

Market Reports Retail Texas Texas Market Reports

Investor Demand Accelerates for Dallas Metro Retail Assets

by Taylor Williams August 23, 2019

The Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) economy is booming with tremendous population, income and job growth trajectories that directly benefit the local retail sector. Shopping center investors have taken notice, as evidenced by the total transaction volume for retail properties during the last 12 months reaching its highest level in more than 10 years. Compelling Fundamentals Investors continue to buy retail properties in Dallas as a result of DFW’s healthy and diversified economy. Population growth and in-migration patterns are significant factors with more people moving to DFW last year than any other metro area in the nation (246 people arriving daily), according to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This surge has pushed DFW’s population to more than 7.5 million residents. Additionally, employment growth has exploded, with DFW leading the nation in job creation last year by adding 116,400 jobs. The Dallas metro unemployment rate has recently dropped to 3 percent, which is the lowest rate in 20 years, and this has further contributed to powerful employment dynamics that continue to fuel consumer retail spending. DFW was also recently ranked as the No. 5 market in the nation for technology jobs, which typically are higher-paying and will add strength to an …

August 23, 2019

Market Reports Texas Market Reports

Heavy Capital Flow Fuels Deal Velocity

by Taylor Williams July 30, 2019

Debt and equity capital for placement in commercial real estate, particularly in the multifamily sector, have never been more plentiful in Texas. With the Federal Reserve recently abandoning and possibly getting set to reverse its interest rate hikes, even more investors and borrowers are coming off the sidelines. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the national level of commercial mortgage debt outstanding rose by $45.4 billion in the first quarter of 2019, a 1.3 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2018. Multifamily mortgage debt alone increased by $17.9 billion to $1.4 trillion from the fourth quarter of 2018, also an increase of 1.3 percent. The uptick in lending is occurring in the face of an ongoing trade war with China and the elevation of the three-month Treasury yield (2.14 percent as of press time) above the two-year Treasury yield (1.74 percent). Economists often view the latter trend, known as an inverted yield curve, as an indicator of recession, a credible possibility given that the U.S. economy is close to a decades-long expansion. The perceived risk in the marketplace from these factors has steered more investors toward the 10-year Treasury, a traditionally low-risk vehicle for parking funds. This movement …

July 30, 2019

Market Reports Office Texas Texas Market Reports

As Users Flock to Quality Space, Houston Office Owners Focus on “Ecosystems”

by Taylor Williams July 26, 2019

If industry professionals, particularly developers and landlords, don’t make educated attempts to understand the mindsets of their tenants, they have little hope of advancing the dialogue and ultimately furthering their understanding of tenant decision-making. Take the Houston office market, for example, and its inventory of approximately 330 million square feet, according to CoStar Group. This market has experienced rising vacancy and declining rents throughout the four-year oil slump, but continues to see strong tenant demand in the Class A space. To this end, CoStar reports that there are still nearly 3 million square feet of new office projects under construction throughout metro Houston, the vast majority of which is Class A product. The high proportion of Class A deliveries is partially attributable to rising land and construction costs that mandate heftier rent projections. But still, there’s no question that Houston’s growth in certain employment sectors — healthcare, technology, financial services — ensures that many of the jobs being created in the city need to be paired with high-quality office space. Understanding and explaining the actions of the thousands of companies that commit to millions of square feet of office space is a case-by-case endeavor. But as markets of this size …

July 26, 2019

Industrial Market Reports Texas Texas Market Reports

With Oil Recovering, Houston Industrial Market Turns to Distribution

by Taylor Williams July 23, 2019

For many years, companies seeking to establish major distribution operations for the southwestern United States flocked to one market: Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW). Any deal that required a warehouse or logistics space of several hundred thousand square feet or more headed to the metroplex, and Houston received what was left — deals falling anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 square feet. That began to change in 2010, when oil was consistently trading at close to $100 per barrel. Subsequent innovations in hydraulic fracturing that lowered the threshold at which offshore drilling companies could turn a profit, combined with escalated tensions among Middle Eastern producers, kept prices for American crude at high levels until December 2014. At the time of this writing, oil futures traded at about $58 per barrel, suggesting that any hopes of a recovery by mid-2019 had been premature. But between 2010 and 2014, when the party was in full swing, Houston experienced tremendous job growth that attracted tens of thousands of new residents to the city. More housing was built, and significant amounts of industrial absorption began to stem from the need to store and distribute consumer goods, from food to furniture to household appliances. Today, Houston’s population is …

July 23, 2019

Market Reports Multifamily Texas Texas Market Reports

Houston Multifamily Occupancy, Rent Growth Return to Normal After Setbacks

by Taylor Williams July 19, 2019

Houston’s multifamily market has endured battles from all fronts in recent years: the oil slump, hurricanes, flooding, overbuilding in select submarkets, sluggish rent growth of late and lavish concessions to new renters that have been mainstays during this period. But the market now appears to be moving in the right direction with a sense of normalcy. From late 2014, when the oil downturn began, through the price bottoming in early 2016, Houston’s energy economy consistently made headlines across the nation’s publications. Each article claimed that at lower oil prices, the city’s over-reliance on energy would shut off job creation and growth. Yet this period also provided an opportunity to illuminate the incredible diversity within the greater Houston economy. Up until the oil downturn, the city’s diversity had been theoretical and unproven; now, along with the city’s resilience, it is indelible. Expanded activity at Port Houston, particularly in terms of manufacturing, in addition to plastics and petrochemicals, has propelled Houston’s job growth. The same applies to the market’s emerging role as a logistics hub and the expansion of the Texas Medical Center and regional healthcare providers, as well as strong growth in financial services and construction sectors. All told, the metro …

July 19, 2019

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