Western Market Reports

Inland Empire Retail Market Poised for Resiliency in 2021

by Jeff Shaw February 2, 2021

While the Inland Empire economy was hit hard in 2020, we remain optimistic on the retail sector’s recovery over the coming 12 to 24 months. This market is a benefactor of COVID-19 in that more people than ever before are able to work remotely. This has triggered a migration from urban cores to more spacious and affordable housing in the newer residential communities of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. As the population is anticipated to expand here, retail will directly benefit as residents are more likely to have additional discretionary income to allocate to retail and restaurant venues. In particular, there are many high-growth submarkets to watch within the region. Some of our top areas include Eastvale, Jurupa Valley and Rialto, which have all experienced expansion despite the restrictions and challenges that COVID has created. They are seeing a significant amount of residential growth as they offer strong school districts, expansive parks, affordable housing, proximity to large employment bases and newer retail amenities. A young family demographic is moving to towns like these, and retail users have taken notice. This has resulted in large retail projects like Renaissance Marketplace in Rialto and the Station in Eastvale taking shape. Turning to …

February 2, 2021

Hospitality Market Reports Nevada Retail Western Western Market Reports

Las Vegas Gaming: The Ugly, the Bad and the Good

by Jeff Shaw January 26, 2021

By Mike Mixer, Colliers International – Las Vegas At the beginning of 2020, Las Vegas was anything but ugly. Nevada’s economy was one of the fastest growing in the country. Unemployment was the lowest ever at 3.6 percent, while casinos reported three straight months of $1 billion in winnings. Then COVID came along and things got real ugly, real quick. The entire Las Vegas Strip was shut down, closed…on less than a day’s notice. The Las Vegas unemployment rate hit a staggering 34.2 percent. One out of three people in Las Vegas became unemployed in April 2020. Meanwhile, the last time the Strip was shut down was after the JFK assassination in 1963. The bad doesn’t look so bad compared to the ugly. As the year comes to a close, the Las Vegas Strip has reopened, but with fewer visitors. Low visitor demand hits hard in a city with more than 150,000 rooms. Las Vegas hotel occupancy has dropped from 90 percent down to 44 percent. Room rates have seen a milder drop this year, down only 6.77 percent (from $133 a night to $124 a night). The Las Vegas Gaming Market was also unlucky, especially without a robust convention …

January 26, 2021

California Industrial Market Reports Western Western Market Reports

Soaring Demand for Inland Empire Warehouse Space Brings Opportunities for Developers

by Jeff Shaw January 21, 2021

By Richard Lee and J.C. Casillas, NAI Capital Commercial In the fourth quarter of 2020, the Inland Empire industrial market continued to battle the effects of an economy that has so far spent three-fourths of the year under a COVID-19 shutdown. After dipping for several quarters, the average asking rent held steady at $0.72 triple net, down 6.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019. The vacancy rate nudged up 10 basis points from the previous quarter’s record low, down 90 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2019 to 3.9 percent. Pointing to the market’s resilience this time around, vacancy remains 8.4 percentage points lower than the prior peak, which hit in the third quarter of 2009 during the Great Recession. There has been exponential growth in demand for ecommerce due to COVID-19 and related industries, such as packaging and third party logistics. This has resulted in a fast recovery for the Inland Empire industrial market. Soaring demand for warehouse and distribution space has created opportunities for developers. The vacancy rate has increased, due to the 1.9 million square feet of completed construction added to the market in the fourth quarter of 2020. Since the first quarter of this …

January 21, 2021

Industrial Market Reports Western Market Reports

Seattle’s Industrial Market Pauses During COVID-19

by Jeff Shaw September 29, 2020

By Jeff Forsberg, Principal, NAI Puget Sound Properties It has been interesting, to say the least, since our governor issued the stay-at-home order on March 23 and we all started contemplating a future where we’d never have to get out of our pajamas. Though our market’s industrial sector isn’t immune to disruptions, the immediate fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is not quite as dire as some might have projected. The Seattle industrial market comprises about 223 million square feet. This essentially covers the area between the two major ports (Seattle and Tacoma) in our region. Bolstered by large lease transactions with PCC Logistics (400,000 square feet), Darigold (284,067 square feet), Scotts (245,185 square feet), Ikea (200,000 square feet), Infinity Global Express (203,505 square feet) and Filson (126,028 square feet), our market posted respectable second-quarter lease stats. The current vacancy rate hovers at 5.05 percent, which is great for any market but slightly above average on what we have seen here over the past 10 years. The average monthly shell rate has remained flat at $0.659 per square foot, but apart from a few subleases, we haven’t seen a dramatic reduction in rent. Driving most of these trends is the rising …

September 29, 2020

Arizona Market Reports Multifamily Western Western Market Reports

Multifamily Trends Remain Positive in Phoenix

by Jeff Shaw September 24, 2020

By Brian Tranetzki, Principal, Taylor Street Advisors Multifamily is staying strong despite COVID-19. That’s because this product type was coming off an extremely hot market at the end of 2019 and early 2020 before the pandemic hit. The Phoenix metro area remains one of the few markets nationally with positive rent growth due to the steady population increase. Now, just months away from 2021, the market is faced with many unknown factors, such as unemployment, election outcomes, continued COVID uncertainty and the risk of eliminating 1031 exchanges. In turn, buyer sentiment also remains intense with a flurry of activity on those very exchanges. Development is still robust in the valley, with significant increases in downtown Phoenix, downtown Tempe and Chandler/Gilbert. There are currently more than 15,000 units under construction in the region. The building sizes are getting larger, while individual units are getting smaller. Developers are focused on building Class A properties with an emphasis on higher-end amenities, pool areas and concierge services. The class type determines whether it’s a landlord or tenant market. Tenants have several options in the Class A rental space, particularly as new units are delivered, which makes this a tenant-friendly environment. Class A vacancy is …

September 24, 2020

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In Search of Relative Value in Orange County’s Apartment Sector

by Sarah Daniels September 24, 2020

Orange County offers residents all the key elements of the American dream. Its virtues are numerous and faults few. Indeed, Moody’s Analytics ranks the quality of life in the OC 10th highest among the 378 U.S. metros it reports on, just a half-step behind leaders Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. Orange County is a terrific place to live, but is it a good place to invest? Gauging by observed capitalization rate trends, one may conclude that county apartment properties are highly prized gems. Class A trophy properties trade to going-in yields in the 4.00 percent to 4.10 percent area, and Class B and C garden complexes are typically priced to yields in the mid-4s, all only 25 basis points or so behind Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area comparisons. But judging from transaction velocity, one might draw a different conclusion. Only six Orange County multifamily properties of 50 units or more have changed hands since mid-year 2019, and not a single sale has closed since February. Even by the cautious norms of the moment, this stands out as a market in search of price discovery. Slow transaction velocity can be ascribed, in part, to the prevailing buy and …

September 24, 2020

California Market Reports Retail Western Western Market Reports

A Hollywood Ending for LA Retail?

by Jeff Shaw August 3, 2020

By Matthew M. May, President, May Realty Advisors A bird’s-eye look at the Los Angeles metro prior to the coronavirus outbreak reveals that the area was already beginning to soften as it worked its way through more than 1.26 million square feet of new retail space that was delivered to neighborhood and community shopping centers over the past five years. According to REIS, about 35 percent of that, or 443,000 square feet, came online in 2018. Vacancy rates increased every year for the past five years, while averaging about 7.3 percent for the metro area in 2019. Despite the increasing vacancy, we also had quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year growth in asking rents, primarily led by increases in the higher-end neighborhoods. At the street level, quarterly asking rents for neighborhood and community centers averaged about $33.03 for 2019, while increasing about $0.5 per square foot from 2018 to 2019. However, pre-leasing has been weakening over the past few quarters. Discussions in development circles were indicating fewer mixed-use projects in the planning stages with more builders favoring dedicated multifamily builds. Nevertheless, new retail inventory was in the pipeline for this year, with optimism surrounding the evolving retail landscape. All of this was, of …

August 3, 2020

Market Reports New Mexico Office Western Western Market Reports

Office Market Remains Steady in Albuquerque

by Jeff Shaw July 28, 2020

By Jordan Shipley, Associate Broker, Allen Sigmon Real Estate Group Lease rates are up and vacancy is down, two important things all landlords want to hear. For office landlords in New Mexico, these are two promising trends that have continued for the past few quarters to round out 2019. Average asking rates in Albuquerque came in at $18.76 per square foot, full service, according to Collier’s fourth-quarter 2019 Albuquerque office market report. Colliers also noted this was the first time average market rates have stayed above $18 per square foot for three consecutive quarters. This is currently the highest-recorded asking rate on record for the market. Office users that are relocating are shrinking their overall space with fewer hard-wall offices and more collaborative work areas. With this trend comes ability to use tenant improvement money in different ways than simply walling off an office for each employee. Some of this money can now be spent on amenities like coffee bars, modern finishes, and wellness features, such as showers for those who bike to work or exercise at lunch. Collaboration is also extending beyond the demising walls of the office space as mixed-use projects become more popular. Winrock Town Center and Uptown Tower, two …

July 28, 2020

California Market Reports Office Western Western Market Reports

L.A.’s Office Market Pauses after Robust Start to 2020

by Jeff Shaw July 22, 2020

By Chandler A. Larsen, Principal, Avison Young This year started off where 2019 finished for the Los Angeles office property sector – and that’s red hot! During the first two and a half months of the year, office space absorption was on pace to beat 2019. Rents were steadily increasing past $39.84 per square foot on an annual gross basis, record-high (psf) sales prices were recorded across product types and rising construction costs were complemented by a construction pipeline of more than 8 million square feet of office space. Suddenly, by mid-March, COVID-19 had taken hold in the U.S. and abruptly halted all the momentum the Los Angeles office sector had built up. However, the emergency interest rate cuts proposed by central banks across the globe have flooded markets with liquidity, helping to avoid contagion throughout the financial sector. This, in conjunction with the $170 billion in commercial investor relief included in the current stimulus package, points to the potential for a short downturn. Nevertheless, the jury is still out on just how long and how deep this slowdown will be as previously unimaginable unemployment numbers continue to be reported and economic forecasts are trending in the wrong direction. In …

July 22, 2020

Market Reports New Mexico Retail Western Western Market Reports

New Mexico Retail Pauses, But Should Return After COVID-19

by Jeff Shaw July 21, 2020

By George Chronis, Senior Advisor, SVN/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage New Mexico retail has been negatively impacted by the state’s stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus. The retail industry was looking pretty promising with robust sales and leasing activity in 2019 and at the beginning of 2020 – New Mexico included. I thought we were off to a good start with several developments near completion, several in progress and several more to begin in 2020. The full economic impact of shuttering our economy for two months or more won’t be known for quite some time. General retail, gyms, restaurants and soft good retailers have been hit the hardest. I have recently consulted with landlords, tenants and developers who have active projects throughout the state. Developers and landlords in the Permian Basin have been hit especially hard by a double whammy. This includes New Mexico’s stay-at-home order, which was compounded by lower global demand for crude oil and the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. We shall see who emerges and reopens for business when the stay-at-home order is lifted. There will be some opportunities to expand for those who still have strong financial positions after all this passes. Many landlords …

July 21, 2020

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