The industrial market had a notable year in 2014. Vacancy declined 270 basis points from the first quarter of 2014 where nearly 1 million square feet of space was absorbed. It has been more than seven years since absorption has registered similar figures. The primary factor driving last year’s success was a handful of large deals with more than 50,000 square feet. The supply of larger, quality spaces was steadily leased up throughout the year. These accounted for 54 percent, or 522,000 square feet, of absorbed space. Market velocity slowed down during the fourth quarter, driven by a lack of quality inventory. Absorption registered a positive 103,000 square feet, and was the lowest quarterly level of 2014. The centrally located North I-25 submarket outshined all other submarkets. In the biggest deal of the quarter, Flagship Foods occupied nearly 79,000 square feet of space in the North I-25 submarket. There were also nine other spaces occupied in this submarket that contributed another 60,000 square feet of absorption. A developing concern for 2015 is the significant amount of new available space being brought to market. Although still occupied, a total of 244,000 square feet of new space was added to the inventory …
Western Market Reports
The Colorado Springs industrial real estate market continues to rebound with a decrease in vacancy to 8.1 percent, an increase in the average asking rate to $6.19 per square foot (NNN) and a net positive absorption of 199,101 square feet. Along with these improvements, there has been a healthy number of owner/user acquisitions in the industrial market that has created a more competitive market for both tenants and owner/user buyers over the past year. Colorado Springs will also soon benefit from Sierra Nevada Corporation’s recent decision to construct its new $88-million hangar facility at the Colorado Springs Airport, a development that will significantly aid the city’s struggling southeast submarket. Designed as a 90,000-square-foot facility, construction is slated to begin in early 2016. The company estimates it will create about 2,100 new jobs. The city will further benefit from the formation of a new 225,200-square-foot FedEx distribution facility currently scheduled to open in 2016 These new developments reflect the abundance of opportunities and land options near the airport in the southeast submarkets, with available sites ranging from small sites of less than an acre to sites larger than 50 acres. The southeast area also offers a wide range of office/warehouse flex …
The New Mexico retail market is continuing to change in a positive manner, which bodes well for property owners and businesses. There are new national, regional and local tenants looking at this market, moving in and around the shopping centers of New Mexico. New shopping centers are being built, while existing shopping centers are being redeveloped and traded. Some of the most significant transactions include Columbus Pacific acquiring Sierra Vista Shopping Center in Albuquerque and moving Stein Mart and Hobby Lobby into a former K-Mart space. Pete Daskalos Properties has also purchased Four Hills Village Shopping Center on Central and Tramway in the Southeast Heights submarket. The center now has a new movie cinema, among other changes to its anchors and tenant roster. A K-Mart building at Rio Rancho at Hilltop Plaza Shopping Center was also sold after the store vacated. The new landlord is looking to re-anchor that space as well. These big box vacancies have created redevelopment opportunities for existing shopping centers located in established trade centers while rents are increasing as the larger spaces are subdivided and leased to other tenants. This has created momentum in the market and upward pressure on asking lease rates. Other retailers …
Utah’s industrial real estate market shines while validating real estate fundamentals. Tight supply and consistent demand are contributing to rising sales prices and lease rates. The lack of options – with vacancy at 3.79 percent – presents a bottleneck to Utah’s economic growth. An underlying trend is the tenant’s flight to quality. Users are demanding high function in prime locations. One of the differences this time around is the increasing magnitude of discounts landlords are conceding to move properties with any functional obsolescence or locational challenges. Meanwhile, the delineation of legitimate submarkets along the Wasatch Front continues. All the data points are variable within the individual submarkets: land prices, lease rates, vacancy, etc. The submarkets were historically defined by square foot increments, then by use, and now, increasingly, by geography and use. Labor pool, access and infrastructure are prime determinants resurrecting the old adage of location, location, location. Utah’s most active industrial submarket continues to be the northwest region, followed by the Point of the Mountain. Demand for bulk distribution product was constant across most geographic markets, topping out at 2.1 million square feet, which is up 23 percent from 2014. Midbox, service and flex product were in highest demand …
The retail market in Utah continues to build steam and has expanded over the past 12 months. With these gains, tenants are in abundance and new construction is on the rise. Vacancy continued to improve through 2014, as the overall vacancy rate declined by 0.7 percentage points on a year-over-year basis to end at 6.2 percent. This represents the lowest vacancy rate of the past decade. With supply constrained and demand improving, average asking lease rates jumped by 9 percent on a year-over-year basis, to $18.98 per square foot. New construction continued across the valley, with 548,577 square feet of space added to the market. The local housing market drives retail development in Utah. About 18,573 building permits have been issued throughout the state in the past two years, including multifamily projects. This construction pushed many retailers into expansion mode, looking to take up shop in locations that cut off the competition. This is particularly true in one segment of the market that now stands supreme in the Utah retail ecosystem: grocery. Grocers have expanded at a breakneck rate. Sprout’s Farmers Market opened new stores in Holladay and South Jordan. A Smith’s Marketplace opened its doors in West Jordan at …
Be careful what you wish for, industrial brokers. After years of recession, brokers have been given a second life. Virtually every broker we talk to can appreciate the boom this time around. The Las Vegas industrial market has seen positive absorption nearing pre-recession highs. With land selling, occupancy rising and major players vying for any asset, the forecast should remain bright for the next 12 to 24 months. Nearly 3,000 acres of industrial, commercial and residential land was sold in 2014, accounting for more than $700 million in sales volume. Las Vegas’ industrial vacancy was around 9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, a low since 2008. The fourth quarter also marked the eighth consecutive quarter of positive net absorption in Southern Nevada’s industrial market. All good news. The marketplace is swelling with credibility. Panattoni Development Co. bought a 103,000-square-foot industrial building and is developing another 200,000 square feet in the southwest market. ProLogis is developing several big box developments in North Las Vegas. Dermody Properties is reportedly developing industrial space this year, too . One key component of these new developments is that Las Vegas’ Class A criteria needle is moving upward, with 30- to 32-foot clear big …
Boosted by healthy employment growth, demand for apartments in Las Vegas metro area surged in 2014. Local employment grew 2.7 percent, outpacing the 2.1 percent national gain last year as metro-wide apartment vacancy plunged 110 basis points to 6.8 percent. Employers added 22,900 jobs to payrolls in 2014, as nine of the 11 job sectors hired, indicating broad-based economic resiliency and supporting demand across all classes of apartments. Apartment operators particularly benefited from outsized expansion in the trade, transportation and utilities, and the leisure and hospitality sectors, where a combined 7,400 jobs were created. Mass hiring in the Downtown Summerlin mixed-use development, The LINQ and Zappos.com significantly contributed to growth in these segments. The greatest rate of increase, a 10.5 percent gain, occurred in the construction industry, as 4,200 workers were hired. The effects of hiring were felt in the apartment rental market as 3,790 units were absorbed in 2014, up from 1,990 units absorbed during the preceding year. Absorption outpaced deliveries, underpinning the sharp drop in vacancy. Operators moved to take advantage of demand by advancing monthly asking rents 3.1 percent marketwide to $837 per month, the greatest annual increase since 2006. At the same time, operators scaled back …
The Las Vegas office market continues to recover and stabilize, capping off 2014 with the 12th consecutive quarter of positive net absorption. Initially slow to recover following the recession, the area’s rebound has recently quickened. The market has an unemployment rate of 7.1 percent, with 2014 being the first year since 2008 to see a rate below 8 percent. Office-related jobs represented 20 percent of the workforce, second only to hospitality, proving the office market is an important part of the area’s growth and vitality. Class A office space along the I-215 Beltway currently shows strong activity. Las Vegas is home to two suburbs that historically were among the fastest-growing communities in the nation: Green Valley in the southeast and Summerlin in the west. Initially built as a means to connect the populations of these communities, the Beltway now extends around the city, connecting to I-15 in the northern valley. Notable recent developments along the Beltway include Krausz Companies’ and WGH Partners’ Gramercy, a mixed-use office, retail and multifamily project in the southwest that added 175,000 square feet of Class A office space in the third quarter of 2014, and The Howard Hughes Corporation’s Downtown Summerlin, a mixed-use project that …
It is great to be in Las Vegas and witness the city’s strong recovery from the economic lows of a few years ago. Exciting projects like the $500-million LINQ entertainment and retail promenade, the 1.6-million-square-foot Downtown Summerlin lifestyle center and the market’s first IKEA, now under development, are filling the region with promise. Las Vegas added more than 25,000 jobs between 2013 and 2014, a 3.3 percent increase, representing the third highest growth rate in the country during that time. As opposed to the previous economic boom that was largely driven by construction growth, the job growth in this recovery has been evenly spread across several sectors like general services (retail), professional/business, education, healthcare and leisure/travel. Las Vegas also hit a milestone in 2014 when it reached a record-setting 41.1 million visitors for the year. Those visitors included 5.2 million conventioneers, the highest total since 2008. As the Las Vegas economy continues to expand, retail is leading the pack with taxable sales that have already increased an astounding 29.4 percent from the recession low, including an 8.1 percent year-over-year increase in the past 12 months. Total taxable spending in the region is near its highest levels in history, reaching $36.2 …
The retail market in Utah continues to build steam and has expanded over the past 12 months. With these gains, tenants are in abundance and new construction is on the rise. Vacancy continued to improve through 2014, as the overall vacancy rate declined by 0.7 percentage points on a year-over-year basis to end at 6.2 percent. This represents the lowest vacancy rate of the past decade. With supply constrained and demand improving, average asking lease rates jumped by 9 percent on a year-over-year basis, to $18.98 per square foot. New construction continued across the valley, with 548,577 square feet of space added to the market. The local housing market drives retail development in Utah. About 18,573 building permits have been issued throughout the state in the past two years, including multifamily projects. This construction pushed many retailers into expansion mode, looking to take up shop in locations that cut off the competition. This is particularly true in one segment of the market that now stands supreme in the Utah retail ecosystem: grocery. Grocers have expanded at a breakneck rate. Sprout’s Farmers Market opened new stores in Holladay and South Jordan. A Smith’s Marketplace opened its doors in West Jordan at …