COLUMBUS, OHIO — Cassidy Turley has arranged the lease of 12,765 square feet of office space in Columbus. New York-based CT Corp. has renewed its lease with Equity Office Properties at 4400 Easton Commons, Suite 125. Built in 2005, the office building in northeast Columbus has easy access to Interstate 71, Interstate 270 and Interstate 670. The property is less than a mile from Port Columbus International Airport. Randy Stephens and Brian Douglas represented CT Corp. in the transaction. Tyler Owens and Mark Friedman of Colliers International represented Chicago-based Equity Office Properties.
ORANGE TOWNSHIP, OHIO — NexCore Group LLC has broken ground on a 130,000-square-foot, integrated ambulatory care center for Mount Carmel Health System in Lewis Center, an unincorporated community of northwestern Orange Township. The site for MC Fitness & Health is located at 7100 Graphics Way. The three-level center will provide outpatient care, fitness, wellness education and rehabilitation facilities. In addition to housing primary care and specialty physicians with the Mount Carmel Medical Group, the facility will also provide approximately 20,000 rentable square feet of medical office space for independent physicians. Construction on the project is set for completion in October 2015. Denver, Colo.-based NexCore Group is the developer and is the owner of the project. OLC Architecture is providing architectural services. Elford Inc. is the construction manager and NexCore Properties LLC will manage the property.
To say that 2014 has been filled with great excitement for Cleveland would be an understatement. In early July, the Republican National Committee selected Cleveland as the host city for its 2016 convention. That same month, NBA star LeBron James announced his intent to return to his hometown Cavaliers. Beyond those splashy headlines, during the first half of the year several real estate projects were announced. The planned projects combined with those already under construction or completed since 2010 represent $5.5 billion in public and private investment in downtown Cleveland. Apartment Building Boom One of the most significant stories in Cleveland is that the residential boom downtown continues to gain momentum. The overall occupancy rate in the apartment sector within the CBD rose from 94.5 percent in the first quarter of 2014 to just over 98 percent at mid-year, according to a recent study released by the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. As a result, new projects continue to pile up in an effort to meet the ever-increasing demand. In addition to the 1,000-plus rental units currently under construction, there are now more than 1,100 units in various planning stages. Projects announced since the first of the year include The Standard Building …
Before the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009, many developers believed they could continue to build commercial product and demand would follow. But as the economy came to a screeching halt, reality kicked in and many owners and developers were stuck with product that couldn’t be sold or leased. Fast forward to 2014, and that stagnant product has slowly been absorbed as the economy has gradually recovered. From 2008 to 2014, construction of commercial real estate fizzled, resulting in lower vacancy rates and increased net absorption. Now, construction activity is beginning to increase and speculative construction is back in action. This uptick in construction and speculative development is especially apparent in the industrial real estate market. In Ohio, the industrial vacancy rate sits at an average of 6.8 percent for 962 million square feet of industrial space that Colliers|Ohio tracks in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton. Colliers|Ohio recorded more than 10 million square feet of positive absorption in 2013, and 6.9 million square feet during the first half of this year. Colliers has tracked an uptick in absorption in the industrial market for several years, and the supply of quality Class A bulk product has diminished significantly. Developers have taken …
For Cincinnati residents and businesses, the ongoing revitalization of the city’s urban core is an exciting example of how the traditional live, work and play dynamic can set in motion a cycle of positive reinforcement whereby new housing spurs new commercial development, which in turn encourages additional residential growth. While the Queen City’s renewed civic connections and commercial synergies are making headlines and garnering justified attention, it is precisely this residential spark that has fanned the retail flame. Like so much development — and redevelopment — it is all about “chasing rooftops,” responding to demographic shifts and finding new ways to meet the needs of a changing urban populous. In today’s rapidly evolving Cincinnati market, those changes are evident, and the resulting development is literally and figuratively altering the Cincinnati cityscape. City Living Cincinnati’s recent urban residential development can be broken down into two categories: downtown development in and around the central business district (CBD), and the development in the first-ring communities just outside of that urban core. Both areas are seeing a great deal of high-end multifamily coming online. Typically, this new housing stock is amenity-driven and priced at a premium. The tight rental market for this product has …
Apartment development is currently the driving force in downtown Cleveland’s commercial real estate market, including the conversion of office buildings to residential use and the rehabilitation of existing apartment buildings. Downtown Cleveland’s population stands at more than 12,500, an 88 percent increase since 2000, according to a first-quarter market update from the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. As a result, apartment demand is unrelenting with many properties boasting a long waiting list. The renovated Ameritrust Building that includes “The 9” Apartments is one such development that has a significant waiting list.The strong tenant demand has driven Cleveland’s apartment vacancy to below 5 percent. Corporate Relocations In response to a growing number of young professionals seeking a downtown work/live/play environment, several corporations have relocated from the suburbs to downtown Cleveland. This trend is particularly evident among high-tech companies. The list of companies growing and expanding downtown includes Dakota Software, Dwellworks, National General Insurance, OnShift, BrandMuscle and BrownFlynn. Renewed growth and demand for an efficient workplace has led to the construction of Cleveland’s first multi-tenant office building in decades, the Ernst & Young Tower. Inquiries and occupancy at the Ernst & Young Tower have been so robust that the developer, Fairmount Properties, has broken …
Dayton, Ohio, has had its struggles over the years transitioning from a predominantly automotive manufacturing economy to one with a more diverse base of industries such as transportation and logistics, aerospace technology, medical device manufacturing and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) development. Throughout this tumultuous period, Dayton’s industrial commercial real estate market has had to adapt to the evolving needs of the new tenant mix. Part of that adaptation has led to the construction of several build-to-suits over the last 18 months. This construction trend is being driven by companies opting for build-to-suit projects instead of purchasing existing properties due to their age, inadequate size or functional obsolescence such as inadequate ceiling heights. The trend is evident in the large amount of industrial space that has been delivered in recent years or is currently under construction in the Dayton market. The impact of this trend is an elevated vacancy rate when compared to other Midwest markets. Dayton’s overall industrial vacancy rate at the end of the first quarter of 2014 stood at 14.8 percent compared with 5.8 percent for Cincinnati. Drivers of New Construction Like much of the industrial market throughout the country, the transportation and logistics industry is driving development …
Development in urban Cincinnati is rejuvenating the economy, increasing employment opportunities and creating new demand for apartments. The Banks, an 18-acre, mixed use-development project along the Ohio River between the Great American Ball Park, home of the Cincinnati Reds and new Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals, is transforming downtown Cincinnati and supporting economic growth. Atlanta-based Carter and the Harold A. Dawson Co. are developers of The Banks. Phase I, which opened in 2011, created 3,600 permanent jobs and included the Current at The Banks project, a 300-unit apartment building with 96,000 square feet of street-level retail space. The apartments are currently fully leased, and the retail space is approximately 92 percent occupied. The popularity of Current at The Banks has been so great that there is a waiting list for apartments. Work recently began on Phase II of The Banks, which will add more apartments on the western half of the site. Infrastructure is Key Constuction continues on Cincinnati’s new multi-faceted transportation system that will cover nearly four miles around downtown and connect major employment centers. Upon completion, The Banks will be the southern terminus of the light rail system linking Uptown, Over-the-Rhine and Downtown to the …
The vital signs of Cincinnati’s industrial market are collectively the healthiest they’ve been since 2007, including vacancy, absorption, lease rates, property values and investment sales activity. This uptick is particularly encouraging considering that the recovery in the Cincinnati industrial market lagged the top five markets in this property sector nationally coming out of the Great Recession. The historical 20-year average vacancy rate for Cincinnati’s industrial market has ranged between 3 and 5 percent, but rose as high as 10 percent in 2008. With overall industrial vacancy on the decline for the past seven quarters, vacancy now stands at 6.35 percent, a five-year low. Bulk Distribution Space Becomes Scarce Vacancy in the bulk distribution subsector — large warehouse buildings primarily used to accommodate e-commerce, apparel or consumer goods — has been declining for the past eight quarters and now stands at 7 percent. That’s a departure from the usual 10 to 13 percent range. In the 29 million-square-foot bulk warehouse submarket of Northern Kentucky, vacancy is less than 2 percent. Space is so limited that no Class A bulk spaces larger than 200,000 square feet are currently available in Northern Kentucky. VanTrust Real Estate LLC has begun construction on a 273,000-square-foot …
The Toledo industrial market remained stuck in a bit of a soft patch through most of the second half of 2013. Transaction activity was tepid until mid to late fourth quarter when deal flow began to increase. Consequently, the overall market vacancy rate and average asking rental rate have been essentially flat since mid-2013. With the delivery of the newly built and fully occupied FedEx building in Perrysburg Township contributing materially, the market did absorb more than 316,000 square feet during the last six months of 2013. Encouraging Signs There are a number of factors suggesting that real estate fundamentals in Toledo’s industrial market will start moving in a positive direction this year, in some cases quite dramatically. The first is a new construction boom, which we have been anticipating for some time. With the groundbreaking for the new 1.6 million-square-foot Home Depot warehouse in Troy Township, there is now more space under construction than at any time since before the recession. Several other build-to-suit projects are already in the works and poised to launch in 2014. Secondly, a rebound in demand from users at the end of 2013 year suggests there will be more transaction activity in the coming …