(Panelists, clockwise from top left) Adam Tiktin, Tiktin Real Estate Investment Services; Rod Castan, Courtelis Company; Lyle Stern, Koniver Stern Group; Philip Rosen, Becker (moderator); Duane Stiller, Woolbright Development. Last week, Shopping Center Business and Southeast Real Estate Business hosted “South Florida Retail Outlook: What is the Impact of COVID-19 on South Florida’s Retail Sector?” Listen as a panel of retail experts discusses their gameplans: working with tenants and their employees as the industry seeks to adapt. Hear about attitudes towards loans, rent reductions, property value, next steps and more. See a list of some topics covered and their timestamps below: (07:00): How are restaurants and experiential tenants faring? (09:29) Adapting for the challenges of COVID-19 (17:28) South Florida retail rent trends over the next 180 days? (24:32) What can owners do today to position themselves to succeed? (36:00) When might we start to see real loan defaults and real distressed assets? (42:55) Lessons learned from 2007-2008 financial crisis (53:56) Decisions made in the pre-COVID-19 world that have carried over well into our current environment Hear how South Florida retail professionals are approaching industry challenges and evolving to meet the needs of retailers. Panelists: Philip Rosen, Becker (moderator) Adam Tiktin, …
SPRINGFIELD, MASS. — MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) has reopened its casino in the western Massachusetts city of Springfield at 25 percent of its original capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of July 13, there were 112,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the state of Massachusetts and 8,330 deaths. At this time, the resort’s 240-room hotel and spa remain closed, limiting the amenity options for guests to the 125,000-square-foot casino and three of the property’s food and beverage establishments, which will also operate at limited occupancies. Valet parking is also unavailable at this time. Employees and guests are required to wear masks in public settings, and plexiglass barriers have been installed in certain areas where social distancing is difficult to maintain. MGM has also set up handwashing stations throughout casino floor and will use digital menus as its restaurants to minimize sharing of surfaces.
EAST PEORIA, ILL. — Chicken Salad Chick has opened today at The Levee District in East Peoria. The restaurant, which specializes in homemade chicken salad, occupies 2,718 square feet between Jersey Mike’s Subs and Xfinity. The first 100 guests on opening day will receive one large serving of chicken salad per month for an entire year. The restaurant will open at limited capacity with social distancing measures in place for COVID-19. This will be the farthest north restaurant of Chicken Salad Chick’s 157 locations. Chicken Salad Chick currently operates in 17 states and is rapidly expanding with both franchise and company locations. Owned and managed by Cullinan Properties Ltd., The Levee District encompasses 650,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, as well as office, hotel and civic components.
Facility managers across the nation are sorting through information about the coronavirus and looking at building modifications that can prevent the spread. Owners and tenants alike in the office and retail sectors have turned to facility management professionals to help their businesses thrive under rapidly evolving circumstances. REBusinessOnline recently spoke with three facility management professionals from Lee & Associates via video conference about their company’s approach to facility management during the coronavirus pandemic. Teresa Gascho, Director of Management Services, Indianapolis; Frances Smith, Senior Vice President, Property Manager, Cincinnati; and John Rickert, President-Executive Managing Director, Cincinnati, spoke about how facility managers communicate with tenants, encourage healthy behaviors and support businesses in compassionate and creative ways. Communicating with Tenants About COVID-19 Regulations Early in the pandemic, facility managers were charged with limiting access to properties as buildings shut down. Now that occupants are returning to retail and office buildings, the team at Lee & Associates sees themselves as “facilitators and accommodators” for their tenants. Working to reopen buildings under the guidance and recommendations from state health departments and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) is a lot more involved than closing buildings — and it can be frustrating for all involved. However, Rickert notes, “We’re …
SALT LAKE CITY — A partnership between Lowe Property Group, BCG Holdings and Q Factor has broken ground on Post House. The mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly development will be located in Salt Lake City’s downtown Post District. MVE + Partners designed Post House, which will feature five buildings offering a total of 580 residential units, 22,405 square feet of retail space and 86,000 square feet of private and public outdoor space. Completion of the 488,765-square-foot project is scheduled for spring 2023, with the first residential and retail units slated to open in spring 2022. The current site holds features a variety of existing mixed-use industrial buildings, including the Newspaper Agency Corp. Building, that will be integrated into the community’s plan. The community’s walkable ground level will include 22,000 square feet of retail space, including Post House Market, a multi-tenant market hall. Comprising 461,921 square feet of rentable space, Post House Apartments will offer units ranging from 385 square feet to 2,030 square feet. Amenities will include lofts and private outdoor space, including four rooftop decks with firepits, bars, lounges, seating and barbecue grills. Additionally, the property will feature two private outdoor courtyards featuring a series of indoor/outdoor pools and a 5,604-square-foot fitness …
HUNTLEY, ILL. — Principle Construction Corp. has completed the conversion of a former Chevrolet auto dealership in Huntley into a brewing facility and full-service restaurant for More Brewing. The property is located at 13980 Automall Drive within metro Chicago. The 25,302-square-foot building includes 11,302 square feet of beer production space and a 14,000-square-foot restaurant with two private dining rooms that will double as barrel-aging rooms. Guests dining at the restaurant will be able to view the brewing area through 12-foot glass walls. The property features four drive-in doors for the distribution of More’s products and 114 car parking spaces for customers and employees. Harris Architects provided architectural services. Dominic Carbonari of JLL provided brokerage services on behalf of More. A timeline for opening was not disclosed.
LOS ANGELES — Shapell Liberty Investment Properties has completed the lifestyle and entertainment portions of The Vineyards at Porter Ranch, a $150 million mixed-use development in Los Angeles’ Porter Ranch neighborhood. AO Architects designed this portion of The Vineyards, which features 273,000 square feet of open-air, mixed-use space at 20000-20250 W. Rinaldi St. The pedestrian-friendly development includes a main street, central green area for community events and a 4,000-square-foot community meeting room. Current tenants of the property include Whole Foods Market, AMC Theaters, Ulta Beauty, Nordstrom Rack, Gus’s Barbeque, Lure Fish House and Finney’s Crafthouse & Kitchen. The project team included Mike Lebeman of JLL’s Project and Development Services group and Moorefield Construction. The full development includes a recently completed, three-story medical office building occupied by Kaiser Permanente, a 100-room Hampton Inn & Suites slated for completion in 2021 and a 266-unit apartment community scheduled to open this fall.
By Steve Nowak, Siegel Jennings Co. A recent decision from an Ohio appeals court highlights a developing and troubling pattern in the state’s property tax valuation appeals. In a number of cases, an appraiser’s misuse of the highest and best use concept has led to extreme overvaluations. Given its potential to grossly inflate tax liabilities, property owners and well-known tenants need to be aware of this alarming trend and how to best respond. In the recently decided case, a property used as a McDonald’s restaurant in Northeast Ohio received widely varied appraisals. The county assessor, in the ordinary course of setting values, assessed the value at $1.3 million. Then a Member of the Appraisal Institute (MAI) appraiser hired by the property owner calculated a value of $715,000. Another MAI appraiser, this one hired by the county assessor, set the value at $1.9 million. The average of the two MAI appraisals equals $1.3 million, closely mirroring the county’s initial value. Despite the property owner having met its burden of proof at the first hearing level, the county board of revision rejected the property owner’s evidence without analysis or explanation. The owner then appealed to the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals (BTA). …
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The advance estimate for U.S. retail and food services sales, including e-commerce, in May is 17.7 percent higher than in April, the U.S. Commerce Department reported this morning. May is the first month since the COVID-19 outbreak halted the U.S. economy that has shown positive month-over-month growth. April was down 14.7 percent from March, and March decreased nearly 10 percent from February. Spending in May was at $485.5 billion, still lower than pre-pandemic levels. February’s total spending came in at $527.3 billion. “These sales numbers do not reflect the same strength we had going into the pandemic, but they certainly reflect the trajectory we need coming out of it,” National Retail Federation (NRF) president and CEO Matthew Shay said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “The most important thing now is to keep these retail stores open for business and not penalize them by closing their doors in the event of a coronavirus surge. “As those stores that remained open have shown, retailers have developed solutions that protect the safety of their customers and associates, and they are sharing those lessons to the benefit of store owners large and small in communities across the country.”
CHICAGO — McDonald’s says that U.S. same-store sales have sequentially improved from late March through May. For the month of May, the Chicago-based fast food giant reported a decline in U.S. same-store sales of 5.1 percent, compared with 19.2 percent for the month of April. Globally, sales fell 29.8 percent quarter-to-date through May. McDonald’s says that 95 percent of its restaurants globally are now open. In the United States, more than 1,000 restaurant dining rooms have reopened with reduced seating capacity. “Our unique advantages, including a high percentage of drive-thru restaurants and investments in delivery and digital, have enabled us to adapt to the changing landscape presented by the COVID-19 outbreak,” says Chris Kempczinski, president and CEO.