Texas

By Taylor Williams “The greatest victory is one that doesn’t require a battle.” Ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu penned that line as part of The Art of War, but in applying the expression to the (almost) equally cutthroat business of developing and investing in retail real estate, there is some wisdom to be gleaned. In simple terms, sometimes the best decision, at least temporarily, is to do nothing.  Passivity does not come easily to commercial builders and buyers. Where their investors are concerned, these companies often have strict timelines for deployment of funds and even stricter benchmarks for guaranteed returns. When market conditions are favorable, these groups are pressured to maximize growth, in terms of both direct mandates from shareholders and indirect obligations via competitors being aggressive in the market. For better or worse, the market sentiments surrounding real estate development and investment embody classic principles of capitalism, and that’s unlikely to ever change.  But if there is one thing developers, investors, lenders and operators across all asset classes can likely agree on, it’s that market conditions in 2024 have not been favorable. Yet the push for growth has merely slowed, not disappeared. New product must get developed to …