Charles Cronin of Axiom Capital Corp. discusses how the longest upcycle in history is impacting the lending environment. Cronin weighs in on the overall health of the commercial real estate lending industry now and what people learned from the 2007/08 financial crisis. What can people expect from the market going into 2020, especially with high prices and fierce competition in both sales and lending? Low credit spreads and rates are positive signs for commercial real estate. However, challenges related to high-end apartments and areas with very high costs of living signal the need for both discipline and flexibility as secondary and tertiary markets become more attractive. Watch the video to hear more about what Cronin sees in today’s market. This video is posted as part of REBusinessOnline’s Finance Insight series, covering MBA CREF 2020. Click here to subscribe to the Finance Insight newsletter, a four-week newsletter series, followed by video interviews from MBA CREF.
Multifamily developers in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex in 2020 expect to see a slightly slower pace of rent growth brought on by record levels of new supply in recent years. This trend, paired with higher costs of adding features that distinguish properties from their competition, could lead to slightly more modest profit margins for multifamily developers. According to the latest data from CoStar Group, the average rate of multifamily rent growth in DFW between 2015 and 2019 was roughly 3.5 percent, skewed in part by a massive annual gain of 6.1 percent in 2015 and 3.9 percent in 2016. The citywide vacancy rate compressed below 7 percent in those two years, leading to an even more pronounced building boom. Since then, annual rent growth has maintained the current projection of 2 to 3 percent, with gains in the Class B space outpacing those of Class A product, a classification that captures virtually all new construction outside of purpose-built affordable housing. During the five-year period ending in 2019, nearly 110,000 new units were delivered in DFW, with annual supply growth as a percentage of total inventory topping 10 percent in some years. The new year purports to be the first …
SPRING, TEXAS — LandPark Advisors LLC has acquired a 278-unit self-storage facility formerly known as Regal Self Storage in Spring, a northern suburb of Houston. The property was built on 1.8 acres in 2005 and features 43,025 square feet of net rentable space. LandPark will renovate the facility and rebrand it as Right Move Storage Spring. The seller was not disclosed.
BEDFORD, TEXAS — HotelBrokerOne, a hospitality investment brokerage and consulting firm, has arranged the sale of the 243-room Holiday Inn DFW Airport Area West hotel in the Fort Worth suburb of Bedford. Located a few miles from the southern entrance to the airport, the hotel features a fitness center, outdoor pool, business center and a cocktail lounge. Joe Strain and Bruce Holmes of HotelBrokerOne represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. The buyer was not disclosed.
PLANO, TEXAS — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of Legacy Self Storage, a 128-unit facility in Plano. The 15,628-square-foot facility was built in 2002 and features 80 climate-controlled units and 48 non-climate-controlled units. Brandon Karr and Danny Cunningham of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, a private family partnership, in the transaction. The duo also secured the buyer, a locally based investor.
PLANO, TEXAS — Transwestern Commercial Services (TCS) has negotiated three leases totaling 145,000 square feet at an office building located at 3033 W. President George Bush Turnpike in Plano. Nathan Durham and Duane Henley of TCS represented the landlord, Champion Partners, in all three lease negotiations. Brad Struck and Roy Reis of ESRP represented Paragon Healthcare in its 70,000-square-foot lease; Clay Vaughn and Preston Lynn of CBRE represented Australian technology firm Appen Inc. in its 50,000-square-foot lease; and a team led by Scott Hobbs of Cushman & Wakefield represented a division of Samsung in its 25,000-square-foot lease.
PASADENA, TEXAS — Dunavant Distribution Group LLC, a logistics and supply chain operator, has signed a 137,280-square-foot industrial lease at Bay Area Business Park in the eastern Houston suburb of Pasadena. John Nicholson of Colliers International represented Dunavant, which now occupies just under 1 million square feet in Bay Area Business Park, in the lease negotiations. Justin Robinson and Jeff Pate of Stream Realty Partners represented the landlord, PEPF Red Bluff.
John Randall of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital talks about the capital available in the commercial real estate market. The risk-adjusted returns available in CML [capital market line] debt capital markets is superior to that offered by alternative investment classes, he says. “Until we see any meaningful steepener on the curve or significant disruption, there’s really no end in sight to the liquidity in both debt and equity flowing into commercial real estate.” This breeds fierce competition, but there has not been any meaningful slippage in risk terms or how lenders are underwriting assets. As far as the multifamily sector goes, Randall sees no end to the growing demand from renters. “As a country, we are underhoused to the tune of 3 million to 4 million units… and we’re running at an annual deficit in excess of 350,000 units,” he notes. Watch the interview to hear Randall’s insights on multifamily, as well as Grandbridge’s plans following the merger of BB&T with SunTrust to form Truist. (Grandbridge is a subsidiary of BB&T, now Truist.) This video is posted as part of REBusinessOnline’s Finance Insight series, covering MBA CREF 2020. Click here to subscribe to the Finance Insight newsletter, a four-week …
IRVING, TEXAS — Invesco Real Estate and Perot Development Co. have begun construction on Phase I of DFW Park 161, an industrial project near DFW International Airport in Irving that will eventually offer 2.4 million square feet of space across 196 acres. Phase I will feature three logistics buildings totaling more than 1 million square feet that will be developed on a speculative basis. Phase II will involve a build-to-suit facility for an e-commerce user that will span more than 1.4 million square feet. The Phase I buildings are expected to be available for occupancy by early 2021. Halff Associates is the project architect and civil engineer, and Peinado Construction is the general contractor. First United Bank provided construction financing for the project, and Cushman & Wakefield is handling leasing.
AMARILLO, TEXAS — JLL has negotiated the sale of Westgate Mall, a 511,566-square-foot enclosed regional mall in Amarillo. The property was built on 93.7 acres in 1982 and has since been renovated multiple times, most recently in 2017. Westgate Mall was roughly 80 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants such as Dillard’s, Beall’s and Premiere Cinema, Shoe Dept. Encore and Forever 21. Dave Monahan, Cameron Pittman, Akhil Patel, Claudia Steeb and Barry Brown of JLL represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. A partnership between Mason Asset Management, Namdar Realty Group and CH Capital Group purchased the asset for an undisclosed price. The partnership also purchased the 663,978-square-foot South Park Mall in San Antonio as part of the same deal.