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In retail, nothing remains the same for long. A century ago, America saw the rise of mega department stores as category killers. In the middle of the 20th Century, regional malls were beginning their rise. That was followed by the power centers and lifesyle centers of 1990s and 2000s. Today, experience is the name of the game; consumers would rather spend time doing what they enjoy than shopping for common goods. They strive to make every trip an experience. In some ways, it is akin to the original days of the department store and regional mall, where every turn was met with something unexpected and new. Like the entertainment industry, the shopping center industry now touts more “original content” than replication in its medium, the physical retail format. Every venue strives to be different, and in some cases chain retailers have strived to make their locations differ from one another. REBusiness Online’s sister publication Shopping Center Business recently spoke with Garrick Brown, vice president of retail research at Cushman & Wakefield, one of the foremost retail analysts in the industry, to see what trends he is watching as the industry enters 2017. Brown will be one of the keynote speakers at Entertainment Experience Evolution, February 7-8 in Santa Monica, produced by Shopping Center Business. SCB: What trends are you seeing as we move through the holiday season this year? Brown: We are definitely seeing another shift towards entertainment, …

Portfolio sales occupy their own unique category of commercial real estate transactions. The challenges, complexities and procedural nuances that make portfolio sales so distinctive also limit the number of parties that can make such purchases. In a standard commercial real estate transaction, familiar steps in a fairly standard process give prospective buyers plenty of time and opportunity to conduct their due diligence. From a buyer’s standpoint, there is little to no risk until your due diligence process is complete. You aren’t spending any money until you have the project under contract and, as long as you have the deal in hand, no one else can move on it. From the initial letter of intent through to the purchase agreement, and even up to the eventual closing, buyers can pull out of the deal for any number of reasons. Consequently, the overall obligation and financial exposure for prospective buyers is fairly minimal. Portfolio sales completely reverse the risk equation/analysis. The portfolio is marketed privately and the sale is conducted almost like a managed auction. Prospective buyers will typically submit letters of intent. Once the seller thinks they have a winner on the economics of the deal, they will move forward. Unlike a …

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The vast majority of foreign investors in U.S. real estate will either maintain or increase their level of investment from 2016 to 2017, according to a newly released survey conducted by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE). AFIRE is a Washington, D.C.-based organization assisting and representing foreign investors, with over 200 members from 22 countries. According to the organization’s survey, 95 percent of its members will spend the same or more on U.S. real estate in 2017 as they did in 2016. Members of AFIRE are among the largest international institutional real estate investors in the world and have an estimated $2 trillion in real estate assets under management globally. The survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2016 by the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, Wisconsin School of Business. City-by-City Breakdown For the seventh year in a row, New York City was named the top U.S. investment city by AFIRE’s members, and for the third year in a row was No. 1 globally. The other top five U.S. cities, in order, were Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle and San Francisco. For the first time since the survey began in 1992, Washington, …