DEERFIELD, ILL. — Walgreens plans to increase the starting hourly wage for employees to $15 per hour. The wage increase will take effect in phases beginning in October of this year and is expected to be fully implemented by November 2022. The Deerfield-based company operates roughly 9,000 locations. The current starting wage at Walgreens is $10 per hour, but about half of its 190,000 hourly workers already earn at least $15 per hour, according to CNBC. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Walgreens has made additional investments in support of its employees such as bonus payments and a significant hiring initiative, through which the company added 25,000 full-time and part-time pharmacy team members. Walgreens has also accelerated implementation of remote and digitalized pharmacy resources. Total investment to support the starting wage increase is anticipated to be roughly $450 million over the next three years, with one-third of the amount invested in fiscal-year 2022. The company anticipates that it will partially absorb the investment through the normal course of business. The stock price for Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ: WBA) closed at $50.74 per share on Tuesday, Aug. 31, up from $36.76 per share one year ago.
LIVERMORE AND STOCKTON, CALIF. — Dalfen Industrial has purchased Las Positas Logistics Center in Livermore and Stockton Supply Chain Center II in Stockton. Terms of the transactions were not released. Las Positas Logistics Center is a 106,700-square-foot, front-load distribution building with close proximity to interstates 580, 80, 680 and 880. Stockton Supply Chain Center II features 50,400 square feet and close proximity to Interstate 5 and Highway 99, which provides same-day access to nearly 45 million people in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland and Seattle. With these acquisitions, Dalfen Industrial has added three Northern California buildings to its portfolio in the last two months.
NASHVILLE, TENN. — Fogelman Properties has completed the redevelopment of Stewarts Ferry, a 614-unit multifamily community located at 8100 Stewarts Ferry Parkway in Nashville. The renovation project took 18 months, and the development cost was $1 million. Fogelman made interior and exterior upgrades, as well as made enhancements to the pool area including the addition of an outdoor kitchen, LED lighting and brick pool deck. The community also unveiled a new fitness center with equipment and workout programs. Built in 1986, Stewarts Ferry offers one- and two-bedroom apartments and townhomes with rental rates starting at $1,113. The units feature oak cabinets and vanities, washers and dryers, patios or balconies, fireplaces and walk-in closets, as well as upgraded units available for rent. Additional community amenities include two stocked fishing ponds, a lighted tennis court and a community walking trail. The property is currently 97 percent occupied.
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Walker & Dunlop Bolsters Affordable Housing Business with $696M Acquisition of Alliant Capital, Affiliates
BETHESDA, MD. AND WOODLAND HILLS, CALIF. — Walker & Dunlop (NYSE: WD) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Alliant Capital Ltd., a privately held affordable housing asset management firm based in Woodland Hills. Under the terms of the purchase agreement, Walker & Dunlop will acquire Alliant and its affiliates, Alliant Strategic Investments and ADC Communities, at a total value of $696 million. Alliant is the sixth-largest syndicator of low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) in the United States and has participated in the development of over 100,000 affordable units serving over 400,000 families. ADC Communities is the affordable housing development arm of Alliant, which has financed 29 developments and over 5,400 units in eight states since 2014. Alliant Strategic Investments focuses on non-LIHTC affordable housing preservation, workforce housing and opportunity zone investments. The acquisition will bring Walker & Dunlop’s total affordable housing assets under management to $16 billion, with $14 billion of those assets under management belonging to Alliant. The move is expected to be accretive to Walker & Dunlop’s existing $112 billion servicing portfolio. “Alliant is one of the largest and most respected tax credit syndicators and affordable housing developers in the country. The addition of their people, …
WOODBRIDGE, VA. — Finmarc Management Inc. has sold a 14-building industrial portfolio in Woodbridge for $104.2 million. The buyer was a joint venture between Stockbridge Capital Group and Rosenthal Properties. Gerry Trainor, Caulley Derringer and Jim Cardellichio of Transwestern represented Finmarc in the transaction, and Joe Hoffman of Kelley Drye & Warren provided legal services to the Bethesda, Md.-based firm. The portfolio, which is located within Featherstone Industrial Park, includes nearly 740,000 square feet of warehouse and industrial space. The portfolio was 93 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants including Coleman Worldwide Moving, Foundation Building Materials, General Services Administration and Joe Moholland Moving. Featherstone Industrial Park is located adjacent to Jefferson Davis Highway, two miles from Interstate 95, 25 miles from Washington, D.C. and 30 miles from Dulles International Airport. The properties were part of a larger 16-building portfolio acquired by Finmarc in 2017.
By Phil Ross, CPA, accounting & audit partner, Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP After nearly 15 months of shutdowns and restrictions, New York City has taken a major step forward. Seventy percent of the city’s residents are now vaccinated, and restrictions significantly reduced across the area’s commercial spaces, from offices and retail to dining and hospitality. Mask mandates have been lifted and the hum of the metro area’s business districts is growing loud again. With an expected increase in demand for building upgrades and repositioning services to meet new market needs, as well as new projects across housing, infrastructure and healthcare, the construction sector is poised to see a more robust pipeline. During the pandemic slowdown, construction firms were understandably more focused on the short term. But with the market back on the upswing, now is the time to refocus on long-term goals and strategies. A major part of this is ensuring you have an internal organizational pipeline to continue growth well into the future and maintain your firm’s legacy of success. This is just as important as creating a business development strategy and building up a backlog of projects. Transitioning a construction business for the next generation and beyond …
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Multifamily Outlook: Growth Undiminished by Pandemic-Related Disruptions
The Roaring ’20s and the Great Wealth Transfer The United States is well on a path of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown that began in March 2020. More than 60 percent of the U.S. population has now received at least one dose of the vaccine, and more than half are fully vaccinated. Those figures increase significantly by age, particularly for the 65+ population[1]. The economy is booming this year — it is estimated to have grown by 7.8 percent[2] in the second quarter following 6.4 percent growth in the first quarter of 2021. Unemployment remains low at 5.9 percent in June due to 7.9 million jobs created in the past year. Retail sales are up by 23 percent year-over-year.[3] Even the battered restaurant industry has recovered, with sales again surpassing grocery sales as of April 2021. Pandemic-induced disruptions to labor and trade finally began showing in inflation figures. Even excluding the more volatile food and energy sectors, inflation soared from 1.6 percent in March to 4.5 percent in June, the highest pace since 1991. However, expectations are that the price pressure is a temporary adjustment as the economy recovers. Core inflation is expected to end the year at around 2.2 …
ATLANTA — Atlanta-based Home Depot (NYSE: HD) reported a drop of 5.8 percent in customer transactions in its fiscal second quarter that ended in August 2021, but the average ticket of customer sales was 11.3 percent larger than last year. As people go back to working in an office after working from home since the beginning of the pandemic, fewer shoppers visited Home Depot during the fiscal second quarter due to less interest in do-it-yourself projects, according to CNBC. The home improvement retailer reported $41.1 billion in sales during its fiscal second quarter, which was 8.1 percent higher than the same period in 2020. Last year, the retailer’s revenue was approximately $38.05 billion. According to a Refinitiv survey, the retailer’s second-quarter revenue was higher than what Wall Street expected at $40.79 billion. Additionally, Home Depot’s earnings per share was $4.53, which was higher than the $4.44 expected by Wall Street. Home Depot’s same-store sales are up 3.4 percent from the second quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2021 but it’s less than the 25 percent jump from the second quarter of 2019 to the same period in 2020. Home Depot’s stock price closed on Wednesday, Aug. 18 at …
DALLAS — AECOM (NYSE: ACM) will relocate its global headquarters from Los Angeles to Dallas, the engineering and infrastructure consulting giant said in a statement earlier this week. Beginning on Oct. 1, select corporate leaders, including CEO Troy Rudd, will join the 1,200-plus employees who currently work at AECOM’s Dallas office at 13355 Noel Road, as well as the firm’s other offices across Texas. About 2,500 employees will continue to work in the California offices, including Los Angeles. The company cited the market’s talent pool for engineering and infrastructure consulting as a key factor in its decision to relocate, while also crediting the “additional benefits as a corporate hub” that Dallas offers. AECOM, a Fortune 500 company, accrued $13.2 billion in revenue in its 2020 fiscal year. The company’s stock price closed at $63.19 per share on Wednesday, Aug. 18, up from $38.19 per share a year ago.
BENTONVILLE, ARK. — Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has seen an increase in revenue during its fiscal second quarter of 2021, which ended on July 31. Walmart’s total revenue was $141 billion, an increase of 2.4 percent year-over-year. According to Refinitiv, the discount retailer’s earnings per share was $1.78 adjusted, while it was expected to be $1.57, and the company’s revenue was $141.05 billion, higher than the $137.17 billion expected. The retailer revised its 2021 forecast and is now predicting its earnings per share to range from $6.20 to $6.35. Walmart’s net income declined to $4.28 billion from what it was a year prior at $6.48 billion. Walmart reported an increase in its grocery sales with 6.1 percent of revenue from groceries. The company’s food sales grew $2.4 billion more than a year ago, which CNBC attributes to customers being attracted to the cheaper food prices at Walmart. Additionally, the retailer’s e-commerce sales grew by 6 percent. Walmart predicts its global e-commerce sales will go up to $75 billion this year. CNBC also reports that grocery sales and e-commerce has slowed compared to when the pandemic first started and everyone was rushing to buy enough food, toilet paper and …