SAN FRANCISCO — Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS), a longtime apparel tenant in enclosed regional malls nationwide, has announced plans to close 350 stores under its Banana Republic and Gap banners in an effort to transition focus to e-commerce and off-mall retail locations. Store closures are scheduled for completion by fiscal year 2023, which ends Feb. 1, 2024, with 75 percent scheduled to close in 2021. By that time, the company expects 80 percent of its revenue to come from e-commerce and off-mall locations, including street-front retail stores and shops in strip and outlet centers. Gap is the latest mall staple to shutter locations amid struggles due to the COVID-19 pandemic, following Ascena Retail Group — the parent company of Ann Taylor, Justice, Loft, Lane Bryant, Catherines and Lou & Grey — Bed Bath & Beyond, J.C. Penney and GNC. Gap’s comparable sales were up 13 percent at the end of the second quarter, due in large part to an expanded focus on e-commerce and to the success of the company’s activewear brand, Athleta, which saw a 6 percent increase in sales during the quarter. The company also began producing and selling face masks at the start of the pandemic, sales …
By Ora Reynolds and Mike Bell, Hunt Midwest Kansas City industrial real estate is trending upward with no shortage of leasing activity. The city’s location in the heart of America, with 30 percent more interstate miles per capita running through it than any other city, offers efficiency and redundancy for global e-commerce and distribution operations. With over 270 million square feet of existing industrial space in both surface and underground business parks, ample land for new buildings, a skilled logistics workforce and robust power and fiber infrastructure, Kansas City is one of the preferred geographic locations for distribution centers and is poised for continued growth based on these strong fundamentals. The nation’s transition to online purchasing at an unprecedented pace has created ripples of change. The increase in e-commerce is driving demand for more distribution space at a rate of 1.25 million square feet for each $1 billion increase in online sales, and this demand puts an increasing pressure on the supply chain for resiliency. Americans are purchasing everything online, from food and essential supplies to clothing and gifts. In the second quarter of 2020, Americans increased their online purchasing by $211.5 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. …
Over the course of the past six months, the student housing industry has grappled with a variety of challenges. For colleges and universities, the largest hurdle heading into the fall semester was deciding the safest route to take for reopening campus. This included decisions on everything from whether or not in-person learning would be allowed, to whether students would be welcomed back into residence halls at normal volumes. These questions was deliberated over throughout the summer, sending a ripple effect through the industry as transactional volume slowed while investors waited to see how universities would proceed. As we move toward the close of October, universities have selected their path forward, and while these choices haven’t been set in stone due to the changing nature of the coronavirus, the industry is now able to get a better view of the pandemic’s impact on the fall semester and the outlook moving forward. Leaders in market analytics and multifamily research sat down for an early afternoon panel yesterday at the NMHC/InterFace Student Housing Conference to provide a comprehensive update on the economy at large with a focus on the student housing sector. Economic Update “COVID-19 ended almost an 11-year expansion period for the …
SAN FRANCISCO — Chicago-based REIT Ventas Inc. (NYSE: VTR), through its Life Sciences and Healthcare Real Estate Fund, has acquired an 800,000-square-foot life sciences campus in San Francisco for roughly $1 billion. The San Francisco Business Journal reports that the property is the Genesis South office and life sciences hub, which consists of two office and lab buildings totaling roughly 720,000 square feet, as well as a 72,000-square-foot building. The Class A campus is located on the city’s south side and consists of three newly built or renovated buildings. The campus was 96 percent leased at the time of sale with a weighted average lease term of more than six years. The property is purpose-built for advanced research functions and is predominantly features lab space supporting biotechnology and other life sciences research. Nearly half of the tenant roster consists of publicly traded companies with market capitalizations of $10 billion or higher that are backed by venture capital or private equity firms. The price represents a capitalization rate of approximately 5 percent. The seller was a partnership between Boston-based Bain Capital and San Diego-based Phase 3, according to IPE Real Assets, which provides global intelligence for institutional real estate investment. In …
For years, “just in time” has been the key to driving efficiency of retailers and manufacturers alike. This model by and large combined low-cost production in Asian markets supported by speedy air carrier distribution to move goods while holding minimal cushion for backup stock. Post-pandemic thinking could bring that epoch to an end. The crisis has underscored our distribution networks’ fragility, which are now vulnerable to closed facilities, ports and borders. Many businesses are planning major restructuring of their supply chain processes due to the disruptions that we all have endured in recent months. The new model based on quick recovery will likely be driven by resiliency that ensures adequate merchandise availability in the event of threats to a business’ supply chain stability. This will require more warehouse and distribution space to store goods for deliveries in last-mile markets. The noticeable effects continue to grow as more last-mile oriented warehouse space is leased closer to the end-user. Industrial users see the impact of the pandemic as a short-term challenge that is altering the long-term growth strategy of their corporate planning. By way of example, Publix’s Southeast store sales climbed 21.8 percent for the second quarter of this year. Grocery now …
LEAWOOD, KAN. — AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC) anticipates that existing cash resources will be largely depleted by the end of this year or early 2021 and will therefore require additional liquidity or increases in attendance levels, according to an SEC filing from Tuesday. As of Oct. 9, Leawood-based AMC had resumed operations at 494 of its 598 U.S. theaters, with limited seating capacities between 20 and 40 percent. Since the resumption of operations in U.S. markets, AMC has served more than 2.2 million customers, representing an attendance decline of roughly 85 percent compared with the same period a year ago. AMC cites new movie releases in October and November as incentive to stay open, even when other movie chains like Regal Cinemas have announced plans to temporarily suspend U.S. operations. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, CEO Adam Aron said AMC was doing everything it could to raise money to weather the COVID-19 pandemic and wasn’t considering bankruptcy at this time. AMC’s stock price closed at $2.96 per share Wednesday, Oct. 14, down from $8.95 per share one year ago.
ATLANTA AND SCHIPHOL, NETHERLANDS — Americold Realty Trust (NYSE: COLD) has agreed to acquire Agro Merchants Group, a privately held cold storage warehouse owner based in The Netherlands, for $1.74 billion. Atlanta-based Americold entered into the agreement with Agro Merchants’ owner, an investor group led by funds managed by Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management LP. The move will give Americold its first cold storage properties in Europe. Agro Merchants, which has its North American headquarters in Alpharetta, Ga., owns and operates 46 cold storage properties in 10 countries. The company is the fourth largest cold storage owner in the United States and third largest in Europe. Agro Merchants serves more than 2,900 customers across multiple industries. “We are confident that by joining Americold, we will accelerate our growth and by combining our complementary networks, we will be able to provide a more comprehensive range of solutions to customers around the world,” says Carlos Rodriguez, CEO of Agro Merchants. Americold is the only publicly traded REIT specializing in cold storage, which is seeing an influx of investment and leasing demand since the onset of the pandemic. According to a June report from Vyzn Research, the global cold storage sector is estimated …
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles-based Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT has completed its previously announced merger with Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT II in a stock-for-stock transaction, creating a combined company with more than $2 billion in gross real estate and real estate-related assets. The new company has retained the name Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT. “We believe the merger creates a stronger and more robust company, and provides significant benefits to stockholders, including improved access to capital markets and reduced operating costs,” says Keith Hall, CEO and a director of Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT. Houlihan Lokey acted as financial advisor to Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT’s special committee of the board of directors and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey acted as financial advisor to Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT II’s special committee of board of directors. Morrison & Foerster LLP, Rogers & Hardin LLP and DLA Piper LLP (US) served as legal counsel in the transaction.
TOLEDO, OHIO — Welltower Inc. (NYSE: WELL) has sold three separate portfolios totaling $1.3 billion in value. The portfolios comprise 11 seniors housing facilities in the Western United States, six seniors housing communities in Massachusetts and 20 outpatient medical facilities across five states. Separately, Welltower also announced on Monday a strategic personnel change in the C-suite as the Toledo-based REIT promoted Shankh Mitra from chief operating officer to CEO effective immediately. Tom DeRosa is stepping down from his role as CEO after six years. Mitra will also retain his chief investment officer title. Details of seniors housing sales The sales price of the Western portfolio totaled $702 million, or $466,000 per unit. The unnamed properties are situated in California, Washington and Nevada and have an average age of 12 years. Welltower’s previous ownership stake in the portfolio was 80 percent. The buyer was not disclosed. The sales price of the Massachusetts portfolio totaled $200 million, or $395,000 per unit. The unnamed properties have an average age of 19 years. Welltower is reducing its ownership stake from 95 percent to 20 percent. The remaining 80 percent of the portfolio will be owned by a fund co-managed by Taurus Investment Holdings and …
KNOXVILLE, TENN. — Regal Cinemas will temporarily suspend operations at all of its 536 U.S. theaters beginning Thursday, Oct. 8. British owner-operator Cineworld (LON: CINE) owns Knoxville, Tenn.-based Regal Cinemas, which has about 7,000 screens across its U.S. portfolio of theaters. Cineworld also announced plans to close all of its theaters in the United Kingdom this week. The closures will impact about 40,000 employees, according to Cineworld. “This is not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support a safe and sustainable reopening in the United States,” says Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld. “From putting in place robust health and safety measures at our theaters to joining our industry in making a collective commitment to the CinemaSafe protocols to reaching out to state and local officials to educate them on these initiatives, we are grateful for and proud of the hard work our employees put in to adapt our theaters to the new protocols,” he adds. While theaters in several major markets, most notably New York City, remain closed, many large cities have permitted theaters to reopen at limited capacities in recent weeks. Venues located in Manhattan’s famous Broadway District that showcase plays also …