Arizona

After muddling through the post-recession with office vacancy rates stuck around 20 percent for the overall Phoenix office market, the office sector has begun to show elements of stabilization in the Valley of the Sun. The unemployment rate in Phoenix plummeted to 5 percent in April this year, down from more than 11 percent near the end of 2009. The overall office vacancy ended the first quarter of this year at 17.2 percent. Second quarter figures were not available at press time, but my colleagues and I think it will dip below 17 percent at mid-year. If it does, the vacancy rate will have dropped nearly 300 basis points over the previous 24 months. The submarkets with the lowest vacancy rates are the usual suspects in our marketplace: Scottsdale (11.2 percent), 44th Street Corridor (aka Camelback Corridor at 11.6 percent) and Tempe, which houses the main campus of Arizona State University (12.7 percent). The slow and steady recovery makes for a healthier market than boom and bust swings. Some of the region’s larger office occupiers have expanded in recent years, which account for a substantial amount of office space absorption. A short list of growing companies with significant footprints here …

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SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. — Arizona-based marketing agency Leavitt Digital has launched its Senior Living Division and hired Kim Tranmer, a 25-year industry veteran, as managing director. Leavitt Digital’s new division focuses on increasing the online presence, search engine optimization (SEO), review monitoring, and press releases distribution in the seniors housing industry. Tranmer’s career in seniors housing includes sales, marketing, consulting and management prior to joining Leavitt Digital. Her primary role will be business development and relationship management, presenting Leavitt Digital’s platform to owners, managers and consultants in the industry.

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Before raising the curtain on 2015, it is important to understand how the stage has been set. The Phoenix industrial sector continues to build for changes in the market. Local and national developers delivered 6.3 million square feet of speculative industrial warehousing in the market last year, primarily due to big box projects. While most of these projects were in the Southwest Phoenix submarket, we have seen construction in the Sky Harbor and Southeast Valley submarkets as well. The national economy continues to improve slowly, and while activity levels during the numerous projects have been steady, closed deals for large blocks of space continue to be elusive. Although net absorption was positive by the end of last year, lease transaction volumes were mostly in the 50,000 to 200,000 square feet range. This prompted developers to modify their efforts by offering to divide their big boxes to accommodate partial building tenants, where prior expectations were geared toward single-tenant, full-building occupancy. There were still several big box projects under construction by the end of last year. This includes projects by Wentworth Properties, Trammel Crow/Clarion Partners, Conor Commercial, Hillwood and several other projects in shovel-ready position. Those ready to break ground include Prologis, …

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The Phoenix retail market ended 2014 on a promising note, with vacancy rates dipping below 10 percent for the first time since the Great Recession ended. It also experienced net absorption of more than 2 million square feet of retail space. Expectations for 2015 are positive, and continued improvement is anticipated, albeit slower than we might have hoped. While many segments of the market have improved, lackluster job growth and housing sales have slowed the recovery. However, both areas show signs of improvement for the coming year. Forecasts estimate Phoenix will add about 70,000 jobs in 2015, bringing the total number close to the pre-recession total. The demand for single-family housing should improve with the continuance of low interest rates, job growth and investor interest. The market is finally showing signs it is on the upward path to recovery. Leasing activity for Class A space remains strong, while rental rates are on the rise. We have seen marked improvement in some areas like Scottsdale where rates for Class A space in centers like The Marketplace at Lincoln & Scottsdale and Hilton Village are approaching or surpassing $40 per square foot, and where vacancy rates are below 6 percent. In contrast, …

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The Phoenix office market ended the third quarter in a very strong position. Increasing momentum in the sector should continue into 2015. Healthier economic conditions, including a growing GDP and higher employment, are translating into increased market activity and confidence. The biggest take-away from Phoenix’s rebounding office sector is new office development, with several high-profile construction projects underway in the East Valley. Tower cranes dot the horizon along Tempe Town Lake in downtown Tempe. The largest project, State Farm’s Marina Heights, is under construction on its first phase, which includes two mid-rises totaling more than 1 million square feet. Additional phases will bring the project to more than 2 million square feet, making it the largest office project in Arizona. Hayden Ferry Lakeside III is under construction with a 10-story, 250,000-square-foot building on the lake. This is the third and final phase of this office project. Arizona State University has also jumped into the mix by announcing a huge 330-acre development on the south side of Tempe Town Lake. It is expected to incorporate athletic, commercial and residential projects at full build-out that will be utilized as a funding source for ASU Athletics. USA Place, a $400-million-plus development in downtown, …

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The Phoenix industrial market is definitely following national trends in terms of recovery. Since 2010, U.S. industrial markets have seen rising demand trends with supply additions that have not kept pace. Demand for newer, Class A industrial space, as well as for use-specific space, is outpacing supply and encouraging more build-to-suit and speculative development activity across markets. Developers have shown discipline so far, however, as the amount of new supply added to the market since 2010 is well below the levels seen during previous expansionary periods. These trends are manifesting themselves in a variety of ways in Metro Phoenix. First, it’s clear that demand is definitely up. The industrial market has seen significant activity over the past several quarters. Leases for spaces between 20,000 and 200,000 square feet have totaled more than 10.5 million square feet since January 2013. Deals of this size have totaled more than 1.4 million square feet of absorption this year alone. This is important to note because the overall health of the Metro Phoenix industrial market has historically been supported by midsized users. This size range shows no signs of slowing as we round out 2014 and head into 2015. In fact, we know of …

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SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. – The 101-room Hampton Inn & Suites Scottsdale-Riverwalk has received $7 million in acquisition financing. The hotel is located at 9550 E. Indian Bend Road. Indian Bend Hotel Group LLC, an affiliate of Caliber Companies, recently acquired the hotel for $10.4 million. The hotel is part of the 187-acre, $400-million Riverwalk Arizona master development. The bridge loan was funded by Thorofare Capital. The transaction was structured and negotiated by the firm’s Felix Gutnikov.

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While the industrial recovery in the Phoenix area has been slow, market indicators show signs of steady improvement. Average rental rates for the Phoenix metro industrial market have remained consistent, hovering around $0.52 per square foot for the past year. In the Southwest Valley, however, which constitutes almost one-third of the entire valley’s industrial space, average rental rates are much lower at $0.36 per square foot. Lease rates at Sky Harbor Airport are averaging about $0.59 per square foot, and $0.66 per square foot in the Southeast Valley. The highest average rental rates are predictably seen in the Northeast Valley, which reported an average of $0.85 per square foot. More than 2.9 million square feet was leased in the second quarter, representing 593 transactions. Leases remain steady compared to the first quarter of this year, but the rate will likely fall short of 2013 when 16.7 million square feet was leased. Vacancy rates continue to fall after the spike seen last year. The second quarter of 2014 reported a 12.6 percent vacancy, down from the high of 13.2 percent in the third quarter of 2013. While a positive indicator, vacancy rates in the industrial sector swing on such a pendulum …

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The Phoenix metro economy continues to outpace the nation in job growth, even though 2014 has taken on a slower pace than last year. Much of the 2013 job growth occurred in education, healthcare and financial services. The latter has been a particularly strong growth industry for Phoenix, with 7.2 percent job growth in 2013, versus overall job growth of 2.8 percent. Overall job growth for Phoenix is forecast to be 3.2 percent this year. Despite the job growth and the cautiously optimistic outlook from most within the retail industry, new retail development is still very limited. Unlike in the past when the anchor was a traditional grocery or discount store, much of the development today is anchored by non-retail traffic generators. This includes office and apartment developments, such as new retail space planned for SkySong at Scottsdale and McDowell roads. There are also several ground-floor retail opportunities at the newest mid-rise apartment developments around Scottsdale Fashion Square, Arizona State University and the area on the northern edge of Downtown Phoenix near Roosevelt and Central. Additional retail is planned adjacent to the newest Village Health Club at Ocotillo/Alma School Road in south Chandler. Retail and hospitality developments have been proposed …

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The Phoenix metro office market continues to show signs of growth and recovery despite a high level of economic uncertainty that businesses around the country are experiencing today. Besides this being an election year, there is uncertainty over healthcare costs, the regulatory environment, minimum wage, taxes, government spending, entitlement programs, political gridlock, and on and on. The Phoenix metro area has absorbed 1.1 million square feet of office space year-to-date, bringing overall vacancy down to 18.6 percent, according to Colliers. Most of the larger, contiguous office spaces that are in demand by larger companies have been absorbed. However, uncertainty has caused postponement in investment, hiring, expansion and relocation, especially for small- to medium-sized businesses. Much of the vacant office space is composed of small, noncontiguous spaces that these firms would occupy. Certain submarkets enjoy vacancy rates in the single digits. Chandler’s Price Corridor and downtown Tempe have been consistently attractive to larger office users given their amenities and concentration of technology firms, financial institutions, software developers, insurance, and many other industries and institutions. Rental rates are beginning to inch up in these submarkets as supply is absorbed and new construction begins to take shape. Excessive economic uncertainty has kept the …

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