Kansas City Is Key Location for Warehousing, Distribution

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, …

October 22, 2020Industrial, Market Reports, Midwest, Midwest Market Reports, Missouri

Missouri, Illinois Ports Collaborate to Grow Business on Inland Waterways

By Mary Lamie, Bi-State Development The key to current and future success for four ports in Missouri and Illinois is collaboration. As ports continue to play a critical role in the global supply chain, the special working relationship between the directors of the ports in St. Louis and Kansas City is helping to keep operations flowing on the inland waterways, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Significant investments in each port are also fueling growth at each facility. “Like many …

October 15, 2020Illinois, Industrial, Market Reports, Midwest, Midwest Market Reports, Missouri

Demand Drives Bulk Industrial Construction in St. Louis Region’s I-70 Corridor

By Allison Gray, Steadfast City Economic & Community Partners The growing demand for distribution space and the related importance of freight logistics and a healthy supply chain have remained steady even though the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shake up markets across the U.S. and around the globe. This demand is evident in the bi-state St. Louis region, where more inventory of bulk distribution space has been added in the five-year period between 2015 and 2019 than at any other point …

October 8, 2020Industrial, Market Reports, Midwest, Midwest Market Reports, Missouri

St. Louis Office Market Remains Flexible Amid COVID-19

By Brandon Wappelhorst, Sansone Group In nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives, 2020 could unequivocally be summarized as certainly uncertain. The rapid onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the world and has caused significant disruption to everyday life. While likely further down the list of today’s topical issues, the overall effect of COVID-19 on the office market in St. Louis is still to be determined — but it will undoubtedly have an …

October 1, 2020Market Reports, Midwest, Midwest Market Reports, Missouri, Office

Office Occupiers in Kansas City Face the Short-Term Cost Versus Long-Term Benefit Dilemma

With Kansas City unemployment hovering at cyclical lows around 3.5 percent and the war for talent at an all-time high, companies must leverage their real estate to attract and retain top talent. At the height of the corporate office boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the average space per employee ranged from approximately 275 to more than 325 square feet. Today, that number has shrunk to 175 square feet per employee and some predictions see that number moving even closer to 100 square …

January 30, 2020Market Reports, Midwest, Midwest Market Reports, Missouri, Office

Capital Continues to Flow to the City of Fountains

Private capital delivered several new investors to Kansas City in 2019 and the new year will undoubtedly see plenty of competitive bidding and elevated pricing. Overall, the investment market continues to be supported by Kansas City’s diversified economy, with job growth weighted on the Kansas side at 2.7 percent over Missouri’s 1.1 percent (as of August 2019). Targeting talent Kansas City’s low cost of living, educated workforce and business-friendly environment attracted several …

January 23, 2020Market Reports, Midwest, Midwest Market Reports, Missouri, Multifamily

New Tenants, Developments Signal Strength of Kansas City Industrial Market

The Kansas City industrial real estate market recorded very healthy maturation in 2019. When surveying the strength of our market, we typically consider how many new tenants or users entered the market with major investments and how many development deals were announced. Diving into the analytics, it is exciting to see some disciplined characteristics of a solid industrial market, including a slight slowdown in the pace of market expansion, a diverse group of business types demanding space, …

January 16, 2020Industrial, Market Reports, Midwest, Midwest Market Reports, Missouri

Dynamic St. Louis Multifamily Real Estate Market Is on a Roll

The greater St. Louis metropolitan statistical area (MSA) includes the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Warren and St. Charles County, as well as various counties in Illinois collectively known as the Metro East. The MSA ranks as the 21st largest in the country with a population of approximately 2.8 million residents and features many Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies. St. Louis has a very diverse economy with the largest categories of employment base in …

January 9, 2020Market Reports, Midwest, Midwest Market Reports, Missouri, Multifamily

Multiple Office Developments Proposed for St. Louis County

The office market in St. Louis has remained very active over the past year. With very little speculative development, the St. Louis County vacancy rate for Class A office space has experienced little change but remains at a historic low of 11.1 percent. Demand remains for large blocks of space in the more desirable submarkets such as Clayton and West County, as there are limited options for existing space. This has created an opportunity for new, proposed office developments gaining securing …

September 26, 2019Market Reports, Midwest, Midwest Market Reports, Missouri, Office

Myriad Factors at Play for St. Louis Industrial Market Activity

The St. Louis industrial market continues to rally after posting 22 straight quarters of positive absorption. Record leasing activity and historically low vacancy have put the region on pace to deliver another 6.5 million square feet of Class A industrial space in 2019. This is in a market that averages deliveries of approximately 2.5 million square feet annually. Current drivers engendering this industrial activity include the following. Discipline Developers in St. Louis have long been …

September 12, 2019Industrial, Market Reports, Midwest, Midwest Market Reports, Missouri