Office

Cleveland’s relatively affordable cost of living compared with other major Midwestern cities is attracting businesses to the metro area, fueling demand for office space. A steady stream of new employment opportunities supported the 1.6 percent expansion of Cleveland’s workforce over the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30. Hiring during that period was driven by the education and health services sectors, which collectively added 9,300 positions. It is expected that by year-end 2016, Cleveland employers will have increased payrolls 1.3 percent with the addition of 14,000 workers. Office-using employment is expected to rise 0.4 percent this year, remaining steady with only a slight variation over the past three years. Cleveland’s stable economic fundamentals, coupled with businesses attracted to the city, have supported the revival of a dormant development pipeline. During 2015, just 46,000 square feet was added to Cleveland’s office property inventory. The majority of the new office completions are located downtown. In the four-quarter period that ended in September, approximately 660,000 square feet came into service. Construction Surges While office completions were sluggish in 2015, construction has picked up significantly and builders are on track to deliver more than 1 million square feet of new office product by year’s end. …

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In the office segment there has been plenty of news regarding Class A assets. Companies have been flocking towards upgraded space. Landlords have made significant capital expenditures to their buildings to attract and retain these tenants. We have seen parking decks being built, investments to achieve LEED certification and the addition of upgraded amenities, such as cafés, fitness facilities, day care centers, and shuttles to mass transit. In the midst of these discussions, the Class B building seems to be getting lost. Class B office buildings do not have all of the bells and whistles of their Class A counterparts. However, this has not stopped them from experiencing a resurgence over the last few years. Current vacancy of Class B office space in the Northern New Jersey market is 13.4 percent. The vacancy rate has seen a steady decline from 15 percent at the end of 2014. The asking rents in the market average around $21.50 based on a gross number. The absorption of space over the last two years has been the best we have seen in more than 10 years. According to CoStar, 1.1 million square feet of Class B office space was leased in Northern New Jersey …

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The Orange County office sector continues to see falling vacancy rates, positive net absorption and rising asking rates. Orange County has beaten the U.S. national average for office vacancy since the fourth quarter of 2014. Office vacancy fell to 8.9 percent in the third quarter, down from 9.4 percent in the second quarter and 9.9 percent in the first quarter of 2016. We continue to see positive net absorption to the tune of 626,900 square feet, but that number is down from 730,844 square feet in the second quarter, a difference of 15,044 square feet. Asking rates continue to trend upward from $27.61 per square foot to $27.73 per square foot annually. Class A buildings lead the way, with asking rates averaging $32.89 per square foot. Class B and C buildings come in at $26.28 per square foot and $21.57 per square foot, respectively. These are all good signs for the new development coming to market in 2017. One of the more notable projects to soon come to fruition is 400 Spectrum Center Drive in Irvine. This 466,696-square-foot, Class A office tower is expected to be complete in the third quarter of 2017. This will be the sister tower to …

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Downtown Indianapolis is already feeling the impact of Salesforce.com Inc.’s recent decision to lease more than 220,000 square feet for a new regional headquarters in the state’s tallest office building, located at 111 Monument Circle. The firm’s $40 million investment over 10 years includes expansion plans for its regional headquarters as well as changing the name of the 48-story office tower from Chase Tower to Salesforce Tower Indianapolis. This will be one of only four towers in the world that bear the Salesforce name — the others are located in New York, London and San Francisco. Salesforce.com, a publicly traded company (NYSE: CRM), is a business software provider best known for applications that help salespeople track customer contacts and marketers plan campaigns, according to The Wall Street Journal. The San Francisco-based tech company currently has 1,400 employees in Indianapolis and plans to hire 800 new employees over the next five years. The company is expected to move into the tower in early 2017. The firm currently leases space in three other buildings downtown. This speaks volumes about Indianapolis’ efforts to become the Midwest hub for technology. While Salesforce is one of Indianapolis’ largest technology employers, nearly 100 tech companies are …

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As one project finishes, another one is soon to begin. The $2.3 billion Ohio River Bridges Project its nearing its December 2016 completion, and Louisville commuters are yearning for a return to normalcy and enhanced transportation options. The East End Crossing will link Louisville’s fast-growing suburban markets to Southern Indiana’s burgeoning distribution hub at River Ridge. The new Abraham Lincoln Bridge parallels the John F. Kennedy Bridge downtown and carries I-65 across the Ohio River. After three years of disrupting traffic in metro Louisville, both projects are entering their final phase of construction. Just as the Bridges Project nears completion, two major projects in Louisville’s central business district (CBD) may have an impact on the office market. The Kentucky International Convention Center closed in August for a two-year, $200 million renovation project. Sections of 3rd and 4th streets will close during the construction, which could have a drag on downtown commuter traffic. In addition, Louisville will welcome a 600-room, $289 million Omni Hotel in 2018, but not before the major project squeezes Liberty Street and Muhammad Ali Street traffic. Both significant projects will bring dividends to Louisville’s CBD when completed, but the market will have to endure some disruption in …

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LAKE MARY, FLA. — Parmenter Realty Partners has received $84 million in financing to partially fund the company’s acquisition of Primera Towers I–V, a five-building office park in Lake Mary. The 772,000-square-foot park is located at 605, 610 and 615 Crescent Executive Court and 255 and 300 Primera Blvd. just north of Orlando. Holliday Fenoglio Fowler (HFF) arranged the financing. Primera Towers is 89 percent leased to tenants like Blue Cross & Blue Shield, Liberty Mutual, Paylocity, D+H, Dixon Ticonderoga and HNTB. The park features on-site fitness centers and a café with patio seating. The suburban mid-rise buildings were developed between 1997 and 2000 immediately east of Interstate 4. HFF’s Ed Coco and Matt Casey worked on behalf of Parmenter Realty Partners investment fund and an institutional equity partner to secure the funds through JPMorgan Chase Bank NA. Parmenter acquired Primera Towers for $130 million. The seller was a joint venture between Banyan Street Capital, Oaktree Capital Management and Balandis AG. Mike Davis, Michael Lerner and Rick Brugge of Cushman & Wakefield represented the JV in the sales transaction. This sale was the first time in the park’s history that ownership has ever been consolidated. Parmenter plans to expand the …

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Rochester’s story is similar to those of other cities with once prominent downtowns. Starting in the 1970s, businesses and families largely fled to the suburbs as newer and nicer suburban offices were built. Larger companies, including many staple downtown dwellers such as large law and accounting firms, left the downtown in search of free parking, shorter commutes and a suburban lifestyle for their employees. Yet Rochester was a small city with big businesses. Bausch & Lomb was founded in Rochester in 1853. Eastman Kodak started business there in 1888 and beginning in 1906, Xerox Corporation was formed. Kodak is still based in Rochester, though it is a much smaller entity than it was before the digital era, and Xerox moved to Norwalk, Connecticut, years ago. However, the core technology culture never left Rochester. Over the past few years the University of Rochester — the area’s largest employer — received more than $1.9 billion in research money, most of it from the federal government. Organizations like High Tech Rochester, Greater Rochester Enterprise and the Rochester Downtown Innovation Zone have played important roles in the region’s comeback. In 2015, the Rochester region won a nationwide competition and was named the site for …

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The Orlando office market is strong and continues to grow stronger. Vacancy rates are declining, rents are increasing and new developments are in the works. While many large office markets around the country seem to have reached or are approaching the peak of this real estate cycle, the market in the Orlando area still has great potential for expansion. According to the Orlando Economic Development Commission (EDC), there is currently an unprecedented level of office, multifamily and mixed-use development planned for downtown Orlando. This is largely thanks to Tremont Plaza, a 28-story mixed-use development being built by Lincoln Property Co. and Tremont Realty Capital. The $81 million development will have seven floors of office space totaling over 200,000 square feet, along with a 180-room hotel, making it the first large-scale Class A office project for Orlando in 10 years. With several other major multi-use commercial projects on the drawing board, the EDC calculates that more than 1 million additional square feet of construction is planned for Orlando’s downtown business district. There are several factors contributing to the office market’s prosperity, including Florida’s improving economy and business-friendly atmosphere. The state offers a favorable business tax structure, pro-business legislature and access to …

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Seattle is on the rise, and companies are thriving in the downtown core and surrounding submarkets. Seattle’s office market is one of the healthiest in the country. Leasing continues to be led by a robust technology sector that’s fueled by both the expansion of homegrown companies and the addition of engineering offices from mostly California-based companies. These companies have established significant footprints in Seattle as they have been able to attract, hire and retain workers from a talented employee pool. Institutions like the University of Washington continue to produce additional engineering graduates from an expanding computer science program, and companies have had great success recruiting talent eager to move from across the country and internationally to the Puget Sound region. Traditional brick-and-mortar companies like Sears, Best Buy and Starbucks are all working in Seattle to monetize the use of electronic devices. Many new companies to the market like Snapchat, Airbnb and, most recently, Pinterest, have opened their first Seattle locations in co-working spaces. The collaborative nature of the co-working environment is also popular among startups. These companies are often created by former employees of some of the region’s longstanding heavyweights. Amazon has had a significant ripple effect on the region, …

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Broward County’s office market continues to heat up like the South Florida summer. Vacancy is decreasing while office rental rates in the market increase. Broward County added 32,100 jobs in the past year, the 4 percent nonagricultural employment growth leading to a second quarter unemployment rate of 4.2 percent, outpacing the state (4.5 percent) and national (5.0) averages. “Many factors drive Broward County’s strong economy, including a talented and diverse workforce, our proximity to Latin America and the Caribbean, and access to three international airports and three seaports,” says Bob Swindell, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, the county’s public/private partnership for economic development. Broward County’s office sector performance is a big story in an area of very positive commercial real estate headlines. It can be argued that South Florida trails only the two Bay Area bellwethers, San Francisco and the Silicon Valley, in property performance nationwide. Office rental rates in the county — CoStar reported that the market’s average rate increased 1.4 percent during first quarter to $25.14 per square foot — are most likely reaching the top of the arc in the present economic cycle. “Some of our strongest job growth has been in high-wage …

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