Posted on August 25, 2017

Written by Cinda Kelley

Employers in Plainfield, Indiana, are helping fund connector bus service that brings employees to local industrial parks.

It's been more than 25 years since the central Indiana town of Plainfield embraced the transportation, warehouse and distribution industries with an aggressive, innovative business attraction effort. The town’s work paid off handsomely, and Plainfield is now one of North America’s key logistics hubs, with more than 40 million square feet of facilities at the end of 2016.

Posted on August 24, 2017

Written by Brielle Scott

You’ve heard of sailing a ship with a “skeleton crew,” but what about no crew at all?

The ghost ships from tall tales of pirates and buried treasure are no longer the stuff of fiction: A Norwegian company is developing a fully autonomous container ship that will eventually troll the high seas with no crew aboard.

Posted on August 23, 2017

Join CoreNet Global Carolinas for their 2017 Mega Event on September 13 at 1:30pm at The Ritz Carlton.

Agenda
12:45-1:30 PM – Event Registration
1:30-3:15 PM – Plenary Session/ Keynote Speaker (Paul Depodesta)
3:30-4:25 PM – Breakout Session 1
4:30-5:25 PM – Breakout Session 2
5:30-7:00 PM – Networking and Cocktail Reception

Click here for more information and to register.

Posted on August 22, 2017

By: Amanda Tran

Food halls offer small-scale opportunities for landlords, operators, chefs, and diners.

AMID A CHALLENGING retail landscape dominated by news of brick-and-mortar store closings, the food hall has emerged as a promising opportunity for the commercial real estate industry and food entrepreneurs. Although food halls vary greatly in size and focus — ranging from “mega” halls, such as Mario Batali’s Eataly in Boston, Chicago and New York, to much smaller venues in aging strip malls, such as The Block in Annandale, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. — they all feature a mix of vendors offering high-quality artisanal food in a communal atmosphere.

Garrick Brown, vice president and head of retail research at Cushman & Wakefield, credits food halls’ explosive growth to the rise of “foodie culture” over the past 20 years and to the influence of millennial consumers. Brown explains, “For millennials, the emphasis is on authenticity. Processed foods are out; authentic and locally sourced foods are in.”

Click here to read the full article.

Posted on August 21, 2017

By: Hazel Garcia

STEM careers, also known as careers involving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, are some of the best paying jobs available. Requiring only a Bachelor’s degree for most for most of them, they are one of the better education bargains as well. The high pay that comes with these jobs combined with the smaller amount of education required helps minimize student loan debt as well, which leads to a better quality of life.

In the past couple of decades, more women are entering STEM programs to get the education required for these high-paying positions. While the number of women entering STEM programs has grown considerably, it’s still a male-dominated industry. Depending on which state you live in, there might as many as 4.5 times more men working in STEM than women.

Posted on August 17, 2017

The co-founder of one of the nation's first funds to provide real estate acquisition and private debt servicing to cannabis-related ventures spoke at I.CON '17: Trends and Forecasts in June. Access the presentation and session recording on the marijuana market as it relates to industrial space, risks to landlords, structuring leases with marijuana tenants and more on the conference resources page. 

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Posted on August 17, 2017

Business North Carolina is seeking nominations for its annual Building North Carolina awards, which will be featured in their November issue. Submit your suggestions on the most important commercial real-estate projects completed in the state between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017 and the developer who has had the biggest impact on the industry.

Building North Carolina winners will be selected based on design, innovation and community impact in such categories as best public project, commercial project, renovation, and overall design. Submitted projects will also be considered for a Carolinas AGC 2017 Pinnacle Award, bestowed at its annual convention in January.

Entries should be submitted no later than Aug. 22. 

Posted August 15, 2017

Loan originations for commercial and multifamily properties in the second quarter of 2017 jumped 20 percent from the second quarter of 2016, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Such loan originations were 28 percent higher than in the first quarter of the year.

“The second quarter saw a 91 percent year-over-year increase in the dollar volume of loans for industrial properties, a 33 percent increase for office properties, a 21 percent increase for multifamily properties, a 14 percent increase for hotel properties, a 7 percent increase in health care property loans, and a 9 percent decrease in retail property loans,” MBA reports.

It finds that the jump in loan originations comes despite a slowdown in the volume of sales transactions.

Posted August 14, 2017

As more millennials enter the workforce, property owners and operators are responding to their demands by reshaping office spaces. In “Special Report Suburban Office Challenging CBD,” Marcus & Millichap notes that many companies are moving to downtown locations in large cities. But the report adds that suburbs are adjusting as well, and explains how they’re being successful.

“Numerous suburban office locations have become increasingly competitive, however, by clustering in walkable villages featuring many of the amenities and services of urban environments,” the report notes. “These locations are generally more affordable than their urban counterparts while remaining attractive to employees seeking a variety of offerings that are within walking distance.”

The report finds that almost one-quarter of commercial real estate transactions in 2014 involved urban properties. “Since then, investors have once again begun to focus on suburban options, restraining downtown activity to 21.7 percent of 2016 office sales. The flow of capital reflects the convergence of opportunity, yield, and perceptions of future growth, and it appears investors’ attention is once again moving beyond the core.”

Posted August 11, 2017

Retail employment across the country has taken a hit in 2017, as chains including Macy’s, Sears and JC Penney have all shuttered locations. A new report from Reis indicates the country has too many retail outlets and predicts where to future closings may occur.

“A good way of measuring what markets may be over-retailed is to compare retail employment to population,” the report says. It finds Little Rock, Arkansas; Syracuse, New York; Omaha, Nebraska; Orlando, Florida; and Louisville, Kentucky, are the most over-retailed, based on their growth over the last five years. California’s San Bernardino/Riverside, Oakland-East Bay and Los Angeles markets came in as the least over-retailed, along with Tucson, Arizona, and Tacoma, Washington.

“While the numbers show that the retail industry could, in fact, be over-saturated, the impact of this saturation on the real estate industry may not be as troublesome as many would presume,” the report says. That’s partly because different businesses, such as restaurants, yoga studios, and medical centers are taking over vacated retail space. Despite challenges, “the retail industry is performing better than many would assume,” the report concludes.

Posted August 10, 2017

A recent report prepared for the Energy, Kresge and Barr Foundations finds that adoption of building resiliency standards – which provide guidance for preparing buildings, infrastructure, and other systems for natural or man-made hazards – isn’t as widespread as it could be.

“[M]ost of the standards are in pilot phases or with their first customers, and many organizations are involved. Moreover, interviews and focus group conducted for this project revealed that facilities managers, participants in the real estate sector, and coordinators of business associations and on-the-ground projects had little awareness of the standards,” the report finds.

Further, it says real estate industry associations aren’t doing enough to promote information about resilient building techniques or the existence of standards. “The National Institute for Building Sciences, RELi, FORTIFIED, and other entities are leading efforts to quantify the costs and benefits of resilience, which can support effective policy design and encourage investment. Such research efforts could lead to more targeted, performance-based outcomes for resilient buildings, and a clear articulation of resulting monetary returns,” the report concludes.

Posted on August 7, 2017

In the twenty-first century, many employees can work remotely, making it theoretically possible for them to reside in far-flung, less expensive suburbs. But employers are moving in the opposite direction, abandoning smaller towns to relocate their headquarters in large cities.

Two of the latest to move are McDonald’s and Caterpillar. The Washington Post reports those companies are moving their headquarters out of Oak Brook and Peoria, Illinois. McDonald’s is moving to Chicago, Caterpillar to nearby Deerfield. They are not alone.

“Aetna recently announced that it will relocate from Hartford, Conn., to Manhattan; General Electric is leaving Connecticut to build a global headquarters in Boston; and Marriott International is moving from an emptying Maryland office park into the center of Bethesda,” the Post reports. “Such relocations are happening across the country as economic opportunities shift to a handful of top cities and jobs become harder to find in some suburbs and smaller cities.”

Posted on August 4, 2017

The global food and beverage market is growing, and that is helping pick up the slack as brick-and-mortar retailers struggle. According to a report from Cushman & Wakefield, the food industry’s growth is increasingly focused on delivering positive experiences to customers.

“Consumers today are driven by a sense of exploration or simply fear of missing out, and are always on the hunt for new experiences,” the report says. “Restaurants are providing novel, fun and memorable meals through pop-up restaurants, ‘secret’ venues and entertainment themed venues, offering customers a thrill for just finding the location.”

Cushman & Wakefield says the pressure to add restaurant space is reshaping the retail environment. “The space given over to cafés, bars and restaurants in shopping centres was traditionally less than 10% but, in some of the newer schemes it can be as much as 20% or even 30%,” the report finds.

Posted on August 3, 2017

A panel of experts dove into new regulatory trends affecting industrial developers, industrial property owners and those in the trucking/logistics space at I.CON: Trends and Forecasts last month. Download the presentation and catch up on all conference sessions and recordings on the resources page.

Click here to read the full article.

Posted on August 2, 2017

NAIOP asked some of the Research Foundation’s Distinguished Fellows, the nation’s foremost commercial real estate, economic and public policy experts in academia: What makes this CRE cycle different?

Mark Eppli
Secretary/Treasurer, NAIOP Research Foundation
Founder and CEO, Agracel, Inc.

“Commercial real estate debt levels, debt growth, and underwriting discipline. Since 2009 (the last peak), commercial real estate debt levels grew at 1.4 percent annual rate and over the last five years (the last trough) have grown at a 5.2 percent annual rate. The same statistics eight and five years before 2009 were over 10 percent, well outpacing inflation. Additionally, as CMBS lenders are net negative lenders (i.e. more loans coming due than new loans), commercial banks are more important in this cycle and since Q4 2015 have been tightening their lending standards. All mortgage debt (including single-family) outstanding remains below 2009 levels. So what makes this cycle different, reasonable mortgage lending growth and better mortgage debt discipline, will make for a longer development cycle.”

Posted on August 1, 2017

Written by Ron Derven

How can family-owned businesses stay competitive in the commercial real estate industry?

FIVE MEMBERS of NAIOP’s Family-owned Business I and II Forums offer their insights into the future of family-owned CRE businesses as well as some of their strategies to successfully manage and convey the business to the next generation. They also provide their insights on the benefits of the following:

• Creating a generational overlap so that the older generation can pass on its wisdom to the younger one.
• The importance of getting “real world” work experience outside of the family business.
• Making sure that new family members coming into the firm develop skills in at least one area of commercial real estate to add value to the company.
• Allowing only those family members working in the business to manage it.
• Ensuring that family members coming into the business gain the respect of other employees and the industry.
• How to avoid playing favorites when it comes to family.

Click here to read the full article.

Posted on July 31, 2017

The U.S. will need to build some 4.6 million new apartments between now and 2030, according to a forecast by Hoyt Advisory Services. That’s about 328,000 per year. Hoyt carried out the research for the National Multifamily Housing Council and the National Apartment Association.

The forecast expects much of the growth to be in the South. “Southern states driven by economic growth, low costs and diversified demographic growth continue to lead demand forecasts with metropolitan markets in Texas and Florida ranked in 5 of the top 6 places,” it states.

The report notes that many things could change the forecast over the coming decades. For example, federal housing policies could be altered, and it’s impossible to predict exactly how many people will immigrate to the U.S. in the years ahead. Those factors, and others, could drive down the need for apartments.

Posted on July 28, 2017

The U.S. office sector bounced back in the second quarter of 2017, absorbing 12.8 million square feet of space, according to Cushman & Wakefield. That’s more than twice the 6.3 million square feet taken up in the first quarter and the highest level since the third quarter of 2016. Cushman & Wakefield expects solid absorption in the near future as well.

“Even eight years into the cycle, office-using job creation remains healthy and solid in most markets,” the company’s chief economist Kevin Thorpe says. “Moreover, the leading indicators, such as job openings, suggest that business expansion will remain healthy, and by extension, so will demand for office space.”

Cushman & Wakefield finds that rents jumped to a new high nationally, and that construction is ramping up to meet demand. The company says “16.1 msf of new office space was completed across the U.S., the largest amount of space completed since the second quarter of 2009.”

Posted on July 27, 2017

Written by Brielle Scott

Incubators, accelerators, start-up spaces – the lines are often blurred on what these buzzed-about terms mean. In a new report from the Brookings Institute, “Innovation Spaces: The New Design of Work,” authors Julie Wagner and Dan Watch shed some light on these spaces and the trends contributing to their proliferation.

The report outlines three key factors influencing the design of innovative workspaces:

Posted on July 26, 2017

A group of experts from CBRE, Costar and NAI discussed the potential upheavals that could result from changes to NAFTA and ways to implement strategic business plans to protect your investments at I.CON: Trends and Forecasts last month. Download their presentation and catch up on all conference sessions and recordings on the resources page.

Click here to read more.