5 U.S. Streets Where Retail Rents Have Shown The Most Growth

A very interesting read on retail grown in the United States, and the boulevards where consumers flock, retailers thrive, and rents are driven higher and higher.

Worth a look.

CRE Trends As We Begin To Wind Down 2015

2015 has been a banner year for commercial/investment real estate, with gains in sales over previous years.

Various markets worked themselves out of the Great Recession, and investors finally shook off their doubts about the still lackluster economy and plowed forward. With this move forward there seem to be four trends emerging that are worth watching:

1) Increased global investment in the U.S. market --

No surprise here. The United States is still a pretty safe place to invest. While prices are on the way up, depressed values attracted international buyers to all market segments. The Wall Street Journal predicts that the commercial real estate environment will continue to see increased global investments into US markets, thus propelling the strength of the US commercial real estate market. Very cool.


2) Increasingly competitive markets

Unlike decades past, urban cores are growing. Investors are funding new projects. Business owners have far more options regarding new vs. older properties. Being this selective, owners are being forced to provide high efficiency and increased effectiveness. Increased markets means savvy lessors can excel by providing specialized assistance to clients and by meeting more specific requests of an increasingly eclectic clientele.


3)  Urban divisions

Many millennials prefer housing that is located in developing urban core, including new, recently gentrified pockets. As such, demand for quality multifamily is skyrocketing in previously decaying urban areas. Gone are the days of focusing on an inner core of a community and having to branch from the outside in. Urban "pockets" are popping up everywhere, and are able to provide increased space for a far more eclectic clientele.


4) Retail bifurcation

Even in non-urban areas, an increase in bifurcation is continuing to build. Seeing retail shops of varying levels in the same area is becoming more prevalent and will only continue to be the norm. Filling spaces with high-end retail establishments paired with middle and lower end ones is becoming much more common and preferred. Property managers who keep this in mind will be able to keep spaces filled to capacity more quickly and consistently.

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CRE is hot right now in most markets of the U.S. For an analysis of your market, and strategies to get you where you want to be via commercial/investment real estate investments, drop me a line!

A friend is selling her Parker Colorado Home -- 10752 Pikeview Lane

If you've ever dreamed of a home with mountain views in Colorado, this is definitely the place for you!

A friend is selling her executive home in Parker, Colorado. Four bedrooms, plus much much more. Incredible mountain views, beautifully landscaped yard.

Her selling agent called her a "Realtors' dream" since the place is immaculate and ready to go.

Check it out!

Close to Denver, close to the mountains and incredible skiing. The place to be for fun and a life in the U.S. mountain west.

You Get What You Pay For

In a conversation with a prospective commercial property Seller last week, one of the questions was why use an agent. "Why not just sell it myself?"

I went down through my tried and true list, which I will elaborate on in a future post. He was unconvinced. Mostly, he called me with attitude to start with. I was polite, and reminded him that he had called me. He started haggling about commission. Basically, I came to realize, he wanted and needed assistance but didn't want to pay me for the expert advice he was requesting.

In the end, he said he felt he could do it cheaper himself. Then he started asking me questions . . . ready for this? . . . on how to set up his "for sale" listing.  I decided at that point that he would be best served by another agent, if he can find one he wants to work with.

I concluded with "I wish you well, and if you change your mind please let me know." His reply, a repeated, "I think it will be cheaper to sell it myself."

Well . . .

Move To Sperry Van Ness Marks New Opportunities, My Pledge of Continued Quality Service

Recently, I moved to Sperry Van Ness/Gryphon Parker, a leading commercial real estate brokerage in Ohio.

This is a forward-looking organization, with a great national network that will enable me to serve my clients with the same quality they have come to expect.

I didn't make this move lightly. I would not have stayed with Prudential Commercial, which was recently acquired by Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, for all these years if I didn't think they were great organizations. I have been with both companies just shy of a combined 10 years. No, this was a personal move, driven by some new ideas I have about taking care of commercial, investment and institutional clients' needs. And it was coupled with the new focus of Berkshire Hathway as primarily a residential real estate brokerage. Truly, I wish my colleagues and many friends at BHHS Professional Realty, a really fantastic and growing organization, every success. David Mussari, managing broker and owner, is my friend. And even a trusted counsel. He understood. I hope we have many opportunities to work on several CRE deals together in the future.

Finally, I thank Shawn Parker and Richard Kruse for making me feel so welcome in the Sperry Van Ness family. I had the opportunity to spend a day at the SVN national meetings in Orlando with Shawn about a month ago and came away absolutely jazzed. Sperry Van Ness is an exceptional organization and I look forward to meeting more of my new SVN colleagues across the nation -- many of whom I already know via virtual relationships on Twitter and LinkedIn.

From the SVN web page:

"The Sperry Van Ness system^® is designed to achieve the highest potential for real estate investors. Year after year, transaction after transaction, our Advisors work to ensure that maximum cooperation equals maximum value in every type of transaction.

"Why do we do this? Because it’s the right thing to do for clients."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Why CRE? Ask California and Ohio, For Starters...

Why Commercial Real Estate? Ask California, for starters. Or Ohio, for that matter.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In October, the largest U.S. pension fund, The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), announced it was increasing its investments in real estate by $6 billion within the next year. Not surprisingly, apartment owners and investors read that news with great interest and not just because it could mean more money flowing into core markets.  

 “You’re seeing real estate become a bonafide asset class and an alternative to bonds and equities,” says Bobby Lee, president and COO of Los Angeles-based JRK Property Holdings.

Beyond the symbolism, CalPERS' increased allocation to real estate is a sizable chunk of change. Bloomberg reported that “the $295 billion fund had 8.7 percent in real estate as of July 31.” The allocation then rose to 9.9 percent on its ways toward a target of 11 percent in 2016. And 11 percent of $295 billion is $32.4 billion. The news came on the heels of an announcement by CalPERS last September, where the giant pension fund decided to pull the $4 billion it had invested in hedge funds, because they “were too complex and too expensive,” according to Bloomberg.  

 Market-watchers quoted in a number of publications indicated they wouldn’t be surprised to see other pension funds back away from hedge funds and look at other investment options.

While not all of this money will be earmarked for apartments, the firm has been an active investor in the space space and many multifamily housing owners expect CalPERS to increase its stake in apartments. “It’s logical that the first place that these large gatekeepers will start will be in the core space, not in the higher return and risk spaces,” Lee says.

And that could have a big impact on today's already low cap rates.

“I expect to see more compression long term in the core space,” Lee says. “We’re seeing stuff [cap rates] in two’s and three’s. I expect things to be just as crowded as it has been or frankly even more crowded for that product.” This also is good news for owners of institutional real estate in other parts of the U.S. with higher capitalization rates. In fact, CalPERS – like other investment funds – invests where returns are strongest, and safe.

Widespread pension fund interest is expected to affect the valuation of land, apartment assets, and even entire companies. In 2012, CalPERS paid approximately $100 million for a one-third stake of Bentall Kennedy, a real estate development and investment firm with properties in the United States and Canada. That same year, the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) spent more than $800 million to acquire a 90-percent interest in the Berwyn, Penn.-based multifamily builder LCOR. Real Capital Analytics even went so far to project that some funds to similarly focus on construction. “I would expect some of these pension funds to be interested in development more than buying,” he says.

And that includes value-add plays, which are becoming a more popular investment option as the upturn matures.

“As core has been priced to perfection, we’re seeing pension fund advisers and other institutional-type investors pursue a strategy of value-add to core where they’ll buy an old building in a really good location and reposition it into a core-plus asset,” says David Schwartz, CEO of Chicago-based Wateron Associates.

Remember how I mentioned earlier that Ohio was a bellwether in addition to California? California’s announcement that it is ditching hedge funds for institutional real estate reminded me of a news release from Ohio's State Teachers' Retirement System -- another of the biggies -- fund a few years back that it was actively hiring a number of real estate experts.

The giant Ohio pension fund’s announcement was met with derision by many of its members, who didn’t understand that commercial/investment real estate routinely throws off far higher investment returns than the markets. They said, “Why real estate? Why?”  Hmmm….

California knows.

Buckeyes Are FIRST CFP Natl Champions

Ohio State Buckeyes For The National Championship

Tonight, my Ohio State Buckeyes play for all the marbles -- the final game in the very first College Football Playoff against the Oregon Ducks.

Here is some history of "Eleven Warriors brave and bold whose name will ever stand...."

Is This A Commercial/Investment Or Residential Engagement?

Batman tells his agent, "I'm looking for an old mansion, with a hidden underground cave filled with high-tech crime fighting gadgets...."