Month: August 2018

If you live in the U.S., there is an Amazon warehouse less than 20 miles from you, according to L2, Inc. E-commerce made warehouses, distribution centers, and fulfillment centers “sexy” again. The cloud and wireless technology has transformed clunky cement buildings into data centers and now, ULI (Urban Land Institute) puts warehouses and fulfillment centers at the top of their Emerging Trends Report for 2018. However, while vacancy rates have been well below average for years and prices continue to go up, e-commerce supply chain spaces – warehouses, distribution, data,…

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Download a printable copy of this Market Insight by clicking here. In 2017, the City of Wichita adopted a Speculative Industrial Building Program. The Spec Industrial Program provides an incentive to provide large industrial/warehouse space needed in Wichita for Economic Development recruitment. Upon city council approval, eligible projects—see building requirements below—will receive sales tax exemption on all materials, as well as a 95% tax abatement for the first five years. The following five years 50% tax abatement will be granted contingent upon an occupancy rate of at least 50%. The…

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If you’ve ever driven by a shopping center where all of the cars are concentrated around the anchor store but most of the spaces are empty then it’s easy to see parking’s impact on CRE. For decades, the standard was to build between 4 and 6 car spaces for every one thousand square feet of space. As mall businesses have closed what is left is a vast wasteland of concrete that is underused. Builders and tenants end up paying more money for extra parking spaces. Even at full occupancy, according…

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Depending on the survey, there are many different estimates about how many jobs are about to become obsolete because of technology. According to one think tank, in the public sector, about a quarter million administrative and civil service jobs are going to be lost within the next two years or so – resulting in billions of dollars in savings to the public. By 2030, McKinsey Global Institute estimates a loss of anywhere from 400 million up to 800 million jobs because of technology. They estimate that 60% of jobs today…

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From indoor climbing gyms to ping-pong clubs and ballet studios, there has been a big push for unique “fitness concepts” in recent years in vacant shopping centers and malls. We expect this trend to continue into 2018 and beyond with a variety of new fitness concept trends coming to a neighborhood near you. Charlotte Country Club, Fitness Center, and Resort In-One In Charlotte, unique fitness concepts are taking over the city. One fitness concept in particular just opened at the end of last year called Life Time Athletic. The builders…

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Transit-Oriented Development is all the rage in CRE these days. Partly as a result of a sharp decrease in car ownership among city dwellers and millennials in general and the need to find new uses for vacant spaces, transit-oriented development is a trend that began several years ago and will continue to get bigger and spread to more cities. Here are 5 things you might not know about TOD: #1: Atlanta’s Transit Authority Developed the Guidelines Identifying the Core Elements of TOD There are 4 core elements for designing a…

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Managing properties used to take a robust staff of dozens of people to collect rent, maintain the grounds, perform repairs and routine maintenance, etc. Current technology has made it so that nearly every single task in property management can be handled through technology, making it much easier to manage properties, engage with tenants, collect rent payments, and secure and retain new tenants. #1: CRE Management Platforms Commercial real estate was late to the game but as of late, there are tech companies catching up with this underrepresented market. It is…

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Starting the business was the hard part. Now you are looking for a space but how do you find the right commercial building? You need a good commercial real estate brokerage but each brokerage and broker is different. How do you choose the one that’s right for you? Here are 4 things to look for: #1: A broker that specializes in the type of commercial property that you need. One of the first things you’ll come up against when you start looking for commercial property is zoning. You may think…

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