Each Wednesday, The Wrap presents a compilation of recent noteworthy commercial real estate stories from a variety of publications. Below are links to five stories that caught our eyes in recent days.
• America’s Fastest-Growing Retailers by Alexander E.M. Hess, Robert Serenbetz and Thomas C. Frohlich of 24/7 Wall Street.
Key excerpt:
“After the recession, retailers are growing once again and, increasingly, moving online. In the first quarter of 2014, retail sales were 2.4 percent higher than the same time the year before, largely helped by a 15 percent jump in e-commerce sales. Online retail is increasingly accounting for more and more of America’s shopping.”
• Fundamentally Speaking: Demand Outpacing New Supply of Residential Space by Allen Kenney of REIT.com.
Key excerpt:
“Schnure attributed the strong performance of residential REITs in 2014 to a growing economy. He noted that solid earnings in the second quarter indicate the sector's performance is living up to expectations in terms of funds from operation and same store net operating income. Fundamentals such as rising occupancy rates and rent growth are driving that performance, according to Schnure.”
• LIHTC Development Opportunities by Keat Foong of Commercial Property Executive.
Key excerpt:
“Paul Woodworth, head of SunTrust Community Capital, which provides both debt and equity financing for Low Income Housing Tax Credit development, observes that the market is not necessarily suffering from lack of land. ‘We have a robust pipeline of new construction deals getting done,’ he said. Although ‘there are higher land prices and rising costs, there is still a lot of work that does get to pencil out.’”
• Low Rates Boost REITs, Commercial Real Estate Stocks by Diana Olick of CNBC.
Key excerpt:
“‘That has really been a big tailwind for the group,’ said Steve Sakwa of ISI Group. ‘Low interest rates are a positive for REITs because they really offer investors an attractive yield alternative relative to Treasurys or fixed income and you have a growth characteristic to that dividend yield that will go up and increase versus kind of a fixed return over a period of time.’”
• Blackstone Said to Seek $1 Billion from Industrial IPO by Hui-yong Yu and Leslie Picker
Key excerpt:
“Blackstone Group LP (BX) is planning to take its industrial-property unit public this year to raise about $1 billion, said a person with knowledge of the proposed transaction.
The initial public offering would value IndCor Properties Inc. at about $8 billion, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. That would make IndCor the largest ‘pure-play’ U.S. industrial real estate investment trust, said Eric Frankel, an analyst at property research firm Green Street Advisors Inc.”