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.
• Retail Patterns Predict Holiday Growth by Kelsi Maree Borland of Globe St.
Key excerpt:
“Retail sales growth in October, despite the government shutdown, has boosted holiday sales expectations, according to a research brief from Marcus & Millichap by managing director of research and advisory services, Hessam Nadji. In October, core retail sales experienced a .3% bump while overall retail sales increased by .4%. This year, holiday spending is estimated to increase by 4% from last year.”
• Data Shows Americans Moving Less; What This Means for Multifamily by Jessica Fiur of Multi-Housing News.
Key excerpt:
“‘Mobility has a lot of impact on apartment demand,’ Jack Kern, managing director, Kern Investment Research LLC, tells MHN. ‘One of the more interesting results of the analysis showed that around two-thirds of the movers stayed in the same county, while over 40 percent relocated less than 50 miles away. It seems to suggest that from an apartment owner’s perspective, most of the renters are going to come from a relatively short distance away. This affects marketing and outreach programs for most properties.’”
• Secondary Markets Seeing Increase in Office Construction by CoStar Staff.
Key excerpt:
“Developers got their shovels out early in a handful of core, gateway markets, but nationally, office construction hasn’t been a significant factor so far in this cycle. With new supply underway relative to inventory currently at just 0.8%, new office construction is less than half its historical average.
However, as the recovery progresses, we're seeing smaller markets popping up on the radar screen due to their rapidly improving fundamentals and rent growth that is reaching levels that justify new construction in some metros.”
• Investors Underestimating Hotel Sector, Fund Manager Says by Mitch Irzinski of REIT.com.
Key excerpt:
“‘I think the hotel REITs base is still underestimated and perhaps under-owned in the investment space,’ Steve Brown, senior portfolio manager and senior vice president with American Century Investments, said. ‘The lack of financing for hotel construction is allowing landlords or REITs that own hotels to continue to see improvements in RevPAR (revenue per available room). We’re still below peak levels of room rates and RevPAR from the 2006-2007 period, so there’s still upside there with very little new supply on the horizon.’”
• Greenbuild Special Report: Learning from LEED’s Critics by Mike Ratliff of Commercial Property Executive.
Key excerpt:
“The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system is not without its share of criticism. While the program has yielded the largest push towards the sustainable design, construction, operation and maintenance of the built environment, many say the program does not do enough. Others declare it has gone too far. A panel of experts with direct experience developing LEED sat down at Greenbuild on Wednesday and addressed some of the biggest concerns.”