Commercial Real Estate News

Tampa Commercial Real Estate Negotiates Office Lease In Tampa For Furniture Retailer

2012-03-31T22:50:00.004+03:00

Steven Silverman, the Broker at Tampa Commercial Real Estate represented the tenant in the lease of a new administrative office located in Benjamin Center at 5801 Benjamin Center Drive, Suite 103, Tampa. FL in Hillsborough County

Carriage House is the local franchisee for Ethan Allen, a national brand retailer that sells high-quality manufacturer to consumers. Their stores are destination for the one-stop shopper providing a full-service design center in addition to selling the product.
Carriage House in Tampa had for many years been operating three Ethan Allen furniture stores in Hillsborough County. All stores were successful, but in Tampa the Dale Mabry location and the Citrus Park location were only 3.5 miles apart. Cannibalization was occurring.
Carriage House hired Steven Silverman of Tampa Commercial real Estate to sell their retail building which comprised 32,000 sf on Dale Mabry Ave in Tampa. The building housed the administrative offices for Cariage House as well as the Ethan Allen Retail store. Silverman also had to locate a new office space in Tampa for Carriage House to house the administrative offices. By geocoding the locations of key executives and the retail locations. The tenant criteria included the need for storage space at the office location. Silverman narrowed down the search area in order to find an optimal location. Site tours were set up to view properties and Benjamin Center was selected as the best location to meet the needs of of the tenant.
Carriage House moved their administrative offices at the end of 2011. Renovations have now been completed and the Carriage House administrative office is up and running efficiently in the new Benjamin Center location.
Steven Silverman, the Broker at Tampa Commercial Real Estate who represented the Seller is on the Board of the Florida Gulf Coast Commercial Assoc. of Realtors and is also on the board of the Florida CCIM Chapter (Certified Commercial Investment Member).

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http://fredericksburg.patch.com/articles/commercial-real-estate-brokers-shocked-with-reassessment-projection

2012-03-30T17:41:00.000+03:00

Commercial property brokers are already questioning Fredericksburg's reassessment process and the notices haven't even hit the mail yet.

City Hall announced this week that the reassessment notices will be late and will now be mailed on Monday, April 2. The final date to call and schedule an appeal before the assessor, Pearson's Appraisal, has been pushed to April 20.

Mayor Tom Tomzak got an email today from Joe Wilson, chairman of the Economic Development Authority, who said he has received three messages from commercial brokers who are "shocked" that the projected decrease in commercial property is only 1.46 percent. Many commercial property owners and brokers have either lost tenants because of the economy or had to negotiate lower rents to keep tenants, Wilson wrote to Tomzak.

The assessor must find out what properties similar to it are selling for, what it would cost to replace it today, how much it takes to operate and keep it in repair, what rent it may earn, among other factors that impact the value.

Thalhimer Senior Vice President Virgil Nelson said emails are circulating from local commercial real estate agents who are surprised by the number the city assessor has come up with so far. Michael Colangelo, executive vice president for Johnson Realty Advisors, sent out an email to local industry members trying to gauge opinions.

Commercial Real Estate: South Napa wine warehouse deals push down vacancy

2010-07-05T21:00:00.000+03:00

About 265,000 square feet in wine warehouse deals were inked recently in the south Napa area, with 164,000 square feet of that being net market absorption.

“Large-warehouse vacancy was over 10 percent, but now it’s in the single digits,” said Glen Dowling, whose Cushman & Wakefield team was part of the deals. But he said there remains some slack in the market. “The market is not tight,” he said.

Wine storage and California delivery service Zephyr Express is set to relocate this month from American Canyon to a 101,200-square-foot temperature-controlled warehouse at 770 Skyway Court in Napa Valley Corporate Park near Napa County Airport.

Commercial real estate hurting

2009-03-03T12:05:00.000+02:00

The expected challenges are leading firms to refocus their business and some agents and brokers to change offices.

"There's going to be a wave of foreclosures like we saw in the home market business," said Shawn O'Brien, who Monday announced his move from Alliance Commercial Group LLC to CB Richard Ellis/Martin.

O'Brien had been a partner in East Lansing-based Alliance, which was founded in 2006. He previously worked for CBRE's East Lansing office for more than eight years and returns to the firm as senior vice president of brokerage services.

The economy and banking industry problems have limited new developments, an area in which O'Brien said he specialized at Alliance.

Instead, he expects he and other area real estate professionals increasingly will be working with commercial properties taken over by lenders.

Auctioneers Use Online Auctions for Estate Settlements

2009-02-25T12:54:00.000+02:00

The Abal Auction Real Estate team has found a way to help people and families find solutions to problems when an estate needs to be settled. The auctioneer team of Dr. Joe Abal and Betty Evans has been conducting a wide variety of estate sales to help estate and probate executors and administrators convert goods to cash quickly.

Dr. Abal stated, “We have had such wide and vivid response to our internet marketing for our real estate that it was a natural to use the site for liquidating estate personal property”. Abal continued “during the past month we have hosted guns, jewelry, coins, gold and silver and doll auctions on our website for estate administrators”.

Fed signals fears about commercial real estate woes

2009-02-22T20:38:00.000+02:00

But a few sentences later, the minutes say that "all but a few [Fed officials] saw the risks to growth as tilted to the downside; in light of financial stresses and tight credit conditions, they saw a significant risk that the economic recovery would be both delayed and initially quite weak."

In fact, the Fed’s official forecast now is for the economy to contract between 0.5% and 1.3% in 2009, which, if it's on target, still could mean some growth in the second half after further contraction in the first half.

Commercial Property Prices in U.S. Fell 15% in 2008

2009-02-20T01:10:00.000+02:00

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Commercial real estate prices in the U.S. dropped by almost 15 percent in 2008, more than home prices, with fourth-quarter depreciation the greatest in the national apartment market, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report.

The price decline eliminated the gains seen in 2006 and 2007 and returned values to 2005 levels, according to the Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices. Prices fell 2.2 percent in December from November, said New York-based Moody’s.

Commercial values are now down more than 16 percent from their peak in October 2007, said Moody’s. The deepening recession is causing tenants to cut jobs and vacate space, bringing down building incomes, while the credit freeze is making it difficult to finance property purchases.

“The commercial real estate market has followed the larger economy into a downturn that is likely to last through 2009 and possibly into 2010,” Prudential Real Estate Investors said in its quarterly outlook in January. “With unemployment rising, consumer spending falling and home prices dropping, the recession will impact all sectors of the real estate market.”

Trammell Crow, the Dallas-based commercial real estate developer died Wednesday

2009-01-16T17:39:00.000+02:00

Beginning with a single warehouse in Dallas in 1948, Trammell Crow built one of the largest and most successful commercial real estate companies in the United States.

"When he was born, I think he just had a chip inside of him, and it was this chip that had him constantly pursuing," said longtime business associate Anne Raymond, of Crow Holdings.

Crow's property developments helped reshape the skylines of Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco and dozens of other U.S. cities that came of age in the post-World War II building boom.

commercial real estate market stuck

2008-12-07T08:36:00.000+02:00

There are empty offices, sometimes whole floors. In fact, there is more vacant office, retail and industrial space in the state now than at any time that commercial real estate brokers can remember.

The vacancies fill out the story of where Rhode Island has been, where it stands now and how soon the state’s recession can be turned toward recovery.

“2007 was the year of the crane,” Jay Fluck, executive vice president and partner at CB Richard Ellis/New England, told a crowd of real estate professionals at a conference last week. He referred to all the construction projects that were under way.

“We thought that if we built it, they would come,” he said. “We built it, but they did not come.”

His market overview for Rhode Island reported that 1.3 million square feet of office space was built or renovated last year. That’s a 13-percent growth rate, well above annual average growth rates of 4.7 percent earlier in the decade.

Seattle tops the list of best places to invest in commercial property

2008-11-11T11:27:00.000+02:00

If you're a homeowner seeing property values plummet, look to the commercial real estate market for solace. It might tell you which areas will recover fastest — and which will likely remain weak.

The Urban Land Institute recently asked 700 real estate professionals to name the best (and worst) places to invest in commercial real estate in the coming year. Those surveyed included private developers, Realtors and Real Estate Investment Trust executives. Their answers also apply to the residential market, since the single-family-home sector typically follows the economy. As wages go up and there are more jobs, more people can buy homes, pushing prices up.

The best cities in which to invest are those that are considered gateways to international investment, have vital downtowns where people can forgo cars, and don't have a glut of condos or office space.

p Five Ways To Fail As A Commercial Real Estate Investor In The Coming Economic Storm

2008-09-05T19:44:00.002+03:00

Almost every article and blog on real estate is doom and gloom. Forget real estate…almost every article on the economy is surreal and very scary. It reminds me of the months before Y2K. Remember Y2K? If not….recall the panic starting in 1998 about how the whole world was going to turn the off switch because computer ‘date’ glitches. Which may explain the year supply of beanie weenies and water in your garage. I remember how gas generator prices went through the roof. Yes…I got caught up in all that too….not the beanie weenies….but the hype. Is all this commotion just hype….or are we really heading into a disaster?

The fact of rice rationing, fuel prices, natural disasters, record breaking foreclosure rates, the sub prime crisis, Bear Sterns, etc….makes the future look rather dismal. If history repeats itself (which it seems to always do…good and bad) then yes…it is going to get bad…then it is going to get worse. But the one thing I have learned is that there are always survivors. Actually, there will be a group of entrepreneurs that not only survive….but gain mass wealth in these troubled times.

Lehman in talks to sell real estate assets-Bloomberg

2008-08-15T21:34:00.000+03:00

Lehman, reeling from the credit crunch, is looking to sell assets by the end of the year, Bloomberg reported, citing potential buyers approached by the investment bank.

Any sale would follow Merrill Lynch & Co Inc's (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) announcement last month that it agreed to sell $30.6 billion of repackaged debt known as collateralized debt obligations for about 22 cents on the dollar.

Wall Street firms are broadly looking to shed their riskiest assets to restore investor confidence, which has been shaken by more than $400 billion of write-downs and credit losses at financial firms globally.

Lehman's balance sheet has about $40 billion of commercial real estate and related securities on its balance sheet.

"Clearly this area of exposure Lehman has is weighing on its credit," said Jason Brady, portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Ventura County commercial real estate market sees vacancies rise

2008-07-04T21:30:00.000+03:00

A slumping national economy has finally caught up with Ventura County's commercial real estate market.

According to a midyear report released earlier this month by Camarillo-based CB Richard Ellis, vacancy rates for retail, office and industrial space throughout the county are up in the second quarter of 2008 as compared to the same time last year.

The subprime mortgage meltdown and rising gas and food prices have begun to take their toll on the county's commercial real estate, a market that has generally proven itself resilient to economic downturns.

More US commercial property defaults likely

2008-06-11T11:31:00.001+03:00

U.S. commercial property sales transactions were off nearly 70 percent in the first quarter of 2008 versus a year earlier, according to research firm Real Capital Analytics.

Buyers and sellers remain locked in a game of chicken, with neither wanting to compromise on price. This test of will has led to gaps as wide as 15 percent between bidding and asking prices.

Rather than sell at a loss, some real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other borrowers are opting to turn their assets over to lenders when the associated mortgage is "non-recourse" -- meaning the lender cannot seek repayment by going after anything else the borrowing parties may own.

But for commercial real estate companies, defaulting may actually be the fiscally responsible thing to do for their own investors and shareholders, as they cut away the infected wing for the benefit of the whole.

"Why should they spend money that they're not legally obligated to spend?" said Lawrence Longua, director of the REIT Center at New York University's Real Estate Institute.

Grocery-anchored neighborhood shopping centers, where a loss of the grocery store often represents a loss of at least 40 percent in the property's income, may do this more than any other type of property owner, Longua said.

"Kimco has done it, and they should," Longua said. "There's no problem. It's part of the game."

Commercial real estate prices slipping

2008-05-20T23:54:00.001+03:00

Prices for commercial real estate slipped more than 2 percent in March as it became tougher to borrow money to buy property, Moody's reported Monday.

The Moody's (nyse: MCO - news - people )/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices fell 2.3 percent in March from February, the largest one-month decline since the inception of the index.

Prices are still up 0.9 percent from last March, Moody's said.

Sally Gordon, a senior vice president, said the decline is to be expected as buyers cope with a tougher financing environment. The market is going to see "some ups, more downs, with a downward net bias over time," she said.

Prices for retail properties were down the most, while prices for apartments, offices and industrial properties also slipped.

Commercial real estate industry hit by MBT

2008-05-10T23:42:00.001+03:00

As Michigan's commercial real estate industry sorts out tax payments for the first quarter of 2008, many are finding themselves shocked by the impact the new Michigan Business Tax is having.

Win Cooper thought he was going to be fine when the MBT replaced the Single Business Tax. As president and founder of Flint-based Cooper Commercial Group Ltd., and Commercial Board of Realtors 2008 president, he is as informed as anyone in the industry.

He thought he was fine because one of the changes includes a tax on all gross receipts - including charges on which property owners don't make money, such as maintenance or snow removal - only charged when they are higher than $350,000. Cooper has three businesses; each of them would have barely felt the impact of that tax, if at all.

But his accountant had bad news for him at the end of the first quarter. All three businesses now must pay taxes together because they are owned by one taxpayer, Cooper. They now must be considered under unitary ownership.

"This is not an east-west, not a north-south issue. This tax is awful for our state and for our industry," Cooper said at the April 23 Commercial Board of Realtors Synergy conference in Lansing. Cooper paid three times as much tax as he did for the first quarter of last year, and writing out the check was painful, he said.

Real estate Tucson's recent commercial sales and leases

2008-04-29T11:08:00.000+03:00

● Don Kelly Construction leased 3,275 square feet at 3275 W. Ina Road. Thomas J. Nieman of Picor Commercial Real Estate Services handled the transaction.

● Sunflower Farmers Market has leased two new locations in Tucson from Continental Properties Co. and Larsen Baker LLC. Continental will build a 25,650-square-foot store for Sunflower at North First Avenue and East Limberlost Drive, and Sunflower will occupy a 27,225-square-foot space at West Orange Grove and North Thornydale Road. Rick Volk of Volk Company Commercial Real Estate represented the tenant.

Real estate Tucson's recent commercial sales and leases

2008-04-12T11:13:00.000+03:00

● The Kivel Trust has purchased a 5,000-square-foot building at 3116 N. Swan Road. The price was about $1.4 million. Bob Kivel of Commercial Retail Advisors LLC represented the buyer. Rick Kleiner and Rob Glaser of Picor Commercial Real Estate Services represented the seller NFB Investors LLC.

● Effective Signs purchased a building at 1544 S. Euclid Ave. from Connelly Billiards for a new corporate headquarters. The price was $650,000. Chuck Corriere of Long Realty Commercial represented the buyer.

● MKB Painting Inc. of Phoenix purchased a 6,200-square-foot building at 5809 S. Belvedere Ave. for $900,000. Corriere handled the transaction.

Commercial Real Estate: R.I.P.?

2008-04-02T12:46:00.000+03:00

Despite a relatively placid commercial real estate market thus far, Lahde still fervently believes that the "losses will materialize". Though he admits he doesn't have any idea how severe the losses will be, nor does he have a model that can correctly predict all the variables (who does?).

He says he is sure of one thing though: "It is safe to assume a market is dead when deal volume falls to zero, as was the case with CMBS issuance during January 2008." He goes on to say that "risk premiums for this type of debt have skyrocketed as exhibited by the CMBX. If you dramatically increase the risk premium for an asset class, especially one that is so heavily financed, the value of that asset class must fall. End of story".

6th Annual Commercial Real Estate Investors Forum Opens May 9

2008-03-30T11:41:00.000+03:00

Corporate sponsorships are now available for the Coachella Valley's 6th Annual Commercial Real Estate Forum May 9 expected to attract about 500 real estate professionals, investors and community leaders and executives throughout Southern California.

The Desert Area Commercial Information Exchange, the professional organization of the desert's top commercial brokerage companies, will present "Finding The Upside In The Downside Market" at the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort And Spa in Indian Wells from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Admission, including breakfast, is $49 per person.

"This is the inside scoop about what's going on in land, retail, industrial and hotel development," said Rob Firth, co-chair of the Forum and a broker with Coldwell Banker Commercial/Lyle and Associates.

The pool of financing options for commercial real estate borrowers may get shallower

2008-03-21T00:12:00.000+02:00

The downfall of the 85-year-old investment bank could increase investors' fears about commercial mortgage-backed securities, or CMBS, a key financing vehicle for commercial real estate. In addition, Bear's demise removes a sizable player in the industry. Bear Stearns was a major underwriter of CMBS, and held some $16 billion of commercial real estate bonds on its books.

The commercial real estate market has been dependent on the CMBS market in recent years. Commercial mortgage-backed securities are essentially repackaged loans on office buildings, hotels and retail stores that are sold to investors.

This market has provided the bulk of financing for acquisitions, development and refinancing transactions in the commercial real estate market during the last few years.

A region’s commercial real estate market can be a good bottom-line

2008-03-16T10:26:00.000+02:00

Frustrated by time constraints at the skating rinks they use now, team leader JoAnn Divers and her Bakersfield Rollergirls simply want to lease a space where they can practice, store their equipment and host competitions.

Perhaps ironically, their inability to find a suitable building hints at stability within the local economy.

Unlike the tough times facing Bakersfield’s housing market, the city’s commercial real estate market remains relatively strong. Demand from local businesses — especially those in oil and agriculture — continues to fill or nearly fill commercial space around town.

“You always need ag and you always need oil, so we’ve been somewhat sheltered” from the slowing U.S. economy, said Kym Moore, senior vice president and market manager in Rabobank’s Stockdale Highway business loan center. “I think investors (in commercial real estate) still look at Bakersfield as being somewhat a good buy.”

Pessimism builds for commercial real estate

2008-03-10T10:13:00.001+02:00

Delinquency rates on commercial mortgages remain very low and the risks aren't the same as with residential loans.

The pessimism building on Wall Street is showing up in an index called the CMBX, which tracks the values of bonds backed by commercial mortgages on such things as malls, hotels and office towers. Investors can choose between four series of indexes, each broken down by credit risk ranging from triple-A to triple-B-minus.

The way trading has gone in recent weeks says that commercial real estate is doomed, which is raising fears about more big write-downs hitting the nation's already battered banks and about continued volatility in financial markets.

The index has been soaring, indicating that investors see increased risk in commercial mortage-backed securities.

Goldman Sachs is forecasting future losses on commercial mortgages of as much as $183 billion, but says the CMBX index is pricing a loss of $199 billion -- 8 percent higher.

Weak commercial real estate outlook hurts some US bank ratings

2008-03-03T00:50:00.000+02:00

BANGALORE (Thomson Financial) - Moody's Investors Service said it has taken negative rating actions on a number of US banks -- primarily regional and community banks -- prompted by concerns about their exposures to commercial real estate (CRE).

The ratings agency has cut the outlooks of Associated Banc-Corp (nasdaq: ASBC - news - people ), Associated Bank NA, Bank of Nevada, Susquehanna Bancshares Inc (nasdaq: SUSQ - news - people ), Western Alliance Bancorporation (nyse: WAL - news - people ) to negative from stable.

Will the housing-market slump slam commercial real estate?

2008-02-29T00:14:00.000+02:00

That's one of the questions real estate executives will try to answer during a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday slated to start at 10 a.m. EST.

Among those scheduled to testify is David Seiders, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, a group so frustrated with Washington's inaction on the housing front that it recently cut off all contributions to Congressional office seekers "until further notice."

The trade group wants lawmakers to modernize the Federal Housing Administration and reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the biggest sources of financing for U.S. home loans.