Category: Martens Companies

WeWork started the concept but it has only grown and expanded from there. The co-working or flex space model which began in NYC is fast becoming the new Uber of commercial office space. With large corporations abandoning the traditional work model for more flex space, it is changing how landlords attract and retain tenants. Recently, landlords are discovering that they can use their building’s flex space as an amenity to attract tenants. Flex space isn’t just a coworking hub: it is bookable meeting space, conference rooms, event space, and multimedia…

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It’s not as sexy as luxury multifamily, but student housing is nothing to sneeze at. Student housing is a “key recruiting tool for universities” and the number of enrollees is rising, especially on the West Coast. Take for instance UC Davis in California. There the vacancy rate for apartments near the university is 0.2%. Most students cannot afford the less than 1% supply of student housing anyway. Rushing in to meet the high demand coming from the student housing sector are traditional student housing investors but also many new developers…

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The workforce has been undergoing enormous changes since the cloud and wireless technology took off. Mobile capabilities have given workers and employers much more freedom in how and where they can work. That has led to huge reductions in overhead costs to businesses and a happier, healthier workforce. At the same time, this mobile workforce has been moving away from traditional suburban work campuses into walkable, city-based corporate offices. Recently, experts have noticed a budding trend where the suburban work campus is getting an overhaul in order to attract talent…

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Amazon’s growth into grocery is transforming industrial cold storage from a niche CRE market into a necessary link in grocery supply chains. According to the numbers, millennials will affect overall online grocery sales with some predicting that within seven years, 70% of people will buy their groceries online. A rising tide of new online grocers as well as traditional grocers is getting into same day delivery in order to meet that demand – increasing the need for more cold storage facilities. More than that, online and brick-and-mortar grocers are looking…

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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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