It is now a well-established fact that the retail sector was both broadly and deeply affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, in the US and abroad. Our NAI Global Real Estate Outlook study, Q42020, includes the finding that over half of survey respondents (57%) said the “Amazon effect” was expected to have an even larger impact on their CRE markets than the pandemic itself. Additionally, as we’ve reported, e-commerce fulfilment and warehousing are now seen as a dominant drive factor in real estate markets, leading the report authors to deem e-commerce…

Last week saw the official return of affiliated baseball to Wichita. The journey to this point was filled with unexpected setbacks – controversy over a land deal, a pandemic, a change in the team’s MLB affiliate and the sudden death of team owner Lou Schwechheimer. But none of these seemed to matter on the night of the home opener, which saw a crowd of nearly 8,000 show up. The community appeared excited to witness its first taste of affiliated baseball since the Wichita Wranglers last game in 2007. The success…

In late March 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a blog about the “crossroads” that real estate currently finds itself, and warning that this has implications for the wider economies and economic stability. It is a fascinating read and one that really drives home the centrality of the commercial real estate (CRE) sector. “Empty office buildings. Reduced store hours. Unbelievably low hotel room rates. All are signs of the times. The containment measures put in place last year in response to the pandemic shuttered businesses and offices, and dealt…

Commercial real estate (CRE) comes alive with compelling photography, and this has never been truer than in this age where most prospective tenants and clients begin and end their search for property online. Of course, there are some things a great photo can’t do: it can’t negotiate rates, or check leases, and it certainly doesn’t have the connections that a broker has. Thankfully, they are not competing. In CRE, a great photograph (several actually) and a great broker are a killer combo. Here’s how to get the best visuals of…

The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) confirmed this week that construction activity on New York City’s Manhattan Island had – predictably – slumped in 2020, to almost its lowest level in a decade. The World Property Journal detailed the findings of REBNY’s Q4 2020 New Building Construction Pipeline Report, highlighting that “new building filings in 2020 represented a proposed 42.67 million construction square feet, which is an approximately 28% decline compared to proposed construction square footage in 2019”. This was, the report said, the lowest total since 2012.…

Pivoting from in-store sales to tech-enabled sales was one of the saving graces of retail in 2020 when stores emptied out, and shelter-at-home orders dragged one. The data now shows that companies and markets better positioned to shift to e-commerce fared better than those that didn’t.  The upside to shifting sales online, though, was that it contributed to a longer holiday shopping season, and drove record-breaking extension in e-commerce market penetration, with some reporting as much as 70% e-commerce sales growth last year.  When a door closes… On the commercial real estate (CRE) side of…

It seems Texas is the darling of commercial real estate (CRE) and tech giants at the moment, as several corporations recently shared their intent to head south-east in 2021. As you know, Silicon Valley has long been known as the home of tech, but recent CRE news shows many companies are moving away from the Golden State and heading for the Lone Star one. Just last month – December 2020 – Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) announced their plans to relocate the corporate headquarters to Houston, Texas. In a media statement,…