Tweet The Phoenix Business Journal published a not-so-surprising article this past Friday about the state of retail shopping centers in the Phoenix MSA. The article paints a dismal picture for the state of retail in Phoenix. According to David Wetta, director of Marcus & Millichap’s national retail group, there are 1,753 retail properties in the [...]
Tweet This morning, CoStar published an article entitled Institutional Investors Throwing Big Money Around Class A Quality Retail Property. The article highlights several recent large transactions that have taken place and interviews guys from CBRE, Marcus & Millichap and Jones Lange LaSalle for opinions. A few of the points/quotes caught my attention and I thought [...]
Tweet Bill Gross, PIMCO’s revered managing director, has just published his most recent investment outlook. In it, he calls the end of the recent market rally and warns of a necessity to come to grips with the fact that a new normal is headed our way. The closing sentences sum up his point nicely and [...]
Tweet Vitamin Shoppe has just completed an IPO, raising about $155 million. You can read more about it at DealBook. What I thought was most interesting was the fact that this was first I.P.O. by a traditional retailer since December 2007! The proceeds from the offering are being used to pay down debt and to [...]
Tweet Standard & Poor’s had downgraded 15 classes of bonds backed by a $425 million loan secured against the Four Seasons Hotel in New York and 3 other luxury resort hotels. The action was triggered by a drop in cash flow which was 46% below S&P expectations. Surely, the expected cash flow figure had already [...]
Tweet Here’s a great email I received from a friend at Citibank this evening: Dow 10K: Celebrating 10 Years of 0% Return Congratulations investors. The Dow has hit 10,000 on October 14th, 2009. You now have made officially 0 percent return if you invested in this index when the Dow first hit this magical level [...]
Tweet Realty Income, the publicly traded single-tenant REIT saw its share price drop 4.6% on a statement from hedge fund manager William Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management. Mr. Ackman announced that his firm has taken a short position in the REIT citing concerns about the REIT’s portfolio. From the New York Post article: ….[Mr. [...]
Tweet Another post from Calculated Risk showing office vacancy rates since 1991. We are not as bad as we were in 1991 but it looks like we are heading there. Graph below from CR.
Tweet Calculated risk put up a post yesterday about a topic that is near and dear to my heart: the Inland Empire commercial real estate market. In summary, the retail vacancy rate continues to rise in the Inland empire. I also thought it was humorous that the primary source for this data was CB Richard [...]
Tweet I just came across this article in which Mike Kirby, Director of Research at Green Street Advisors claims that CRE values may not drop any further than they already have. My head is spinning now. I don’t know what to think anymore. Its almost as if everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Maybe [...]
Tweet I just read a post on the CRE blog Net Lease Nation talking about the upcoming holiday season. Apparently, Fitch Ratings is bullish on the retail sector: “Many companies across Fitch’s U.S. retail coverage have been managing inventory positions well. Gross margins have rebounded for those companies in the discretionary categories that were hit [...]
Tweet Lately I have been receiving a high volume of calls from appraisers. Appraiser calls are nothing new. Normally, I receive a handful a month calling to ask questions about properties I have sold or asking for my opinion on a particular property they are trying to value. Now, I am receiving several appraisal calls [...]
Tweet Today, Moody’s Investors Services posted its most recent Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index. The results show continued price declines in US commercial real estate across the board. According to the report, CRE values are now 30.8% below those of 1 year ago and 38.7% below peak levels of October 2007. I found this article [...]
Tweet This is an interesting article posted at Calculated Risk. A telling quote from the article: “Right now it looks like all signs are pointing to rents and vacancies, big components of income, getting shot down," [Victor Calanog, director of research for Reis] Inc said. "Until we see stabilization and recovery take root in both [...]
Tweet The following is the text of an email I received from a friend this afternoon. I found it interesting so I thought I would share. Please share your thoughts in the comments. Posted by Deal Journal Does the President have a good shrink on the White House staff? He’d better. Because the President’s “soak [...]