Posted by Jordan Crouch on January 29, 2008
Last week, I attended the Leasing Forecast sponsored by our local NAIOP chapter. Here are the highlights with my thoughts at the end.
An industrial broker from Colliers spoke about six challenges for the future.
- Oil/Construction costs -rising
- New FEMA flood Plan – covering 100% of the Kent Valley
- Puget Sound Traffic – the area’s main detractor
- Credit Markets – making deals difficult
- Land Costs – rising
- Green Movement-more of a trend than a challenge, but something worth being aware of
Next was an office broker from CBRE specializing in the Seattle CBD. He mentioned there are many tenants expanding: Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Safeco, and Nordstrom to name a few. Rental rates are up and vacancy is down. He had a positive outlook on the Seattle Office Market.
Last was a Bellevue office broker from GVA Kidder Mathews. He listed three main 2007 events to note:
- E.O.P. sale,
- Several large tenants leasing large chunks of space,
- There is 2.5M square feet of new development in Bellevue and most of it is preleased.
The two most interesting facts he shared was that Microsoft owns or leases 25% of the Eastside office market and for every new Microsoft job, 3.4 other jobs are created.
My Thoughts
On the Industrial broker’s 6 challenges:
- Agree, this will continue to be a problem.
- The Kent Valley is the main industrial hub of the Puget Sound. The repercussions of FEMA’s new plan haven’t been felt yet.
- Traffic here is ridiculous.
- This will be the biggest challenge for 2008.
- Land is so scarce developers are going almost 100 miles out to get raw industrial land.
- This will continue to be more “mainstream”
On the Seattle office broker’s comments: there is definitely a lot of expansions/new development. Last time I counted there were 13 cranes in the Seattle CBD. As for the Bellevue Office Broker, he’s right on. Microsoft, Yahoo, Expedia, Eddie Bauer all have taken HUGE chunks of space in the CBD. The EOP sale was a major 2007 event. The new construction is changing the face of Bellevue.
Posted in Green, Seattle Real Estate | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Jordan Crouch on January 8, 2008
Earthlab Foundation ranks the top cities in the United States by their “Green-ness”. Below is the ranking, notice two Pacific Northwest cities made the top ten list. The ranking is based on residential households not commercial real estate. The commercial industry usually follows residential in trends. We are already seeing Green development in commercial real estate (especially in the cities below) and I would expect it to become even more prominent.
Top 10 Green Cities
1. Chicago, IL
2. New York, NY
3. Boston, MA
4. Los Angeles, CA
5. Philadelphia, PA
6. Minneapolis, MN
7. San Francisco, CA
8. Seattle, WA
9. Austin, TX
10. Portland, OR
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Posted by Jordan Crouch on November 27, 2007
Yes it does! According to an article by a university professor and two higher ups at CoStar, the online property database. The article has several good points (which I’ve summarized below), but what I found most fascinating is the following table.
Highlights of the article:
- The green movement is led by tenants, investors (e.g. CALPERS) and some cities.
- Costs for going green range from a low two percent to more than seven percent of total cost.
- The typical green building is a Class A Office building with 353,000 SF, 15 floors, built in 1985, multi-tenanted and 91.7% leased.
- Barriers to going green stem from a lack of planning and education.
It’s only a matter of time before lenders (and everyone else) acknowledges going green as a significant cost saver, a productivity enhancer as well as the right thing to do.
Posted in Green | Tagged: Green | 4 Comments »
Posted by Jordan Crouch on November 8, 2007
Imagine 650 real estate ‘big wigs’, a downtown hotel’s grand ballroom, singing waiters, and lots of awards. This was what last Friday night was like at the NAIOP’s Night of the Stars, the annual awards banquet for commercial real estate in the Puget Sound. (NAIOP stands for National Association of Industrial and Office Properties). Among all of the hoopla, it was nice to see a diversity of winners. The complete list is below.
Deal of the Year – Children’s Hospital Land & Building Assemblage Sale – Touchstone Corporation
Industrial Development of the Year – Michael’s Northwest Distribution Center – Tarragon LLC
Industrial Developer of the Year – Panattoni Development Company
Mixed Use Development of the Year – 2200 Westlake – Vulcan, Inc.
Office Development of the Year Less than 250K SF – Kitsap Credit Union – Opus Northwest LLC
Office Development of the Year Greater than 250K SF – Lincoln Square Office Tower – Kemper Development Company
Office Developer of the Year – Kemper Development Company
Redevelopment/Renovation of the Year – Willow Creek Building G – CarrAmerica Realty Corporation
Sustainable Development of the Year – Westlake Terry – Vulcan, Inc.
Urban Highrise Residential – M Street – Opus Northwest LLC
Public Project of the Year – Tacoma Narrows Bridge
Public Project of the Year – City of Seattle & Seattle Aquarium
Hall of Fame Award was given to Kemper Freeman Jr.
Congrats to all the winners!
Posted in Green, Seattle Real Estate | Tagged: Awards, Commercial Real Estate, NAIOP | 1 Comment »
