Editors’ Weekly News Roundup, Nov 7th – 11th
You’re reading the first of a new weekly round-up of the five most-read stories across the Connect CRE platform. If there’s an overarching theme tying together this week’s stories, it’s that even amid a coming economic slowdown, commercial real estate carries on and looks toward the future.
The week’s best-read story, a Weekender report titled “Construction is Expensive. But Relief Could Be in Sight,” drills down into a study by Unispace on the drivers of the high cost of development and provides a glimmer of hope that relief could be coming in the months ahead. Unispace’s Richard Wilson also discusses where the action is likely to be when it comes to new construction.
On the subject of relief, an article titled “Allstate in Talks to Move Headquarters Back to Chicago” discusses a report that insurance giant Allstate is discussing a return to downtown Chicago represented good news for the city’s office sector, which lately has seen some high-profile tenants pull up stakes. Allstate, which recently sold its suburban headquarters campus to Dermody Properties, hasn’t been headquartered downtown since 1967.
One segment of retail that has enjoyed smooth sailing while others have faced choppy waters is the supermarket. In “H-E-B Opens Three Texas Stores on the Same Day,” learn more about how the regional grocery powerhouse H-E-B made headlines last week with a Texas-sized store opening: actually, three of them on the same day.
Ranking fourth among the top five was “Los Angeles Okays Westside 12-Story Medical Building,” delving into news that Stockdale Capital Partners had won approval to develop a 12-story medical office building on Los Angeles’ Westside. The new project will come into a neighborhood that’s described as “extremely underserved with outdated product” when it comes to MOBs.
Last but not least is “PGIM Real Estate Provides $1B Floating Rate Fannie Mae Financing for 22-Property Portfolio.” Amid a challenging environment for obtaining commercial real estate debt, PGIM Real Estate arranged more than $1 billion in floating rate financing for the acquisition of a stake in a 7,000-unit multifamily portfolio. Not surprisingly, the portfolio is located in the high-demand Sunbelt states.