Editors’ Weekly News Roundup November 18 – November 22
Large-scale development led the past week in terms of Connect CRE reader interest. The week’s most-read and second most-read stories both entailed shovels going into the ground, while future development was also a theme in the fourth most-read.
In the week’s top-ranked story, the development was all-new construction. DECA Breaks Ground on Massive Spec Project in Perrissaw the San Francisco-based developer launching construction of an 855,330-square-foot warehouse in California’s Inland Empire. It’s actually the second phase of Perris Gateway to get underway, following the launch this past March of construction on a 27,000-square-foot retail space.
Retail also factors into the week’s second most-read story, as a starting point of a different kind. In the case of Yorktown Center Redevelopment Breaks Ground, an existing retail property—a 1.3-million-square-foot shopping center in the Chicago suburb of Lombard, IL—will be repurposed into mixed-use.
Plans call for a green space and community park known as “The Square,” which will be surrounded by approximately 600 apartments and thousands of square feet of new exterior-facing shops and restaurants. The first order of business is demolishing the former Carson’s department store that once anchored the 56-year-old center.
The Golden State and the Grand Canyon State border on one another, making it all the more apt that the latter is a frequent destination of residents moving out of the former. Our third most-read story of the past week, California Transplants Liking AZ Home/Rent Prices,illuminated some of the reasons why.
The prospect of migrating from Southern California to Arizona evidently has cross-generational appeal, according to the Storage Cafe report that was the basis of this story. Generation Z and Baby Boomers both relocate to the lower-cost state by the thousands each year.
As Arizona’s population has been in growth mode in recent years, so has the scope of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Readers learned in the week’s fourth most-read story, Vanderbilt Pays $66.9M for Downtown Nashville Parcels, that the school has continued amassing acreage with a view toward the evolution of its campus.
Vanderbilt’s latest acquisition is a parcel occupied by a retail center and brings the total value of its land deals to more than $250 million since 2019. It’s not yet clear when the university will begin expanding its campus and what that expansion will look like.
Making its second appearance in the past week’s top five was the Chicago region, with our fifth most-read story focusing on the city itself. Chicago Mayor Pivots from Property Tax Hikefollowed previous coverage reporting that Mayor Brandon Johnson had proposed a $300-million increase in property taxes to help close a budget gap of nearly $1 billion. That story, incidentally, was also one of the top five for the week it appeared.
Following his initial proposal, Johnson then asserted that the tax hike was always negotiable, and the City Council has now rejected it. The mayor will need to devise other ways of closing the budget gap, aside from imposing layoffs and furloughs.