Editors’ Weekly News Roundup October 6 – October 10
Local retail real estate transactions, housing, digital infrastructure and M&A activity among lenders comprised the subject matter for the five most-read Connect CRE stories over the past week. At the top of the list was Thousand Oaks Shopping Center Trades to Gerrity Group, a $45.5-million sale transaction arranged by a Newmark Pacific team.
The subject property, Conejo Plaza in the Ventura County community of Thousand Oaks, had plenty to offer prospective buyers: a high-visibility location, a grocery anchor tenant—and a notable vacancy due to tenant bankruptcy. “This transaction is a testament to the enduring investor demand for well-located, necessity-driven retail assets,” said Newmark Pacific’s Glenn Rudy. “This portion of Conejo Valley Plaza combines a stable rent roll with category-leading tenants and a unique value-add opportunity in re-tenanting the former JoAnn’s facility, making it an attractive investment opportunity in today’s market.”
On the subject of opportunity, the seniors housing sector is seeing its would-be resident base increase faster than its housing stock. The imbalance is likely to increase over time, as the week’s second most-read Connect CRE content, a column in the A Look Ahead series titled When Demand Growth Outpaces Supply, reported.
The basis of the column was the latest report from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care. Among other data points, the NIC report showed annual absorption outpacing new construction by a factor of five. One segment of senior housing, nursing care, actually saw negative inventory growth during the period.
Demand growth for data centers and the pace of new construction are more closely aligned. However, the expansion of digital infrastructure is putting a strain on another type of infrastructure: the power grid.
For that reason, the world’s largest owner/developer of logistics real estate is looking to address both demands, as we reported in Prologis Makes Push into Data Centers and Energy Sources, the week’s third most-read story. “The answer to energy and our infrastructure business is very simple—energy from all sources, and then some,” Prologis chairman and CEO Hamid Moghadam said at his company’s annual Groundbreakers event.
Investor demand isn’t the only marker of performance in retail real estate. There’s also the property’s ability to attract tenants that will attract shoppers. The past week’s fourth most-read story, Deer Park Town Center Welcomes Four New Retail Tenants, detailed the success of a JLL-managed lifestyle center in Chicago’s north suburbs in doing just that.
Among the retailers joining the tenant roster in Deer Park Village is Warby Parker, which began as an exclusively online operation. That it’s opening new physical stores as a matter of course is a testament to the durability of brick-and-mortar retail.
Completing the top five was a breaking news story on the merger of two regional banks. Since the banks operate in separate but complementary markets, the surviving company will have a broader geographic footprint.
Fifth Third to Acquire Comerica in $10.9B All-Stock Deal reported that the merger will create the ninth-largest bank in the U.S., with $288 billion in assets. It will operate in 17 of the 20 fastest-growing markets in the country. Both Fifth Third and Comerica have substantial portfolios of commercial real estate loans on their books.