Commercial Real Estate in Memphis and our Galaxy

Memphis Industrial market going up, Office market stable

2010-05-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Memphis Business Journal has two articles up today on the state of the Memphis market. They got their numbers from the first quarter CBRE marketview reports.

The first article focuses on the Office market.

Office vacancy in the first quarter was 17.4 percent, up slightly from 17.2 percent in fourth quarter 2009. This was the ninth quarter in a row with increased vacancy, but still below the U.S. average of 19.1 percent.

The article goes on to state that it's still a "tenant's market". Yes. Yes it is. If I were a tenant with a lease coming due in the next 6 to 24 months, now is the time to approach your property manager and negotiate your next lease. If they aren't game, there's 17.4 percent of the office market that would LOVE to have you as a tenant.

The second article focuses on the Industrial market.

The industrial market experienced six tenants signing leases for more than 2.1 million total square feet in the first quarter.

The average asking lease rate in Memphis dropped $0.01 to $2.62 per square foot in the first quarter, a slowing of the $0.10 drop from third quarter 2009 to fourth quarter 2009.

Vacancy dropped from 19 percent in fourth quarter 2009 to 17 percent in first quarter. The vacancy rate is expected to drop again in the second quarter, when more than 1.5 million square feet of positive absorption is expected.

That's great news for commercial real estate in Memphis. The Industrial market is the backbone of commercial real estate here in town, and we've got a lot of it to go around. Good news for everyone.

Sneak peek at March Home Sales Info

2010-05-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

Shh. Don't tell MAAR.

March Home Sales, Pricing Increase as Buyers Take Advantage of Tax Credit

MEMPHIS, Tenn., May 4, 2010 –Memphis-area home sales showed strong gains in March, increasing 35.4 percent from February with 1,323 total sales recorded in the Memphis Area Association of REALTORS® MAARdata property records database. Sales were up 4.9 percent from March 2009, boosted by buyers looking to take advantage of the tax credit that ended on April 30. Overall pricing was strong, with median price up 13.9 percent from March 2009 and average price up 1.8 percent. Pending sales jumped 14.6 percent from February 2010 to 1,920 units, an increase of 11.8 percent from a year ago. Inventory was up 4.5 percent to 9,562 units listed for sale.

(The emphasis is mine) Full press release here.

Those parts I bolded are good news for Memphis real estate in general and sellers in particular. When I talk to people considering selling their property, I feel a need to counter the hyperbole they hear from the New York and Los Angeles media. Yeah, real estate is crappy out on the coasts. I'm sorry for them. But the market is FAR better in our stable market of Memphis than their high flying Malibu and Manhattan markets.

Here in Memphis people are buying and selling real estate every single day. Every. Single. Day. Prices aren't as high as they were a couple years ago, but that's just the way the market works. Sometimes things are in favor of the seller, sometimes they're in favor of the buyer. Right now the buyer is in the drivers seat. In a couple years, the seller will be back in the drivers seat. And it'll go back and forth until the Mississippi rises up and reclaims our fair town.

How do you feel when you see a vacant building?

2010-04-28T05:31:00.000-07:00

What do you feel when you see a vacant building?

Do you feel sympathy for the small business owner who had to watch his dream die?

Do you feel sad about the vandalism and broken windows?

Do you feel concerned for your safety because of the people living in the building who don't have a "home" of their own?

Do you feel wistful for your favorite restaurant that had to close?

What do you FEEL when you see a vacant building?

Blatant Plug: "Money In Your Pocket" Seminar on April 21st.

2010-04-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

LOOK! Press Release!!!

Crye-Like Commercial will host a free one-hour seminar Wednesday, April 21st at 5:30 p.m. at the Crye-Leike Corporate Center, 6525 N. Quail Hollow. The seminar is titled “Money in Your Pocket: 3.5 Things you Need to Know Before you Sell Your Commercial Real Estate.” For more information, call (901) 828-9200 or e-mail will.hicks@crye-leike.com.

There's no charge for the seminar, but reservations are recommended. If you are in the process of selling your commercial real estate or considering selling it, you'll learn 3.5 aspects of selling your property that will mean Money In Your Pocket at the closing table.

Feel free to call me direct at (901) 828-9200. I'll see you there.

2010 MAAR Commercial Property Forecast Summit preview

2010-02-16T17:31:00.000-08:00

The 2010 Commercial Property Forecast Summit is tomorrow. I'll be live tweeting the highlights while it's going on from 8:30ish to 12:00 noon. You can follow along here.

The Commercial Appeal has had a couple articles up previewing the event. This one is about vacancy concerns for the Memphis market and this one is an optimistic look at the year ahead.

Here's a rundown of the speakers.

Featured Speaker
Dr. Mark Dotzour
The Chief Economist and Director of Research for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Finance at the University of Texas at Austin in 1987 and served as Associate Professor of Real Estate and Finance at Wichita State University for 10 years. As Chief Economist, he is currently doing market research to monitor how global and national trends are likely to impact residential and commercial real estate markets.

If pressed, he will confess to being an ardent fan of Star Trek. He considers William Shatner to be one of the finest actors, writers and singers of our generation.

Local Market Updates
Ron Riley, In-Rel Management
Andy Cates, Colliers Wilkinson Snowden
Scott Barton, CB Richard Ellis
Blake Pera, CB Richard Ellis

Local Perspectives
Jim Beaty, CB Richard Ellis
Todd Glidewell, C&I Appraisals
Larry Jensen, Commercial Advisors

Summit Chairman
Nick Clark, Clark & Clark

I met "It's Friday" guy on the elevator this morning...

2010-01-15T07:25:00.001-08:00

I was riding up the elevator at the Crye-Leike mothership this morning and there were two other guys on with me. I don't usually feel compelled to chat up people on an elevator, or subject people to my "elevator speech", but I realize some people enjoy the anonymous conversation on an elevator with people you don't know and may or may not ever see again.

Guy number one says to us, "Well, at least it's Friday". No one was complaining about having a job to come in to on Friday. We were just riding the elevator.

I used to work as a SCUBA Instructor at a Crisis-Response/Disaster Relief training academy. They had a cafeteria styled lunch which usually had a few announcements at the end of the meal. When he was done, the guy giving the announcements would ask "Are there any more announcements?" For a while it was a "thing" for someone to say "It's Friday!"

Thoreau said "The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation". I've had a few days that weren't exactly peaches and cream, but to live a life of quiet desperation would be terrible.

A few more thoughts on "It's Friday" guy.

1) Be happy you have a job. If you're unemployed every day is Saturday, but without a paycheck from yesterday.

2) How much do you hate your job? Go get a different one. The paper is full of other companies that would be happy to have your services.

3) Are you the depressed "It's Monday" guy too? How about "It's humpday"? You have that one covered too?

VHS vs. Beta, Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD, Loopnet vs. CoStar

2010-01-13T19:24:00.000-08:00

I remember going to the video store with my parents when I was a kid. I would pick out the coolest movie and bring it to my dad. He would tell me "No, that movie is Beta." "Yeah Dad, it's beta' than the ones that are marked VHS".

Eventually VHS beat out Beta and was the undisputed choice for home entertainment for almost 20 years.

Recently HD-DVD and Blu-Ray had their own format war. Half of the major Hollywood studios were releasing movies on HD-DVD, half were releasing their movies on Blu-Ray. They went back and forth for almost two years before the tide started to turn. Warner Bros. switched sides from HD-DVD to Blu-Ray. Blockbuster, Netflix and Wal-Mart followed suit by no longer carrying HD-DVDs.

CoStar and Loopnet have been going back and forth like HD-DVD and Blu-Ray for years. It's been a source of irritation among agents in my office for years. "Why can't their just be one service?" "Why can't they make a commercial equivalent to the residential MLS?"

Yesterday, Loopnet released their iPhone app. The reason this is a big deal isn't just that they have an app. It's that the app is GOOD. If CoStar doesn't answer with an app of their own, and quickly, Loopnet will gain ground that CoStar will be hard pressed to ever win back.

I don't think CoStar will ever go away, but they don't have to. All that has to happen is Loopnet (or CoStar. Whoever.) has to become the undisputed #1 commercial real estate listing service. And the Loopnet app for the Iphone gets us much, much closer to that.

The battle for "Best Commercial Real Estate Listing Service" is over.

2010-01-12T19:18:00.000-08:00

Loopnet just released the "Loopnet" app for the iPhone, and it is AWESOME.

You can download it here, but the best way to get it is to search the app store for "Loopnet". It's the only entry that pops up.

The importance of this app cannot be overstated. This could be the turning point in a battle of CRE listing service titans.

CoStar and Loopnet have been battling for years. They have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars beating each other up to gain market share and to be seen as 'THE" commercial listing service. While they've been battling each other nationally, smaller companies like Catylist and Xceligent have made inroads by becoming the "official" choice of dozens of local Realtor boards, including our own Memphis Area Association of Realtors. The National Association of Realtors has even gotten into the act with their own commercial version of the MLS, commercialsource.com.

CoStar, Xceligent and Catylist have nothing in the way of mobile search for properties. Realtor.com has a great app if you're looking for a house, but there's no connectivity with the listings on commercialsource.com.

A few more screen shots:

AT&T just spent 28 Million bucks on you.

2010-01-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

AT&T just spent 28 Million bucks on improving their network in the Memphis area. Seriously.

From the MBJ:

ATT&T Inc. has completed a $28 million network expansion to its Memphis area network that included the addition of 17 new cell sites and additional equipment on 30 existing cell sites designed to improve speed, capacity and coverage...
In a statement, Jim Thorpe, vice president and general manager of AT&T Tennessee and Kentucky, said the company’s network is being upgraded to complement the company’s wireless devices, including the iPhone.

I don't mean to sound like "Snarky blogger guy" but I spend a lot of time in east Memphis and the coverage is mediocre, at best. I got a new phone a couple months ago and the tech guy at AT&T said it's because Germantown won't let them put any new towers in. I don't know if that's true or not, but their coverage out here needs help, stat.

Memphis Sports Radio Shakedown

2010-01-06T12:06:00.000-08:00

A bunch of the local sport radio guys have been moving around and some have gotten new shows. Here's a summary of where the local guys have landed and what time they're on.

ESPN 92.9fm/680am
4-6pm The Gary Parrish show with Geoff Calkins.

These guys are the Quentin Richardson of Memphis sports radio. They're entertaining and know their stuff (especially regarding college basketball), but they are going up against local sports radio behemoth Chris Vernon over on 730.

Fox Sports Radio 730am
11am-1pm The Dan Wolken show (with Harry Long)

This is Dan's first full-time radio show (that I know of. Tell me if I'm wrong), and he's spent most of his first week hosting over the phone. He's a local guy who covers the Memphis Tigers for the Commercial Appeal. He knows the sports and Harry Long knows the radio stuff. The biggest thing working against him is Jim Rome. Rome is a national guy with a dedicated following that airs on ESPN Radio during Wolkens show.

3-6pm The Chris Vernon show

Chris is the best local sports personality in Memphis, bar none. He's young, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and a good interviewer. With the exception of his frequent chats with steroid junkie Bill Romanowski, his show is excellent. (Somewhat fun fact: Romanowski was born in Vernon, Connecticut)

Sports 56 (560am)
Of the three stations in town, Sports 56 has the most focus on local sports with 100% local programming from 6am-6pm, except for 2-3pm. The problem is most of it is just screams "LOCAL RADIO BROADCAST HERE". But honestly, anything is better than "Two Live Stews" on Fox Sports in the afternoon. They are terrible. Terrible.

Will Askew seems like a cool guy on Twitter, but if I'm in the car at 3:00 I'm probably listening to Chris Vernon.

Overton Square plans submitted

2010-01-05T21:39:00.000-08:00

The Daily News has a story up about the proposed development on Overton Square. The Sooner Investment proposal includes a 53,000 SF grocery store and about 25,000 SF of retail space around it.

The company they've got lined up to run the grocery store is Associated Wholesale Grocers. You can find a list of the supermarket chains they run on their website, and not one of them is named Trader Joe's.

Off Topic: Last year my girlfriend and I took a six-hour round trip to Nashville for two reasons: Shop at Trader Joe's and get lunch at Del Taco. Trader Joe's was worth the drive and Del Taco had been closed for almost a year. (Thanks for nothing, GoogleMaps).

They've scheduled two public meetings for citizens to voice their opinions on the proposal. The first meeting is January 16th and the second January 23rd. Supposedly they'll take a walking tour of the property and show the proposed layout of the buildings with stakes in the ground.

The developers are based in Oklahoma. I hope the city holds them accountable to make sure the development is tasteful and not just the cookie cutter retail that we've already got plenty of around here.

www.willhicks.wordpress.com

2006-06-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

Old posts from my Wordpress blog can still be found over here.