Blog Archives

CNBC.com Article: Weak Economic Reports Support Low Rates Pledge New claims for jobless aid rose last week while consumer prices notched their largest decline in nearly 1-1/2 years in May, suggesting rates will remain ultra low to nurse the fragile economic recovery. Full Story: http://www.cnbc.com/id/37755611

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UPS is projecting one of the strongest holiday peak shipping seasons ever. “The parcel giant expects to handle 58 million tracking requests on its busiest day during this year’s holiday season despite a shaky economy and high unemployment.”1“It’s likely this peak season will be bigger than last year”, chief marketing officer Alan Gershenhorn said Wednesday.1 Strong online sales are good news for the industrial real estate sector and the economy. Tenants like UPS and FedEx depend on regional distribution warehouses to distribute goods efficiently to customers. As long...

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The O'Donnell Group, Inc. breaks ground on a state of the art industrial business park in Banning, CA. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tku4AG-IB1E

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Yesterday, we had the opportunity to meet with Darla Longo, James Koenig and Dave Consani from CBRE Ontario. They are three highly respected brokers in the market. In our meeting; we discussed the industrial market in the Inland Empire (IE). It was a very optimistic meeting in regards to the market showing positive signs of a recovery. Industrial inventory in the >350,000 sf is low (12 properties in total) in the IE West. Over half of these properties are under contract. Owner/Users are taking advantage of historically low interest rates and the abundance available space. Per square...

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Link: 2010 Mid-Year State of the Retail Market Report This is a great article from Jones Lang LaSalle on the retail sector. #commercial real estate “the days of extend and pretend are coming to a close.” “currently, more than 700 billion in notes backed by retail properties are underwater, though a majority are still performing and current.”

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We have read the Quarter 1 Los Angeles industrial real estate market reports from CBRE, VOIT and Grubb & Ellis. Vacancy has increased for the 10th consecutive quarter. “During the quarter, the Greater Los Angeles industrial market experienced a direct vacacy jump from 3.0% at the end of the fourth quarter 2009 to 3.5% at the end of the first quarter 2010”-CBRE. “As expected, market growth has been negative as more tenants reduced their occupancy needs or vacated existing space.”-CBRE. Average lease rates have continued to fall but are slowing down compared with 2009 quarter...

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Link: The Winner Is Industrial Real Estate A great article from @izatoak , the President of The Oakstone Company Here in Los Angeles, the home of award shows….Best Performing Real Estate Sector In The Recession… goes to…..envelope please….is Industrial Real Estate….yes we all have experienced rough waters…but we see some blue sky.. and we are all trying to keep a sense of humor as we view the Real Estate Markets. AMB Property Corp. research shows, following eight quarters of negative net absorption, national industrial availability reached a historic high of 13.9% at the end of the fourth...

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‘Zombie Buildings’ May Limit Options for Tenants Tough road if you invested in office within the last 5 years “Now that the values of many properties purchased during the peak of the market have fallen below the balance due on the loan, some landlords are too capital-constrained to offer the tenant improvement allowances and other concessions necessary to attract tenants in today’s marketplace,” said Robert Bach, senior vice president and chief economist.”   Global Viewpoints: ‘Zombie Buildings’ May Limit Options for Tenants

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I was able to tour the Port of Long Beach industrial area yesterday with Blake Tippet from Grubb and Ellis. Blake, thank you for the time and of course lunch at an epic Mexican place (Lucio’s). After recent reports of port traffic being up over 20% from last year in exports and imports, I felt it was a great time to visit the port area and see first hand how the market was responding. In summary, the market is definitely soft with a large amount of vacant buildings and quite a few buildings coming to market in the near future. The few major players in the area have remained active however...

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Link: Los Angeles Ranks Among The Worst Cities for Jobs “No state has suffered a greater reversal of fortunes than California. Five or six years ago California regions generally inhabited the top half or third of our lists. Today they generally have fallen even faster than the other Sunbelt states, even though the state’s economy boasts many assets beyond merely real estate speculation. California now accounts for a remarkable 7 of the bottom 20 regions on our big metro list. The diversity of the disaster spans both the urban centers and the exurbs—witness exurban Riverside-San...

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