Commerce Communique'

C&W Industrial Fact: US Sales Activity & Interest Rates

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Nevada's Economy: The Changing Nature of Las Vegas Tourism

The Sourthern Nevada economy is largely defined by tourism. A region's economic base is made up of the industries that produce the goods and services the region provides to the rest of the world. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Clark County economic base comprises leisure and hospitatlity and air and ground transportation services, the latter undoubtedly the result of tourism.

With strong population growth, the construction and real estate industry also stood out as an important aspect of the Southern Nevada economy until about 2007. Despite its strong contributions, however, construction and real estate cannot be considered part of a region's economic base. Its output is not exported to the rest of the world. What drives construction and real estate is the region's growth - which is mostly dependent on the strength of the industries in its economic base.

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Utah's Economy: Residential Foreclosures Ebbing

Since 2009 foreclosed homes have accounted for 10 to 20 percent of single-family sales in most cities. Magna is at the upper end with foreclosed properties representing 21 percent of home sales, while Centerville is near the bottom with only 8 percent.

Even high income housing markets in small communities, like Alpine and Fruit Heights have had their share of foreclosed sales. In both of these communities the sare of foreclosed properties was in double digits.

Of course when foreclosed properties are measured as a share of the city's total housing stock, the share is much smaller, generally between 1 and 3 percent of the inventory.

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First Quarter 2012 Nevada Commercial Real Estate Market Reports

LAS VEGAS OFFICE REPORT: Analyzing the Las Vegas commercial real estate market is a lot like predicting the weather. The market continues to change quarter by quarter surprising us with unpredictable outcomes. We had hoped to once again see an improvement during the first of the year; however the market turned slightly down. Read Q1 Office Report

LAS VEGAS OFFICE MEDICAL REPORT: The overall ripple effect of the market slowdown has had a significant impact on the medical office market. As with general office complexes around Las Vegas, medical offices face the challenges of rising construction costs and overbuilding of medical condos in individual submarkets. Read Q1 Office Medical Report

LAS VEGAS INDUSTRIAL REPORT: After witnessing a very flat year in market activity during 2011, we had expected to start seeing lower vacancy rates. The start of 2012 shows a different story. Read Q1 Industrial Report

LAS VEGAS RETAIL REPORT: The leading indicators are slowly improving as shown by the increase in Clark County taxable sales. In fact, retail taxable sales ended 2011 at $40.6 billion; higher than we have seen since before 2006 ($35.9 billion) and grew since the end of 2010 where it came in at $29.9 billion. Read Q1 Retail Report

 

C&W Industrial Fact: U.S. Retail Sales vs. Industrial Vacancy Rate

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Cushman & Wakefield | Commerce Utah County Branch Growth Prompts Move to New Office

Open House Celebration to be held Thursday, May 17

PROVO, Utah—MAY 16, 2012—Cushman & Wakefield | Commerce has a new branch office in Utah County and is inviting the area’s business community to celebrate with a ribbon cutting and open house celebration from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 17.

The new branch office of Commerce Real Estate Solutions, an independently owned and operated member of the Cushman & Wakefield Alliance, is located in Riverwoods at 5152 North Edgewood Drive, Suite 210 in Provo. Clients and members of the business community are invited to enjoy a light lunch and tours of the new offices.

“We’ve experienced growth in our personnel and operations, which required a larger office, in a more central county location with updated communications technology,” said Mary Street, Commerce’s Utah County Branch Manager. “We are excited to show it off to our clients and celebrate with area businesses and government leaders, as we continue to provide a complete offering of commercial real estate services.”

For more information call the new branch office at 801-377-2400 or visit www.comre.com.

First Quarter 2012 Washington State Commercial Real Estate Market Reports

SEATTLE CBD OFFICE REPORT: Steady employment gains are boosting office demand in the region, and for Seattle CBD, demand continues to be fueled mainly by Amazon.com, helping to drive down the overall vacancy rate to 18.1 % from 19.5% at year-end 2011. Read Q1 CBD Office Report

SEATTLE (SOUTHEND) SUBURBAN OFFICE REPORT: Modest activity in other submarkets help to offset vacancies, but the Southend still logged 23,927 sf of negative overall absorption. Despite negative absorption, the overall vacancy rate actually declined from 21.1% at year-end 2011 to 20.8% in the first quarter. Read Q1 Suburban Office Report

SEATTLE (KENT VALLEY) INDUSTRIAL REPORT: Momenturm that was building in 2011 continued through the first quarter of the year. At 759,748 sf of positive absorption, first quarter had the strongest three-month gain since third quarter 2008. Read Q1 Industrial Report

BELLEVUE OFFICE REPORT: Though leasing activity remained brisk during the first three months of the year (the 554,630 sf of new deals is up 10% from fourth quarter), the flurry of expansions in 2011 slowed a bit for the Eastside office market. Read Q1 Office Report

BELLEVUE INDUSTRIAL REPORT: At 13.9%, the overall vacancy continued to climb in the first quarter of 2012, up from 13.5% at year-end and 12.7% one year ago. Read Q1 Industrial Report

First Quarter 2012 Utah Commercial Real Estate Market Reports

SALT LAKE OFFICE REPORT: The overall direct combined vacancy rate for all property types in the Salt Lake City Metro Office Market stands at 14.7%, an increase of nearly one percentage point from year-end 2011. Read Q1 Office Report

SALT LAKE INDUSTRIAL REPORT: The overall vacancy rate has slightly increased to 9.10% from 8.60% last quarter even as market activity increased suggesting other companies are still downsizing and giving up space. Read Q1 Industrial Report

SALT LAKE INVESTMENT REPORT: The overall trend of investment activity is increasing. However, a temporary 16% softening in dollar volume occurred during the first quarter when comparing year over year results. The number of transactions remained steady. Read Q1 Investment Report

SALT LAKE RETAIL REPORT: The new 800,000+ square foot City Creek project opened in March, 2012 with a roster of new tenants to the Utah market including luxury brands such as Tiffany and Co., Rolex, Porsche Design, Tumi, Coach, Michael Kors, BCBGMAXAZRIA and others. Read Q1 Retail Report

UTAH COUNTY REPORT: Modest improvement in vacancy across the board from year end 2011 to Q1 2012. Read Q1 Utah County Report

 

Utah's Economy: Washington County's Housing Bubble

No other county in Utah experienced a housing bubble quite like Washington County. In fact for most counties the housing crash was due primarily to loss of demand rather than a supply bubble. But not in Washington County where "irrational exuberance" and speculation led to a very serious housing bubble that continues to negatively affect the local real estate market.

From 2003 through 2006 the number of housing units in Washington County grew by one-third, increasing from 39,000 units to 52,000 units, an annual growth rate of 7 percent. This boom drove construction employment up by 207 percent. By 2006, one out of every six jobs in the county was in the construction sector.

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Cushman & Wakefield | Commerce Appoints Dave Magee as Managing Broker of the Firm's Washington Offices

SEATTLE, Wash. (May 1, 2012) Commerce Real Estate Solutions, a Cushman & Wakefield Alliance (Cushman & Wakefield | Commerce) announced that it has named Dave Magee as Senior Director/Managing Broker of the Washington office.

With more than 25 years of office leasing, sales, and tenant representation expertise in the Puget Sound region, Magee will lead the firm’s brokerage services, manage and direct the brokers, and focus on new business development.

As managing broker, Magee will focus on providing broker support, development, and recruitment.  He will be responsible for expanding the firm’s market presence and pursuing new business development locally, regionally and nationally.

“We’re thrilled to appoint Dave as the leader of our Washington office,” said Michael Lawson, President & CEO of Commerce Real Estate Solutions.  “As a seasoned veteran in commercial real estate with an excellent reputation in the Puget Sound business community, we are confident that Dave will do a tremendous job growing and expanding our presence in the Seattle and Bellevue markets.”

Magee joined Cushman & Wakefield of Washington, Inc. (now Cushman & Wakefield | Commerce) in 1987.  Over the past 25 years, he has been responsible for the successful lease-up of the majority of the premier, Class-A office buildings in Seattle’s suburban market.  Magee brings leadership in working with customers within the Puget Sound region, as well as on a regional and national level, and has completed more than $3 million of real estate transactions. Additionally, Magee has directed or participated in the sale of numerous buildings in Seattle’s Southend office market. He has sold 27 office properties ranging from 10,000 square feet to 135,000 square feet, for a total of more than 1.6 million square feet of space, totaling more than $150 million.

Magee earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington and rowed for the University’s National Champion Crew team.  He is a frequently-invited speaker and panel member at NAIOP’s and WSCAR's continuing education seminars, as well as being the immediate “Past-President” for WSCAR.