When it comes to mixed-use real estate development, it isn’t just a trend but a transformative force that’s reshaping our cities in today’s rapidly evolving urban landscape.
At CRE.Converge 2024 this week in Las Vegas, a panel of distinguished speakers gathered to discuss the latest trends, challenges and opportunities in mixed-use developments. The panel, moderated by Steve Smith, principal of Cooper Carry, Inc., featured Jay Curran, president of multifamily for Crescent Communities, LLC; Matt Friedman, managing director for Rockwood Capital, LLC; and Tom van Betten, vice president for Matter Real Estate Group.
Retail is a huge component of mixed-use developments, but it can be tricky, Curran said. “We aren’t retail experts, so we partner with retail experts.” Curran explained that Crescent Communities has done a fair number of mixed-use projects where the ground floor is either co-developed or owned by someone with extensive experience.
For instance, Crescent Communities has a 483-unit development towards the north end of Denver’s eclectic River North Art District (RiNo). “It’s a desirable neighborhood, but there’s a lot of competition from the apartment side, and there’s a ton of available ground floor retail and all these apartment buildings because most of them didn’t want that retail,” Curran said. “And now we’ve got more retail than we can use. “Retail is an expensive business for those that aren’t great at it, but it can add much value to the rest of your development.”
Curran also emphasized the importance of studying other mixed-use developments to gain insight. “Once you have a general concept of what you’re trying to achieve, spending some time in other developments and seeing what’s working, not working and what you like and don’t like is hugely valuable,” he said. He cited the example of Midtown Tampa, where Crescent Communities spend considerable time understanding the ground floor environment and thriving mixed-use.
“On a deal like Midtown Tampa, the multifamily comes with challenging executions and takes a ton of collaboration,” Curran said. Crescent Communities partnered with CASTO Southeast Realty Services and Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate Inc. on the retail space and master plan developer Highwoods Properties Inc. on the office space, as well as Concord Hospitality on the project.
Friedman touched on how having an excellent retail partner on a project is also key. “With some of our projects in the Northwest, we switched retail partners because the new partner we were working with showed how to bring multiple concepts together,” he said. It showed him that his retail partners could run businesses in various ways, encouraging us. It’s that perfect blend of national and regional that he has this experience and ability to operate in different spaces.”
Another topic the panel dived into was financing, which can bring its own set of challenges. However, if investors see real value in the project, that’s important. “I generally think that investors understand the value of mixed-use projects,” Friedman said. “I think that there’s, generally speaking, a lack of patience.”
He said, “We in the fund management business have somewhat tortured real estate, jamming it into three- to five-year business plans and the investors, the big, limited partners in the world reacted to that.
Lastly, the panel answered Smith’s question: “What do you see for mixed-use in the future?” Van Betten said, “Mixed-use can be a lot of different things. It’s all about having the right mix of uses. It will always attract users no matter where it is.”
This post is brought to you by JLL, the social media and conference blog sponsor of NAIOP’s CRE.Converge 2024. Learn more about JLL at www.us.jll.com or www.jll.ca.
