There are real benefits for CRE companies to leverage supplier diversity programs and develop a network that includes woman-owned and minority-owned suppliers, particularly in recent years, when CRE projects have faced labor and materials shortages.
Commercial real estate leaders who are looking to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the construction of new industrial buildings can make use of new measurement tools, data and information. While the steps to lowering the embodied carbon footprint of a project or portfolio are simple, they are not necessarily easy.
Construction projects have many moving parts, stakeholders and dependencies. If money doesn’t flow smoothly from lender to borrower, a project can quickly become delayed. Because construction loans are funded in increments, rather than all at once, managing draws are of the utmost importance.
Cold storage is a niche asset class with relatively few players compared to traditional industrial space. To share their perspectives on how investment, development and operational decisions are made for this specialized asset class, five experts took the stage at NAIOP’s I.CON Cold Storage this week in Atlanta.
Recent years brought new stresses on the construction industry – COVID-19 shutdowns, supply chain woes, labor shortages and bank failures have slowed projects or put them entirely on hold. At the same time, the cost of capital has risen considerably.
The groundbreaking ceremony for a new building signifies the physical start of a construction project. In most cases, however, months or even years have already been spent preparing the land for future growth, as planners and developers work behind the scenes to make the property “shovel ready.” Attempting to market a property that is not shovel ready can be a significant barrier to making a commercial property sale. But what does it mean to have a shovel-ready property, and why is it so important?
America faces a multipronged real estate crisis. We have a stubborn residential housing shortage, high office vacancy rates, and flight from many downtown hubs that is killing off businesses servicing those areas. Converting office towers into housing could solve multiple problems at once.
With Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicating that the Fed will continue to raise interest rates through the end of the year and into 2023, traditional capital providers with strained balance sheets are pulling back on lending. And given the current economic outlook, many senior warehouse line lenders may also look to pull back on financing, opening the door for a more direct asset-by-asset approach. As a result, borrowers need to seek out alternative lenders that creatively finance their projects – enter nontraditional lenders and loan-on-loan financing partners.
With all signs pointing to an economic recession – presumably arriving midyear or Q3 – how can the commercial real estate community best plan for this event, which asset classes will be particularly hard hit, and what silver linings and opportunities will be available to savvy investors and progressive companies? Offering their insights and perspectives on this topic are Anirban Basu, chairman and CEO of Sage Policy Group and Jennifer LeFurgy, Ph.D., vice president of knowledge and research for NAIOP.
As the calendar turns to 2023, what’s ahead for the commercial real estate field? We talked to several NAIOP Distinguished Fellows and Research Foundation Governors to get their forecasts for the next 12 months.