|
By Ashley Fahey • June 27, 2022 |
|
|
What it takes to get a region prepared for 7,500 jobs in a compressed time period is sometimes nothing short of a miracle.
With Vietnamese electric-vehicle carmaker VinFast LLC set to do just that in Chatham County, North Carolina, local stakeholders are examining how other once-quiet regions dealt with a sudden influx of jobs, construction and investment — which oftentimes didn't stop with the catalyst project.
Take what Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) did when it landed in Spartanburg, South Carolina, or how the Mazda Motor Corp.-Toyota Motor Corp. facility is remaking Huntsville, Alabama. In the early 1990s, BMW promised 2,000 jobs by the year 2000 in Spartanburg. That's since ballooned to nearly $12 billion in investment and more than 11,000 people employed at the facility.
Mazda-Toyota, meanwhile, broke ground in Huntsville in 2018, employing about 2,500 people today and projected to reach 6,600 employees in the next few years. Some 3,200 supplier jobs have followed. It's something we've said before but while the "shot in the arm" of billions in investment and thousands of jobs is often welcomed with open arms, having enough housing and infrastructure to accommodate such growth is a major challenge for these, frequently, small cities and counties. Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you're already signed up to receive this newsletter on all things commercial and residential real estate — but if not, you can do so here. |
|
|
Ellen Wolff Robin Zeigler is CEO of MURAL Real Estate Partners. |
Insider's view: Why REIT C-suite executive formed her own real estate firm |
Robin Zeigler most recently served as chief operating officer at Port Washington, New York-based Cedar Realty Trust Inc. and, before that, was Mid-Atlantic COO of Federal Realty Investment Trust out of Rockville, Maryland.
She's now CEO of a newly created firm, MURAL Real Estate Partners, with MURAL standing for Mixed Use Revitalization Approached Locally.
MURAL, helmed by an all-female executive leadership team, has $500 million in its development pipeline, with a focus on mixed-use redevelopment and value-add deals for existing shopping centers and multifamily properties.
I caught up with Zeigler last week about MURAL and where she sees opportunities and challenges within community-minded real estate development. Check out excerpts of our conversation here, including where she sees opportunity for MURAL to embark on new projects. |
|
|
Jim Harris / Pittsburgh Business Times Office-to-residential conversions are happening across downtown Pittsburgh. |
Conversions hoped to remake downtowns |
As cities everywhere try to plan for what their post-pandemic reality will look like, investors are increasingly pouring capital into converting buildings to new uses.
In downtown Pittsburgh, several such projects are already in the works, and promoters are working to establish a new residential conversion fund to bring more residents to the central business district, to make up for fewer people working there, reports Tim Schooley at the Pittsburgh Business Times. Quotable: "The downtown market is going to struggle while it finds its new personality,” Gregg Broujos, a regional principal for Colliers International Inc., told Schooley. “Hopefully, it’s a personality that means a lot more residential.”
Key question: How economically feasible conversion projects are is frequently debated. I've spoken to architects, developers and industry analysts about this subject, who agree only specific types of office buildings, including of a specific vintage, will make sense to be converted into residential.
In Pittsburgh, like other cities, officials are considering incentives programs to offset financial challenges of completing conversions, Schooley reports. Of Pittsburgh's 188 total office buildings in downtown, 144 or so are classified Class B and C — some of those are likely to be past their useful life as office buildings, said Chris Watts, vice president of district development for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.
Conversion plays happening elsewhere: The cost to remake a block-long old factory building in Troy, New York, into apartments has run up to $60 million. A downtown Kansas City, Missouri, building with office space and apartments recently sold, with the remainder of the building to be converted into residential. Boston-based Longfellow Real Estate Partners LLC will convert an office building in Rockville, Maryland, to lab space. A hotel in Orlando, Florida, is slated to become apartments.
|
|
|
Jim Poulin / Phoenix Business Journal Executives who are involved in a master-planned community in Mesa, Arizona |
Water supply issues have builders worried |
The Valley of the Sun, as the Phoenix metro is known as, only has about 28,000 finished lots available for homebuilders to build on and another 35,000 lots under development, according to housing market research firm Zonda Inc.
As a result, homebuilders and developers are mapping out huge, master-planned communities to bring hundreds of thousands of homes to the area, reports Angela Gonzales at the Phoenix Business Journal.
But amid a housing market that's seemingly challenged at every turn, another issue has emerged for Phoenix builders: a potential water shortage.
Although many new master-planned communities replace farmland, old arguments that land removed from irrigated agriculture generates adequate water for new housing development no longer carry the same weight, RL Brown, publisher of RL Brown Housing Reports, told Gonzales. Not all the new projects will replace farmland and won't generate water trade-offs, he said. Elliott Pollack, CEO of Scottsdale-based Elliott D. Pollack & Co., said he believes water as a resource will (and should) become more expensive, to compel reduced usage.
Arizona's Groundwater Management Act requires a new development to prove it has assured water supply, capable of sustaining its residents for at least 100 years. - One creative solution: New York-based Brookfield Properties Development is working with the city of Apache, Arizona, to use a non-potable water system for irrigation at its 1,400-acre master-planned community.
Other homebuilder headlines: An Ohio builder has created accessible luxury home floor plans to meet demand from buyers. A subsidiary of Signorelli Co. will soon break ground on a 3,000-home master-planned community in the San Antonio area. Forestar Group Inc. has scooped up nearly 200 acres in Johnston County, North Carolina, for a major project.
|
|
|
Illustration by Jake Stevens / South Florida Business Journal; Getty Images The collapse of a condo tower in Surfside, Florida, in 2021 has changed the industry. |
Market Spotlight: One year after Surfside, Florida's condo sector is forever changed |
When the Champlain Towers South tower in Surfside, Florida, collapsed on June 24, 2021, 98 people lost their lives, with dozens of families forever impacted by the tragedy — which still remains under official investigation.
But in the year it's been since the collapse of the tower, a new era of condo regulations has been ushered in, both in the state of Florida and across the nation, reports Brian Bandell at the South Florida Business Journal. -
What's changed: A bill mandating stricter building inspections and maintenance passed the Florida Legislature during a special session in May. Starting July 1, all condos and cooperatives at least 30 years old must be inspected, and those within 3 miles of the coast will need to undergo inspections when they turn 25 (instead of 40 years). And, beginning Dec. 1, 2024, condo associations can no longer waive the collection of reserves for future building repairs. Miami-Dade County and Boca Raton have also passed stricter building inspection laws.
-
Adding it up: The new laws are widely viewed as making condo buildings safer but present financial challenges for many owners, Adam Mopsick, co-founder and CEO of Miami-based condo construction manager Amicon, told Bandell. The reserve requirement may require condos built in the early 2000s with waterproofing issues to undergo significant repairs well before they turn 30. Hiring inspectors could also become more expensive as the new law will increase demand for those services, and insurance costs are also expected to rise.
Condo demand still there: There were 1,215 sales of condos built before 1980 east of Interstate 95 in Miami-Dade County in the first quarter, according to Ana Bozovic, founder of Analytics Miami. That's up 100% from Q1 2020. Sales of newer condos surged 173%, to 2,459, during that period. |
|
|
Sotheby's International Realty The sale of 2000 S. Ocean Blvd., in Manalapan, Florida, has set a statewide record. |
Mansions Monday: Big home sales |
A firm connected to billionaire Larry Ellison, a founder of Oracle Corp., shelled out a Florida record — $173 million — for a residential estate in Manalapan.
A 15.65-acre property sold to Florida Realty LLC, which includes the same address and suite number in Walnut Creek, California, as the Larry Ellison Foundation, reports Brian Bandell at the South Florida Business Journal. The estate previously sold for $94.17 million in March 2021. The property includes four main buildings totaling 25,470 square feet. The buildings have a combined 33 bedrooms, 34 bathrooms and 13 half-bathrooms. The property also has 1,200 feet of beachfront, 1,300 feet along the Intracoastal Waterway, a PGA-quality golf course, a tennis court, a half-basketball court, a pool, a botanical garden and multiple docks. Other big home sales or mansions on the market around the country: -
A 9,609-square-foot lakeside estate in Orlando, Florida, that was previously a Parade of Homes winner has sold for $6 million
-
On the market: A 10,000-acre ranch property about 50 miles north of Texas' southernmost tip, available for nearly $30 million
-
Recently listed: A 7,017-square-foot home on the Davis Islands waterfront in Tampa, Florida
-
Top of the market: A gated riverfront estate in Severna Park, Maryland, that includes 23,000 square feet of indoor living space is the most expensive listing in Greater Baltimore right now.
-
Gone viral: A contemporary house on the market on Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin, was made popular after being featured on the Zillow Gone Wild Instagram account.
|
|
|
Martin B. Cherry / Nashville Business Journal Paul Mishkin is the owner of Southall in Franklin, Tennessee. |
Redefining corporate retreat outside Nashville |
Hear the words "325-plus-acre farm-centric resort," and images of a rustic, but elegant, retreat may come to mind. But Paul Mishkin's new Franklin, Tennessee, resort, Southall, is pushing the boundaries on what it means to be a luxury getaway right outside of Music City — one that hardly resembles the tourist hotspots the area is known for.
But Southall is also seen as a potential important recruitment and economic-development effort, Matt Largen, CEO of Williamson Inc., the county’s combined chamber and economic development arm, told Julia Masters at the Nashville Business Journal.
"I know it’s going to be great for this county, for this region and for the entire state, really providing something that doesn’t exist many places in the country — this high-end guest experience with some incredible chef-driven restaurants on the side," he said.
Taking it all in: Mishkin, formerly a trader based in Chicago, crafted Southall to include an inn, 16 private cottages, 5 miles of trails, ropes courses, a spa with an adjoining 104-degree mineral pool, culinary tours, greenhouses and an apiary, an event center and amphitheater — to name a few features.
Big picture: I'm curious whether corporate retreats will have new precedence among companies committing to more remote work. Earlier this year, Salesforce Inc. made headlines when one of its CEOs said it would make good on his promise to create a ranch that'll serve as a training and cultural-immersion facility, especially in the wake of increased remote work at the company. (Speaking of Salesforce, its co-CEOs sounded off about Silicon Valley's importance in a recent interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer.)
That's all for now. If you have story ideas, tips or feedback, drop me a line at afahey@bizjournals.com. |
|
|
Dive into the stories shaping local business |
|
|
Share this email with a friend
Forward
|
|
|
|
Email sent by American City Business Journals
120 W. Morehead Street
Charlotte, NC 28202, USA |
|
|
|
