Posts tagged with: ICSC

DUE DILIGENCE CHECKLISTS for Commercial Real Estate Transactions

R. Kymn Harp Robbins, Salomon & Patt, Ltd.
R. Kymn Harp
Robbins, Salomon & Patt, Ltd.
 2016 Updat

Are you planning to purchase, finance, develop or redevelop any of the following types of commercial real estate in the USA?

  • Shopping Center
  • Office building
  • Large Multifamily/Apartments/Condominium Project
  • Sports and/or Entertainment Venue
  • Mixed-Use Commercial-Residential-Office
  • Parking Lot/Parking Garage
  • Retail Store
  • Lifestyle or Enclosed Mall
  • Restaurant/Banquet Facility
  • Intermodal logistics/distribution facility
  • Medical Building
  • Gas Station
  • Manufacturing facility
  • Pharmacy
  • Special Use facility
  • Air Rights parcel
  • Subterranean parcel
  • Infrastructure improvements
  • Other commercial (non-single family, non-farm) property
RSP_LogoHD (3)

A KEY element of successfully investing in commercial real estate is performing an adequate Due Diligence Investigation prior to becoming legally bound to acquire or finance the property.  Conducting a Due Diligence Investigation is important not just to enable you to walk away from the transaction, if necessary, but even more importantly to enable you to discover obstacles and opportunities presented by the property that can be addressed prior to closing, to enable the transaction to proceed in a manner most beneficial to your overall objective. An adequate Due Diligence Investigation will assure awareness of all material facts relevant to the intended use or disposition of the property after closing. This is a critical point. The ultimate objective is not just to get to Closing – but rather to confirm that the property can be used or developed as intended after Closing.

The following checklists – while not all-inclusive – will help you conduct a focused and meaningful Due Diligence Investigation.

(more…)
Continue Reading →

Maximizing The Third Space – A Key ICSC RECon 2013 Takeaway

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-hello-world-image12400061

Questions abound about where our commercial real estate market is headed. As many suspect, where we were prior to the Great Recession is not where we are now, and not where we’re headed as we move forward. Things have changed. We have entered an era where the so-called “Third Space” will dominate commercial real estate development.

What is the “third space“? Urban planners describe it generally as the space designed for creative social interaction, which lies, figuratively, between home and the workplace.

taxes and profits to invest in real estate and home buying

From a purely economic standpoint, it is difficult to see how brick and mortar retailers in today’s marketplace can effectively compete with internet retailers not burdened with comparable fixed costs. Internet retailers have a huge advantage when it comes to convenience, accessibility, and price-competitiveness as compared to fixed location, brick and mortar retailers. Unlike the pre-2008 marketplace, today’s shoppers enjoy virtually limitless access to online goods and services. Online shopping is easy and convenient.

To remind ourselves, the commercial real estate industry began its skid in the summer of 2008, after the collapse of the sub-prime residential lending market in the Spring of 2007. The commercial real estate market experienced a virtual death knell following the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008.

With this backdrop, and the ubiquity of iPhones and other smartphones in society today, we sometimes forget that the very first iPhone was not even released to the public until June 29, 2007.  The first Android smartphone was not introduced until October 2008.  Twitter and text messaging were in their mere infancy in 2008 as the commercial real estate market crash occurred. Today they are the leading means by which the discretionary income-rich millennial generation (those born between about 1980 and 2000) socialize and communicate.

Yes, technology and our retail culture have changed dramatically while the commercial real estate market has been on hiatus over the past several years. What does that mean to commercial real estate investors and developers?  It means our developments have to change too.

The leading takeaway from ICSC RECON 2013 is the need for commercial real estate developers, retailers, lenders and urban planners to grasp the immense changes to our culture borne by the lightning-speed proliferation of social networking and technology.  Commercial  real estate developments, whether new or retooled, will need to create a reason for consumers to come to our commercial projects to shop and spend. To be successful, our projects will need to be fully integrated, media rich environments providing prospective customers with a compelling reason to come to live, work and play. They will need to provide an enticing third space between home and work for consumers to spend their time and money.

The current push in Congress to mandate collection and remittance of sales taxes on internet-based out-of-state sales may help state and local governments fill their coffers, but imposing this tax will likely do little to help brick and mortar retailers.The fact that online sales may be taxed to the same extent as brick and mortar based sales is not likely to dissuade online shopping.

Rather than begrudge the impact of internet-based shopping on brick and mortar retail, developers and retailers alike will need to wholeheartedly embrace technology to create an enticing, in-person experience that integrates online social networks with face-to-face social interaction and shopping. This is the challenge of our time for retail and commercial real estate development.

Meeting this challenge will require, first, that we grasp it, and, second, that we envision how to effectively integrate fundamental real estate development concepts with new and emerging technologies. To get to the desired bottom line, we will almost certainly need to understand and focus on the third space.

Thanks for listening,

Kymn

Continue Reading →

Searching for WOW! at ICSC RECON 2013

business process and workflow

May 19, 2013. Walking the ICSC RECON 2013 Marketplace floor, I am struck by the relatively few WOW exhibits of innovative products and solutions I find myself interested in. What do I mean by a WOW exhibit? Simply put, it is a product or service solution in a convention floor booth that when I see it I think to myself “WOW” that’s special.

I recognize this may be a function of who I am, the projects I am working on, and what I personally find interesting but, just the same, I am a bit disappointed. This is not to discount the functional value of products like trash receptacles, park benches, valuation services, drainage components, maintenance systems, and the like – I just did not find most of them particularly compelling or interesting.

Be that as it may, there were a few exhibits I was drawn to and did find interesting. These exhibits had varying degrees of WOW-ness, but they did make this day at RECON 2013 enjoyable. I will share my favorites here:

FIRST PRIZE goes to Liquid Fireworks by Waltzing Waters, Inc. of Cape Coral, Florida.

(more…)
Continue Reading →