Originally published on March 2020 by Maria Sicola, Charles Warren, Ph.D., and Megan Weiner, CityStream Solutions, LLC.

Professionals commonly analyze and compare individual U.S. commercial real estate markets by dividing them into ranked tiers based on their investment potential or growth characteristics. Although the methodologies they use to create these rankings are broadly similar from one report to the next, each is slightly different. As a result, cities are ranked differently in different reports. This can sometimes lead to confusion as industry participants sort out which markets are the best candidates for new investment. Adding to the potential for confusion, different analysts use different terms (e.g., “Tier 1,” “Primary,” “24-hour,” “Gateway”) to describe which markets they think are the top markets in the industry.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Democratic leaders are working on a bill that could spend as much as $2 trillion more on coronavirus relief. A significant portion of that will be directed toward states and local governments, which are suffering a loss of tax revenues because of ongoing shutdowns.

Other priorities include an expansion of unemployment insurance and additional funding for the U.S. Postal Service. The bill could also include spending on infrastructure.

Originally published by Phil Jelsma for Commerical Property Executive

The coronavirus outbreak has prompted multiple deadline extensions by the Internal Revenue Service, many of which have major implications for commercial real estate investors.

The CLT Development Center continues to maintain plan review, permitting, and field inspections as allowed by the stay-at-home order. For the last weeks, we continue to make modifications to the ways we deliver services to protect customers, staff, and the community. 

Requests and scheduling for virtual meetings for urban and commercial pre-submittals continue to be offered. Please contact Nan Peterson, Business Relation Manager, [email protected], or 980-264-9580 with questions or inquiries. 

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Last week, the White House issued an outline containing a three-phase approach for states to follow as they move to restart activities following the coronavirus pandemic. Before a state moves forward, the administration said it should be seeing a downward trajectory of influenza-like illnesses and COVID-like syndromic cases reported over two weeks.

As states reopen, the plan recommends they have plans to:

• Protect the health and safety of workers in critical industries.
• Protect the health and safety of those living and working in high-risk facilities (e.g., senior care facilities).
• Protect employees and users of mass transit.
• Advise citizens regarding protocols for social distancing and face coverings.
• Monitor conditions and immediately take steps to limit and mitigate any rebounds or outbreaks by restarting a phase or returning to an earlier phase, depending on severity.

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Originally published in the Spring 2020 Issue by Trey Barrineau

Surging demand for e-commerce grocery deliveries could spark more construction of refrigerated facilities.

In October 2019, Amazon announced that it will begin offering free two-hour grocery delivery to Amazon Prime members. The move could have a dramatic impact on demand for cold storage facilities, which were already poised for strong growth amid changing consumer preferences.

Originally published on May 5, 2020 by Rich Tucker 

At the beginning of the year, nobody predicted the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. On March 1, the economy seemed to be thriving with record-low unemployment and a booming stock market. Two months later, the economy is in a deep freeze, and everyone wonders how quickly, and how thoroughly, it can thaw out.

Originally published on April 28, 2020 by Mecklenburg County

Mecklenburg County, the City of Charlotte and the six county towns, have agreed to follow the State of North Carolina's Stay at Home Order starting April 30.

Mecklenburg County Manager Dena R. Diorio announced the agreement to the Board of County Commissioners at its public policy meeting Tuesday afternoon, one day before the county's current order was set to expire.

"The unified coalition of the County, the City, and the towns that began working together when this crisis started will stay together," said Diorio. "We have agreed to proceed like the rest of the state as the phased reopening proceeds."

Mecklenburg's Stay at Home Order began March 26 and is more restrictive than the state order regarding certain businesses—including car dealerships, landscaping services, real estate brokerage, and other businesses not considered essential.

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Originally published on April 14, 2020 by Marc Rapport for MillionAcres.com 

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on Americans' health and on their businesses. April 1 marked the first major due date for rent for millions of enterprises large and small, and reports from around the nation show that many simply couldn't make do.

Originally published in April 2020 by Marcus & Millichap

Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code enables real estate investors to defer capital gains on income-producing property when those gains are used to acquire a like-kind investment. Colloquially, a 1031 exchange is the transaction in which an investment property is liquidated and the proceeds from the sale, including capital gains, are used to acquire additional income-producing property or properties. For the exchange to meet IRS standards, buyers have 45 days from the initial sale to identify a replacement property of equal or greater value and 180 days to acquire that asset.

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The House and Senate aren’t scheduled to reconvene until early May; however, lawmakers are negotiating at a distance to reach an agreement to provide more funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
 
Their tentative deal would invest another $310 billion into the program, with $60 billion allocated specifically for rural and minority groups and $60 billion for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. The agreement would also add $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing, for a total of $470 billion in additional spending.
 
PPP is a loan program ran through the Small Business Administration. It ran through its initial $349 billion last week after just two weeks of making loans. NAIOP and its allies in the real estate community-supported PPP and the law that created it, the $2.3 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, enacted last month to help the economy survive the coronavirus shutdown.

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Even with no in-person events on your schedule, you can continue to build professional relationships right now – you may just need to think creatively during this unusual time.

In a recent NAIOP Advantage Series webinar, networking strategist Lori Saitz, CEO and founder of Zen Rabbit, shared ideas for making meaningful professional connections, whether you are looking to touch base with people you’ve met in the past or would like to expand your network to reach new customers.

Originally published by Heath Abramsohn in the Spring 2020 Issue

The Rockefeller Group Logistics Center in Piscataway, New Jersey, opened in October 2019. It marked the culmination of four years of collaboration between Piscataway Township, Middlesex County and the companies involved with the project. With five buildings totaling 2.1 million square feet across 228 acres, the effort transformed a former brownfield site into a productive asset that should create more than 1,500 permanent jobs.

• Cabarrus County Order
• Mecklenburg County Order
• Clarifications for Essential Businesses
• Clarifications for Real Estate
• North Carolina Order

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A key element of the $2.3 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act may run short of funding as soon as this week. Lawmakers initially allocated $349 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) run through the Small Business Administration. In its first week, PPP spent more than $100 billion of that, and could spend the rest by Friday. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asked Congress to add an additional $250 billion to the fund last week. Democrats blocked that attempt in the Senate; they are demanding additional provisions they said would help hospitals and state and local governments.

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As e-commerce and technology push industries to evolve, businesses are placing greater importance on integrated workspaces. These are places where design, manufacturing, distribution and showroom activities occur within a single building.

At the same time, companies must deal with land supply constraints, increases in space demand, and economic and population growth. These trends are driving new opportunities for industrial lands intensification, such as multilevel developments (sometimes referred to as “vertical” or “stacked”), while challenging old planning regulations.

Originally published on April 1, 2020, by ED KLIMEK, AIA, NCARB

Commerce had begun to change before the outbreak of COVID-19; from the exponential trajectory of e-commerce to the rise in consumer demand for more immediate goods to the rise of urban industrial development to fulfill last-mile needs. The unknowns of this novel virus have accelerated that change to a tipping point at which the structures of commerce, and the development that supports it, maybe altered for good. This crisis has exposed the strengths and weaknesses of the market, and in doing so proved the necessity of a resilient supply chain. What will new commerce look like and what will be the industrial development response to support it? Some of this answer may lie in examining the world’s largest commercial enterprise, a company that had already set change in motion, and the one company that may have grown the most as a result of demand driven by the impact of COVID-19: Amazon. Through the lens of Amazon’s keys to success, we can see a path forward for industrial development to be part of the resilient supply chain.

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NAIOP commends the U.S. House for today's passage of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), following the U.S. Senate's passage on Thursday. We expect President Donald Trump to sign it into law shortly.\

The CARES Act will provide critical relief as businesses and individuals strive to manage the economic challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. We look forward to continuing our work with elected leaders on next steps, as well as supporting our members and the industry as we weather this crisis and plan for the future. 

Hello fellow NAIOP members,

We know most of you are working from your new home office and trying to keep life moving forward as normal as possible. While we are in very interesting and ever-changing times, we also want to do all we can to keep the commercial real estate market moving in a positive direction, albeit in a manner that makes sense and keeps people safe and healthy. This is so important to our state and local economies and, more importantly, to the many families that depend on the paychecks that our industry provides.

Originally published in the Winter 2019/2020 Issue by David Schneider, Herman Lipkis

There are a lot of reasons for developers to embrace these temporary spaces, but due diligence is required.