For the second year, Westerville’s Uptown District will be awarding up to $15,000 in grant money per property for improvements ranging from paint, new windows, awnings to concealing rooftop wiring. Eight local businesses will be receiving grant dollars from the Westerville Industry and Commerce Corp., acting in behalf of the City of Westerville. $200,000 is…
The city of Dublin, Ohio has embarked on a grand project with this one so here’s an update on the progress. The project is moving along and the city is offering a quick look at what it could be. http://vimeo.com/61395284 The Bridge Street Corridor run along State Route 161 (Bridge Street) from Sawmill Road through…
The City of Westerville is looking at a plan to more effectively utilize the 1,100 parking spaces in the Uptown district. The plan is to create mid-block alleys and redesign the north – south alleyways. The north – south alleys could take some of the pressure off of State Street which currently gets jammed at…
According to CoStar News, sales of commercial real estate in the United States reached $64 billion last year, which is the highest since 2004 and increased 22 percent from 2011. The price gains spread beyond multifamily into industrial, office and retail. Even commercial land showed signs of awakening mostly due to demand for multifamily with…
CoStar News reports that new apartment construction at four or five times the national average for other types of commercial construction in certain markets will cause vacancies to increase. “Apartment construction has been on a tear in certain markets,” CoStar says. “With the inventory growing at more than four or five times the national rate,…
New data show major rebound in both commercial and residential construction led almost entirely by multifamily and single family development. Developers and builders started construction on the highest number of single family homes and apartments since July 2008. Multifamily rose 10% in October 2012 to an annualized rate of 285,000 units. Single family building application…
If it’s one thing that markets hate, especially commercial real estate, that’s uncertainty. Also, election really matter and this one made the situation more uncertain. In fact, it’s going to be worse than it has been in the prelude to the election given that Obama still holds the Whitehouse and the Democrats the senate and…
The Columbus and Central Ohio unemployment rate has fallen to 5.7 percent from 7.4 percent in September 2011. Obviously, that’s a huge improvement and it’s not because of folks who have given up looking for work. The seven county Central Ohio area has returned 48,000 of the 53,000 jobs lost during the downturn. The regions’…
Prices are still trending upward. Homes prices in the Columbus and Central Ohio area are up from same month last year with an average price of $169,413. That’s up 8.1 percent over September 2011. 1,859 homes in Columbus and Central Ohio sold during September 2012, which is 2.5 percent increase over August 2012. Year to…
The Columbus and Central Ohio jobless number was 7.6% in October 2011 and dropped to 6.6% in November 2011. That’s a major improvement. That’s the best in three years. The lowest was Delaware County at 5.5% and the highest was Pickaway County at 8.5 %. You can see it and feel it around here. Retail…
For the first time since 2008, overall commercial real estate prices are on the increase. CoStar’s monthly National Composite Index of Commercial Real Estate increased 2.2% and that’s the first since the sharp downturn in 2008. Leading the price recovery has been investment grade property – no surprise there as I’ve written about this for…
According to CoStar COMPs, sales volume for commercial property rose by nearly 70% from about $22 billion of deals in the first quarter of 2010 to almost $36 billion in the fourth quarter. And the $36 billion will like increase as CoStar finalizes its fourth quarter totals and confirms the flurry of year end deals…
CoStar reports that positive absorption increased in warehouse market for the second consecutive quarter. With virtually no new product being built it doesn’t take much of a bump in demand to create a big increase in positive absorption. 620 million square feet was leased in 2009, which was a decade high, and that’s with almost…
The prognosis for the 4th quarter is some mild improvement in conditions, but still more uncertainty. I think we’ve backed away a bit from the double dip consensus, but we won’t see much indication one way or the other until after the elections. If the Republicans win the House back, which I expect will happen,…
The President, on Monday, signed into law the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. The bill, which Congress passed last week, expands loan programs through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), strengthens small business preference programs for federal government projects, provides incentives for exporters, offers a variety of small business tax breaks and includes some revenue…
This is a bit interesting. The follwing chart show where the following cities are growing versus their suburbs. My home town of Columbus has always been known for balanced growth and it appears that’s continuing. See the chart on the next page WSJ Blogs – The City Versus Suburbs
Since I’m originally from Westerville Ohio and many of my California clients own property in Columbus, I’ve been watching the opportunity in Jerome Township, NW of Dublin unfold for many years. With the news below, it’s a go. The far north is continuing to grow, from New Albany and Westerville over to Hilliard and Dublin….
Still more evidence that we’re slowly coming out of this. The Bloomberg News consensus of economists index rose 0.5% in January after a revised 1.2% rise December, and a 1.1% increase in November. The Fed Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’ Manufacturing Survey rose to 17.6 in February from a revised 15.2 in January. However, job growth…