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…
A strengthening residential market seems to be the rule around central Ohio over the last year and its getting stronger. First quarter 2012 homes sales for Central Ohio were up 7.1 percent over first quarter 2011 with 4,045 this year versus 3.776 last year. The average price for March 2012 was $153,557, which is up…
Randyl Drummer with CoStar News reports that the rebound in office type jobs is becoming strong enough that we could see rent growth in the near future. The growth spreading to smaller businesses and secondary markets coupled with positive absorption and little new supply coming on the market will lead to rent growth over the…
This is British Petroleum’s first deal in oil and gas rich shale in Northeast Ohio. The deal is reported to be worth $331,000,000 based on a $3,900 per acres up front bonus payment. It’s estimated that it will take another six months getting lease signatures from individual land owners in the area before work can…
As many of us are aware, unless congress takes action, the top tax rate of dividends will increase from the current 15% to 43.4% next year. That’s a top ordinary income rate of 39.5% plus the 3.8% on investment income as part of Obamacare passed in 2009. Another good reason for commercial real estate and…
Dublin Ohio’s 800 acre core has been slated for a massive redevelopment effort along Bridge Street from Frantz Road to Sawmill Road. Now, Dublin has a plan that will redevelop the corridor “into a mix of high density uses – an urban, walkable community that will include new options in housing, entertainment, retail and areas…
This is the last reminder because valuation appeals are accepted from December to March 31. Your chances of winning are about half so it’s well worth doing, but must be done correctly and very soon. It’s the 27th so get moving. Lock your new, hopefully lower, valuation in for three years. Take a look at the…
At the link is a status update on our new Hilton Hotel across from the convention center in Columbus’ Short North. The pedestrian bridge is yet to be received and installed, but other than that the exterior is mostly complete. The grand opening is set for mid October. http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/blog/2012/03/slideshow-hilton-hotel-update–.html
As primary markets get ridiculously overpriced and the much preferred single tenant, triple net or absolute net corporate leased retail properties more and more unavailable, investor focus is shifting to secondary markets such as this one, Columbus, and Seattle Dallas, Phoenix and even Detroit. Solid deals are around in these markets and with interest rates…
Slow steady improvement was the name of the game in Columbus and Central Ohio for February 2012 residential real estate as 1,215 sales closed last month, which is a 5% increase over February 2011. Better yet is that the average sales price of $151,072 was 7.3% higher than same month last year. In addition, contracts…
CoStar’s monthly National Composite Index of Commercial Real Estate posted gains in eight of the last nine months for January 2012. True, it’s March 15, 2012, but it takes them around 45 days to get the numbers out to us. With the gain in January the national composite index is now 1.9% above January last year….
I read an update from the 1031 exchange specialist, Steve Rosansky, regarding increased inflation in the near future and using commercial investment real estate as a hedge. We’re starting to see the signs of increased inflation with commodity prices up about 7% in the last year and food prices up 20% in the same period. …
It’s a mix of both moderately good news and some bad news. Starting with the bad news is that we had a major drop off in construction and development funding from $321 billion last to $240 billion this year. I was pretty optimistic back during the second and third week of January when I was…
Randyl Drummer of CoStar News wrote an interesting article on adaptive reuse, and primarily of surplus U.S. government property. Since construction financing is still very difficult to obtain and there’s a bunch of surplus GSA properties around, much of it in primary or strong secondary markets, it makes much sense to look at creative uses for…
Just a reminder. Valuation appeals are accepted from December to March 31. Your chances of winning are about 50 – 50 so it’s well worth doing, but must be done correctly. Lock your new, hopefully lower, valuation in the for three years. Take a look at the short article at the link. Columbus Realtors.com – News…
The Utica shale gas resources are forecasted to bring an addition 65,000 at an average $50k per year to the long suffering Northeast sector of Ohio. The area has been Ohio’s highest chronic unemployment since the steel industry shut down in the late 70s and early 80s. According to the study Ohio’s gross domestic product…
Commercial real estate lenders are expecting to build on a very good 2011 with a stronger 2012. Barring international shocks such as a war with Iran or disruption in oil supplies, 2012 should see a loan volume in the range of $230 billion, up 17% from 2011, and continue to rise to $290 billion by…
Randyl Drummer from CoStar news writes, and I agree, that retail rents will begin to rise this year. It’s not so much a huge increase in demand as much as there is virtually no increase in supply. The supply / demand balance is tipping in favor of the landlord. Construction financing is still a pain…
I though this also might be of interest to a few of my readers. A comment came up on a residential blog named Active Rain that I also wanted to address here. I’m on the ‘other’ side of the business where picture quality isn’t a big deal, but it still is to me. I think it’s…
For the first time in five years, a majority of banks are considering growing their loan portfolio due to improving conditions in just about all sectors of the economy. There’s neither an overwhelming consensus nor a large gain in activity, but most banks feel that they are through the worst of the write downs and…