Category: News

Women are Underrepresented in CRE — Here’s How We Change It.

Posted on by Sarah

It may be 2021, but the gender gap is still alive and well, and Commercial Real Estate (CRE) is no exception. While 64% of all residential realtors are women, this glass ceiling-shattering statistic isn’t reflective of CRE, where only 36.7% of workers are female. This begs the question — what can be done to attract more women into CRE and keep them there?

But, before we can answer that question, let’s consider a few reasons why female talent has struggled to break into the CRE industry. Then we can talk about some creative ways firms can evolve to attract and retain more women:

Where Are The Women in CRE?

Make no mistake, there are some powerful women in the world of CRE that I look up to and admire for making an impact, shattering stereotypes, and
inspiring positive evolution within the field. That being said, we still have
a lot of work to do to balance the scales. Let’s examine some of the primary
driving forces behind the unimpressive gender gap that still exists:

  1. Like father, like son. The systemic nepotism entrenched within the CRE industry is clear as day and understandable: in a relationship-driven business, it’s not what you know but who you know. But when the CEO hires his COO’s nephew as an intern because of a favor-owed, it perpetuates the problem. While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with working in the family business or returning a favor, issues arise when that’s the primary funnel for sourcing new talent. The result is a narrow, one-dimensional organization that has historically left highly qualified female candidates overlooked or encouraged into more gender-traditional career paths. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.

TexAmericas Center Completes Construction on Spec Building

Posted on by Sarah

TexAmericas Center Completes Construction on 150,000-Square Foot Spec Building | New Building Represents Investment, Confidence in Economic Development Efforts

TEXARKANA, USA (Dec. 7, 2021) – TexAmericas Center (TAC) today announced the completion of a new and innovative speculative (spec) building at its campus in Texarkana.

The 150,000-square-foot building on 24 acres is the first new building in the industrial park in 15 years and is now ready for new tenants to occupy the space.

“This building is a driver of economic development and a new chapter for regional growth in our area,” said Scott Norton, Executive Director and CEO of TexAmericas Center. “Hard work and forward thinking bring us to the next chapter for TexAmericas Center and the entire region as a whole. Completing the spec building reflects growing momentum and our confidence in opportunities.”

TexAmericas Center leaders worked with other community economic development professionals to plan the building, which includes features that are attractive to potential tenants, is flexible across a variety of industries, and scalable to meet a host of needs. The building is designed as a multi-tenant, mixed-use facility with 32-foot clear height ceilings, one dock door per 5,000 square feet, and two drive-in doors. The building will accommodate uses like large warehousing inventory akin to what you would find in a large metro market with the capability to subdivide down to 13,000-square-foot units as needed.

“The spec building brings immediate value to the region while laying the foundation for continued growth in terms of business activity, job creation, innovation, and more,” Norton said.

Tenants that use the spec building can take advantage of the impressive transportation corridor that includes multiple state highways, interstates, air freight, and rail lines. Additionally, new companies have access to skilled workers from a wide range of schools in the Texarkana area.

“The potential is endless for tenants who utilize the spec building and the complementing resources in the Texarkana region,” said Eric Voyles, Executive Vice President and Chief Economic Development Officer with TexAmericas Center. “We developed this project with the future in mind. We are so excited to welcome new industries and new jobs to the region, as well as help our current tenants grow.”

The spec building is another major accomplishment in a series of successes for TexAmericas Center. Recently, the company was awarded an $864,550 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) to construct new rail facilities and repair existing ones. The grant is expected to create more than 150 jobs and expand operations within the TexAmericas Center footprint.

Beyond robust rail and construction activity, TexAmericas Center’s remediation efforts also are proving its commitment to supporting businesses and inviting industries to the region. Earlier in 2021, TexAmericas Center successfully completed remediating 6,800 acres of land through the United States Army’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permit. The comprehensive remediation efforts began in 2010 and required a lengthy process to ensure all standards and assurances were met correctly and completely. Now, the nearly 7,000 acres of shovel-ready land can be complemented by other attractive features, including the spec building.

TexAmericas Center is fulfilling its mission as a catalyst of economic investment in the Texarkana region. Since May 2014, it has increased its total leased square footage by more than 85 percent to more than 1 million square feet. Its 12,000 acres and 3.5 million square feet of space is fully entitled, providing potential tenants of specialized industries options that would be difficult or cost-prohibitive to secure in other regions. Its location in the Texarkana metropolitan area offers an attractive pipeline of talent and a logistics network to rival many larger – and therefore more expensive – urban hubs. Additionally, TexAmericas Center offers a complement of unique assets like industrial-grade utilities including fiber, rail, third-party logistics services, and a transload facility.

About TexAmericas Center

Located in the Texarkana metropolitan area, TexAmericas Center owns and operates one of the largest mixed-use industrial parks in the United States. With roughly 12,000 development-ready acres of land and approximately 3.5 million square feet of commercial and industrial product, TexAmericas Center services four states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas).

In 2021, TexAmericas Center was ranked as the No. 5 industrial park in the country by Business Facilities magazine. Tenants appreciate an impressive transportation corridor that uses multiple state highways, interstates, air freight, and rail lines to disperse from a central U.S. location. TexAmericas Center also offers third-party logistics (3PL) services to assist companies with inventory management, warehousing, and fulfillment needs.

It is a designated US Opportunity Zone, HUBZone, New Market Tax Credit Census Tract, Foreign Trade Zone #258, and a Texas Enterprise Zone. TexAmericas Center has the operating capabilities of a municipality but functions like a traditional real estate development company, offering customized real estate solutions. For more information about TexAmericas Center, visit texamericascenter.com.

Regions Bank Closes on its Acquisition of Sabal Capital Partners

Posted on by Sarah

Bimingham, Ala. (Business Wire) Regions Bank on Thursday announced it has completed its acquisition of Sabal Capital Partners, LLC, a diversified financial services firm that leverages an innovative, technology-driven origination and servicing platform to facilitate off-balance-sheet lending in the small balance commercial real estate market.

Our acquisition of Sabal Capital Partners further positions Regions’ Real Estate Capital Markets division to serve growing client base through an expanded range of high-value, in-demand services,” said Joel Stephens, head of Capital Markets for Regions Bank. “By welcoming Sabal into the regions family, we are further enhancing our agency multifamily and non-agency lending capabilities and accelerating our grown in an off-balance-sheet small balance commercial real estate lending. With Sabal’s strong reputation, leading-edge technology platform, and exceptional team, this acquisition serves as an opportunity for Regions to meet additional needs for our clients while reaching new clients through the additional services delivered by Sabal Capital Partners.” Click to read more at www.businesswire.com.

Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex Posts Eleven Straight Years of Positive Net Industrial Absorption

Posted on by Sarah

The industrial real estate boom happening across the country is nothing new in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In fact, the industrial market has performed so well in the north Texas Metroplex that Q3 numbers in a new report from CBRE indicate that there have been 44 consecutive quarters — or eleven years straight — of positive net industrial absorption.

And with the current crunch on the country’s already stressed supply chain,
that monumental momentum isn’t likely to slow down anytime soon. The
current vacancy rate in the Dallas industrial market? Just 4.6%.

Overall, 2021 has been a significant year for Dallas industrial. Year-to-date,
by the end of Q3, the region has witnessed nearly 30 million square feet of
absorption. In Q3 alone, there was 7.25 million square feet of absorption. Around 6.85 million square feet of industrial space was delivered in Q3 and another 31.3 million square feet of new industrial product was still under construction by the end of September.

And of the 31.3 million square feet of new space under construction by the end of the third quarter, nearly a third has already been pre-leased, the report details. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.

Homeowners Unaware of Looming Insurance Hit

Posted on by Sarah

Home insurance costs are set to soar for people living in high-risk areas and residential real estate investors as climate change becomes more severe across the US, according to a whitepaper on the impact of global warming on property.

Titled ‘Weathering the Storm: Burgeoning Insurance Costs for Real Estate,’ the 14-page report by proptech firm SitusAMC outlines that people living in areas at high risk from natural disasters were largely unaware of rising home insurance costs.

The report highlighted that extreme weather events would impact the entire country and not just along vulnerable coastlines such as South Florida, warning that there was a “substantial disconnect between insurers and real estate market participants about the magnitude of these (insurance premium) increases”. Click to read more at www.mpamag.com.

Elandis Acquires 569-unit Multifamily Communities in Houston

Posted on by Sarah

HOUSTON, Nov 2021 –Elandis, a real estate ownership and property management company, today announced that it has acquired Hudson & Crosby at Westchase, two multifamily communities with a combined 569 residential units in Houston.

Located at 2909 Hayes Rd., Houston, Texas, the two-story properties ideally match Elandis’s stated goal of acquiring workforce housing communities throughout the Sun Belt states. The acquisition price was not disclosed.
The centrally located communities, which were built in 1980, have three shopping centers within a half mile for ease of shopping and for meeting residents’ everyday needs. It is also within easy access of major thoroughfares.

Hudson & Crosby at Westchase feature one-, two- and three-bedroom residences, along with shared amenities which include a swimming pool and clubhouse, covered parking, business center, and a fitness center. The communities will benefit from a comprehensive in-unit upgrade program, along with upgrades to its common areas and amenities. Click to read more at www.elandis.com.