Raleigh October 2020 – Key Take Aways

• RPN Member activity is strong: Scott Hadley worked with Philip Hackley on a complicated transaction.  Kevin Scanlon thanked Dawn Polin for providing tax credit solutions.  Evan Koransky is working with TradeMark Properties on an 11-acre site near Amazon’s distribution facility.  Speaker Chris Chung thanked Tom White and Kirk Bradley for economic development efforts.
• Wyrick Robbins is busy with transactional work, recently working with a waste company that bought 100 new landfills and other real estate sites in $1.2B transaction.  The firm lost a student housing and a downtown hotel development project.
• Lee & Associates says land, industrial continue to drive activity, with interest from outside NC. They’ve had closings, contracts and offers in Lee, Franklin and Harnett Counties.  Life sciences demand remains strong due to talent, land cost, universities and sector diversity.  Growth is happening in RTP, Lee County, Holly Springs, and Wilson, primarily in manufacturing.
• TradeMark Properties reports local and national restaurant chains seek 2^nd generation restaurant space.  Current tenants look to become owners due to failed landlord relationships during COVID.
• NC State partners with EDPNC to grow PPE manufacturing in NC.  The NC State College of Engineering and Kirk Bradley were involved in Bharat Forge coming to Lee County, with 460 jobs and $170M investment.  Bharat Forge’s first inquiry was March 2019; they will be open in March 2021.
• Lee-Moore Capital Company is working on creating two enterprise parks within megasites, with good access to rail.  Chatham County will soon vote on putting public infrastructure in TIP West.
• MOSAIC at Chatham Park is partnering with Innovate Carolina to operate an innovation hub, 22K SF of furnished office, co-working and classroom space, with the intent to monetize intellectual capital via credentialing.  Lowe’s Foods is approved for the 92-acre property adjacent to MOSAIC; Chatham Park has sold 20+ cottages in first residential project, with custom homes coming soon.
• Ten-X CRE offers a national auction program; they were recently purchased by CoStar.  The firm’s working on a portfolio of vacant banks across NC.  Since March, the firm’s put 571 properties to market and sold 351 for a total value of $1.4B, with 12.8 average bids, 9 unique bidder and 111 CA’s.
• According to First Horizon, money is cheap, and good interest rates are available.  Demand is high for apartments, industrial, flex space and life sciences.  Wells Fargo’s activity has picked up and loan portfolio has performed well.  They will work with seasoned investors with large portfolios and known risk.  They see more companies focusing on e-commerce.
• Christopher Chung of EDPNC focused on COVID19’s impact on NC’s business recruitment and tourism.  Tourism/business travel stopped in March, but now business recruitment is 10-20% above 2019 levels, but room demand is still down 33% and room revenue down 43%.   Air travel is down 70%, so tourism marketing now focuses on NC residents exploring NC.  Tourism recovery may take a few years, and some small businesses may not survive.