Richmond August 2021 – Key Take Aways
- Charlie Polk with JLL reports that the office has had it’s best six months ever – with heavy activity in industrial, health care, life sciences – and even office.
- Draper Aden’s Charlie Kreye says permitting times are still slow, but hoping to improve soon. Data center activity is on fire and there is optimism that infrastructure spending will pick up in the near term. Higher education sector clients are also starting projects, back up and running. The firm continues to struggle with mentoring as people are still primarily working from home. Jeff Nelson states economic development groups are working hard to attract investors to sites.
- Chuck Wray with Quinn Evans says he expects virtual public hearings to continue – hard to claw back these types of opportunities now that the public is embracing them. The firm is swamped with work and they are seeing the impact of rising construction costs and labor shortages. Chuck reports municipal clients are flush with cash and moving forward with big projects.
- First Citizens’ Matt Plaugher reports record performance for the last 18 months with deposits up 2x during the pandemic. Mobile banking has taken hold and the number of transactions occurring at branches are down. As a part of this evolution, the bank is cross training people to manage a variety of transaction types in the branch and they intend to open new branches in strategic locations. Matt also says they are working with a number of clients who want to exit their businesses now as the future is unclear around capital gains.
- Andy Little with John B. Levy & Company was busy thru June, but has seen a slow down on project starts tying primarily due to the rising cost of materials. Debt funds are getting larger market share as banks can’t push cash our fast enough. Andy echo’s the sentiments on the white hot industrial markets – rents are continuing to climb.
- Tom Rosman with One South Commercial says the market has changed, whereas once owners would by and hold for their lifetime, he is seeing more turnover and flipping of deals. The deal velocity is unprecedented in the market and the number of investors coming in from other markets is more than ever before. The uncertainty of the future of 1031 Exchanges may be driving some of the activity.
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