October 2022 Philadelphia Mastermind Group Key Take Aways!
- The most activity in and around the city is in life sciences, with Philadelphia looking to become number one in the country in that industry. (Bart Mellits – Ballard Spahr, Merrie Winston – Talson Solutions, Catherine Califano – City of Philadelphia)
- There has been some slowing down in the industrial market with construction lenders offering more difficult terms when they are willing to make deals. Slowing down is primarily because of the debt markets. (Bart Mellits – Ballard Spahr, Spencer Yablon – CBRE)
- The APTA Conference is currently happening in Seattle. There is a lot of interest in infrastructure because there is such a large influx of federal funds. (Barbara Gee – Talson Solutions)
- Many cities are in the process of rewriting old codes to account for climate change. AKRF consults on storm water and water resources and does a lot of work with climate change and resilience planning. (Carolyn Paone – AKRF)
- EisnerAmper has offices in Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York and has just acquired a practice in Minneapolis. They do a lot of work with contractors, developers and affordable housing. (Michael Mostochuk – EisnerAmper)
- Yardi Systems collects and sells data on multi-family, self-storage, office and industrial and publishes white papers and outlooks on industry trends. Recently published an article on multi-family and why rents are decelerating. (Paul Fiorilla – Yardi Systems)
- Boat storage is a growing sector. (Paul Fiorilla – Yardi Systems)
- CHOP’s Schuylkill Avenue 14-story research building project with Talson Solutions is breaking ground on Wednesday. Anticipating completion by 2025 or 2026. (Merrie Winston – Talson Solutions)
- Researchers want to live, work and breathe in communities like their background. Multi-family developers should partner with commercial developers. Seeing luxury apartments in University City for the first time. (Spencer Yablon – CBRE, Merrie Winston – Talson Solutions)
- The City of Philadelphia, PIDC and West Philly Skills Initiative are collaborating to prepared residents to meet the workforce needed of the life sciences industry. (Catherine Califanom City of Philadelphia) https://philadelphiaskills.org/as-philly-becomes-a-hub-for-life-sciences-a-new-program-will-train-workers-for-jobs-in-the-field/
- Currently, there is a very narrow focus on multi-family and life sciences. (Spencer Yablon – CBRE, Sara McCormick – Ballard Spahr)
- The City of Philadelphia is also hoping to expand innovation opportunities outside of life sciences and recently participated on an proposal with Ben Franklin Technology Centers for a federal grant to work on that. (Catherine Califano – City of Philadelphia)
- The rental market has resumed normal seasonality, which is a drop off in leasing after the summer. Rent increases have been subsiding and returning to closer to pre-pandemic normal. (Christian Dalzell – Counter Management)
- There has been an influx of office space coming back to the market. There is an expectation of continued downsizing. Some tenants are concerned about crime. So far rental rates have remained stable. (Joseph Viturello – PernaFrederick Commercial Real Estate)
- There is not enough lab space, which has different requirements than normal office space. (Joseph Viturello – PernaFrederick Commercial Real Estate)
- Office tenants are looking for space that is ready to go. (Joseph Viturello – PernaFrederick Commercial Real Estate)
- More business owners want to be in an office. Still need flexibility to accommodate employees, but amenities are important so employees want to be there. Smaller buildings with local companies have spent more time in the office over the past two years. (Joseph Viturello – PernaFrederick Commercial Real Estate)
- Properties being used as short term rentals (such as AirBnB, VRBO) will require a license as of January of 2023. (Catherine Califano – City of Philadelphia)
- The City of Philadelphia is going after funding for infrastructure. (Catherine Califano – City of Philadelphia)
- SEPTA just doubled its police and safety budget and replaced people at the top. Crime is a concern and they’re working to make improvements. https://whyy.org/articles/septa-police-pay-safety-officer-retention/#:~:text=SEPTA%20will%20offer%20higher%20salaries%20to%20its%20police,member%20of%20the%20force.%20%E2%80%9CWe%E2%80%99re%20at%20210%20officers. (Catherine Califano – City of Philadelphia)
- Any wood frame new development is the most challenging in the insurance market. Especially projects over $20 million. (Matt Musilli – Johnson, Kendall & Johnson)
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