Skip to main content

Hampton Roads March 2023 – Key Take-Aways

Kelly Martone, Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital

  • The monetary policy path has been shaken up by the FED with the recent SVU fallout.
  • The labor markets are still strong.  CPI is moderating, but month over month is going in the right direction.
  • PPI has increased year over year and so has retail.
  • Historically if the two-year treasury is higher than the 10 year treasury in shorter term bonds, then a rescession is coming.  As of recent, the two-year treasury was 5% and the 10 year was 4%.
  • Banks did 60% of all commercial loans in the 4th quarter last year.  “This is huge!”  Life Insurance Companies only did 20%.
  • A lot of banks are only lending to existing customers.  Banks are hoarding deposits.
  • Life insurance companies currently have plenty of capital.
  • Traditionally, life insurance companies will get more aggressive towards the end of the year.
  • Over the past couple of years, multi-family and industrial have been the hottest property types out there.  Interest in retail is growing over the past year.  Strong interest in self-storage as well.
  • Little to no interest in office space other than medical and life science buildings.
  • There is a lot of demand on refinance in comparison to acquisitions which have dried up.

Deborah Stearns, JLL

  • Most tenants are doing a hybrid model between work from home and in office.
  • Capital One vacated 115k square feet in Chesapeake, and then the school board bought the whole building.
  • Amerigroup pulled out of the two buildings by CBN, Sentara purchased the building immediately.
  • Sentara will be vacating blocks of space over the next 3 years.
  • It is very much a landlord’s market at the moment.
  • The hot new market is IOS (Industrial Outside Storage).
    • 2 plus acres of land for this use is going for $5-$6k per acre per month.
    • Utilized for trailer storage.
  • One of the big issues on ground up constructions is lead time.  Getting generators, steel, etc.

Joe Lowery, Cohen Investment Group

  • Materials are still expensive and have long lead times.
    • HVAC, PVC, Plumbing, all have gone up in price, while lumber is coming down.
  • Bitcoin for the long term seems interesting.  For those wise enough to understand it, it could turn out well.
  • Precious metals (gold) has kept up with inflation since 1970.
    • The price is controlled by too many other influences.
  • Sand is more precious of a resource than water as drinkable water can be made, and sand cannot.
    • Desalinization, water recycling, etc.  can all create water.
    • Sand cannot be made.  Concrete, building materials, etc. require sand.

Dan Shelton, Whiting-Turner

  • Construction is more expensive because of the changes caused by the pandemic.
    • People want plush offices in comparison to basic cubicles.
    • Comfortable costs more money.
  • Materials have gone up, also making construction costs higher.
  • The labor market is also causing costs to increase as quality employees cost more money.
  • Lead times are a challenge.  Electrical specifically is a challenge.

Greg Schmitt, Kimley-Horn

  • Transportation of goods, pipe materials, concrete pipe all causing costs to go up.
  • PVC goes up and down in price as well causing increased costs.

Hugh Cohen, Cohen Investment Group

  • More issues to come with the current banking crisis.
    • Potential for rates to drop in July.
  • This could affect the debt ceiling conversation.
  • Potential for some conversion opportunities of office to multi-family.

Mike Moore, London Norfolk

  • It is getting more and more difficult to get insurance in the area.
    • Flood

Leave a Reply

We help accelerate deal discussion and
follow-up by making it efficient,
accountable & measurable.

We provide senior commercial real
estate and development professionals a
meaningful way to exercise their
relationships.

We help you build trust and improve
credibility with the people you think
are important.