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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Publishing - Testing the Waters

Well, there are never enough hours in the day.    Although I find it to be a challenge to make time to work on my blog, I try to remain disciplined and keep it as a priority.    Blogging is one of those thing which takes a lot more time and effort than you expect.   

In trying to take it up a notch, it was recently suggested to me that I should contribute to some on-line magazines as well.    There are several out there, many with fees to join and many with a particular target market.    Being new at this, I decided that the best shot for me was to use a shotgun type approach and select one of the larger providers and hope that it would help me define my audience somewhat.  

So, about 10 days or so ago, I joined ezinearticles.com and began to submit some work.   So far, they have reviewed and posted 2 of my articles, both on commercial real estate.   It is exciting to be published by somebody else but it has also been a lot of work.  Now in addition to coming up with some material for my blog, I need to submit 10 articles to ezinearticles.com within 30 days of joining.  

Of course, in addition to the excitement of being published, my hope is that it will also make me more marketable to the community at large and also that all of these things together will inter-connect.   

I won't repost those articles here, at least  not at this juncture, but if you have a chance, go to ezinearticles.com and look me up and tell me what you think.  

Thanks, all.  I hope you have a great day!

David

David W McCoy
Associate Broker
Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate
10444 Bluegrass Parkway
Louisville, KY  40299

A note about me - I specialize in commercial real estate and live and work in the Louisville KY area.  I am a license real estate broker in Kentucky and Indiana and work with Buyers, Sellers, Landlords and Tenants for all type of commercial real estate.   Let me know if I can help you.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street

On one level, I can identify with the participants of the Occupy Wall Street movement.   In recent years, I have been outraged as companies like Enron, manipulated markets to make a buck, or as companies like AIG, rescued by billions of dollars of taxpayer money paid themselves huge bonuses and went on luxury trips on the taxpayer's dime.    As thousands of people lost work in the recession and thousands of businesses failed, the government didn't offer to bail them out.  Against this background, the arrogance of taking giant bonuses and making snide comments about how they deserve them, is especially bitter.

That said, I want to come to defense of corporations and business in general.   In Louisville, we are very lucky to have the corporate headquarters of Humana, Yum Brands, Papa Johns International, Brown Forman, and Kindred Healthcare, all of which employ thousands of people.   We are also lucky to have UPS, which in addition to employing thousands more also attracted additional jobs to the area as companies like Linens and Things and Amazon built distribution centers in our area because of the proximity to the UPS World Port.    Ford has two plants here and recently announced plans to add approximately 1700 jobs.    These jobs will create additional jobs as Ford Suppliers get to expand along with the new production.    We are also lucky to have GE, which announced a new appliance to be built here in Louisville.   

I am sure that there are some that I have overlooked but the point is that these corporations have invested billions of dollars in our community and have given jobs to tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands people here.   Besides simply providing employment, many of these companies have also contributed to community programs such as Metro United Way, Habitat for Humanity, Project Warm, the Fund for the Arts, the Kentucky Derby Festival, and Thunder over Louisville just to name a few.  They also made it possible for us to build some community projects such as the KFC Yum Center and Papa John's Stadium.

I know that a corporation is not a person and certainly corporations are not perfect.  However, I for one would like to thank them for investing on our community and giving our friends, neighbors, and family members jobs.   

Have a great day. 

David

David W. McCoy
Associate Broker
Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate
10444 Bluegrass Pkwy
Louisville, KY  40299

I specialize in Commercial Real Estate and am licensed in Kentucky and Indiana.  I work with Office, Industrial, Retail, Investment, and Land Properties.   I work with Buyers, Sellers, Landlords, Tenants and Investors.    If you would like some help with Commercial Real Estate, let me know.  I would love to help.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Google Wars

You may be surprised to know that David McCoy is a fairly common name.    That never occurred to me until I went to college and found myself living in the same dorm and almost directly underneath a David Mark McCoy.   Luckily, he went by Mark although we would sometime get each others mail.

If that didn't make an impression, when I went to University of Texas at Austin for my MBA, my first wife Margaret and I were surprised to find that the Law School had a David McCoy married to another Margaret McCoy. 

This became an issue again a few years back when I started to use Social Media and for the first time tried to become aware of my presence on the internet.    I found that Facebook and LinkedIN both had dozens if not hundreds of David McCoy.   Likewise, there are several David W. McCoys.   Accordingly, in order to separate myself so that my friends and clients I chose David W. McCoy for LinkedIN and David Wade McCoy for facebook.   

The goal of this is to be aware of what is on the internet about me AND to do what I can to make myself findable if someone is looking for me on-line.   There are scores of things people advise to improve these statuses.   I use Twitter, FB, LinkedIN and I blog, all of which are supposed to help my on-line presence.   The other thing I do is from time to time, I google myself to see what happens.

After a couple of years, I have discovered that I still do not rank on a search of David McCoy and I probably never will.   There are just way too many David McCoys.    I do very well with a search of David Wade McCoy, or David W McCoy, Louisville, or David W McCoy, MBA.  And I absolutely rule if the google phrase is David W McCoy, Realtor - having nearly the entire page (nearly 8 entries).  But of course, those are very specialized searches that are probably unlikely for Average Joe to use.  The goal has therefore become to do well with the search of David W McCoy.  

With a google search of David W McCoy, I have managed to be on the first page,  SCORE.  In fact, I have shown up at many as 5 times on the first page and even landed in first place on one or two occassion.   But also in the process I have discovered my two primary nemeses - David W. McCoy, managing vice president of Gartner Fellowship Emeritus; and David W. McCoy, CPP, MBA.   These gentlemen are always vying with me for king of the google search and they both routinely score above me.

I have no idea if these gentlemen are aware of me at all but I am keenly aware of them.   While they do not know it, I am actively trying to displace them for those top positions.   BUT until I do, please don't stop reading after the first couple of entries.    If you google David W McCoy, more than likely I will show up on the first page but maybe not until the third or fourth entry. (smile)

Have a great day, all.  

By the way, if you searching for information on commercial real estate, you might want to look me up.   I am a licensed commercial real estate broker in Kentucky and Indiana and I work with office, industrial, retail, investment and land properties.   I work Buyers and Sellers, Landlords and Tenants.  I would love to help.    

David

David W. McCoy
Associate Broker
Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate
10444 Bluegrass Pkwy
Louisville, KY  40299

Friday, October 14, 2011

Quantum Business Center - New Office Listing



I have a new Office Listing which is perfect for companies needing smaller affordable office space.   The offices are on the second floor of the Quantum Business Center in Bluegrass Industrial Park.   Some of the features of these offices include: 
  • Large Windows throughout
  • Lots of parking available adjacent to the building
  • Easy access to I-64 via Hurstbourne Parkway interstate interchange
  • Sizes ranging from as little as 584 Square Feet up to as large as 3,328 square feet.   
  • Located in Bluegrass Industrial Park, home to more than 850 businesses employing more than 38,000 people
  • Very affordable rates
Let me know if you know of anyone looking for affordable office space.  I would love to show them around.  

Have a great day, all! 

David

David W. McCoy
Associate Broker
Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate
10444 Bluegrass Parkway
Louisville, KY  40299

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Louisville Commercial Real Estate 3rd Qtr 2011 Review of Leasing

In my previous post, I examined YTD Commercial Real Estate Sales through 3rd Quarter 2011.   In this post, I will examine YTD Commercial Real Estate Leasing.

The Numbers

According to KCREA (Kentucky Commercial Real Estate Association), 299 total leases were reported from January 1, 2011 through September 30.    Because of privacy concerns, the dollar amount of these leases is normally not available.     This equated to an average of 7.7 leases signed per week.

Leasing Data breaks down as follows: (note: figures are 2011 YTD figures through 3rd Qtr)
  • Industrial Leases:  98 transactions totaling 779,929 SF; Avg leased area 7958 SF; Median leased area 3,862 SF; Avg asking rate for Industrial Space $3.44 per SF
  • Office Leases:  104 transactions totaling 266,374 SF; Avg leased area 2,561 SF; Median leased area 1,640 SF; Avg asking rate for Office Space $16.12 per SF
  • Retail Leases: 96 transactions totalign 324,533 SF; Avg leased area 3,381 SF; Median leased area 1,950 SF; Avg asking rate for Retail Space $9.82 per SF
(A note about KCREA figures - Information on KCREA is provided by and maintained by the individual brokers.   The accuracy of the information is dependent on the individual brokers keepign their information current.    Also transactions outside of the members of the KCREA community will not appear.   Accordingly, while this information is useful, it cannot be considered to be a complete and accurate census of Lousiville Commercial Real Estate activity.   Never-the-less, it is probably the best information available and I believe that it is still very useful in examing the Louisville Commercial Real Estate market.)

(side note on dollar value of leases:  From existing data, it is difficult to estimate the dollar amout of leasing activity.    If we were to use the average asking price and the square feet leased, we could come up with an estimate of approximately $4.3 Million for Office, $2.7 Million for Industrial, and $3.2 Million for Retail.   However being based on asking prices, you would have to assume these figures would be high.   Also, this estimate would assume basically 1 year leases.  In today's market, several leases may be one year but historically, they tend to be longer and information on KCREA is not complete enough to give us this insight.) 

What this means

The thing that sticks out to me is the size of the leased area.  In every category, there is a big discrepancy between the average size leased and the median amount of space leased.    This indicates that each category has a few large transactions that comprise the lion's share of the activity.  Looking at the median numbers, we see that more than half of all of the Industrial transactions were for less than 4,000 SF; more than half of the Office transactions were for less than 1,700 SF and finally more than half of the Retail transactions were for less than 2,000 SF.  These are very small transactions especially when we consider that the transactions involving smaller spaces also typically involve shorter lease terms.  

As with Sales, the other important thing to consider here is the amount of inventory.   Presently on KCREA, there are approximately 11,000 listings.  (this includes both lease and sales listings.)  Inventory has increased significantly over the last couple of years.    As with sales, with only 299 leases recorded YTD, it would take years to clear out all of the existing inventory.   The successful Landlords will recognize that they MUST do everything possible to be in the top 5% to 10% of listed properties, in condition and price.

Crystal Ball

If we were to base our predictions for the future on the figures we have seen to date, one would expect another difficult year in Commercial Real Estate leasing.   My experience and word on the street however may indicate that we will have some positive news in the works.
  • Office - For the first time in many years, many of the larger Tenants have been looking around for Office space.   These larger leases can take quite a while to finalize but several deals are already rumored to be in their final stages.   These should begin to show up in the figures in the next 6 months or so.  
  • Industrial - Industrial Leasing has been fluctuating somewhat but if manufacturing continues to recover, we can expect this to improve as well.   The Industrial sector should benefit tremendously as Ford and GE add several thousand new manufacturing jobs they have announced. 
  • Retail - With retail, I have been seeing some of the retailers beginning to look around again and while some leasing seems to be occurring, activity in this sector seems to be trailing Office and Industrial.   Most of the activity seems to be smaller retailers with very few big box deals being done.
Apparently with that, I have overheated my crystal ball as it is getting cloudy.   Time will tell.

If you would like some help divining the future of your commercial real estate or if you need help finding some property to lease or buy, I would love to help.   Give me a call or shoot me an e-mail.

By the way, I am sure that my managing broker would appreciate me clarifying that the opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate, its staff, employees, agents, or brokers (other than me, of course).  If you have another opinion and would like to express it or ask a question, please feel free to post a comment.   I welcome other points of view, although I do not welcome inappropriate comments or language.  In those cases, I reserve the right to delete them.

Hope you have a great day.

David

David W. McCoy
Associate Broker
Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate
10444 Bluegrass Pkwy
Louisville, KY  40299

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Louisville Commercial Real Estate 3rd Quarter Review of Sales

With the 3rd Quarter of 2011 behind us, I decided to do some market analysis of the Commercial Real Estate market here in Louisville.  Here is what I found.

The Numbers

According to KCREA (Kentucky Commercial Real Estate Association), 161 total sales were reported from January 1, 2011 through September 30, 2011.   These sales had a dollar amount of approximately $75,923,496.   Average transaction size was about $471,575. This translates into approximately 4.1 sales transactions per week. (note about numbers:  Obviously duplicate transactions, transactions with incomplete data and transactions with obvious errors were omitted when calculating these figures.) 

Sales Data breaks down as follows:  (note: figures are 2011 YTD figures through 3rd Qtr)
  • Industrial Sales  31 transactions totaling $34,488,500;  Avg building size 48,749 SF; Avg Sale Amount $1,112,532; Avg Sales Price / SF $22.82 / SF; Avg asking price $22.18 / SF
  • Multifamily Sales - 22 transactions totaling $5,723,600; Avg building size 14,004 SF; Avg Sale Amount $260,164; Avg Sales Price / SF $18.58; Avg asking price $40.66 / SF
  • Office Sales - 33 transactions totaling $13,482,000; Avg building size 8,937 SF; Avg Sale Amount $408,545; Avg Sales Price / SF $45.71; Avg asking price $78.34 / SF
  • Retail / Shopping Ctr Sales - 42 transactions totaling $12,162,750; Avg building size 5,370 SF; Avg Sale Amount $289,589; Avg Sales Price / SF $53.93; Avg askign price $70.40 / SF
  • Special Purpose Sales - 11 transactions totaling $2,245,100; Avg Sale Amount $204,100
  • Vacant Land Sales - 22 transactions totaling $7,821,546; Avg tract size 34.96 acres; Avg Sale Amount $355,525; Avg price paid per acre $10,169 / acre; Avg asking price $42,689 / acre.
What this means

The striking thing to note is the prices.  Without a frame of reference, this may not mean much but the prices are down in almost every category.   Comparing the sales prices to the asking prices gives a better picture of the market at large.   Industrial prices while low seem to have stabilized with asking prices essentially equal to the sales prices being paid on average.     Sales prices on Office and Retail however are off considerably from asking prices.   More than likely this indicates that most of the properties being sold are distressed properties.   Land is a slightly more complicated beast but with an average sales price of around $10,000 per acre, this indicates that there is still very little development going on.   Land which sells in this price range typically is more rural or agricultural and more than likely does not have commercial zoning, utilities to site or other infrastructure necessary for development.

The other part to consider here is the amount of unsold inventory.   Presently on KCREA there are nearly 11,000 listings.  (this includes both lease and sale listings).   This inventory has increased tremendously over the last couple of years.   With only 161 sales this year, you can see that it would take years to eliminate all of the existing inventory.    The best advice continues to be that if you are selling property, you HAVE to do everything possible to have it in the top 5% of listed properties, in condition and in price. 

Let me know if you have any questions about this article or about commercial real estate. 

Have a great day!

David

David W. McCoy
Associate Broker
Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate
10444 Bluegrass Pkwy
Louisville, KY  40299

Monday, October 3, 2011

Louisville Call Center - My busiest listing - Lease news


I am pleased to report that we have leased a major portion of my Louisville Call Center listing.   The deal which is now official with the new tenant moving in, has been in the works for quite some time.   Although I am sure that the details of the deal will be common knowledge shortly, I do not have permission from my client or the tenant to release any of this information.    

What I can tell you is this, the third floor of this building is still available for lease.  This is an extraordinarily cool building - 
  • Third floor consists of 59,000 Square Feet contiguous space
  • 18 inch raised floors
  • full generator back up for the entire building
  • full uninteruptible power sources for IT equipment
  • approx 750+ cubicles in place
  • the building has parking for 1,100+ cars
This has been an extremely active listing from the very beginning.  Given the amount of activity and ongoing interest in the building, our client is only looking for full floor users for the remaining space.

Anyway, it is a good day when you get to lease or sell a client's property.  

Have a great day!

David

David W. McCoy
Associate Broker
Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate
10444 Bluegrass Pkwy
Louisville, KY