Commercial Land - Market Activity and Analysis

As luck would have it, I have several Commercial Land listings again.  Recently I have shared some analysis of the Commercial Land - market activity with some of my land clients.  So I thought I would share it here as well.  

 

In general, there was sort of a bump of activity last year (2012) and there were signs of interest  with a number of calls in the first quarter 2013 on land but it seems that things have quieted down a little as we enter into the summer.  

Looking back at Commercial Land sales, I found that KCREA (Kentucky Commercial Real Estate Association – our Commercial Information Exchange) reported 23 sales of commercial land larger than 5 acres for the 12 month period beginning 4/1/2012.    So about 2 sales per month.   Interestingly, 8 of those 23 were foreclosure sales, auctions or bank sales.   In April of 2013, there were 253 commercial land properties larger than 5 acres which were listed for sale on KCREA.  So there is presently about an 11 year supply of land on the market.

It is no longer news that commercial land in general depreciated about 40% since 2008.  What this tells us is that with roughly a third of the commercial land sales being distressed sales, and an 11 year supply of land at current consumption rate, we can see this downward pressure on prices is still with us.  

On the positive side, the metro market area’s Industrial occupancy is very high and we are beginning to see a shortage of Industrial space.   This has led to some Industrial spec projects for the first time in quite a while.  If this demand continues and if financial institutions begin to loosen their credit somewhat and allow more of these projects, we should expect to see the demand for commercial land to increase in tandem with this activity.  

Of course, land is not a homogenous product.   Location, size, zoning, traffic, roads, visibility, availability of utilities are all factors in addition to price as projects come available.   Each of these will ultimately be a factor in the demand for a particular parcel when new projects are being considered.  

Let me know if you have any questions. 

 

I hope you have a great day!

 

Side note - I am a licensed real estate broker in Kentucky and Indiana and I specialize in Commercial Real Estate.  I handle Office, Industrial, Retail, Commercial Land, Investment and International Properties.   I work with Sellers, Buyers, Landlords, Tenants, and Investors.   Heck I can even set you up with a Residential specialist if you need help.   If you need any help with real estate, give me a call or send me an e-mail.  I would love to help.   

 

David

 

David W. McCoy

Associate Broker

Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate

10444 Bluegrass Parkway

Louisville, KY  40299

 

office: (502) 379-6005

Cell: (502) 905-5274

e-mail: DMcCoy@ccre.biz

 

 

Commercial Land - New Listing on I-65 Interchange

I have a new Commercial Land listing on an Interstate Interchange in Shepherdsville, KY.   There are 77 acres on the southeast quadrant of I-65 and Hwy 44.  It is situated at exit 117 of I-65, 11 miles from Louisville International Airport and UPS World Port.    This property has great highway visability with approximately 2500 feet of frontage on I-65.   All utilities are available.  For sale at $120,000 per acre.  

For more information on this listing or other Commercial Land, give me a call or e-mail me.   My contact information is below.

Thanks and have a great day! 

David

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

office: (502) 379-6005
cell: (502) 905-5274
e-mail: DMcCoy@ccre.biz

Note - If you have questions about this or about any Commercial Real Estate, please feel free to contact me.   I am a specialist in Commercial Real Estate and I handle Office, Industrial, Commercial Land, Investment and Retail Properties.  I work with Landlords, Tenants, Sellers, Buyers and Investors.     I am also an International Property Specialist and have specialized training to help international real estate investors with real estate needs here as well as US citizens and companies needing assistance internationally.   Heck, I can even set you up with residential help if you need it.    Give me a call.  I would love to help.

Disclaimers - While the information provided is from sources which we deem to be reliable, Commonwealth Commmercial Real Estate cannot warrant this information.    All information provided is subject to review and verification by the interested party as part of the due diligence process. 

KCREA goes International

If you are looking for Commercial Real Estate in Louisville and you are asking a residential realtor and looking at the MLS, I'm afraid that you are searching about 7 or 8 years too late.    Please don't misunderstand, I am not knocking residential realtors at all.  It is just that the MLS eliminated commercial properties from their data base about 7 years ago.   

There are several on-line listing services which provide information on Commercial Real Estate.  I use several and I think that most of the commercial real estate specialists do as well.   Locally, KCREA, the Kentucky Commercial Real Estate Association, has most of those listings.   

KCREA is constantly evolving.  It is not perfect but it does seem to be actively trying to improve.   So I was pleased when I recently discovered that KCREA now has an option to translate the listing into several different languages.   If you do a search for a property and click on one, on the right side of the page, down several lines is an option to translate the page.  If you click on that option, several icons of flags appear.   If you are not familiar with the flags, when you roll over the flags, a label appears displaying the language.  (Languages include: Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Hebrew)  Click on the flag and the page will translate.

Pretty cool.   Now, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story.   I speak a little Spanish and truth be told, the translation is not perfect.   Still, while the translation could be a little better, it certainly would be largely understandable to a Spanish speaker.  They might be somewhat amused at the translation but I suspect that they would be able to get the basic information and a decent understanding of what it being offered.  

I for one, think that this is a big step forward.   In our market, this is not yet a major issue although, in our office, we have worked with Cuban immigrants, who spoke almost no English, Russian business owners, who fortunately were bilingual, and Chinese business owners, who brought their kids to translate for them.   In some of our high schools, the students are speaking 30 or 40 different languages as their native language.  

Check it out.   You can go to www.KCREA.com and do some searching.   Then click on the Translate option and select a language.   If you find that you need some help, let me know. 

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

David

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

ofc: (502) 379-6005
cel: (502) 905-5274
e-mail: DMcCoy@ccre.biz

Let me know if you need help with Commercial Real Estate.  I am a licensed Real Estate Broker in Kentucky and Indiana and I specialize in Commercial Property.  I handle Office, Industrial, Commercial Land, Investment, and Retail properties.   I work with Landlords, Tenants, Sellers, Buyers, and Investors.     Heck, I can even set you up with some help from a residential realtor if you need it.  Give me a call.  I would love to help.

New Adventures

I have mentioned a couple of times that I am declaring 2013 to be the Year of Prosperity, which is all well and good but one might legitimately ask how I expect that to play out.   At the end of 2012, I sat down to think about how I wanted to direct my life and career.   

I thought about things that I really loved and things that I really wanted to accomplish then looked at the talents I had in my tool box to see how I might make that happen. 

• I love languages and cultures. 
• I love travel and exploring.  
• I love interacting with other people.  
• I have an extensive background in Commercial Real Estate. 
• I am conversant in Spanish.  
• I have traveled a lot through out the Americas.     

From that, I decided that I needed to explore some new areas.  The obvious first step is to look into International Real Estate.    To be honest, I am not really sure how people make a living practicing international real estate but I intend to find out.    My hope is that I will be able to incorporate a practice of International Real Estate into my practice of Commercial Real Estate.  

Step One - I am going to Costa Rica this year for a conference on International Real Estate where I will get to network with some practitioners and hopefully get some insights.   Also, I will complete the National Association of Realtors courses for a designation of Certified International Property Specialist.     After that, I will evaluate whether this is something that looks promising.  If so, I am considering going for a visit to Brazil later in the year.    

In any event, it is looking like 2013 is going to be an exciting year.   

When I get back, I will share some of my insights.     

Thanks so much for reading!  Hope you have a great day.

David

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

ofc: (502) 379-6005
cel: (502) 905-5274
e-mail:  DMcCoy@ccre.biz

Let me know if you would like some help with Commercial Real Estate.  I am a licensed Real Estate Broker in Kentucky and Indiana and I specialize in Commercial Real Estate.  I handle Office, Industrial, Commercial Land, Investment and Retail properties.   I work with Sellers, Buyers, Landlords and Tenants.   Heck, I can even find you some help with Residential Real Estate if you need it.   

Site Selection and Building projects

About a week ago, a gentleman from a local church called to ask about land I have listed.   His church was facing a possible eminent domain issue where a government project might have to take their land.   The church had decided that if they had to move, they would build a new facility.   Accordingly, they were looking for raw land.   Their primary concern in their search was finding an appropriate location.

If only life were so easy.   Finding land is actually much more complicated than that.   Location is certainly an important factor but it is only one of several factors you need to consider.   You also have to consider zoning.   If a parcel of land is not zoned properly, you cannot build on it unless you get the property rezoned.    Right now a rezoning in Jefferson County, KY usually takes a minimum of 9 months and may take up to 18 months.     Luckily, a church may be in any zoning.

You also have to consider infrastructure.   Does the land have water, sewer, electrical service, and gas service?    Sewer service is especially critical in Jefferson County today.    Much of the land in Jeffersontown can not presently be developed because of a lack of sewer capacity in that area.  This is also true in Prospect and several other areas of Jefferson County.

Another consideration is the size of the land.    One thing people forget to consider is the amount of space necessary for parking or the required set backs on a piece of land.   This may make the amount of land you need much larger than you might expect.    This gentleman told me that they estimated that they needed parking for 400 to 500 cars.   That is a lot of parking.   Depending on how the parking is configured, you can expect to get somewhere between 130 and 200 parking spaces per acre.  (probably closer to 130)   So this church would need 3 to 4 acres just for the parking.  

Other important questions to consider:

• Is this in the flood plain?
• What is the topography of the site?
• Is it in a historical district or other restricted use area?
• Are there any environmental issues for this site?

Working through this example - Presently on KCREA there are 239 listings for raw land in Jefferson County.   Of these only 49 are between 4 and 7 acres.    The church would like to be in a residential area, and about half of these are in Industrial Parks.   That leaves us with about 25 properties.    Of these properties, approximately half will not have the required infrastructure (usually the big issue is sewage capacity).   So now we are down to about 12 sites.   By the time we draw a radius around the church, we may only have 2 or 3 sites that could even work for their criteria.

Many people are surprised when they realize how few options will actually exist when everything is taken into account.  

Have a great day.   Be sure to let me know if I can be of help in your real estate needs.

David

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

DMcCoy@ccre.biz
(502) 379-6005