Perspective
I have been in commercial real estate for almost 30 years, and I have done quite a few transactions. Of course never as many as I or my company would like!
One thing that I am amazed at from time to time are those people or companies that have a great vision for re-use of a property. Even with having my vision being corrected multiple times by Lasik surgery, I don’t always see what they see.
Three examples stand out in my mind that I have sold, although I’m sure there are more!
I was getting ready for work the other morning and was watching CNBC. They were broadcasting from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. As I was wishing that I was there, not as a participant but skiing, I started listening to the interview they were doing.
They were talking with the Chairman & CEO of Coca Cola, Muhtar Kent. The discussion was about putting young people to work and what large corporations could do about that. I can certainly appreciate that now that I have two twenty year olds in the work force.
Draft magazine has recognized Waldo’s Bier Station as one of the top beer bars in the nation! We are proud to have secured this 3,500 SF property for them. RC Jensen of Reece Commercial represented Bier Station in finding the space and John Sweeney of Reece Commercial represented the landlord. RC filled us in on how the transaction came about, “The Owner (John) had been looking for a space in the Waldo area for a while, without much luck. We were able to secure the space and put together a multi-year deal that he was comfortable with. Great guy, cool concept, and he seems to be doing very well. This was a real fun deal for me considering I live in Waldo (and I love beer).” Check out what the Kansas City Star had to say about Bier Station here and Draft magazine’s article here!
Multifamily investors looking for acquisition opportunities might do well to follow the trail of coffee shops to hip, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods full of young renters.
“The culture surrounding the ‘hipster’ lifestyle has a major impact on local real estate markets, and mostly in a positive way,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president for RealtyTrac. RealtyTrac recently put out a list of the top 25 zip codes where apartment investors earn high yields and the neighborhood meets some objective criteria associated with hip, young renters.