- Wells Fargo Launches 3% Down Payment Mortgage “First-time buyers and low- to moderate-income buyers have largely been sidelined by today's housing recovery. The common cry is too-tight credit. Lenders have kept the credit box restrictive because they are gun-shy from the billions of dollars in buy backs and judicial settlements stemming from the mortgage crisis that they still face today. Now, the nation's largest lender, Wells Fargo, says it is opening that box with a new low down payment loan — a loan it claims is low-risk to the bank.” (CNBC)
- Owner of Chelsea Market Plans to Double the Size of the Property’s Retail Space “Jamestown has started to renovate the mostly unused lower level of the 1.2 million-square-foot property into 80,000 square feet of retail. The company has already started to transform a boiler room into restaurant space. Additionally, Manhattan Fruit Exchange plans to move its distribution operations out of Chelsea Market's basement, freeing up space for Jamestown to convert. The greengrocer will maintain its ground-floor retail store at the market.” (Crain’s New York Business)
- Dollar Stores Escape the Retail Blues “The nation’s top two extreme-value discounters aren’t feeling the retail malaise that affected department stores and many specialty retailers in the first quarter. Rivals Dollar Tree and Dollar General Corp. on Thursday both reported better-than-expected first quarter profits amid increases in traffic, higher spending and lower costs. Summing up a sentiment widely voiced by industry experts and analysts, Dollar Tree CEO Bob Sasser said his company is ‘part of what I consider, in this economic environment, the most attractive sector in retail.’” (Chain Store Age)
- Top 10 Retail Brokerages Battle for Share of Billions in Deals “To see which brokerages have been getting the big-ticket listings, The Real Deal crunched retail sales and leasing data for the period from March 1, 2015, to Feb. 29, 2016. The numbers show that the top five brokerages in retail sales volume handled nearly $44 billion in transactions; the top 10 combined hit more than $54 billion. Leading the pack in sales volume was CBRE, with closed deals worth a combined $11.2 billion.” (The Real Deal)
- RECon Recap: Shopping Center Owners, Store Chains Deal with Contradictions of Shifting Retail Landscape “This year’s ICSC RECon conference in Las Vegas was by most accounts the busiest and most well-attended since the Great Recession. But the tone of many panels and reports about deal-making activity at the four-day conference in Las Vegas suggested that shopping center landlords and many retailers are beginning to shift from growth mode to preserving portfolio value against a muted retail backdrop.” (CoStar News)
- Yardi: Rent Growth to Level Off in 2016 “Towards the end of last year, murmurs were hitting the industry – would 2016 be just as good as 2015? Yardi Matrix’s U.S. Multifamily Outlook suggests it may not be quite as good, but it will definitely be close. The multifamily software company forecasts rental growth of about 5% for 2016, just under the 6.3% rate experienced in 2015. Yardi finds jobs and population growth will keep demand high, raising rents at above-historic norms.” (Multifamily Executive)
- Whole Foods Opens First 365 Store in Los Angeles “After months of anticipation, the 365 by Whole Foods Market value store format has made its debut in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. The 29,000-sq.-ft. store offers a streamlined look and feel to go along with its streamlined product selection. All price tags are digital and printed signs are limited to maximize the customer’s view of the store. The space is accented with blues, reds and yellows, and features a textured piece of art designed to be reflective of the neighborhood.” (Chain Store Age)
- Economy Watch: Fast Casual Restaurants to Lead Retail Growth “Led by franchise and fast-casual restaurant chains, North American retail growth into 2017 will be overwhelmingly driven by discount and off-price apparel, food, and service concepts, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield published in conjunction with the International Council of Shopping Centers. It was released this week at RECon. The firm’s first-ever North American Retail and Restaurant Expansion Guide tracks the growth plans of about 2,000 national retail and restaurant chains across 22 categories in the U.S. and Canada.” (Commercial Property Executive)
- Retail Investment Sales Prices Falling for the First Time in Years “Manhattan’s retail property market has been growing at a furious pace for years, but as tourism growth tapers off and the U.S. dollar appreciates against tourists’ currencies, that’s starting to change. Average prices per foot have fallen over the last three quarters after peaking in mid-2015, according to retail real estate sales data from Real Capital Analytics. Both the long rise and recent fall, brokers say, has to do with the economic impact of shifts in the city’s tourism rates.” (The Real Deal)
- New San Francisco Apple Store is a Game Changer “Apple has recently opened Apple Union Square, a green-inspired store in San Francisco designed by a close collaboration between Apple’s Chief Design Officer Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores Angela Ahrendts and Foster + Partners. Located on San Francisco’s popular and vibrant Union Square, the store features 42-foot sliding glass doors that double as two-story windows, a 6,000-inch video screen on the second floor, and living trees lining its customer support section.” (Commercial Property Executive)
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