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6C —April 28 - May 11, 2017 — Spring Preview — M id A tlantic
Real Estate Journal
E ngineering
By Frank S. Romeo, Partner Engineering and Science, Inc. Retail, office, industrial, and mixed-used current and future….
A
and mixed use sectors. The face of some of these industries is changing, and has been for
s a c ompany , we participate in a fair amount of real estate
a unique set of challenges. First, we are densely popu- lated-where the people go, the
have places to shop, work, and otherwise live their lives, in areas with old or obsolete buildings/store fronts tak- ing up valuable real estate? People are changing the way that they live and, as a result, retail, office, industrial and multi-purpose real estate owners are following suit. As a result of the aforemen- tioned demographic change, there’s lots of creative repur- posing going on in the area of former industrial and com- mercial sites. Properties adja- cent to a waterfront or transit hubs are particularly coveted
for redevelopment since they fit into the mixed-use way of life that we are now living. There are several high profile waterfront projects through- out the northeast in areas like Boston, MA, Middletown, CT, and New York City. In addi- tion, there are several transit oriented redevelopment proj- ects encompassing mixed use residential and commercial as well as office off of various spurs of the Acela Corridor. A trend we have seen over the past 10 years is a decrease in single owner occupancy at large retail properties, with these sites being recycled for different uses. The decline of big box retailers such as Macy’s, JC Penney, Sears, and Sports Authority have had a negative impact on regional malls and there are several instances where these properties are targets for re- development. Some examples are the changes planned for the Monmouth Mall located in Eatontown NJ and Landmark Mall in Alexandria VA. These traditional suburban malls are set to be redeveloped into open concept lifestyle centers, which will generally encom- pass retail, office, residential, medical, and a variety of other services. Single tenant retail has been a strong sector and will likely remain that way for the foreseeable future. Prime locations, including corner lo- cations in well-traveled areas, are being purchased and rede- veloped to accommodate phar- macies, convenience stores, and the recent trend of urgent care facilities. Historically, these locations served as gas stations and may come with their own set of environmental issues that may require fur- ther assessments or remedia- tion, but we are seeing that it is worth the headache to get a high traffic, easily accessible property location. We predict that the trend to- wards catering to the change in the way that people want to live as well as the ever present shortage of vacant land to continue. Big box re- tail and suburban malls will further decline while single tenant retail and open concept lifestyle centers will be the best performing development projects in 2017. Frank S. Romeo, Jr. is president of Partner Engi- neering and Science. n
deals annu- ally, within a multitude o f c l i e n t and bui ld- i ng t ype s . We t o u c h roughly 10% of the annu- al transac-
Big box retail and suburban malls will further de- cline while single tenant retail and open concept life- style centers will be the best performing development projects in 2017.
quite some time now. The real question is where are they going and how do we change the way that development happens in order to be in line with these trends. In the northeastern region of the United States, we have
services follow. Secondly is our aging infrastructure-as one of the oldest parts of the nation, we are continually faced with structures that are no longer viable for their original use. So what can you do with many people, all of whom need to
Frank S. Romeo
tions in the US and have seen what is happening and what the future may look like in many markets, but most nota- bly the retail, office, industrial,
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