This year looks to be a strong one for retailers across the Midwest,
judging by the retail reports coming from commercial real estate firms.
The latest bit of good news comes from Kansas City-based LANE4 Property Group, which released its 2013 Kansas City Retail Report earlier this month.
According to the report, Kansas City brokers should expect a promising retail market in the region this year.
LANE4 reported that Class-A retail space today enjoys low vacancy
rates and high demand. This has created a lack of quality space across
the area. LANE4 says that this could lead to a rise in new construction
in the region
.
For 2012, shopping center retail space withink the Kansas City market
fetched an average price of $12.88 a square foot. This sector also saw
an improving vacancy rate of 11.9 percent.
LANE4′s report also higlights some of the Kansas City retail success
stories of 2012. This includes the arrival in the market of such
retailers as IKEA, FREEBIRDS World Burrito, outdoor retailer Moosejaw
and Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant.
Things are looking so positive in Kansas City that LANE4 predicts
that large-scale ground-up development in this sector, while still
difficult to justify today, will be coming to the region over the next
several years.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Brownback wants to end real estate deduction
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback wants to eliminate the ability of homeowners to deduct property taxes on their state income taxes, The Wichita Eagle reports.
The plan would affect about 372,000 Kansans that take advantage of deducting their real estate taxes, the report says. The deduction averages roughly $125 per homeowner, and would generate $68 million for the state. If the state also eliminates deductions for mortgage interest payments, the state could reap $162 million.
Kansas faces large budget shortfalls for the next couple of years as the governor looks for ways to compensate for his plan to slowly eliminate the state income tax.
KKR, Lowe win auction for Legends Outlets
Dan Lowe and RED Legacy are headed back to the Legends Outlets Kansas City development after New York firm KKR Real Estate Holdings turned in a $131.5 million high bid in a public auction on Friday.
“It’s almost like my third child,” Lowe said. Lowe was one of the top executives in RED Development LLC starting in 1995 before he split off last year to run newly formed RED Legacy, a development firm in Kansas City.
Lowe still has shares with RED Development, which had developed Legends Outlets and retained a 5 percent ownership stake in the property after it sold to Morgan Stanley.
KKR Real Estate is the real estate arm of KKR & Co. LP, a New York-based private equity firm.
Lowe, whose RED Legacy firm will be operating partner for Legends Outlets, teamed up with KKR not long after the property went into foreclosure last year.
“It’s almost like my third child,” Lowe said. Lowe was one of the top executives in RED Development LLC starting in 1995 before he split off last year to run newly formed RED Legacy, a development firm in Kansas City.
Lowe still has shares with RED Development, which had developed Legends Outlets and retained a 5 percent ownership stake in the property after it sold to Morgan Stanley.
KKR Real Estate is the real estate arm of KKR & Co. LP, a New York-based private equity firm.Lowe, whose RED Legacy firm will be operating partner for Legends Outlets, teamed up with KKR not long after the property went into foreclosure last year.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Economy, year-end sales help auto industry in 2012
More
than three years after the federal government's $62 billion
auto-industry bailout, Americans had plenty of incentive to buy new cars
and trucks in the year just ended.
DETROIT -- A steadily improving economy and strong December sales lifted the American auto industry to its best performance in five years in 2012, especially for Volkswagen and Japanese-brand vehicles, and experts say the next year should be even better.
Carmakers on Thursday announced their final figures, which totaled 14.5 million - 13 percent better than 2011.
Unemployment eased. Home sales and prices rose. And the average age of a car topped 11 years in the U.S., a record that spurred people to trade in old vehicles. Banks made that easier by offering low interest rates and greater access to loans, even for buyers with lousy credit.
"The U.S. light vehicle sales market continues to be a bright spot in the tremulous global environment," said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting for LMC Automotive, a Detroit-area industry forecasting firm.
more
‘Fiscal cliff’ deal brings hope for the economy in the new year
The best news about averting the fiscal cliff may come from what lies beyond — a bit of headroom for the economic recovery.
Economists think that if Washington follows through on its late Monday deal to avoid the cliff’s largest tax increases and spending cuts, 2013 could turn out to be OK.
“There’s a better story out there if we just get Washington out of the picture for a while,” Ethan Harris, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said during an outlook session last month.
Lawmakers still have votes to take and face negotiations on raising the debt ceiling so the U.S. Treasury doesn’t run out of money in about two months. And there’s still a battle ahead on bringing down long-term federal deficits.
But word Monday afternoon of a possible fiscal cliff deal helped the Dow Jones industrial average add 166.03 points to finish 2012 at 13,104.14, a gain of 1.28 percent. Its rally preserved a decent year for investors, with 2012 lifting the Dow by 7.25 percent.
It was the fourth straight up year for the Dow.
More
Economists think that if Washington follows through on its late Monday deal to avoid the cliff’s largest tax increases and spending cuts, 2013 could turn out to be OK.
“There’s a better story out there if we just get Washington out of the picture for a while,” Ethan Harris, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said during an outlook session last month.
Lawmakers still have votes to take and face negotiations on raising the debt ceiling so the U.S. Treasury doesn’t run out of money in about two months. And there’s still a battle ahead on bringing down long-term federal deficits.
But word Monday afternoon of a possible fiscal cliff deal helped the Dow Jones industrial average add 166.03 points to finish 2012 at 13,104.14, a gain of 1.28 percent. Its rally preserved a decent year for investors, with 2012 lifting the Dow by 7.25 percent.
It was the fourth straight up year for the Dow.
More
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