Chandler's New Retail Giant
Tuesday at our Phoenix State of the Market event, American Realty Capital Corp's Brett Sheets teased that the former Great Indoors in Chandler would be backfilled by a massive retailer. Now we know its's Walmart.
Above, we snapped Brett at the event; although he was mum on the deets, sources tell us mega-retailer is opening a superstore at Chandler Gateway, the 260k SF power center that was home to the Great Indoors. (That's one point for Outdoors in the battle for greatness.)
Brett (here with the financing panel: BURY's James Knight, Woodbine Investment Corp's Kristopher Harman, and Liberty SBF's Zach Murphy) also says retail developers may be readying for the next round of construction. While it'll begin in 2015, it's going to start off slow, he says.
Despite convention business still hurting, developers have at least five hotels planned for Downtown Phoenix. (Picking what flavor muffin to have at continental breakfast is hard enough. Now you have to pick a hotel.) That could be a problem, Kris says. Developers are overeager and “it's always a matter of who has cheaper capital… and who can do it faster.”
Zach says we're a ways from multifamily overbuilding like you're seeing in Miami or SoCal. Class-A apartments may be overheating, "but we like cap rates where there's some spread. We like cap rates where you can actually make some money. And in Phoenix, that's still the case." Zach also predicted that Texas has the best shot of getting the Tesla battery plant project. “They're going to be the 800-lb gorilla in the room” with all its incentives. But Brett threw down the gauntlet: “I'll bet you a beer" it's going Reno.
We also spoke with Colliers International's newest blood, Tyler Bush (he just came over from Merrill Lynch) and Cassidy Turley's Ray Harris. Ray just helped bring 3131 and 3133 E Camelback to fully leased (the buildings total 300k SF). The most recent deal involved Kforce Staffing & IT Solutions, which inked 14k SF.
We also spent some quality coffee time with Cushman & Wakefield's Keri Scott and Mackenzie Ford (along with Peter Madrid) chatting about all things industrial. Keri helped co-broker a 65k SF deal (with C&W's John Grady) for CFA Cabinetry at 420 S 54th Ave.
