CBRE: Retail Prices Rising?

If you've read Bisnow the past few months, you know office and multifamily sales have reached record prices. But the same fundamentals that have netted big numbers there are in play in retail, according to CBRE's retail investment sales team, snapped in their East End office yesterday. The firm's Bill Kent (seated, left) tells us pricing in the Mid Atlantic is "more aggressive than at the peak of the market in 2006," since interest rates are still at or near historical lows, consumer confidence continues to rise, and retailers continue to expand into the area. Bill's joined by new colleague Ryan Sciullo (we'll tell you more about him in a second), fellow team leader Gary Lawrence (seated) and David Crotts, Rob Steward, Elisabeth Tefft, Gwen Fraker, and Travis Adams.

Part of the reason for the big numbers is more urban infill and transit-oriented retail centers (the apple of institutional and offshore investors' eyes) than ever in DC, which Bill says is still the most under-retailed jurisdiction in the country, per capita. (You can hardly even buy a senator anymore.) And the trend spreads outside the Beltway; Bill says his team sold a two-shopping center portfolio in Loudoun and Prince William counties late last year for a whopping $91M to a pension fund client.

Here's more on the new guy: Ryan just joined Bill and Gary's team from the Pittsburgh office of CB, where he worked on retail and investment sales for eight years. But he's no stranger to the area, or to his new teammates; Ryan attended UMD for undergrad and worked on several Western PA and West Virginia deals Gary and Bill were assigned.