Real Insight. Real Estate.

Archive for the ‘Niche Property Types’ Category

I’ve become increasingly interested in agricultural investments. Although Farmland makes up only about 1% of institutional real estate investments, it is an asset class that has strong fundamentals. According to research by UBS Agrivest[1], agriculture investments provide:

- Competitive returns with a strong income component

- Low return variability

- Diversification benefits

- Effective hedge against inflation

Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Medical Office Buildings, commonly referred to as MOBs, are one of the few darlings of the current real estate finance industry.  They garner low rates, great terms, and even bankers’ whose commercial loan portfolios took a drubbing want to lend in that space. Need proof? I was at lunch with a banker a couple weeks ago who said that they simply were not doing any construction lending of any kind, period.  When I followed up that comment asking him about medical office buildings, his response was “Oh, well, yeah.  We’d definitely make an exception there.”

While many real estate insiders expected a slow down of the medical office frenzy once Scott Brown’s surprise victory in taking Ted Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat potentially swayed the fate of the healthcare reform bill, it has simply delayed the inevitable.  The popular belief was that the future growth of the sector was going to be fueled only by the 30 million plus currently uninsured people the healthcare reform bill would have added to the system.  But when you figure demand will generate supply, you better make sure to look at the whole picture. Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Ryan joined Sentry in 2009 bringing a wealth of financial experience to the organization with a special focus in Hospitality Real Estate. As the holding company’s CIO and Principal, Ryan oversees all capital, investment and new business development transactions. In addition, he controls relationships with investment partners, lending institutions, and oversees Finance and Operations for Sentry Centers, the new urban conference center platform of the company. Ryan comes directly to Sentry from Gramercy Capital where he served as a Vice President responsible for the workout and restructuring of Gramercy’s hospitality related assets. Prior to this, he worked for Lehman Brothers within their commercial real estate group. Ryan is an active member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and a graduate of Villanova University.

Q: As a company, tell me about the niche you have carved out for yourself and how you feel you are different from the competition. Why do you find this product type more appealing than alternative real estate asset classes?

Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

A Riddle: What do buying a DVD  and buying a foreign car have in common?
The Answer: They both make for a potentially crushing blow to retail real estate.

First it was car dealerships. When the big three automakers were rumored to be going bankrupt (and then GM and Chrysler took federal bailout money) many car dealerships were given the ol’ heave ho. This caused a huge drain on retail real estate. After all, what would replace these massive parcels? Lucky for property owners, the vast majority of car dealerships are very well located on highly traveled thoroughfares, which is an attractive feature for any retailer. While there is still a glut of defunct and unoccupied former car dealerships, the guess here is that as the economy rebounds, those sites will be replaced by growing retailers looking for great signage and visibility, or even by more car dealerships. But what about movie theaters?

Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

What is the one real estate sector that is the hottest right now?  Despite the availability of capital through Fannie and Freddie, its not multi-family.  Despite the rising age of baby boomers, it is not senior living.  Despite the immense growth in the healthcare sector, it is not medical office. So what is it?  Data Centers.  Last year, I wrote about data centers in this post.  Yet, seemingly nobody in the real estate sector has caught on.  So before I go on, let me get you all up to speed. Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

The Real Deal online magazine published an article a few weeks ago about the success of gourmet food trucks in New York City.  Having lived in NYC for a number of years, I can attest to the popularity of these trucks and carts.  Sure, the majority of street vendors sell garbage, but there are a number of them that sell high quality product that would be a huge hit in a traditional brick and mortar retail location.  In fact, there have been several stories of entrepreneurs who have started a food business out of a truck and soon opened brick and mortar restaurants with huge success.  In a suffering economy, would it make sense for non-food retailers to take a stab at  trying the same strategy?

Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

It wasn’t all that long ago that most hotels operated solely with the intent of accommodating leisure travelers. But for the last several decades, major hotel chains have been trying to lure business travelers by offering “business centers” and “meeting rooms” as part of their hotel. Yet, according to data from the International Association of Conference Centers (IACC), these attempts are continually compromised by the leisure minded nature of their business platform.  Conference centers have always been considered an amenity, not a core competency for hotels.  Sentry Centers, a subsidiary of Sentry Hospitality, is trying to fill this void. Sentry Centers leases dedicated corporate conference centers in urban cores.  Their flagship property, Sentry Centers Midtown East, has been a huge success since opening just six weeks ago.

We are contstantly keeping our eye out for creative real estate plays, and so we decided to dig deeper into Sentry Centers, and figure out why such a business model has led Sentry Centers to become a leading national provider of non-residential conference and executive center services. Let’s look at some of the basics:

1.  Its not a hotel - The operations of Sentry Centers are only focused on business meetings, so there are no “hotel-like” hassles, distractions or compromises. If however, overnight accommodations are necessary, Sentry Centers are strategically located and partnered with world class hotels nearby. Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Hand over the keys?  More like hand over your chips, Mr. Trump. Andy Beal, head of Beal Bank, called the Donald’s bluff as he feigned interest last week in a joint venture with Beal to buy Trump Entertainment Resorts, the parent company of the troubled Atlantic City casinos Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza and Trump Marina.  After filing for bankruptcy protection for the third time in his overstated real estate career in December 2007, Trump and daughter/business partner Ivanka withdrew their position. Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

This deal story will blow your mind if you haven’t already heard about it.  Sports fans, Catholics, and concert-goers may remember the Silverdome as a once historic venue for events ranging from a mass by Pope John Paul II, to the World Cup, to Super Bowl XVI, to the once home of the Detroit Lions and Pistons (of course the biggest crowd was actually 93,000 for Wrestlemania III…the largest indoor sports event of all time).

To those who don’t remember the Silverdome for any of those reasons, perhaps you’ll remember it for this.  Last week, it sold at auction for just over 1% of replacement cost.  Wait, scratch that.  Considering it was built in 1975, it might be below 1% of replacement cost in today’s dollars.  Almost 35 years ago, the 80,000 seat dome set on a 127 acre parcel cost $55.7 million dollars to construct.  It sold to an undisclosed Canadian real estate firm for $583,000. I think the Superdome would get ten times that price, post-Katrina, even if the Saints didn’t play there anymore (Am I the only one that thinks its value should have risen as a result of the Detroit Lions not playing there?) Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Sunday Brunch with Timmy! (Tim Geithner speaks at the SIFMA Conference)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!