VT 202 is a two-building, Class A project in desirable Southwest Phoenix market

PHOENIX, ARIZ. – VanTrust Real Estate, LLC (VanTrust), the NAIOP Arizona 2021 Industrial Owner/Developer of the Year, broke ground on its latest speculative industrial development, VT 202. This infill project will feature two buildings totaling 181,000 SF of Class A industrial space in the high-demand Southwest Phoenix submarket.

“VT 202 is truly a rare opportunity in the current industrial market, especially in Southwest Phoenix,” said VanTrust Director of Development Jenna Borcherding. “We feel that this infill parcel, with great freeway access, is a perfect location for efficient, high quality industrial space. There continues to be incredible demand from small to mid-size users, and VT 202 is ideal for those tenants.”

VT 202 is located on 12.1 acres along 59th Avenue, less than a mile from two interchanges on the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway. Buckeye Road is a half-mile north and Lower Buckeye Rd. is a half-mile south of the parcel. The buildings are designed for flexibility in tenant requirements and can accommodate users seeking 38,000 to 181,000 square feet.

Building A will be 104,687 SF with 32-feet clear heights, 30 dock-high doors and two grade-level doors. It will also have significant freeway visibility and a secured concrete truck court. Building B will be 76,319 SF, with comparable amenities and features.

Work began in late July and VT 202 is expected to be completed in February. The project is designed by Butler Design Group, with Wespac Construction serving as general contractor. Leasing is being handled by Colliers International in Arizona.

The project is just 15 minutes from Sky Harbor Airport and is the latest project added to VanTrust’s impressive portfolio of office, industrial and multifamily developments in Arizona and southern Nevada.

$28 million sale of Midtown on Seneca Townhomes in Tucson marks 102nd deal of the year

PHOENIX ARIZONA — ABI Multifamily, the leading multifamily brokerage and advisory services firm in the Western U.S., with offices in Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, and Las Vegas, has closed 102 total transactions thus far this year. Total sales volume for transactions, which include both multifamily and land deals, totals over $740 million and 2,867 units.

The most recent deal to close on August 8 was the $28 million / $159,091 Per Unit / $197.21 per square foot sale of Midtown on Seneca Townhomes, a 176-unit multifamily apartment community located in Tucson, Arizona. ABI Multifamily’s Phoenix-based Institutional Apartment Group – Alon Shnitzer, Rue Bax, Eddie Chang, and Doug Lazovick represented the buyer and seller in this transaction. The buyer is based in Washington D.C. and the seller is based in California.

“Multifamily continues to be a strong investment this year,” says ABI Multifamily President and CEO John Kobierowski. “And while the frenzied pace may have slowed to more normal levels, we are continuing to see healthy activity across the Southwest.”

ABI Multifamily recently expanded its national presence, opening a fourth office in Las Vegas and bringing on established multifamily broker Jason Dittenber as senior vice president.

“The economy has certainly kept everyone on their toes recently,” says Kobierowski. “However the fundamentals are strong, with continued job growth, population growth, and rent growth. It is still a very good time to invest in multifamily, particularly in the Sun Belt states.”

According to the ABI Multifamily Q2 Snap Stats report, rent growth continued to show strong gains, with a 19% year over year increase.

ABI Multifamily (https://www.abimultifamily.com/) is a brokerage and advisory services firm that focuses exclusively on apartment investment transactions. With offices in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Tucson, and San Diego, the experienced advisors at ABI Multifamily have completed billions of dollars in sales and thousands of individual multifamily transactions. ABI Multifamily incorporates a global approach with regional real estate expertise to successfully complete any multifamily transaction, regardless of size and complexity.

Tech Sector Expected to Remain Driving Force for Global Economies

Chicago, Ill. – Cushman & Wakefield released today “Tech Cities: The Global Intersection of Talent and Real Estate,” a new report that examines the top location strategy drivers for tech occupiers, identifies the top global tech markets and the impact of tech companies on office real estate.

On a global scale, tech is a larger portion of major economies — and commercial real estate — than ever before. Over the past decade, global technology employment increased substantially. Across the largest 15 global economies, information and communication employment increased by nearly 23 million workers, and it is forecast to grow by 17%, adding another 12 million workers over the next 10 years.

“The tech sector will remain a driving force for economies around the globe,” said David C. Smith, Global Head of Occupier Insights at Cushman & Wakefield. “Even with the recent volatility in the economy, demand for tech talent will not abate anytime soon. Because of this, the evolution of cities as clusters for tech talent and tech occupiers will remain critical to commercial real estate decision makers.”

After a dip in the middle of 2020, demand for tech talent has been on the rise. Globally, job postings for technology occupations (i.e., computer programmers, IT network professionals, and analysts and data scientists) increased over 50% in the first year of the pandemic. In the 10 largest global economies, there are now 2.7 million more office workers than at the start of the pandemic.

Cushman & Wakefield selected more than 115 different tech cities across the world to evaluate the talent availability and cost, office real estate and business environments. The top tech hubs in each global region are identified by aggregating 14 factors, weighing each according to perceived importance for tech companies’ market selection criteria, and then validating through industry experts and rigorous model testing.

For North America, the San Francisco Bay Area ranked as the top tech city, followed by Toronto, New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston and Montreal, in that order.

Talent remains a critical resource through which tech occupiers evaluate potential locations. The San Francisco Bay Area leads North America with approximately 280,000 tech jobs, followed by New York with 259,000 jobs and Washington, D.C. with 216,000 jobs.

“Finding and keeping top talent is top of mind for tech companies, especially given the tight labor market and technical skills some tech companies require,” Smith said.

Markets such as Toronto and the San Francisco Bay Area are likely to continue to be tech occupation hot beds. Markets with medium-sized labor pools can also have an attractive balance of talent, such as Montreal.

The number one cost for tech companies is talent. The San Francisco Bay Area continues to live up to its reputation as the highest cost market in North America for tech talent. Across 100 global markets, data scientists on average have a base salary of $90,000, however the average pay is above $150,000 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Markets in the Sun Belt offer savings compared to major U.S. tech hubs, as do Canadian markets. For example, the weighted average base salary in Toronto is two-thirds of the San Francisco Bay Area and 20% below Seattle.

Occupiers are looking for opportunities to save on the leasing and build-out of high-quality office space that will serve as innovation and collaboration centers. Real estate cost in North America is highest in the traditional major cities including New York ($78 psf), San Francisco Bay Area ($76 psf) and Toronto ($66 psf). Cost-effective options can be found in much of Latin America and secondary markets in the U.S. Midwest, such as Kansas City ($23 psf), Cincinnati ($23 psf) and St. Louis ($19 psf.)

With increased flexibility, the quality and location of office space becomes more important. It is critical to identify markets with dynamic ecosystems of tech companies and employees, as well as ample availability of high-quality office space. Construction deliveries will continue to create opportunities for tech companies to move into new, high-quality space that attracts and retains talent in critical labor markets.

In the Americas, New York City has the deepest pipeline of office space under construction, at 16+ msf. As a percentage of current inventory, however, that only represents 6% of the current inventory in Manhattan, well below the share of inventory under construction in Vancouver, Austin and Toronto, all of which have over 9% of inventory currently under construction.

Click here to view the full report.