LIBERTY TWP.

As construction kicks into high gear on the mega retail complex Liberty Center, the township is fielding multiple building plans rushing in for the Dillards department store, apartments, hotel and other buildings to open at the site.

Applications for the zoning certificates give a first look at some of the proposed storefronts never seen before, such as Dillards.

Other renderings have been shown before, but the zoning records contain more detail than previously provided, such as drawings for AC Hotels by Marriott. Developer Steiner + Associates has also previously shown views of what the whole center and its buildings will look like with grassy common areas.

We are transitioning from that phase where there is a lot of dirt work and were going to start seeing the buildings coming vertical, which is when it really gets exciting, Justin Leyda, senior development executive for Steiner, told Butler County Commissioners the last week of August.

Construction on infrastructure such as sewer and water systems, and parking garages has already started at the site.

Following a key subdivision approval granted by Butler County Commissioners on Aug. 28, a flurry of construction activity is expected to begin. The final plat approval (contingent on the developer obtaining a surety bond) will allow Columbus-based Steiner to divide the land into up to 23 lots and sell property to the hotel operator, anchor retailers, and other partners, according to Butler County Development Director David Fehr.

In turn, that means those companies will likely begin construction on their buildings soon pending zoning approval from Liberty Twp.

Also, the developer or a subcontractor will have to apply to the county for building permits for each building constructed, and multiple permits will be issued per building, according to the county development department.

Liberty Center is the name of the approximately $350 million shopping, office, residential and dining complex under construction now in Liberty Twp. at the intersection of Ohio 129, Interstate 75 and Liberty Way. Described as the Easton of Cincinnati, and one of the biggest development deals in Butler County history, anchor tenants announced so far for Liberty Center are Dillards department store, dinner-and-movie theater CineBistro, and most recently Dicks Sporting Goods. Other named tenants include pizza restaurant Pies & Pints and AC Hotels by Marriott.

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See plans for the first buildings at Liberty Center

While many tourists flock to America's panhandle looking for sand and sunshine, Florida's retail development market is doing the opposite: moving indoors.

MIAMIWhile many tourists flock to America's panhandle looking for sand and sunshine, Florida's retail development market is doing the opposite: moving indoors. According to JLL research launched today at the International Council of Shopping Centers Florida Conference in Orlando, nearly half of all retail commercial construction happening in the state in the first half of 2014 is taking place in malls and shopping centers.

While most markets are seeing a boom in grocery-anchored power centers or strip centers, Florida has a distinct need for traditional retail assets thats driven by the tourist shopper base, which prefers a one-stop shop for their goods along with a climate controlled experience, says John Schupp, SVP of retail development at JLL.

Floridas construction numbers stand in stark contrast to the rest of the country, where the retail development pipeline remains slim, with just 45 million square feet nationwide under construction. However, Florida benefits from expanding retailers and increasing investment allocations. More than 29% of all new retail deliveries in the United States in the second quarter of 2014 occurred in Florida, and its major cities are absorbing the space well. Tampa, which has historically been a strong US tourist destination, is seeing the most robust growth with 1.43 million square feet of space under construction as of Q2 2014. Miami, which is a strong international city and one of the tightest Florida markets, has 1.42 million square feet under construction, the greatest amount of development in proportion to its existing inventory. These two locales are leading examples of resilient markets that have the fundamentals and key drivers to support additional supply.

The Florida retail market shows no sign of slowing, despite its loss of momentum during the Recession. Development in the state accounts for nearly 13% of retail assets under construction nationwide, and a tidal wave of space is expected to come to fruition in the next 9 to 12 months in South Florida. Liquidity in the financial markets has continued to rise to pre-recession levels, increasing the ability to develop new retail assets, or redevelop older properties.

Local, regional and national banks are the most viable sources available for development financing in core markets like Florida, that are in need of new supply. While not as common, we are also seeing life companies open their ledgers for construction-to-permanent financing, especially for strong grocery-anchored assets, according to Jimmy Board, EVP of JLLs capital markets. Beyond the debt markets, there is a significant amount of institutional equity seeking the opportunity to invest in new and/or stabilized core retail product.

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Sunshine States Construction Comeback

A retail renaissance is under way in downtown Redwood City thanks to the one-two punch of an improved economy and a building boom.

New retail space is part of several major construction projects, including 10,000 square feet at 525 Middlefield Road, 5,075 square feet at 950 Middlefield Road and 2,800 square feet at 601 Main St.

Another sign of success: University Art reopened last month in an 11,000-square-foot building at 2550 El Camino Real. The family-owned business moved to Redwood City after being priced out of Palo Alto.

The trend is being welcomed in a city that just two years ago was pondering whether to allow property owners to lease scores of empty ground-floor storefronts to office tenants. Today, more than 1,600 new homes and 300,000 square feet of office space are in the construction pipeline. The influx of residents and workers will support new shops and restaurants, said Mayor Jeffrey Gee.

"The vision for downtown ... has a mix of uses, not just residential, but offices, retail, entertainment," Gee said during a phone interview Monday. "I've always said retail was going to come last."

The city's economic development division is marketing the city to businesses, telling them, "now is the time to get on board," Gee said.

Improving occupancy levels will bring both "vitality" and increased safety to the city center, Gee said.

"It brings eyes on the street," he said. "Those downtowns that focus on just the commercial -- when those workers go home, the downtown is empty."

To support and improve the surging downtown, property owners voted in July to tax themselves to pay for extra services such as increased sidewalk maintenance, landscaping, marketing and security.

While Redwood City-specific data was not immediately available, San Mateo County's shopping center vacancy rate is among the lowest in the Bay Area, according to a second quarter report published by Terranomics, the retail division of the commercial real estate firm Cassidy Turley.

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Retail rebounds in Redwood City

Approval for a 163,000 sq. ft. retail and office center at Poplar Road and Newnan Bypass East received unanimous approval Aug.19 from the Coweta County Commission.

Located primarily on the east side of the bypass, the majority of the 79.38 acres is situated immediately south of Poplar Road, north of Turkey Creek Road and adjacent to Interstate 85. Divided into two rezoning requests, Big Poplar LLC asked that the larger tract totaling 74.66 acres be rezoned from RC (rural conservation) to C-7 (major shopping center) and the 4.72-acre tract on the west side of the bypass be rezoned from RC to C-6 (minor shopping center).

The conceptual site plan for the project shows the larger tract on the east side of the bypass with 140,900 sq. ft of retail and office space while the smaller tract west of the bypass would include 22,000 sq. ft of retail. A portion of the 74.66-acre tract would front Poplar Road. In total, the large tract would include 21 lots, according to the concept plan. Of those, 14 would have buildings totaling 3,350 sq. ft, three would have buildings of 4,200-4,400 sq. ft., one lot for a gas station would total 6,000 sq. ft, two of the lots would serve buildings of 22,000 sq. ft. while the remaining lot of 31,000 sq. ft. would be a potential hotel site.

County planning staff recommended approval of the project request with a number of conditions. While there was no timetable discussed in terms of initial construction, the volume of traffic in the area is expected to continue to increase once the interchange is constructed at Poplar Road and I-85.

The project is progressing and it is expected that construction will begin sometime in 2016. A short distance to the north of the Big Poplar site, at the bypass and Lower Fayetteville Road, is the location of a future 250,000 sq. ft. medical office campus recently approved by the Newnan City Council. Immediately to the south of Turkey Creek Road, construction is beginning to extend the bypass to Ga. Highway 16 and U.S. Highway 29.

The project will have bypass extended from Turkey Creek Road a distance of approximately 1.7 miles down to Hwy.16 where it will intersect just west of East Gordon Road. The entire span of the roadway will include four lanes and a median.

The intersection with Hwy. 16 will involve widening the roadway to four lanes beginning just west of the 1-85 overpass and extending it approximately one-half mile to Hwy. 29. That section of roadway will also be widened to accommodate four lanes and a median. Until warranted by the Ga. Dept. of Transportation, the intersection of the bypass at Hwy. 16 will utilize a stop sign. The project will see a major reconfiguration of the intersection of Hwy. 16 and Hwy. 29.

A traffic light will be installed at the intersection along with left-turn and right-turn lanes. The bypass will extend straight across Hwy. 29 and will take a 90-degree right turn behind existing businesses. The new road will extend a short distance and will be connected to the existing Pine Road. The current intersection of Pine Road and Hwy. 29 will be removed. T

he section on Hwy. 29 between Hwy. 16 and the traffic signal on the north side of I-85 will undergo a similar transformation and will feature four lanes divided by a median. The large transportation project is expected to be completed in June 2016.

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More retail space is slated for Coweta

COURTESY ILLUSTRATION This rendering shows how the 45 million, 250,000 square-foot North Hills Crossing center in Northeast El Paso will look. It will be anchored by a Walmart Neighborhood Market. Ross Dress for Less, Marshalls, Rue21, Rack Room Shoes, and Big Lots are among other tenants slated for the center at Martin Luther King and U.S. Highway 54.

Gerald Rubin isn't sitting still after leaving Helen of Troy, the billion dollar-plus, El Paso consumer products company he founded and ran for more than 40 years.

The 70-year-old El Paso entrepreneur has now put his other company, El Paso shopping center developer River Oaks Properties, on a construction binge expected to cost about $200 million to produce about 2 million square feet of mostly retail space in strip shopping centers over the next four to five years.

A huge chunk of the development will take place this year and next year when River Oaks plans to spend about $100 million to add almost 700,000 square feet of retail space at eight shopping centers in East and Northeast El Paso, and build two emergency medical-service buildings, with 10,000 square feet each, for a national chain in East and West El Paso.

River Oaks owns and operates about 75 shopping centers in El Paso, Rubin reported. It also owns Downtown retail buildings, and has extensive land holdings.

"This is our biggest year in our (46-year) history. I think it's a lot of pent up demand. Developers didn't build that much over the last few years because of the recession," Rubin said last week during an interview in River Oaks' West Side offices. Also, national retailers are now in expansion mode, he added.

"I want everyone to know that the city is growing and that there are new developments coming to El Paso, and we're doing the majority of the shopping center development in El Paso this year," Rubin said.

River Oaks' largest current project is the $45 million, 250,000 square-foot North Hills Crossing center at U.S. Highway 54 and Martin Luther King in store-hungry Northeast El Paso. The official ground breaking is set for Sept. 18, but dirt work has already begun on the center, which will be anchored by a Walmart Neighborhood Market.

Rubin declined to name other tenants signed for the center. But a center brochure produced by RJL Real Estate Consultants, which does leasing for River Oaks, shows some of the other tenants: Ross Dress for Less, Marshalls, and Rue21 clothing stores; Rack Room Shoes, Big Lots, Dollar Tree, and Verizon Wireless stores; and a McDonald's restaurant. Those are retailers that have been in the El Paso market for years. Tenant names are still missing for big chunks of the center, the brochure shows.

Bob Ayoub, president of Mimco Inc., El Paso's other large shopping center developer, said River Oaks' growth is good for El Paso.

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River Oaks to add $200 million worth of El Paso retail spaces in 5-year plan

Chef Matthias Merges said he hesitated at first when the University of Chicago asked him several years ago to open a restaurant in Hyde Park. The owner of acclaimed Yusho and Billy Sunday in hipster haven Logan Square loved the diverse and tightknit South Side neighborhood, but would it have enough bustle to support his dining concepts?

Nine months after opening the upscale French-Italian restaurant A10 on 53rd Street, part of a sweeping university-led effort to revive Hyde Park's commercial core, Merges has an answer.

"It has crushed our expectations," said Merges, who this fall plans to open a second Yusho location in Hyde Park, at 53rd and Kimbark Avenue. "It's like people have been waiting for businesses to come down and help revitalize it."

The decadelong, multimillion-dollar effort to rejuvenate Hyde Park, widely known for its museums and academics, but not as a terribly cool place to hang out, has been on a roll in the past year, with a flurry of new businesses open in the redeveloped Harper Court shopping center and with business owners reporting positive results.

Kilwin's Chocolates and Fudge is one of the 28 new businesses that have opened in the past three years along the 53rd Street corridor, the focus of the redevelopment. Franchise owner Jackie Jackson said her sales are double what they were at the Kilwin's she ran for five years in the heart of the tony Old Town neighborhood. Jackson, who lives in Hyde Park and opened the shop in December 2012, said she started turning a profit this year for the first time since she went into business in 2008.

Jackson was able to open the second shop because the university offered a rent abatement and help with her build-out. She closed her Old Town store a year ago after vandals broke the windows there, the third break-in at the site, she said, and is focusing on Hyde Park, where she feels overwhelming support.

"I think this neighborhood is more receptive," Jackson said. "Because Hyde Park was underserved, people are very excited."

Across the street, at the Hyatt Place, which opened in September 2013 at Harper Court, revenues are exceeding expectations by 25 percent, and occupancy is 10 percent above projections, said general manager Anthony Beach. Average room rates are just $5 less than its downtown competitors, a mark of high demand, he said.

Most of the hotel guests are visiting the University of Chicago school or medical center (the hotel offers a shuttle to both), but some are McCormick Place conference attendees, who Beach said are important for shedding widespread misconceptions about the neighborhood.

"We had a number of reservations cancel on us at first when they heard we were on the South Side. We hear it all the time from travelers who say they've heard terrible things about the South Side," said Beach, who grew up in the Englewood neighborhood and attended Hyde Park Career Academy for high school.

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Hyde Park's retail revival is on a roll

Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust, the worst-performing REIT in Canada over the past year, is banking on tower renovations and adding retail to keep tenants amid a wave of new office supply.

Dream Office, the largest office REIT in Canada, is seeking to sell as much as C$150 million ($138 million) of properties this year in smaller markets, and to upgrade its buildings and add retail space in its Toronto and Montreal properties, according to Chief Executive Officer Jane Gavan.

It used to be pure office -- thats all we looked at, Gavan said in Bloombergs Toronto office on Aug. 27. For us, theres going to be a lot of opportunity to develop the things we own and add retail.

Dream Office units have dropped 0.3 percent to C$28.95 over the past 12 months, for a yield of 7.7 percent, the worst performance among the 15-member Standard & Poors/TSX Capped REIT Index, which has gained 13 percent on average in the same period.

Significant multiple expansion is unlikely to take place in the near term given expected challenges in the Canadian office market, Matt Kornack, an analyst at National Bank Financial who rates the stock a buy, said in an Aug.10 note to clients. Kornack said Dream Office has longer-term value because of the quality and location of its portfolio, and offers an attractive yield for investors.

Dream Office, the largest office REIT in Canada, is seeking to sell as much as C$150 million ($138 million) of properties this year in smaller markets, and to upgrade its buildings and add retail space in its Toronto and Montreal properties, according to Chief Executive Officer Jane Gavan. Close

Dream Office, the largest office REIT in Canada, is seeking to sell as much as C$150... Read More

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Dream Office, the largest office REIT in Canada, is seeking to sell as much as C$150 million ($138 million) of properties this year in smaller markets, and to upgrade its buildings and add retail space in its Toronto and Montreal properties, according to Chief Executive Officer Jane Gavan.

About 7.9 million square feet of commercial space will hit the market in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Ottawa, this year and next, weighing on rental rates, according to New York-based real estate-services firm Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Toronto-based Dream Office is preparing for the crunch by adding shops and restaurants that net higher rents, Gavan said.

Originally posted here:
Dream REIT Looks to Restaurants to Beat Office Glut

WEST CHESTER TWP.

A public hearing on a zoning change aimed at bringing a upscale mixed-use development to an area planned as this townships downtown didnt take place as planned Tuesday, but a handful of people still offered their take on the retail-residential-business project.

Trustees opened the hearing into a proposed 8.2 acre iLoft at West Chester project, which is planned to include 247 one- and two-bedroom luxury apartments, 19,300 square feet of retail space, an 81,600-square foot office building and a three-story, 406-spot parking garage.

But board members then immediately postponed the hearing until Sept. 23 at the request of Anderson Birkla Investment Partners principal Anthony Birkla, who wrote in an Aug. 26 letter to the township that he was eager to address concerns about the development with an adjacent property owner.

That property owner, Schumacher Dugan Construction, kicked off comments against the development during a portion of the regular meeting reserved for the comments of West Chester Twp. residents or business owners.

This residential project is practically surrounded by commercial and office spaces, said Larry Schumacher, president of Schumacher Dugan Construction. We think its going to have a negative effect on the value of all of the buildings in that neck of the woods. Its going to be I think harder to rent the space and I think just having a domestic element in the center of everything there is not at all good planning. underparked.

Schumacher Dugan is responsible for two office buildings next to the site and is planning a third office building for the area.

Following the meeting, Schumacher said he foresees iLoft at West Chester residential element as a disruption to everything thats been built in the area.

If I thought it was such a wonderful thing, I should be jumping with glee because I own more property around there than anybody else, but I dont think its so wonderful, he said.

State Sen. Bill Coley also spoke out against the proposed zone change, claiming it is procedurally deficient and does not even meet the minimum requirements of the West Chester Twp. Zoning Resolution. He went on to list what he believes are design drawbacks, parking insufficiencies or zoning violations.

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Developer delays hearing for West Chester mixed-use project

The Greenville Office of Economic Development presented some big ideas to a financial committee Wednesday and if they are approved, some big attractions could be headed our way.

We're talking about a more developed retail corridor, sports development complex, business and technology park - in total, 6 proposed projects that could really influence job creation, tax base, and the quality of life. But of course these are huge financial undertakings that would have to be approved by Greenville city council and voters.

Looking around Uptown Greenville you'll see construction projects taking shape. One is a private project that economic development manager Carl Rees says is creating 20,000 square feet of office space and 3,500 feet of retail space.

The other, a 250-space parking deck.

In the 2 years since Greenville's Office of Economic Development has been in operation, Rees has wanted to do even more.

Rees says, "These are all things that we think are opportunities for Greenville to grow jobs, grow tax base and make this a better place to live."

Rees presented six projects to Greenville's bond advisory committee on Wednesday night.

One of them - enhancing the 10th street connector that begins at the intersection of Evans and 10th and extends to Memorial Drive in the Medical District.

Rees and many on the committee believe it would be a major gateway into uptown.

The other projects include major facelifts to the Dickinson corridor, 1st street and Town Common, Frontgate retail corridor, a sports development complex, and a business & technology park.

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Greenville Office Of Economic Development Thinking Big

Work continues on the new phase of St. Johns Town Center with permits issued last week for Yankee Candle ($120,000, 1,438 square feet, Alliance Retail Construction) and Boston Proper ($293,321, 2,453 square feet, Fred Olivieri Construction.)

The eight smaller stores in the new wing are scheduled to open Oct. 8 with the anchor, Nordstrom, opening on Oct. 10. The grand opening for the entire wing will be celebrated Saturday, Oct. 11.

BROKEN EGG

Another Broken Egg is building its first Jacksonville restaurant at 4828 W. Deer Lake Drive in Tapestry Park. The chain is based in Miramar Beach and serves breakfast, lunch and brunch. The permit for the build-out was issued last week: $356,833, 2,642 square feet, TWT Restaurant Design Construction & Development.

The owners of the franchise have said they plan to open three or four restaurants in the area.

ETC.

Rethreaded, a nonprofit which helps those affected by the sex trade, has moved into a new retail/warehouse space at 820 Barnett St. and will hold a celebration of the new space on Saturday, Sept. 13, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

The Jacksonville Beach office of Money Concepts Wealth Management has changed its name to Dodds Wealth Advisors.

Tire Kingdom has opened a new location at 9628 Argyle Forest Blvd., with grand opening celebrations going on through Monday.

Earth Fare opened its first Jacksonville store last week, and the natural foods market continues to grow. Luckys Market, which specializes in organic, local and gluten-free food, is opening its first Florida store in Gainesville in November at 1459 N.W. 23rd Ave.

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Sunday Business Notebook: New wing of St. Johns Town Center starts taking shape