Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Family Dollar's Profit Rises 23%

Family Dollar Stores Inc., which posted a 23% rise in fiscal fourth-quarter profit Wednesday, said low-income shoppers are being joined by middle-class consumers in the discount chain's aisles.

A Family Dollar shopper in Charlotte, N.C. The chain plans to renovate at least 600 stores.
.The company said customers are still struggling financially and continue to seek bargains in apparel, pantry staples and other items. Family Dollar also said it plans to accelerate new-store growth and begin a store-renovation program.

"More middle-ish income consumers are starting to shop with us," Howard Levine, the company's chairman and chief executive, said during a conference call. "We think that we have a great opportunity here to try to get some stickiness to that customer."

Shares in Family Dollar rose 1.6% to $44.05 at 4 p.m. Wednesday in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The company's stock is up 60% so far this year.

online.wsj.com

Friday, March 25, 2011

U.S. commercial Rents Will Reach Their Former Peak Levels By 2015

U.S. commercial rents will reach their former peak levels by 2015, with growth in office and warehouse rates surpassing the apartment sector in two years, according to a forecast by RREEF.

Buildings in New York, San Francisco, Boston, San Diego and San Jose, California, will have some of the strongest growth after office rents fell 4.9 percent nationally last year, Alan Billingsley, head of research for RREEF, an investment unit of Deutsche Bank AG (DB), said yesterday at a conference in San Francisco.

“Net operating income is still moving downward, but when rent growth starts, it really takes off,” Billingsley said.

U.S. commercial property prices fell 4.3 percent from a year earlier in January, the second straight monthly decline, as distressed sales in all sectors held back values, the Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index showed March 22. The delinquency rate on loans packaged as commercial mortgage- backed securities rose to a record 9.2 percent in February, Moody’s said March 15.

www.bloomberg.com/news

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

The European commercial property market is finally hauling itself out of recession

The European commercial property market is finally hauling itself out of recession. Investors are finding pockets of opportunity across the continent, and as banks shed their non-performing property portfolios and liquidity becomes more freely available, many are whiffing the rich scent of good value. But the specter of bad loans still haunts the sector and every opportunity is shrouded in a heavy mist of risk.

http://online.wsj.com

Subway Passes McDonald's

Subway now has more units worldwide than McDonald's.

Read Full Story

Monday, March 7, 2011

Zara's Parent Buys Fifth Avenue Store for $324 Million

Spanish retailer Inditex SA (ITX) said it bought the former NBA Store at 666 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan for $324 million and will make it into a flagship store for its Zara clothing chain.
Inditex acquired the 39,000-square-foot (3,600-square- meter) storefront between West 52nd and 53rd streets, the Arteixo, Spain-based company said today in a statement posted on its website. The site was the home of the National Basketball Association’s flagship shop, where it sold team jerseys and other memorabilia.
That deal helped the tower’s owner, Kushner Cos., cover some of the debt incurred after purchasing the building the year before for $1.8 billion, then the most ever paid for a single NNN Lease Investment U.S. building.
Inditex is one of the worlds largest fashion distributors, with eight sales formats -Zara, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe - boasting 4.430 stores in 73 countries.
The Inditex Group is comprised of over one hundred companies associated with the business of textile design, manufacturing and distribution.

www.bloomberg.com

Realty Income to Acquire up to $544 Million of Net Lease Properties

The properties to be acquired are located in 17 different states and consist of approximately 3.8 million square feet of leasable space. The majority of the lease revenue from these single-tenant properties is generated from investment grade tenants, or their operating subsidiaries, in 11 different industries. The single-tenant distribution properties representing 34% of the lease revenue include; Aviall Services, Caterpillar, FedEx Corporation, and International Paper. The single-tenant retail properties representing 33% of the lease revenue include; AMC Theaters, Cinemark Theaters, Regal Cinemas, and Walgreens. The single-tenant office properties representing 25% of the lease revenue include; Fiserv, Inc., Novus International, Solae and T-Mobile USA. The single-tenant manufacturing properties representing 8% of the lease revenue include; Coca-Cola and MeadWestvaco Corporation. The average remaining lease term of the properties is over 11 years, which is consistent with the average remaining lease term of Realty Income’s existing portfolio of approximately 2,500 net leased properties.

retailtrafficmag.com

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Investors Look to Expand Retail Portfolios

Big institutional investors stepping back into property markets since the financial crisis largely have sought the security of income-generating assets such as shopping centers. Office buildings still account for the largest share of commercial-property investment, but many investors have reduced their exposure to these properties, which have suffered from vacancies during the recession.

Allianz Real Estate, a unit of German insurer Allianz SE, is telling investors in roadshows that it plans to invest about €11 billion ($15 billion) in European property, aiming to take its portfolio to €30 billion. Allianz Real Estate, which is looking for yields of between 5% and 6%, wants to have about 45% of its portfolio in offices, 25% in retail and 15% in residential. Offices account for 63% of Allianz's portfolio, residential is 20%, and retail is about 17%, according to Allianz Real Estate.

http://online.wsj.com