Report: CRE Market Looking Up

The commercial real estate business has clawed through a few rocky years, but the people who buy, build, maintain, and market properties are excited about a new report showed increasing optimism about office building and shopping center investing. According to a survey conducted by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2011 will kick off the “Era of Less.”

Survey respondents are projecting that next year will be a time of moderate growth and recovery, but still will pale in comparison to the boom times of the early and mid-2000s. Compared with the past two years, when the financial crisis battered investors and developers, any market improvement is welcome, said most of the respondents.

The survey of more than 875 real estate investors, developers, lenders, brokers, and consultants showed improved prospects for some cities. For example, Cleveland, which regularly ranks near the bottom of the annual “Emerging Trends in Real Estate” report, had an increased potential for commercial development and homebuilding from late 2009. However, the potential for investment in Cleveland commercial properties slipped slightly.

Despite the brighter outlook of this year’s report, the commercial real estate industry is worried about the same issues troubling the country: high unemployment, a slow economic recovery, and considerable national and household debt. Respondents noted that, without new jobs, companies won’t need bigger offices or additional manufacturing space. And consumers won’t have extra cash to spend at shopping centers.

“Our problems have become much bigger than real estate, and the solutions are much bigger than the scope of our industry,” Stephen Blank, a senior resident fellow with the Urban Land Institute, said.

Unemployment, manufacturing job losses, and the housing collapse have hit the middle of the country particularly hard; few Midwestern markets performed well in the survey. Detroit showed the lowest prospects for commercial investment and development. Yet the report highlighted Pittsburgh--a relatively low-rated city among survey respondents--as an example of the slow and steady real estate market.

The gap between real estate buyers who want a deal and sellers who don’t want to cut prices appears to be getting smaller, according to “Emerging Trends.”