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Super Region Economy Driving Louisiana Growth

Louisiana

Well respected Louisiana economic experts, Dr. Loren Scott and Dr. James Richardson, released the results of their 2015 Louisiana Economic Outlook.

Based on their forecast, Louisiana will set records statewide and in a number of metro areas for the most non-farm jobs in its history, surpassing 2 million across the state.

The Super Region – consisting of Baton Rouge, Houma-Thibodaux and New Orleans – is forecast to see incredible growth over the next two years.  The area is expected to produce 62 percent of Louisiana’s non-farm job creation – a combined 41,400 of the state’s 66,700 new jobs by the end of 2016.

While much of this growth is being fueled by the industrial boom from Lake Charles to Baton Rouge and down river to New Orleans, the encouraging fact is that there are several other sectors, both traditional and emerging, that make Louisiana more diverse.  Traditional sectors include international trade, advanced manufacturing and energy.  Digital media, information technology, emerging environmental related to water and water management, coastal restoration, and medical are among Louisiana’s emerging sectors.

Putting all of these together, the future has never been brighter for our state and our region.

For additional news coverage about the 2015 Louisiana Economic Outlook:

Stirling Properties’ Beezie Landry Closes on Sale of Five Investment Properties in September

Stirling Properties’ Beezie Landry, Senior Sales and Leasing Executive, closed on the sale of five investment properties in September totaling over $38 million. In each of these transactions, Mr. Landry represented the Seller.

Two single tenant Rouses Markets
2851 Belle Chasse Highway, Gretna, LA– 57,644 SF
Buyer: Rouses Market
Seller: Private New York based investor

50 Park Place, Covington, LA – 57,206 SF
Buyer: Rouse / Kingsmill, L.L.C.
Seller: Private New York based investor

Westwood Village
Southwest Corner of West Congress Street and Bertrand Drive, Lafayette, LA– 138,034 SF
Co-Listed with Charles Cornay, Senior Sales Executive for Stirling Properties
Multi-tenant grocery anchored shopping center
Anchor Tenants: Rouses Market, CVS, and Stage
Buyer: Private Lafayette based investor completing a 1031 exchange
Seller: Weingarten Realty Investors

Single Tenant Walgreens
2001 Carol Sue Avenue, Gretna, LA– 17,238 SF
Developed and sold by Stirling Properties
Brand new 25 year deal
Sold at a cap rate of 5.55%
Executed contract to closing was only 26 days
Buyer: Realty Income Corporation
Seller: Private Investor Group led by Stirling Properties

Winn Dixie
804 West Oak Street, Amite, LA– 49,771 SF
Winn Dixie recently renewed lease for 10 years
Executed contract to closing was only 22 days
Buyer: American Realty Capital Properties
Seller: Southland-Amite WD (a Chicago based investor)

“Year to date Beezie has closed on approximately $60 million in Investment Sales representing both Buyers and Sellers,” stated Chris Abadie, Vice President and Manager of Commercial Brokerage at Stirling Properties. “The clients he has represented have been publicly traded REITs as well as private investor groups on deals that include single tenant, ground leases and multi-tenant grocery anchored shopping centers.”

Investment sales is a linchpin to our brokerage division. Whether it’s achieving the goals of a buyer or seller, Stirling can meet your needs. Our professionals are versed in asset dispositions whether the property is income-producing, distressed, vacant or REO. From institutional investors to private investors, we help buyers find and secure assets that have opportunities for added value and improved performance, or assets with stabilized risk-adjusted returns.

For more information regarding Investment Sales, contact Beezie Landry blandry@stirlingprop.com or 985-898-2022.

Property Management, Information Technology and the New Paradigm

Property Management IT

Used to be that technology was an afterthought, if it was a thought at all, when it came to property management.  No one thought twice about putting file servers, telephone systems, sharing the office Wi-Fi with the public and having each management office a self-contained island unto itself.  We’re long past the days, when we could put a desktop at a managed property office and simply forget that the computer was there until the computer died or a user complained.  While the most important element of property management is still the right property manager, with the advent of Internet-connected building automation, Voice Over IP (VOIP), cloud offerings, server virtualization, software as a service (SaaS), desktop as a service (DaaS) and the well-publicized complete lack of security on the Internet, it’s time to pay attention to how property management offices are utilizing technology, how the offices are secured and how we are maintaining the infrastructure.

Here at Stirling we’ve taken over a lot of management contracts in the last few years and the thing that strikes us from the IT-perspective is how little attention has been paid to the automation and the office systems.  Even from the large, national property service companies, we’ve seen file servers and desktops systems at managed properties that are past end-of-life such that the manufacturers are no longer providing security updates.  We’ve seen automation systems, directly connected to the Internet with no firewall and still running default system credentials, leaving not only that system, but the entire office vulnerable to attack.  Accounting or Point of Sale Systems on the same network as the HVAC or Automation Systems without network segmentation or firewalls is simply asking for trouble.

While other industries have been quick to embrace technology, it sometimes seems that Commercial Real Estate as an Industry has gotten a half-step or two behind where we need to be in maintaining our technology.  Overhauling systems doesn’t necessarily have to be a large expense.  In a lot of cases, the savings from removing the maintenance costs associated with outdated systems will go a long way towards modernizing and securing your infrastructure.  Just as everyone knows and can do the calculation on a commercial real estate’s return on investment, there’s also a return or a savings with Information Technology deployed and maintained correctly.

  •  Still have an outdated DSL connection to the Internet?  Fiber has proliferated in the last couple of years.  Look at dedicated bandwidth with a Next Generation Firewall.
  • Sharing your Internet with the public?  Stop!  Or at the very least, make sure your management office network is segmented to protect your critical systems.
  • Same with automation.  If your HVAC, access card or automation systems are connected to the Internet, change the default credentials and segment away from your office computers.
  • Are your servers on the same network as your Wi-Fi?  Segment and firewall the network so if your Wi-Fi gets hacked, they don’t have a clear path to the rest of your equipment.
  • Still running Windows Server 2000 or 2003?  Server 2000 was retired on July 13, 2010 and Server 2003 is ending on July 14, 2015 which means no security patches and a huge vulnerability for you.  It’s time to ditch the server and connect to your back office virtually.
  • Still have a Windows XP computer or a POS with embedded Windows XP?  XP’s end of life was April 8, 2014, leaving your systems vulnerable.  It’s time to upgrade your systems or virtualize your desktops.
  • Still have an analog telephone system with roll over lines?  With dedicated bandwidth and quality of service, you can take advantage of Voice Over IP – sometimes at a substantial savings to what you’re paying for your system now.
  • Do you have separate banking computer that you use only for banking?  Absolutely no general Internet surfing?  Might want to consider dedicating a computer to banking.
  • Are you setup with Positive Pay with your bank?  This is an important first step.
  • Still using an old POP service for email?  It’s time to switch to an Exchange-style email system.  Setup with your management company or contract online for hosted Exchange or Zimbra email.

Contracting with a property services firm that has a dedicated technology staff makes your life easier and allows you to take advantage of the economies of scale inherent in that relationship, but if you have the time and the wherewithal to work through the vulnerabilities, you can go a long way to securing your systems and leveraging technology for the value it will bring to your property.

October 8, 2014|Blog, Corporate, Management Services|

Survey Finds Louisianans Strongly Support Marketplace Fairness

Marketplace FairnessAs a follow-up to my previous posts about the Marketplace Fairness Act, I wanted to share the results of a recent Louisiana-specific poll. Results released by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) indicate an overwhelming majority of Louisianans (78 percent!) support federal legislation that requires online-only sellers to collect sales tax at the time of purchase. A national poll revealed similar results with the support of 70 percent of Americans.

Here’s a summary of the poll’s other key findings:

  • 89 percent of Louisianans think it would be easier to collect sales tax from online-only vendors at the time of purchase, versus paying sales and use taxes through special forms or when filing income taxes as is currently required in many states (82 percent in national poll)
  • 89 percent of Louisianans say local retailers are important to their community’s economic health (93 percent in national poll)

Louisianans and the Nation agree that it is time to pass Marketplace Fairness, which, after being combined with the Internet Tax Freedom Act, is the legislation now known as the Marketplace and Internet Tax Fairness Act (MITFA), S. 2609. As I have previously stated, it is important to level the playing field for our retailers who are employing people and paying taxes in our communities. The passage of this bill is critical to the Commercial Real Estate industry, brick-and-mortar retailers and perhaps more importantly, to our state and local governments.

I strongly encourage each of you to contact your representative and to promote this issue on social media sites with the hashtags #efairness, #MITFA, or #efairnessnow.

October 1, 2014|Blog, Corporate, President's Message|

Forbes: Houma-Thibodaux among America’s Booming Small Cities 2014

Forbes has ranked Houma-Thibodaux the #8 fastest growing small city in the country, featuring the lowest unemployment rate in the USA at 2.8% and per capita personal income growth of nearly 50% from 2000 to 2012.

This ranking on the heels of the recent rankings of Baton Rouge #2, Mobile #3 and New Orleans #5 for Economic Growth Potential by Business Facilities magazine once again demonstrates the tremendous strength and growth of our entire super region.  The Top 10 ranking of the Houma-Thibodaux area underscores the primary motivation for our recent acquisition of Ansley Place Apartments in Houma earlier this year.

You can read the entire Forbes article here.

Houma-Thibodaux #8

 

Stirling Properties and CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. Developing Phase II of Fremaux Town Center in Slidell, LA

Anchored by Dillard’s, Phase II is Over 70% LeasedFremaux Town Center

Stirling Properties and CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE: CBL) announced today the construction of the second phase is underway at Fremaux Town Center in Slidell, Louisiana. Site work commenced in June with a scheduled opening in October 2015. Phase II will include roughly 285,000 square feet of additional retail space and will be anchored by a 128,000 square-foot Dillard’s. Phase II is over 70% leased, including executed leases with Red Robin, Zales, Aveda and Francesca’s as well as numerous other retailer commitments to be announced as the project progresses.

“We are excited to offer additional retail and restaurant options for the region that will complement the existing mix of successful stores and restaurants at the center,” stated Townsend Underhill, Stirling Properties’ Senior Vice President of Development.

Currently 99% leased, Phase I of Fremaux Town Center opened in March of this year with approximately 350,000 square feet of retail anchored by Dick’s Sporting Goods, Michaels, T.J.Maxx, and Kohl’s. Sports Clips and Panera Bread recently opened and several other tenants are scheduled to open as follows: Payless ShoeSource and Five Guys Burgers and Fries this week, Starbucks in September, and rue21 and a 41,000 square-foot, full-service LA Fitness later this year. BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse recently purchased a 2.3 acre outparcel and is also now under construction with an opening scheduled in early 2015.

“Fremaux Town Center has been successful from the start due to the collection of retailers here and the ideal location,” said Michael Lebovitz, Executive Vice President of Development and Administration at CBL. “This expansion allows us to add even more great retailers to the mix.”

Located on more than 80 acres at the southwest corner of Interstate 10 and Fremaux Avenue in Slidell, Fremaux Town Center will be over 635,000 square feet upon completion. With its interstate location and high-visibility, Fremaux Town Center is expected to become a regional shopping destination.

For leasing information, please contact Ryan Pecot at 337.572.0246 or email at rpecot@stirlingprop.com; Rodney Gordon at 423.553.8704 or email at rodney_gordon@cblproperties.com or Robert Snetman at 423.490.8333 or email at robert_snetman@cblproperties.com.

Fremaux Town Center

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