Robust Growth Will Follow Economic Recovery's Slow Start

Says NAI Global Chief Economist Dr. Peter Linneman

The Great Recession has officially ended and recovery will be far more robust than anyone can imagine, according to a new white paper from NAI Global Chief Economist Dr. Peter Linneman. The paper examines the economic recovery and Dr. Linneman provides insight into the leading indicators that the market is stabilizing and investment activity is on the rise.

“Although the news continues to focus on the negative, the economy has bottomed and is on the road to recovery,” said Dr. Linneman. “Historically, the U.S. economy has rebounded in ways that were unimaginable at the time and usually within two years of a recession.”

Is This a Recovery?, NAI Global’s white paper, offers proof that the recession has come to an end and that recovery, however slow, is under way. Dr. Linneman discusses in depth the country’s current economic status, and provides historical evidence from past recessions to support his prediction of a robust recovery by 2012.

You can download the white paper here, or visit http://www.naiglobal.com/, select Publications, then Research Articles & White Papers to see the full archive.

NAI Pittsburgh Commercial is a Pittsburgh proud locally owned and operated company. To see some of the Office and development opportunities available in the Pittsburgh region CLICK HERE.

Signs of Improvement: Pittsburgh Office Vacancy Decreases Q2 2009

Office Vacancies in Pittsburgh Slip

Trib Live: Staff and wire reports Saturday August 22, 2009

The vacancy rate in Pittsburgh's office market declined in the second quarter to 18.2 percent from the 18.7 percent at the end of the first quarter, according to a report issued Friday.

New leases signed for space Downtown included First Niagara Bank for 50,000 square feet at 11 Stanwix St. and Direct Energy's 52,000 square feet at Liberty Center, said a report by GVA Oxford.

Other leases include West Penn Allegheny Health Systems moving its executives to Alcoa Business Service Center on the North Shore; and Expedient Communications relocating its headquarters from Norfolk, Va., to Two Allegheny Center, also on the North Shore.

NAI Pittsburgh Commercial represented the Landlord in the West Penn Allegheny Health Systems lease.

NAI Pittsburgh Commercial is a Pittsburgh proud locally owned and operated company. To see some of the Office and development opportunities available in the Pittsburgh region CLICK HERE.

Largest 2009 Office Sale in Western PA closes

McKnight Pays $89.5M for Cranberry Woods Office Bldgs.

Deal Marks Largest Purchase in Pittsburgh Region in 2009

By Andrew Deichler (CoStar)

August 11, 2009

In the largest office sale in Western Pennsylvania this year, McKnight Realty Partners has acquired four buildings in the Cranberry Woods office park for $89.5 million, or $198 per square foot. In an effort to re-balance its investment portfolio, Multi-Employer Property Trust (MEPT) sold the property at auction. McKnight used a 1031 exchange, which also involved 16 Pittsburgh-area Wendy's restaurants.

Located at 500-800 Cranberry Woods Drive in Cranberry Township, the four-building office campus totals 452,964 square feet. The buildings are 99 percent occupied by such tenants as Verizon Wireless, Westinghouse Electric Co. and McKesson. Nicholas Matt with HFF (Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P.) represented the seller. First Commonwealth and First Merit Bank provided financing for the project. Loan values were not disclosed.

Editiorial: While there remains evidence that the economy has not completed a full recovery, Commercial Real Estate in Pittsburgh remains a solid economic performer. This transaction may prove to have broader implications in the continued development, office rates, and occupancy levels in the Pittsburgh and specifically Cranberry area markets. The record price paid for this investment can be viewed as a positive endorsement for the continued need of Class A office space in the North market and Pittsburgh.

NAI Pittsburgh Commercial is a Pittsburgh proud locally owned and operated company. To see some of the Office and development opportunities available in the Pittsburgh region CLICK HERE.

PA Budget Stalemate Threatens to Hurt Job Creation

Future Economic Development Funding in Jeopardy Due to Recession

By Andrew Deichler (CoStar Group)

August 4, 2009

ES3's Facility in York, PA.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said Monday that his office is providing incentives for grocery distributor ES3 LLC, to help the company expand its operations in York and create jobs. He also said that aiding such projects in the future might not be so easy.

Funding for projects like the ES3 expansion is drying up across the country as states hammer out budget shortfalls due to the recession.

In Pennsylvania, the Democratic governor and the predominately Democratic House of Representatives have been at a stalemate with the Republican-dominant Senate for the about two months over the state budget.

In short, the Democrats are proposing a personal income tax (PIT) increase to keep job-creation programs going, while the Republicans are in favor of cutting programs to avoid raising taxes.

The governor's office said in a statement that Pennsylvania might be unable to compete for such projects if certain programs are trimmed or completely eliminated in the state budget. "Some lawmakers are debating whether we should turn our backs on the communities and workers these valuable programs serve," said Gov. Rendell. "They want to drastically cut or eliminate the programs that, before the recession hit, helped us to reach record levels of employment."

Click to read the rest of the article

NAI Pittsburgh Commercial is a Pittsburgh proud locally owned and operated company. To see some of the investment and development opportunities available in the Pittsburgh region CLICK HERE

AdVenture Development adds office space to McCandless Crossing plans

From the Pittsburgh Business Times

North Carolina-based real estate developer AdVenture

Development LLC is expanding the scope of its mixed-used

development project in McCandless Township to include an

office component.

North Side-based NAI Pittsburgh Commercial

launched the marketing effort this week to lease a five-

story, 60,000-square-foot office building at the project, the

first of what is expected to be three office buildings at the

mixed-use development.

McCandless Crossing is proposed as a one million-plus square foot development anchored by a

Lowe’s Home Improvement store, to be located along a stretch of McKnight Road on the

northern edge of McCandless Township. McCandless Crossing is also expected to include a

grocery-anchored town center, a movie theater, hotels and town houses.

Paul Horan, a principal at NAI Pittsburgh who is marketing the new office project, expects the

office space will appeal to medical office users given McCandless Crossing’s proximity to the

UPMC Passavant Hospital.

Announcing Premier Mixed Use Development

NAI Pittsburgh Commercial is pleased to announce that it has been awarded the exclusive leasing of the office space component of McCandless Crossing, a + 130 acre mixed use development in McCandless Township in the North Hills of Pittsburgh.

Anchored by a Lowe’s Home Improvement Store, McCandless Crossing is a 1,000,000 + SF project consisting of a Towne Center component and a master planned area including retail, office, hotels, entertainment and residential. It is in close proximity to Pittsburgh’s premier suburban hospital, UPMC Passavant.

The goal of the developer, AdVenture Development, LLC, is to create a project that complements the existing base of properties and knits them together in a cohesive plan that will further energize the North Hills.

The initial phase of the office component will be a five story 60,000 SF Class “A” office building. Two additional similar sized properties will be developed as dictated by the demand for premier office/medical office space conveniently located at the intersection of Duncan Avenue and McKnight Road.

For more information on this project, please contact Paul Horan, Principal at NAI Pittsburgh Commercial at (412) 321-4200 ext. 205 or phoran@naipittsburgh.com

Imminent Deadlines for PA Real Estate Assessment Appeals (Courtesy of Pepper Hamilton LLP)

PA Appeal Deadlines - 2010 Tax Year

Absent any county-wide reassessment or county-wide ratio change, the annual deadlines for assessment appeals in Pennsylvania are as follows:

August 1, 2009: Berks, Bucks, Chester, Dauphin, Delaware, Erie, Lancaster, Lehigh, York

August 31, 2009: Butler, Luzerne, Wyoming

September 1, 2009: Adams, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford (see below) Blair (see below)
Bradford, Cambria. Cameron, Carbon, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton,
Columbia, Crawford, Cumberland, Elk, Fayette (see below), Forest,
Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Huntingdon, Indiana, Jefferson, Juniata,
Lackawanna, Lawrence, Lebanon, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Mifflin,
Monroe, Montgomery, Montour, Northampton, Northumberland, Perry,
Pike, Potter, Schuylkill, Snyder, Somerset, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga,
Union, Venango, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Westmoreland

October 1, 2009: Philadelphia County

March 31, 2010: Allegheny County

Read more

Dusty Elias Kirk and Sharon F. DiPaolo are partners in the firm's Real Estate Practice Group . If you have any questions concerning real estate or real estate tax assessment appeals, please contact Dusty Elias Kirk at kirkd@pepperlaw.com; 412.454.5039 or Sharon F. DiPaolo at dipaolos@pepperlaw.com ; 412.454.5005.

Economic Update: New Issue of Linneman Letter Available for Download

We are pleased to share with you this special edition of The Linneman Letter.

In this issue, Dr. Peter Linneman, NAI Global’s Chief Economist and Principal at Linneman Associates, provides his insight into the current economy, inflation pressures, when the recovery will take hold, and uses a comparison of today’s global recession to past downturns to forecast the coming months.

You can download a complimentary copy here. And for an in-depth review of the current state of the economy presented by Dr. Linneman, download the second quarter Global Economic Outlook web conference OnDemand.

NAI Pittsburgh Commercial is a Pittsburgh proud locally owned and operated company. To see some of the investment and development opportunities available in the Pittsburgh region CLICK HERE

Pittsburgh's commercial market leads nation in real estate for business purposes

By Sam Spatter
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Pittsburgh's commercial real estate market has maintained its No. 1 position in the nation, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The New York-based ratings company's second-quarter Red-Yellow-Green report issued Tuesday ranked the seven-county region as the top market overall among 60 metropolitan areas nationwide.

Although Oklahoma City was listed as No. 1 in the first quarter 2009 report, Moody's adjusted its method of ranking, which eliminated Oklahoma City and moved Pittsburgh back into the No. 1 spot for that period.Pittsburgh also was rated No. 1 at year-end 2008.

Moody's rated Pittsburgh in three of seven real estate categories the company uses to compare markets. Cities must be rated in three or more categories to get a final ranking. Pittsburgh was judged on multi-family housing, Downtown office vacancies, and full and limited service hotels' occupancy rates. It was not included in retail, industrial or suburban office ratings.

The No. 1 ranking continues the long climb back for the local market, which Moody's ranked among the 10 "most troubled" throughout most of 2005.

Moody's ranking adds to a list of accolades for the region's real estate market.

Kiplinger.com named Pittsburgh one of its six Safe Havens in Real Estate, notingPittsburgh's investment real estate has steadily increased in value with properties in the Downtown, Oakland and Centre/Baum corridor attracting investors willing to pay top dollar for prime real estate.

Moody's uses performances in the seven categories of real estate to arrive at a composite score ranging from 0 to 100.

The name of the report comes from how it describes a market's performance in traffic-light colors, with scores of 0-33 identified as red, 34-66 as yellow, and 67-100 as green.

Moody's evaluation gives the Pittsburgh area a composite score of 52 in the yellow category. The lower score is because of the nation's deflated economy, Moody said.

NAI Pittsburgh Commercial is a Pittsburgh proud locally owned and operated company. To see some of the investment and development opportunities available in the Pittsburgh region CLICK HERE

Economic Outlook: Commercial Real Estate Loans..

Commercial Real Estate Loans Weighing Heavily on Bank Earning Statements

Today's (July 20th) issue of the Wall Street Journal featured an article in the Money & Investing section about the suffering commercial real estate financing industry and its impact on the banking crisis.

As many people are aware, banks have been failing in large numbers over the last 18 months due to short-sighted lending policies and, in some instances, mismanagement and fiduciary scams at senior levels. Now commercial real estate, often a solid monetary investment, is coming under fire as properties and property portfolios are being devalued by increasing vacancies, falling rents and changes in how companies are pursuing their commercial space strategies.

As earnings season heats up in the last couple of weeks of July, investors are closely watching the financial statements from banks and lending institutions to see how they are writing off the commercial loan losses, and for insight into the financial institutions' plans for addressing these earnings issues in the coming months. (You can read Lingling Wei's story here.)

With the commercial real estate market valued at approximately $6.7 trillion USD, is the industry too big to fail? And how will the stock market react to these losses, or perception that losses are coming? The coming quarter should prove most interesting to watch.

Global Economic Outlook - June 2009 now available OnDemand

Is this the “worst ever” yet? Have we hit bottom?

NAI Global’s Chief Economist Dr. Peter Linneman tells us it is “time to rebuild the confidence” in the U.S. economy. We are nearing a bottom, but it will be a while before recovery takes hold. He provides insight into how the economy is improving, which sectors will improve first and the telltale signs recovery is under way. Listen to the June 2009 Global Economic Outlook web conference OnDemand.

Agency Expertise: 80,000SF New Construction

Full service commercial brokerage firm, NAI Pittsburgh Commercial (www.naipittsburgh.com/412.321.4200), has been selected by Kossman Development Company (www.kossman.com/412.921.6100) as the Exclusive Leasing Agent for the new Valley Commerce Center strategically located on Rt. 50 parallel to Interstate 79 in Bridgeville. The first of the two (2) planned single story Class “A” flex buildings is under construction with the earth work slated for completion by the end of June 2009. The foundation and shell will begin immediately with the exterior and base building scheduled for completion by 3^rd Quarter 2009. John Bilyak of NAI Pittsburgh stated, “We are extremely excited about marketing new flex product in the southern I-79 submarket. This project offers amenities, class “A” building specs, and parking that make it unique to a region in need of quality building product.”

The versatility offered by the 44,244 square foot Building One will be conducive to those tenants with office, flex, lab and clean value added manufacturing applications.

John C. Bilyak, Director of Industrial Brokerage and Patrick J. Sentner, SIOR, Principal of NAI Pittsburgh Commercial, are leading the leasing efforts on behalf of Kossman Development Company.

NAI Forms Alliance with Site Analytics

Alliance Offers Expanded Market Analytic Services to Retailers

NAI Global, the world’s premier managed network of commercial real estate firms and one of the largest real estate services providers worldwide, announced today it has formed an alliance with Site Analytics Co., a site selection consulting firm, to offer expanded market analytics services to NAI retail professionals.

Founded in 1995, Site Analytics advises brokers, retailers and landlords on growth-related strategic issues. Their customized reports and models employ sophisticated analytic techniques to provide unique insights that help clients resolve the tough questions they face on a daily basis. Adapting these tools—in consultation with NAI Global’s Market Analytics team—for use by NAI retail professionals, Site Analytics’ range of services helps brokers provide the best possible advice to their clients and improve the site selection process.

“Site Analytics is a market innovator and respected service provider in the U.S.,” said George Anderson, Vice President of NAI Global Market Analytics. “This alliance will expand the reach of the Market Analytics team, and enhance this key service offering for our clients.”

Throughout 2009 Site Analytics will create and implement new products tailored specifically for NAI Global’s managed network, with the first set launching in May prior to ICSC RECON Global Retail Real Estate Convention. Some of these custom products help retail brokers determine how to most effectively identify prospective tenants and market a property. Others help NAI brokers advise their retail clients on the best markets and sites for their expansion or contraction efforts.

“Site Analytics is proud to be an Alliance Partner of NAI Global,” said Adam Epstein, President of Site Analytics Co. “Especially in times like these, it’s important to ensure that clients are making a fully-informed decision. We are pleased that NAI brokers, who are often acknowledged as the leading experts in their home markets, will be enhancing the services they offer their clients with the addition of our customized analyses.”

Site Analytics Co. is based in New York City, and will work with NAI Global’s offices both across the United States and internationally. Headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, NAI Global manages a network of 325 offices and 5,000 professionals in 55 countries across the globe.

NAI Pittsburgh Commercial is a Pittsburgh proud and locally owned commercial real estate brokerage company and part of the NAI Global managed network. Click to learn how NAI Pittsburgh can help you with the toughest retail challenges.

Investor notice: American Escrow

City to assist those bilked by American Escrow

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The city of Pittsburgh will allow property owners bilked by Chicago-based American Escrow LLC to make late property tax payments on an installment plan, without charging interest, "on a case-by-case basis," city Treasurer Margaret Lanier said yesterday.

The city has no way of knowing how many property owners are affected, she said. Affected residents should call the city Real Estate Division at 412-255-2525.

American Escrow received money from property owners and held it to pay their taxes and insurance, but then stopped making those payments and drained its accounts.

Interested in Real Estate Investing? Contact us to learn more: NAI Pittsburgh Commercial is a locally owned and Pittsburgh proud commercial real estate brokerage. Interste

NAI Global Named #4 Commercial Real Estate Brokerage in the World

NAI Global Named #4 Commercial Real Estate Brokerage in the World

National Real Estate Investor magazine's April issue just arrived, including the annual Top 25 Brokerages listing.

NAI Global was named the fourth largest brokerage, in a tie with Colliers International. NAI's total investment sales and lease transactions for 2008 totaled $42 billion.

Look for the full listing, and an article on distressed properties featuring an interview with Jeff Finn about the Commercial Property PowerSale, on www.nreionline.com.

NAI Pittsburgh Commercial is a locally owned and Pittsburgh proud commercial real estate brokerage. Click here for listings.