CoStar News continued to cover the biggest stories in commercial real estate in 2013.
Our award-winning journalists and analysts provided timely reporting and insightful views on the trends and transactions that shaped our industry throughout the year, with a particular focus on the expanding U.S. economic recovery and its impact on sales and leasing volume, rising property values and changes sweeping through the brokerage business.
As we close out the year, we checked our records and here are the stories you, our readers, considered to be the most interesting and newsworthy over the past 12 months.
1. Changing Office Trends Hold Major Implications for Future Demand
The news that attracted the most readers was one we published in March examining the impact of changing office trends on future demand. A related report looked at how older office buildings will compete in the new workplace. Both articles examined the longterm trends toward increased densification and more efficient use of space, greater integration with technology, and a shift among corporate space users toward more collaborative work spaces as well as the greater acceptance and even encouragement of remote access, all of which hold major implications for developers, investors and building owners.
2. Westfield Enters $13 Billion JV with OConnor Capital
Retail malls attracted outsized investor and reader interest in 2013, with Autrailia-based Westfield being among the most active sellers-and buyers-as it sold stakes in its US-owned properties to joint venture partners under a strategy to re- invest in a handful of faster-growing, high-yield markets. The firm sold minority stakes in six of its Florida malls to O’Connor Capital Partners and another seven U.S. shopping centers to an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group for$1.64 billion shortly before acquiring the remaining 50% interest in the World Trade Center retail premises for $800 million. Those followed Westfield’s sale of eight shopping centers for $1.15 billion, while entering into joint ventures covering an additional 12 assets with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in 2012.
3. 25 REITs Most Likely To Buy Your Property in 2013
Our story on the most active net buyers among REITs ( 25 REITs Most Likely To Buy Your Property in 2013) attracted many readers, as all types of investors, both public and private, kept up a torrid pace of acquisitions that extended into more secondary and tertiary markets.
4. Who’s Afraid of Social Media? CRE Growing Increasingly Comfortable, Sophisticated Using Online Networks
CoStar Senior News Editor Mark Heschmeyer also reported on commercial real estate’sgrowing acceptance and use of social media,, which would appear to be a natural fit for an industry focused on property marketing and networking.
5. Warren Buffett, JLL Buy Multifamily Brokerage Firms
Warren Buffett made a big splash last January when his Berkadia Commercial Mortgage acquired Hendricks & Partners, a national multifamily sales brokerage firm with 37 offices in the U.S. That same week, Jones Lang LaSalle expanded its multifamily brokerage operations in Texas by buying The Apartment Group, Ltd. in Dallas. Both acquisitions proved astute as sales of apartment properties sizzled throughout 2013. More recently, Buffett has been very active on the residential brokerage front, an affiliate of his Berkshire Hathaway investment firm backing a new brokerage network operated by HSF Affiliates LLC that has been rolling up Prudential real estate affiliates across the country.
Here are links to the rest of the most-read CoStar News stories for 2013:
6. Wal-Mart, Target Roll Out Smaller Urban Store Formats to Do Battle with Dollar, Drug Store Rivals
8. How Far Will Wall Street Buy Into Single-Family Rental Craze?
9. Apartment Rent Growth Expected To Decelerate in Top Markets Ahead of New Supply Wave
10. CRE Sales Surge In 2012 As Pricing Recovery Spreads To More Markets
11. Big-Name Developers, Investors Boomerang Back Into Condos
12. Industrial Real Estate Investors Lining Up to Tap Improving Warehouse Market
13. Real Estate Firm Seizes On New Opportunity to Expand Access to Investors
14. Recovering Office Demand Sets Stage For Rent Growth Across The U.S.
15. Global Economy, Tech Demands Reshaping Skillsets of CRE Brokers
16. Office Demand Still Catching Up With Job, Business Growth
17. Cerberus’ $3.3 Billion Deal for 877 Grocery Stores Could Mean More Store Closings
18. CRE Liquidity: Too Much, Too Little or Just Right?
19. BioMed Realty Buying 1.62 MSF in $640 Million Deal for Wexford Life Science Portfolio
20. How Will Older Office Buildings Compete in the New Workplace?