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On Monday, July 27, 2009 a group from Commerce CRG spent the evening at a Bees game with 11 of our nation's veterans from the VA Nursing Home. Everyone had an enjoyable evening cheering, watching the game and spending one-on-one time with each other. We would like to thank Spring Mobile Ball Park for their generous donation of tickets. To volunteer at the VA Hospital in Salt Lake City, visit http://www.saltlakecity.va.gov/volunteer.asp.
July 27, 2009, Salt Lake City, UT - Vangent, a leading global provider of information management and strategic business process outsourcing solutions, has selected a Sandy facility as one of its three national locations for a 2010 Census call center. Plans are to staff it with 1,200 local part time and full time employees, to be hired early next year.
Vangent, Inc. is a global provider of consulting, systems integration, human capital management, and business process outsourcing services to the U.S. Federal and international governments, higher education institutions, and corporations. Vangent's more than 7,000 employees support clients including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the U.S. Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor; and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, as well as Fortune 500 companies. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, the company has offices throughout the U.S. and in the U.K., Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, and Argentina. For more information, visit www.vangent.com.
The apartment vacancy rate in Salt Lake County at mid-year 2009 was 7.2 percent, a significant increase over the 4.6 percent rate reported at mid-year 2008. The recession and job losses have made for a very difficult rental market. Employment in Salt Lake County is down over 20,000 jobs in the past year. Managers report that job losses have been the principal cause of higher vacancy rates. Salt Lake County has 98,000 renter households. If 4,000 of these households lose their jobs - not unlikely given the level of job loss - and move back with family or friends, the vacancy rate rises by four percent.
Read the entire report - visist our website, www.commercecrg.com
Eighteen months ago, it would have been hard to imagine that
I would be pleased with an eight percent decline in revenue from Q1 2008 to Q1
2009. But, 18 months later, when that
was the report for the Provo/Orem office, I definitely was pleased.
Read the full report.
Download CCRG Enterprise July 2009
Jon Anderson is
Partner & Principal Broker of the Provo/Orem Commerce CRG office.
He can be reached at
801.377.2400 or janderson@commercecrg.com.
Reproduced with permission of The Enterprise, Utah's business journal, www.slenterprise.com.
Take a look at the "lighter side" of commercial real estate.
Visit Transactions Q2
Below are only highlights of the Salt Lake market. For further information and details on the Salt Lake, Summit, Weber, Davis, Utah, and Washington Counties.
Read the full 2009 Mid-Year Market Review. Visit www.commercecrg.com.
DETAILS BY SALT LAKE REAL ESTATE SECTOR
Office market vacancy has continued in the upward trend established last year. Direct vacancy increased to 13.6 percent at mid-year 2009, a 20.5 percent jump from the comparable period 12 months ago. The pendulum is swinging towards a tenant-driven market.
Although retail activity in the Salt Lake area slowed considerably during the first six months of 2009, the market continues to outperform most national peers. Total market vacancy edged upward, due primarily to store closures undertaken by national retail chains. Vacancy increased from 8.31 to 8.50 percent over the past six months, as troubled retailers shuttered stores in Utah along with the rest of the country. Developers have judiciously reigned in new retail construction. Many cities have banked on new retail development as a ready means of additional revenue. The decline in construction, along with a sharp reduction in proceeds generated by retail sales taxes, is contributing to mandatory budget cutbacks and will likely lead to increased fees and taxes.
Discount retailers and those perceived to provide solid value will outshine other categories.
Widespread closures by national retail chains have begun to slow. The wave of nationwide closures by tenants such as Linens ‘N Things, Mervyn’s, Steve & Barry’s, Harold’s and Bally Fitness appears to be abating.
The apartment vacancy rate in Salt Lake County at mid-year 2009 was 7.2 percent, a significant increase over the 4.6 percent rate reported at mid-year 2008. The recession and job losses have made for a very difficult rental market. Managers report that job losses have been the principal cause of higher vacancy rates. Salt Lake County has 98,000 renter households. If 4,000 of these households lose their jobs—not unlikely given the level of job loss—and move back with family or friends, the vacancy rate rises by four percent.
Job losses are expected throughout the rest of 2009 and the local economy will not see much in the way of a recovery until well into 2010. In addition there are several new apartment projects planned in Salt Lake County which will add to the supply of rental units and competition.
The lease market for industrial properties has fallen dramatically this year. While a slowdown in industrial activity had been anticipated, the scale of the decline is much greater than expected. When it comes to sales of industrial properties, there have been improvements over the past six months, much better than in 2008 when sales were the worst in a decade. Construction of industrial properties has come to a near standstill.
Industrial vacancy will increase through the remainder of 2009. Corporate restructuring and scalebacks by national and regional tenants will impact Utah, as several large users have indicated their intent to shutter or greatly reduce the size of their operations in the state.
The investment market has continued to decline. A decline in property values persisted during the first six months of 2009. The number of completed investment sales transactions is down by 48 percent, spanning all types of commercial properties. A corresponding decline in sales volume has been even more dramatic, with year-to-date sales representing a 60 percent drop from the same period in 2008. The dearth of financing opportunities continues to exert a stranglehold on investment activity. Banks and other lenders are taking extraordinary measures to forestall the day of reckoning; writing extensions, negotiating with tenants and extending contracts on a month-to-month basis.
Utah is better positioned than peer markets to weather the current economic storm. Continued turmoil among lenders is likely to spur further declines in commercial real estate investment activity in 2009.
The most recent forecast for the Utah economy shows a bottom established in 2009 with some signs of growth in 2010. However, in terms of economic performance, 2009 will be the single worst year in Utah's post World War II economic history.
Read the full report
Download Utah Economy 055 June 2009
This map, for the month of June 2009, displays incoming calls to Commerce CRG from across the US and Canada. These geographic areas indicate interest in Utah and Nevada. Click on the below link to download the map.
Commerce CRG Mapping/GIS Group
The Business of Location
http://local.commercecrg.com/Mapping/Maps/PhoneCalls/6-09/IncomingCalls.pdf
Timely, relevant updates and reports on the economy and commercial real estate world, with focus on the Utah, Nevada and Washington markets.
