Corfac News

23 102013

CORFAC Brokers from our Southern Affiliates met yesterday to discuss trends and business in their markets.  There were a couple of overarching trends.

Severl markets are seeing downtown office buildings being converted to condos.  This was actually discussed in an article on www.costar.com yesterday – Didn’t That Used to Be an Office Building? CORFAC brokers are seeing the need for more condos downtown, as people want to live closer to work.  This is also leading to the introduction of grocery stores in downtown areas, where there have typically been convenience stores.  As downtown areas have more residential areas, commercial real estate is being used differently.

CORFAC Affiliates are also seeing banks merge or limit their number of branches.  NBC News covered this trend earlier this month – Small towns struggle as bank branches disappear.  This is happening in small towns and big cities alike as banks shift their business models. According to NBC, “For three years, banks have been closing more branches than they’ve opened, shutting down more than 2,500 in 2012 alone.”  That’s a big change in commercial real estate needs for such a large industry.

The group also discussed a number of companies that are expanding in CORFAC markets…in order to find out that info, members have to attend the regional conference calls!  See a schedule and sign up here: http://www.corfac.com/events-list.cfm.

What changes are you seeing in your market?

Locally Owned. Globally Connected

CORFAC International is comprised of privately held entrepreneurial firms with expertise in office, industrial and retail brokerage, tenant and landlord representation, investment sales, multifamily, self-storage, acquisitions and dispositions, property management and corporate services. Founded in 1989, CORFAC has 49 offices in the U.S., 5 in Canada and 17 in international markets, including Australia, Colombia, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. CORFAC offices completed more than 10,000 lease and sales transactions totaling 620 million square feet of space valued in excess of $8.2 billion in 2018.