Features

The complex projects encompass many moving parts and players. Keeping them all on the same page is crucial to success. If the whole mall redevelopment thing doesn’t work out, you can always become a marriage counselor. Perhaps some additional training and education would be needed for such a career transition to actually take place. But mall and shopping center owners who undertake high-risk redevelopments undoubtedly have firsthand appreciation of the importance of providing clear and courteous communication to the many different groups they deal with, from municipal leaders to longstanding …

Though construction headwinds persist, the potential of mixed-use projects motivates many developers to keep going. Some of today’s most successful projects can be described as a melting pot of sorts. That’s because they internalize the three Fs: flexible, financeable and functional — or, should we say, multi-functional. “Mixed-use concepts, in particular, seem to be the 401(k) of real estate development,” says Matt Silvers, vice president of Project Management Advisors in Austin, Texas. “They provide a bit of everything for everyone, including investors, and the mix of uses nicely hedges market …

Amid population and job growth, retailers see the Lone Star State an ideal territory for expansion. But tight conditions and high construction costs are creating challenges. The economic growth engine that is Texas continues to drive retail demand. With many major markets near full occupancy in urban and mature suburban neighborhoods, developers who launched grocery-anchored and other projects in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex as well as in and around Austin and Houston are well-positioned to take advantage of the fast-growing regions.  That’s especially true as the increasing cost of …

Food-and-beverage operators compete for coveted real estate in the Southeast.  Chicken and coffee are a somewhat unlikely, if alliterative, pair. In the Southeast though, they are currently linked by virtue of the so-called “Chicken and Coffee Wars.”  Previously, a similarly martial and poultry-centric moniker — The Chicken Sandwich Wars — described the fierce competition and marketing trends among fast food brands as they battled to create the best chicken sandwich — or at least the one with the best performance among consumers.  Now, amongst brokers in the Southeast region, Chicken …