Development of industrial and retail properties may remain stable or slow a bit in 2008, but five top officials of companies in those sectors say growth will be strong in Mexico this year as well as in Europe, China and Japan.The executives made their comments during a panel discussion this morning at Deutsche Bank\u2019s 2008 Real Estate Outlook Conference at The Grand Hyatt in New York City. Responding to questions from moderator Louis Taylor, Deutsche Bank managing director, and the audience were: Gene Reilly, president of AMB Property Co.; Michael Brennan, CEO of First Industrial Realty Trust; David Henry, vice chairman of Kimco Realty Corp.; Bill Sullivan, CFO of ProLogis; and Hap Stein, chairman & CEO of Regency Centers Corp. The session was available to the press only through a webcast.Sullivan noted that ProLogis, which owns, manages and develops distribution facilities, has operations in 20 countries across North American, Europe and Asia. \u201cWe\u2019re in great shape,\u201d he said. \u201cWe see strong demand outside the U.S. and stable demand in the U.S. It\u2019s a very strong way to go into (an economic) slowdown.\u201d Sullivan said new supply chains are being built from scratch in China and Eastern Europe and reconfigured in Western Europe and Japan. He noted that Japan has recently come out of a15-year recession where few new industrial properties were built.\u00a0 Western Europe is rebuilding obsolete supply centers to deal with the changing of the market from national-based to regional based. \u201cChina is just a huge growth story,\u201d he added.Henry of Kimco, a REIT that specializes in shopping center acquisitions, development and management, looked to Mexico to emerge as a huge growth story this year, particularly in retail where there is pent-up demand because there are only about 800 shopping centers compared to about 48,000 in the United States. Henry said big box retailers like Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Best Buy are opening stores in Mexico. \u201cWe have shifted some of our development there,\u201d he said, adding that he expected to see Kimco increase its developments in Mexico and decrease them in the States. Kimco is Mexico\u2019s largest owner of retail centers. As of the end of the third quarter in 2007, 20 of Kimco\u2019s 55 development projects were in Mexico.Reilly of AMB Property, a global developer and owner of industrial real estate, said the auto industry is particularly robust in Mexico, where he also noted the supply chain is being built from scratch.Brennan of First Industrial, a REIT that specializes in industrial properties for supply chains, pointed out that there will still be submarkets in the U.S. that will continue to have strong growth, specifically Phoenix, Houston, Central Florida and Harrisburg, Pa. \u201cThere were about 100 deals last year for over 500,000 square feet (in Pennsylvania),\u201d he said.Stein, who heads up Regency, which owns, manages and develops grocery-anchored and community shopping centers, said large retailers like Target already have their 2008 development plans done, but will plan fewer new stores when they start planning two to three years out. Both Stein and Henry noted their firms are generally protected because they don\u2019t build on spec and the properties are pre-leased. Still they admitted they plan to build in extra leasing time for projects in the U.S. while the economy shakes out. In general, Henry anticipated fewer mixed-used proposals in favor of pure retail plays when it comes to shopping center developments.All the developers said they have capital–in most cases, more than $1 billion–to fund new projects, in the U.S., Mexico and overseas.Reilly said AMB Property \u201cwas in good shape\u201d with about $2.5 billion in various funds, two of which he described as \u201clarge, open-ended funds.\u201dBrennan said First Industrial has \u201cabout $3.5 billion unused capacity in the U.S.\u201d as well as funds available for Europe and Canada. \u201cWe\u2019re not just about development. We\u2019re about acquisitions and redevelopment as well,\u201d he added.Sullivan said ProLogis recently opened four new funds and has at least $14 billion in fund capacity at this time.Stein said Regency expects to start at least $400 million to $600 million in developments this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Development of industrial and retail properties may remain stable or slow a bit in 2008, but five top officials of companies in those sectors say growth will be strong in Mexico this year as well as in Europe, China and Japan.The executives made their comments during a panel discussion this morning at Deutsche Bank\u2019s 2008…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37301],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003695142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n