EXCERPT from Jacksonville Business Journal:
In Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (NYSE: JLL)'s summer multifamily outlook, Jacksonville tops several of JLL's indicator lists. The report acknowledges what First Coast brokers have been saying for months — as prices rise and yields compress in primary markets, investors are turning their attention and money to secondary markets. Jacksonville, along with Las Vegas, Denver and Orlando have experienced the largest rise in investor demand, according to JLL.
More than 10 percent of Jacksonville's total inventory of apartment units have been sold in the last year, according to JLL, which is second only to New York. But that activity is only going to continue to pick up in the coming months, as JLL has placed Jacksonville at the very beginning of a rising market. JLL ranked Jacksonville fifth out of more than 30 markets in investor interest.
http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2013/08/07/expect-more-jacksonville-apartments-to.html
Read this yesterday with some surprise, usually I don't consider Jax at the forefront of anything. But it is nice to see, and being that Strand has been out up for sale maybe they'll attract a buyer sooner rather than later. Do hotels fit into this category? There seems to be a high number of hotels in Jax for sale, but that may be the cas everywhere idk.
Know what JayBird, I think people are beginning to realize the amazing environment Jacksonville is. From the access to our beaches, to our marshes and deep growth forests not to mention our year round weather and low cost of living. I do believe investors are waking up to that fact. :)
^ you may be right, and that is the best news of all.
I bought multifamily rentals here because the market was ridiculously soft and I could net in excess of 10%. If I were stationed basically anywhere else, I would not have been able to afford what I got.
These investors are looking for project level return to balance out their incredibly low yield portfolios. A REIT can't increase its earnings by buying only stable low to no yield deals in the top 5-10 markets (especially nowadays), so with that safety (arguably, though interest rates could kill them) they need cheaper, riskier, higher return deals in secondary and tertiary markets (which is what I would call Jacksonville, Atlanta and Charlotte are secondary markets). Or something like that. All of these REITs follow indexes ranging from NCREIF to multifamily specific indexes. They don't want to trail too far or exceed too significantly, so it's a balancing act.
From a similar investors' perspective (although right now we don't invest in multifamily at all...we are managing our legacy development deals, one being in Jacksonville area and others in SE), Jacksonville is not a bright market. Atlanta is not a bright market. Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, DC, Los Angeles, Denver, and Dallas are (or were depending on your thoughts on overbuilding) the bright markets that are seeing the job growth and the income growth that lead to sustainable new development.
In terms of building, Jacksonville still is very far from its water mark and I don't think is even on par with the T10 year average (units delivered/year in metro). The difference is in concentration, with almost all new units being delivered in a 5 square mile area on the SS. A Jacksonville multifamily acquisition in a core submarket (SS) is like a cheaper Atlanta acquisition - the risk profile could be similar, rent growth could be similar, and your going in cap rate will be priced lower relative to the kind of financing you can achieve in the market, so your yields could be strong in good years and your overall return could be good depending on timing (though it'd take ten 250 unit Jax deals to throw off the same kind of cash as 1-2 150 unit SF deals, so deal volume is necessary - which is why for instance Prudential's Atlanta office covers FL-VA-AZ-CO, and Prudential's SF office covers CA only). I wouldn't get one's hopes up that this article means Jacksonville is now being seen as a "hot spot" to invest in, or that investors are excited about the market. It's spillover 2 tiers down (core - secondary - select tertiary).
Quote from: simms3 on August 08, 2013, 10:41:07 PM
These investors are looking for project level return to balance out their incredibly low yield portfolios. A REIT can't increase its earnings by buying only stable low to no yield deals in the top 5-10 markets (especially nowadays), so with that safety (arguably, though interest rates could kill them) they need cheaper, riskier, higher return deals in secondary and tertiary markets (which is what I would call Jacksonville, Atlanta and Charlotte are secondary markets). Or something like that. All of these REITs follow indexes ranging from NCREIF to multifamily specific indexes. They don't want to trail too far or exceed too significantly, so it's a balancing act.
From a similar investors' perspective (although right now we don't invest in multifamily at all...we are managing our legacy development deals, one being in Jacksonville area and others in SE), Jacksonville is not a bright market. Atlanta is not a bright market. Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, DC, Los Angeles, Denver, and Dallas are (or were depending on your thoughts on overbuilding) the bright markets that are seeing the job growth and the income growth that lead to sustainable new development.
In terms of building, Jacksonville still is very far from its water mark and I don't think is even on par with the T10 year average (units delivered/year in metro). The difference is in concentration, with almost all new units being delivered in a 5 square mile area on the SS. A Jacksonville multifamily acquisition in a core submarket (SS) is like a cheaper Atlanta acquisition - the risk profile could be similar, rent growth could be similar, and your going in cap rate will be priced lower relative to the kind of financing you can achieve in the market, so your yields could be strong in good years and your overall return could be good depending on timing (though it'd take ten 250 unit Jax deals to throw off the same kind of cash as 1-2 150 unit SF deals, so deal volume is necessary - which is why for instance Prudential's Atlanta office covers FL-VA-AZ-CO, and Prudential's SF office covers CA only). I wouldn't get one's hopes up that this article means Jacksonville is now being seen as a "hot spot" to invest in, or that investors are excited about the market. It's spillover 2 tiers down (core - secondary - select tertiary).
Blah Blah Blah..... Jacksonville sucks ..... Blah Blah Blah
All I read was "Jacksonville is an average to below-average mid tier US multifamily real estate market" Seems like a pretty solid conclusion to me.
Quote from: Cheshire Cat on August 08, 2013, 06:42:51 PM
Know what JayBird, I think people are beginning to realize the amazing environment Jacksonville is. From the access to our beaches, to our marshes and deep growth forests not to mention our year round weather and low cost of living. I do believe investors are waking up to that fact. :)
In not so many words as Simms, I don't think the institutional funds care as much about that QOL and weather. They are mainly looking at risk and return. However, maybe the city is gaining enough of an identity that we are starting to attract attention on the national level. Our quaint little hamlet on the NEFL coast is finally getting national awareness.
QuoteNews / Metro
Tennessee-based ministry working with Jacksonville churches to improve quality of life at low-income apartments
Posted: August 8, 2013 - 5:23pm | Updated: August 9, 2013 - 7:16am
BOB SELF/The Times-Union
By Matt Soergel
A Tennessee-based Christian ministry that works around the world has bought seven HUD-subsidized apartment complexes across Jacksonville, including a couple of the city's most troubled.
The Rev. Richard Hamlet, CEO of Global Ministries Fellowship in Cordova, Tenn., said the purchases are part of the group's mission to help those in need, wherever they are.
"We wouldn't be doing this if it were not part of our outreach," he said. "We believe that the physical and material is on parity in many ways with the spiritual."
The group spent almost $30 million, Hamlet said, in the purchase and initial renovations of the Jacksonville apartment buildings.
It now owns 836 units in Jacksonville, including crime-ridden properties such as Washington Heights in northwest Jacksonville and the two Eureka Garden complexes on the Westside.
Renovations are in store for all the properties, Hamlet said, and the group is also recruiting more local churches to work on projects there.
"It became clear we needed to work with partnering churches to reach lower-income parts of society, just like we're doing around the world," he said.
There are, however, no religious requirements for those whom the group helps, he said: "We don't compromise our Christian convictions — we are who we are — but we reach out to everybody."
The ministry bought the properties from BMLRW, LLC, closing on the deal in December. The other complexes are Southside Apartments, Market Street Apartments, Moncrief Village Apartments and four smaller buildings in Springfield that are run as one operation.
Helen Watson is a social worker at Washington Heights, running a community center that has computers, classes, meeting spaces and a playground. She was there under the old owners and has stayed with the new.
She said she's encouraged by the involvement of Hamlet's group, which she hopes will get residents out of subsidized housing and into jobs and the larger community. "He's willing to do what it takes," she said. "This is a steppingstone; it isn't meant to be a stopping place, but a transition."
Sierra Yates, a resident for three years, was at one of the computers in the community center one recent day, looking for a job. She's 24, a voracious reader who likes Sherlock Holmes and James Patterson.
She has a 10-year-old son, Jamari, who wants to be a veterinarian. She wants to get out of Washington Heights before peer pressure and low expectations drive that ambition out of him.
"I don't want him to think this is the life he's confined to," Yates said. "I'm already a statistic: I had a child at a young age. Black female. That's a statistic."
The new owners put up security cameras and improved some streets in the complex, she said, but it's still far from ideal.
The walls are thin, there's no air-conditioning, and too many residents get complacent and just stick around for the cheap rent, Yates said. "I'm sick of sitting here. I'm sick of looking at the same people. Sick of the apartment."
Getting out, though, means a job — any job. Yates was waiting for a call back on a cafeteria job, and has dreams of being a pastry chef one day.
The help of churches is crucial to residents at Washington Heights.
Faye Rambo is organizer of a church-funded program to get high-school equivalency degrees for those who commit to the work. She's a member of First Baptist Church, one of several churches with a presence at the complex.
First Baptist members have also had summer programs for Washington Heights' children, built new playground equipment, conducted life-skills classes and added landscaping.
Rambo said she's noticed more cooperation from the new owners. Yet the challenges facing residents — poverty and violence among them — are often overwhelming, she said. "They work really hard but there are these setbacks and we have to start again."
Since taking over the properties in December, Global Ministries Fellowship remains largely an unknown to many in the community.
Shannon Nazworth, executive director of the nonprofit Ability Housing of Northeast Florida, said she knows little about them, but knows something of the challenge that the group faces.
Ability has renovated two apartment complexes targeted at homeless or low-income people. It's currently rehabbing its first HUD-assisted property, Oakland Terrace on the Eastside.
"God bless them, we need them," she said. "It can be challenging, but it's very rewarding as well," Nazworth said. "It can bring down crime, bring up property values. We've done that, but it takes a lot of work, takes a lot of commitment."
Warren Jones, city councilman for District 9, which takes in Eureka Garden, said he'd like to have his first meeting with the new owners after checking in with residents to see how they are doing. "I have heard there have been some good things going on," he said.
Mark Griffin is pastor of Wayman Ministries, which has long had an outreach program at Eureka Garden. He's still learning about Global Ministries Fellowship but is optimistic.
"I am expecting great things out of them. I do think the change in ownership is, in and of itself, great news. It needed that change."
Eureka Garden has been plagued by crime for years but seems to have gotten a little quieter, Griffin said.
"I don't hear as much coming out of there," he said. "But it really couldn't get much worse." In 2007 there were seven homicides at Eureka Garden, an annual high; the last one reported there was in August 2011.
Hamlet became a Baptist minister 16 years ago. Before that, he was a developer and investment banker working in the world of low-income housing. Six years ago, the ministry he heads made its first subsidized-housing acquisition, in Indianapolis. It now has 38 properties — about 8,000 units in all — in six states, mostly in the Southeast.
Global Ministries Fellowships is a nonprofit. But Hamlet said the HUD-assisted complexes are run like a business, but with any profits put back into them. He's raised more than $400 million in long-term housing revenue bonds purchased by institutional investors, he said, to buy the 38 properties.
He'd consider expanding in Jacksonville, but said he wants to focus first on the seven properties Global Ministries Fellowship owns already.
"They can be transformational, one person at a time," Hamlet said. "But we're not naive — it's going to be a hard process."
matt.soergel@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4082
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-08-08/story/tennessee-based-ministry-working-jacksonville-churches-improve-quality#ixzz2bTVqZ1eA
Quote from: sheclown on August 09, 2013, 08:42:10 AM
QuoteNews / Metro
Does anyone know if these will be owner managed or who they have chosen as management agent?
Quote from: stephendare on August 09, 2013, 10:37:41 AM
Quote from: HangingMoth on August 09, 2013, 12:33:43 AM
Quote from: simms3 on August 08, 2013, 10:41:07 PM
These investors are looking for project level return to balance out their incredibly low yield portfolios. A REIT can't increase its earnings by buying only stable low to no yield deals in the top 5-10 markets (especially nowadays), so with that safety (arguably, though interest rates could kill them) they need cheaper, riskier, higher return deals in secondary and tertiary markets (which is what I would call Jacksonville, Atlanta and Charlotte are secondary markets). Or something like that. All of these REITs follow indexes ranging from NCREIF to multifamily specific indexes. They don't want to trail too far or exceed too significantly, so it's a balancing act.
From a similar investors' perspective (although right now we don't invest in multifamily at all...we are managing our legacy development deals, one being in Jacksonville area and others in SE), Jacksonville is not a bright market. Atlanta is not a bright market. Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, DC, Los Angeles, Denver, and Dallas are (or were depending on your thoughts on overbuilding) the bright markets that are seeing the job growth and the income growth that lead to sustainable new development.
In terms of building, Jacksonville still is very far from its water mark and I don't think is even on par with the T10 year average (units delivered/year in metro). The difference is in concentration, with almost all new units being delivered in a 5 square mile area on the SS. A Jacksonville multifamily acquisition in a core submarket (SS) is like a cheaper Atlanta acquisition - the risk profile could be similar, rent growth could be similar, and your going in cap rate will be priced lower relative to the kind of financing you can achieve in the market, so your yields could be strong in good years and your overall return could be good depending on timing (though it'd take ten 250 unit Jax deals to throw off the same kind of cash as 1-2 150 unit SF deals, so deal volume is necessary - which is why for instance Prudential's Atlanta office covers FL-VA-AZ-CO, and Prudential's SF office covers CA only). I wouldn't get one's hopes up that this article means Jacksonville is now being seen as a "hot spot" to invest in, or that investors are excited about the market. It's spillover 2 tiers down (core - secondary - select tertiary).
Blah Blah Blah..... Jacksonville sucks ..... Blah Blah Blah
Actually Hanging Moth, Simms is one of the more informed professionals on the site. This is his hometown and if you bother looking at his posting history, you would see how far off the mark you are.
Just because the reality of something is unflattering or falls short of your hopes, doesnt mean that reality is bad. And you can't ever get anywhere if you don't actually know where you really are to start with.
I know that was a silly comment and some misplaced frustration. In my own experience I have come across many people who tend to down play and thumb their nose at anything positive that comes out of Jax. Simms is obviously very bright and well educated. Maybe one day he could move back to Jax and put his talents to good use in his hometown.
Quote from: sheclown on August 09, 2013, 08:42:10 AM
QuoteNews / Metro
Tennessee-based ministry working with Jacksonville churches to improve quality of life at low-income apartments
Posted: August 8, 2013 - 5:23pm | Updated: August 9, 2013 - 7:16am
BOB SELF/The Times-Union
By Matt Soergel
A Tennessee-based Christian ministry that works around the world has bought seven HUD-subsidized apartment complexes across Jacksonville, including a couple of the city's most troubled.
The Rev. Richard Hamlet, CEO of Global Ministries Fellowship in Cordova, Tenn., said the purchases are part of the group's mission to help those in need, wherever they are.
"We wouldn't be doing this if it were not part of our outreach," he said. "We believe that the physical and material is on parity in many ways with the spiritual."
The group spent almost $30 million, Hamlet said, in the purchase and initial renovations of the Jacksonville apartment buildings.
It now owns 836 units in Jacksonville, including crime-ridden properties such as Washington Heights in northwest Jacksonville and the two Eureka Garden complexes on the Westside.
Renovations are in store for all the properties, Hamlet said, and the group is also recruiting more local churches to work on projects there.
"It became clear we needed to work with partnering churches to reach lower-income parts of society, just like we're doing around the world," he said.
There are, however, no religious requirements for those whom the group helps, he said: "We don't compromise our Christian convictions — we are who we are — but we reach out to everybody."
The ministry bought the properties from BMLRW, LLC, closing on the deal in December. The other complexes are Southside Apartments, Market Street Apartments, Moncrief Village Apartments and four smaller buildings in Springfield that are run as one operation.
Helen Watson is a social worker at Washington Heights, running a community center that has computers, classes, meeting spaces and a playground. She was there under the old owners and has stayed with the new.
She said she's encouraged by the involvement of Hamlet's group, which she hopes will get residents out of subsidized housing and into jobs and the larger community. "He's willing to do what it takes," she said. "This is a steppingstone; it isn't meant to be a stopping place, but a transition."
Sierra Yates, a resident for three years, was at one of the computers in the community center one recent day, looking for a job. She's 24, a voracious reader who likes Sherlock Holmes and James Patterson.
She has a 10-year-old son, Jamari, who wants to be a veterinarian. She wants to get out of Washington Heights before peer pressure and low expectations drive that ambition out of him.
"I don't want him to think this is the life he's confined to," Yates said. "I'm already a statistic: I had a child at a young age. Black female. That's a statistic."
The new owners put up security cameras and improved some streets in the complex, she said, but it's still far from ideal.
The walls are thin, there's no air-conditioning, and too many residents get complacent and just stick around for the cheap rent, Yates said. "I'm sick of sitting here. I'm sick of looking at the same people. Sick of the apartment."
Getting out, though, means a job — any job. Yates was waiting for a call back on a cafeteria job, and has dreams of being a pastry chef one day.
The help of churches is crucial to residents at Washington Heights.
Faye Rambo is organizer of a church-funded program to get high-school equivalency degrees for those who commit to the work. She's a member of First Baptist Church, one of several churches with a presence at the complex.
First Baptist members have also had summer programs for Washington Heights' children, built new playground equipment, conducted life-skills classes and added landscaping.
Rambo said she's noticed more cooperation from the new owners. Yet the challenges facing residents — poverty and violence among them — are often overwhelming, she said. "They work really hard but there are these setbacks and we have to start again."
Since taking over the properties in December, Global Ministries Fellowship remains largely an unknown to many in the community.
Shannon Nazworth, executive director of the nonprofit Ability Housing of Northeast Florida, said she knows little about them, but knows something of the challenge that the group faces.
Ability has renovated two apartment complexes targeted at homeless or low-income people. It's currently rehabbing its first HUD-assisted property, Oakland Terrace on the Eastside.
"God bless them, we need them," she said. "It can be challenging, but it's very rewarding as well," Nazworth said. "It can bring down crime, bring up property values. We've done that, but it takes a lot of work, takes a lot of commitment."
Warren Jones, city councilman for District 9, which takes in Eureka Garden, said he'd like to have his first meeting with the new owners after checking in with residents to see how they are doing. "I have heard there have been some good things going on," he said.
Mark Griffin is pastor of Wayman Ministries, which has long had an outreach program at Eureka Garden. He's still learning about Global Ministries Fellowship but is optimistic.
"I am expecting great things out of them. I do think the change in ownership is, in and of itself, great news. It needed that change."
Eureka Garden has been plagued by crime for years but seems to have gotten a little quieter, Griffin said.
"I don't hear as much coming out of there," he said. "But it really couldn't get much worse." In 2007 there were seven homicides at Eureka Garden, an annual high; the last one reported there was in August 2011.
Hamlet became a Baptist minister 16 years ago. Before that, he was a developer and investment banker working in the world of low-income housing. Six years ago, the ministry he heads made its first subsidized-housing acquisition, in Indianapolis. It now has 38 properties — about 8,000 units in all — in six states, mostly in the Southeast.
Global Ministries Fellowships is a nonprofit. But Hamlet said the HUD-assisted complexes are run like a business, but with any profits put back into them. He's raised more than $400 million in long-term housing revenue bonds purchased by institutional investors, he said, to buy the 38 properties.
He'd consider expanding in Jacksonville, but said he wants to focus first on the seven properties Global Ministries Fellowship owns already.
"They can be transformational, one person at a time," Hamlet said. "But we're not naive — it's going to be a hard process."
matt.soergel@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4082
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-08-08/story/tennessee-based-ministry-working-jacksonville-churches-improve-quality#ixzz2bTVqZ1eA
Gloria I saw this article too. I think it may be worth creating a separate thread for. Looks like this group has taken on some of the most difficult housing in our city. Eureka Gardens is quite a hotbed of crime. I hope good things come of this.
As an update, the STRAND located downtown has been sold, apparently for more than some would've thought for Jacksonville.
QuoteDowntown apartment tower sold for $53.3 million
Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Jacksonville Business Journal
Date: Monday, October 21, 2013, 2:58pm EDT
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The Strand, the apartment tower on Jacksonville's Southbank, has been sold for $53.3 million to a Miami condominium developer.
Crescent Heights paid $180,677 per apartment for the 295-unit tower, according to a Duval County deed recorded Monday. That's well above what any other apartment community has sold for, but there haven't been any other comparable properties — vertical towers — sold in recent years.
For more, jump to JBJ here: http://m.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2013/10/21/downtown-apartment-tower-sold-for.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2013-10-21&r=full (http://m.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2013/10/21/downtown-apartment-tower-sold-for.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2013-10-21&r=full)
Quote from: JayBird on October 21, 2013, 03:22:29 PM
As an update, the STRAND located downtown has been sold, apparently for more than some would've thought for Jacksonville.
QuoteDowntown apartment tower sold for $53.3 million
Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Jacksonville Business Journal
Date: Monday, October 21, 2013, 2:58pm EDT
Share via Facebook
Share via Twitter
Share via LinkedIn
Share via Email
The Strand, the apartment tower on Jacksonville's Southbank, has been sold for $53.3 million to a Miami condominium developer.
Crescent Heights paid $180,677 per apartment for the 295-unit tower, according to a Duval County deed recorded Monday. That's well above what any other apartment community has sold for, but there haven't been any other comparable properties — vertical towers — sold in recent years.
For more, jump to JBJ here: http://m.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2013/10/21/downtown-apartment-tower-sold-for.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2013-10-21&r=full (http://m.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2013/10/21/downtown-apartment-tower-sold-for.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2013-10-21&r=full)
Wow, sounds like good news to me. :)
A bit more detail on The Strand.
http://jacksonville.com/business/2013-10-21/story/sale-strand-brings-record-price-apartment