11/15/2023 | By John Cumbelich

The U.S. unemployment rate is now experiencing its 8th consecutive quarter below 4%, with national unemployment clocking in at 3.9% as Q4 of 2023 begins. Historically speaking, a phenomenon like this occurs about twice every century. Practically speaking, this means that the U.S. consumer ...

08/22/2023 | By John Cumbelich

Each era in retail real estate has its own cohort of catalytic anchor tenants and users around which new projects revolve.  I’m old enough to recall the then still-growing regional mall sector of the 1980’s, and the department store anchors who then ruled in ...

11/02/2022 | By John Cumbelich

As the sun begins to set on the withered stalk of another eventful year in commercial real estate, uncertainty prevails in Q4 of 2022 as forecasters ponder the direction that markets will take in 2023. Throughout 2021 and the first half of 2022, the same ...

08/11/2022 | By John Cumbelich

In the early days, I would take a listing on a retail center with one or two 1,200 SF vacancies, hoping to get leases signed at $1.00/SF per month with a Subway or Supercuts franchisee. That would result in a leasing commission of $6,000, ...

07/14/2022 | By John Cumbelich

Recently the Wall Street Journal published an article observing that if the US economy is in a recession, “it’s a very strange one” (July 4, 2022). Every recession over the past 80 years has been characterized by two consistent factors: increased unemployment and a ...

06/06/2022 | By John Cumbelich

Observers of world affairs are familiar with realpolitik – the term used to describe a system of principles based on practical rather than ideological considerations.  Radical changes in the US economy throughout the COVID pandemic provided a vivid illustration of what occurs in business ...

03/16/2022 | By John Cumbelich

The Ides of March was celebrated in ancient Rome on March 15th each year, as the deadline for settling debts.  As the commercial real estate industry continues to emerge from the punishing Covid pandemic, it too has genuinely begun to settle in this March ...

09/29/2021 | By John Cumbelich

Our firm just consummated our first-ever ground lease transaction with a restaurant brand that will build a triple-lane drive thru.  The design will allow the brand to accommodate over 50 vehicles in the drive thru stack at one time.  This next generation super-sized drive ...