Lancaster PA Commercial Real Estate

Morningstar analyst Todd Lukasik expects a flurry of purchase activity in the commercial real estate space, starting now and then intensifying in 2011 and 2012.

It’s not so much that the commercial real estate market is healthy, but rather that there will be massive amounts of distressed properties as many property owners’ untenable debt burdens come debt.

Central Pennsylvania Business Journal reports that a Texas real estate management and development company has its sights set on more Central Pennsylvania warehouse acquisitions, an executive said today.
Dallas-based Hillwood Investment Properties is actively surveying the market to add smaller vacant warehouses to its midstate portfolio, Senior Vice President Gary Frederick said. “It’s a very stable and consistent distribution market because of its proximity to most of the northeast population,” he said.

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Cedar Shopping Centers Inc. said on Tuesday it has entered a joint-venture agreement to purchase a shopping center in Berks County for $53 million.

The 361,000-square-foot Exeter Commons occupies 37 acres in Exeter Township. Construction was completed in 2009.

The agreement is a joint venture between Cedar and RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, a Canadian firm. The deal, which is expected to close by Aug. 1, involves New York-based Cedar as the manager of the property.

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John Thiry provides the Lancaster, PA commercial listing brochure as a courtesy to his clients:

Lancaster PA commercial listings – 2010 Spring

Financing Terms for Borrowers Ease as Lenders Return

Apr 19, 2010 – CRE News

Lenders are returning to the commercial mortgage market, dropping their requirements for borrowers and their targets for returns along the way.

While trophy properties in major markets are seeing most of the increased lender interest, assets in secondary markets are also attracting stronger interest, according to mortgage intermediaries.

Traditional lenders, such as banks, life insurance companies and CMBS lenders, have increased by 5 percentage points the amount of leverage they’re willing to provide for properties to 60-70% for 10-year loans and by 10 percentage points to 65-70% for five-year loans, according to Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman.

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Fitch Sees Cumulative CMBS Defaults Hitting 11% This Year

Loopnet reports from – CRE News:

The cumulative default rate for CMBS conduit loans is projected by Fitch Ratings to climb to 11% by the end of the year from 6.59% at the end of last year.

Through the end of last year, $35.5B of loans in Fitch’s universe of $539B of fixed-rate CMBS loans had defaulted. Last year alone, $17.7B of loans were added to the rolls of defaulted mortgages, with $6B of that being added in the fourth quarter.

In contrast, $17.7B of loans had defaulted between the market’s inception in the early 1990s through 2008.

Fitch said that it expected another 4.4% of the universe it tracks to default by the end of this year, bringing cumulative defaults up to its projected 11% level.

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Mark Heschmeyer of CoStar reports that: “Distressed CRE Assets Jump 15% at Nation’s Banks”

The amount of distressed commercial real estate assets on the books of the nation’s banks and thrifts approached $60 billion as of year-end 2009. That is up from $52 billion just three months earlier, a 15% increase.  The $59.9 billion includes loans on multifamily and nonresidential income producing-properties that were 90 or more days past due, or in nonaccrual or foreclosure status.

Read the entire report at Distressed CRE Assets Jump 15% at Nation’s Banks – CoStar Group.