Hot Commercial Property Worldwide

choi

Commercial property | Stores of Value; The rise of e-commerce has set off a boom in the market for warehouses. Economist, Aug 2, 2014.
www.economist.com/news/business/ ... houses-stores-value

Quote:

“the glamorous skyscrapers [in Manhattan] are no longer what most excites property investors. Instead, some are betting on a clump of nondescript, low-rise structures around the highway’s midpoint: warehouses that serve as ‘fulfilment centres’, dispatching orders for the surging online-retail business. The advent of e-commerce—which now accounts for 6.2% of all sales in America—has shaken up the commercial-property business almost as much as it has retailing. Real-estate funds have long relied on shopping centres [/ malls]

“China’s local governments, which control land use, were once reluctant to authorise new warehouses, because they generate little tax revenue. But they are realising that e-commerce warehouses create lots of jobs, and are now readier to give them planning permission.

“The property business is famously local, but one trend now looks universal: the blandest buildings offer the most exciting returns.

Note:
(a) “New Jersey Turnpike, which wends from the Philadelphia suburbs towards New York”

wend (vi, vt): "to direct one's course : TRAVEL"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wend

(b) “They [e-commerce warehouse] are much bigger than older types of warehouse: often more than 100,000 square metres (1.1m square feet, or 14 football pitches); and they have high ceilings to further increase their volume. At Dotcom Distribution’s cavernous New Jersey warehouse, pickers ride ‘reach trucks’ up to three storeys above ground to fetch 50,000 different products for 15 e-commerce clients.”
(i) pitch (n): "British  a playing field"
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/pitch
(ii) reach truck
(A) Some reach trucks put crates up the shelves (and move down to earth), while the operator sits on the ground. See
Keith Sarringer, Raymond's 7000 Series Reach-Fork Truck. YouTube.com, July 22, 2011.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YV_5HfhY8Q

Take notice both Reach-Fork (truck) and Swing-Reach (truck) ae registered trademarks of Raymond Corp. But they convey the concept how they work.
(B) But some reach truck do send humans up. See photographs and a video clip, seriatim.
* Raymond Model 9000 Series Swing-Reach Truck. Raymond Corp, undated
www.pengate.com/lift-trucks/swin ... -swing-reach-truck/

At the top horizontal bar, click TWO tags “OPTIONS” and “SPECS” for a photo each.
* SP Series Order Picker. Crown Equipment Corp, undated (video clip).
www.crown.com/usa/forklifts/stockpickers-sp-overview.html


(c) “These buildings have been rising at a staggering pace. Jones Lang LaSalle, a property-services firm, says that since 2012 the amount of industrial space (of which 75% is warehousing) used in America has grown at an annual rate of 14.5m square metres * * * In contrast, during the same period retail usage has risen by just 6m square metres a year * * * E-commerce accounts for a hefty chunk of this growth * * * for now, there is no sign of a glut [of e-commerce warehousing]. American industrial rents rose by 3.4% last year”
(i) I lived in Chicago while a graduate student there. So I wonder how the company got the name LaSalle, which is very unusual in US. It turns out that one of the two parents of the company has a Chicago root. I am sure the name LaSalle wa inspired by a noted street named LaSalle, in the financial district of Chicago.
(ii) Our History. Jones Lang LaSalle, undated
www.jll.com/about/our-history
("1999: In the largest international real estate industry merger to date, JLW [full name: Jones Lang Wootton & Sons; London-based] and LaSalle Partners join forces and form Jones Lang LaSalle")
(iii) LaSalle Partners
www.nndb.com/company/820/000126442/

LaSalle Investment Management is a subsidiary of Jones Lang LaSalle--the former’s website indicated.

(d) “Europe has around a fifth as much modern logistics space per person as America. * * * That forecast could prove conservative if continental Europeans follow the lead of the British and start buying their groceries digitally. Around 4% of food in Britain is now sold online, far above the average in both America and the EU. Tesco, Europe’s third-biggest online retailer, has already opened six ‘dark stores’ around London, just to handle home-delivery orders.”
(i) Tesco
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesco(section 1 History)
(ii) dark store
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_store

is another name for fulfillment center.