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AUGUST 2024 VOLUME36 ISSUE5 CRE MARKETPLACE PAGE 48:
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Stable? Steady? That’s a good combination for Cleveland’s commercial real estate market By Dan Rafter, Editor
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
table. Resilient. And steady. That is how commercial real estate professionals describe Cleveland’s CRE market today, even when faced with the challenges of higher interest rates, the work-from-home movement and a slowdown in investment sales activity.
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“Everyone was hoping that the Fed would lower interest rates,” Malinowski said. “The thing that we are seeing in 2024 that we didn’t see last year is that in 2023 everyone felt that the Feds were going to make a change. This year has brought the new reality that interest rates will most likely stay where they are at.”
And that resiliency? It’s not a new feature for Cleveland. The CRE pros Midwest Real Estate News spoke with agreed that Cleveland’s commercial real estate market has long benefitted from developers who don’t overbuild and lenders who don’t make unwise loans.
And where rates are at? Malinowski said that it isn’t necessarily a bad place. The low interest rates that the country saw during the COVID years were the exception. Today’s interest rates aren’t too far off from where they were before 2020.
Kevin Malinowski, executive managing director with the Cleveland office of Colliers, said that higher interest rates have impacted Cleveland much like they have all markets: They’ve slowed investment sales and mostly halted new development in the city and its nearby suburbs.
“People are hopeful that the Fed will drop its interest rate. But when they do that, it creates an artificial environment,” Malinowski said. “To say that rates are high today isn’t quite right in my opinion. It’s about getting back to a more normal environment.”
This is slowly changing, though, Malinowski said. Developers and investors are slowly getting used to today’s rate environment. They are gradually accepting the new normal of doing business.
Grant Fitzgerald, vice president and regional manager with the Cleveland office of Marcus & Millichap, agreed that Cleveland’s commercial real estate market has
DETROIT Detroit’s resiliency in full effect as local CRE market remains healthy By Dan Rafter, Editor
It wasn’t too long ago that the news coming out of Detroit was always negative. Today, though? There’s plenty of positivity surrounding Detroit, its suburbs and the region’s commercial real estate market. That’s largely because the Detroit real estate market has proven to be remarkably resilient, even as high interest rates throw challenges its way. Just ask the commercial real estate pros working this Midwest market.
CLEVELAND (continued on page 20) DETROIT (continued on page 24)