StreetLights Residential Opens The Louise in Arlington

StreetLights Residential, a Dallas-based national design-driven developer of multifamily and mixed-use communities, has completed The Louise, the second phase of the luxury multifamily community within Viridian. Located conveniently between Dallas and Fort Worth, the master-planned community spans 2,000 acres complete with access to five major lakes, trails and local shopping and event venues. StreetLights completed the project’s first phase, The Jackson, in 2021, becoming the first multifamily community within Viridian.

The Louise has 343 luxury apartment homes with studio to three-bedroom floor plans, ranging from 588 to 1,674 square feet. Interior finish out includes granite countertops, tile backsplashes, deep drawers for pots and pans, custom flooring, dine-in island seating, urban mudrooms, custom cabinetry including a pull-out trash drawer, spa-inspired bathrooms, oversized walk-in closets, energy efficient washer and dryer, conduction stovetop, and built in Sonos speakers. Select units also offer smart home features, all hard surface flooring options, oversized outdoor living spaces and screened porches.

The Louise also has 32 townhomes averaging 1,902 square feet. Townhome features include, two-story layouts with a two-car garage, powder bathroom on the first floor, walk-in pantry en suite primary bathroom with double vanity, stone countertops, custom cabinetry and stainless steel appliances and wood-style flooring.

The community’s interior common area spaces were designed to foster an inviting, comfortable environment for residents to gather, while offering a variety of interior and exterior amenities including a lounge with co-working spaces, a private resident library, a conference room, an art studio for art classes and personal projects, a full fitness center featuring high-end cardio and strength equipment, a flex room with spin bikes, fitness echelon mirror and ballet bar, outdoor lawn for yoga and exercise, golf simulator, pet park and pet spa, bike storage, a clubroom with a TV and kitchen to host gatherings and private dining spaces for intimate dinner parties. The Louise also features an expansive pool and outdoor courtyard with lounge and entertaining spaces.

Residents have access to all that Viridian has to offer, including over 500 acres of lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands, as well as extensive jogging and hiking trails to explore, as well as proximity to DFW airport. The Louise is also located just minutes from dining and entertainment options including Texas Live!, Globe Life Park and AT&T Stadium, offering easy access for residents who want to enjoy local amenities.

StreetLights Creative Studio served as the architect of record and handled all interior design. SLR Construction, LLC, served as the general contractor.

West Fort Worth Retail Center Trades to Mazaheri Properties

JLL Capital Markets has closed the sale of The Shops at Chisholm Trail Ranch, a 213,416-square-foot retail center in Fort Worth, Texas.

JLL marketed the property on behalf of the seller, Street Level Investments, and Mazaheri Properties acquired the asset. Phillip Mazaheri with Price Edwards & Company represented the buyer.

The Shops at Chisholm Trail Ranch is a 97.5% occupied, newly constructed center currently leased to a wide range of tenants, including Studio Movie Grill, Ulta, Old Navy, Ross, Marshalls, Tuesday Morning, Five Below, Famous Footwear, Pet Supplies Plus, James Avery and Crumbl. The center benefits from 1.7 million visits annually with customers visiting an average of six times per year.

Situated at SEC Chisholm Trail Parkway and McPherson Boulevard, the property is part of Chisholm Trail Ranch, a 600-acre master-planned community located in Southwest Fort Worth. The center is 13 miles from Downtown Fort Worth, 9.4 miles from Texas Christian University and 3.1 miles from Tarleton State University. Additionally, almost 500,000 residents are within a five-mile radius of the center and earn an average income of almost $90,000. The immediate trade area has grown substantially with the opening of the Chisholm Trail Parkway toll road, and buying power is expected to increase 19% over the next five years.

The JLL Retail Capital Markets Investment Sales and Advisory team that represented the seller was led by Senior Managing Directors Chris Gerard and Barry Brown and Analyst Matthew Barge.

Flocking Back to the Stores: Black Friday Weekend Sees Record Number of Shoppers

This holiday season is shaping up to be a happy one for retailers, with the number of shoppers hitting stores from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday setting a new record.

The National Retail Federation said that 196.7 million people shopped in-person at retailers from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday, Nov. 28. That’s the highest this figure has ever been.

Online sales boomed, too. Adobe Analytics reported that online shoppers spent a record $9.12 billion on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. That figure is up from $8.92 billion in 2021 and $9.03 billion in 2020.

These record-setting numbers come despite the threat of rising interest rates and persistent inflation. Why the big numbers? That’s difficult to say, but consumers have continued to spend even as the prices of everything from groceries and gas to electronics, clothing and furniture continue to rise.

Big Day for Online Sales

The Black Friday online sales were particularly impressive. Adobe Analytics said that the online sales of electronics rose 221% on Black Friday when compared to an average day in October of this year. Two of the biggest sellers were Apple MacBooks and Apple watches, according to Adobe. Consumers also spent big on the Xbox Series X gaming console and video games such as FIFA 23 and Pokemon Scarlet.

Adobe predicted that online shoppers would spend an additional $4.52 billion on Saturday and $4.99 billion on Sunday of the holiday weekend. Adobe also predicted that online sales would soar to $11.2 billion on Cyber Monday.

In-person Shopping Strong, Too

The National Retail Federation did not track the amount of money that record-setting number of in-person shoppers spent over the Black Friday weekend. The trade association did say that it expects holiday sales to rise by 6% to 8% from last year. If this happens, consumers will have spent from $942.6 billion to $960.4 billion this holiday season.

Of course, some of the increase in spending must be attributed to high inflation: Consumers are paying more when they are buying holiday items this year.

“The Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend is a tradition treasured by many American families,” said National Retail Federation president and chief executive officer Matthew Shay, in a written statement. “As inflationary pressures persist, consumers have responded by stretching their dollars in any way possible. Retailers have responded accordingly, offering shoppers a season of buying convenience, matching sales and promotions across online and in-store channels to accommodate their customers at each interaction.”

According to the National Retail Federation, the holiday shopping season runs from Nov. 1 through Dec. 32. The federation said that consumers spent an average of about $325 on holiday purchases from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. Last year, shoppers spent an average of $301.

A Miracle on Michigan Avenue

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sales Shatter Records

Another Black Friday in the books. Gone are the days, it seems, of waking up at 5 a.m. to get a jump on the day’s deals, but that doesn’t equal less activity. In fact, 2022 saw the highest numbers in a while.

The National Retail Federation estimated that 166 million people shopped from Thanksgiving through Monday, the highest estimate since 2017, but reports concerning consumers’ weekend spending vary.

The Sun Times reported that shoppers carried on as they usually would, without regard to inflation or a looming recession, many even increasing spending. Residents in Chicagoland have estimated they’ll spend around $719, compared to $580 in 2021.

And the holiday hype checks out—no pun intended.

The last few years have been strange, to say the least, but as we continue to regain a sense of normalcy this season, shoppers have taken advantage by starting early. The Sun Times and Accenture found that of 1,500 Americans, 45% admitted to starting to shop in August.

But the forward-thinking mentality isn’t limited to consumers. Proactive retailers also seized the opportunity to kick start their in-store deals weeks—even months—in advance, especially those in areas that have struggled to regain foot traffic post-pandemic, and the strategy has proven successful thus far.

Shoppers swarmed Chicagoland from Michigan Avenue to Old Orchard in Skokie to Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, and many people reported it was the largest in-person turnout they’d seen in a while. More than 122.7 million people across the U.S. visited brick-and-mortar stores over the weekend, up 17% from 2021, according to the National Retail Federation.

Welcome news for businesses of all sizes. Mainstream chains like J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, and J.C. Penney were not spared from pandemic suffering, after all.

“It is important to note that while some may claim that retail sales gains are the result of higher prices, they must acknowledge the historic growth in consumers who are shopping in-store and online during the holiday weekend and into Cyber Monday,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “It is consumer demand that is driving growth.”

The group predicted the rise of holiday sales by 5% YOY and retailers will pocket 6% to 8% more than in 2021. Nationwide spending in November and December will near $960 billion, according to the Sun Times.

People Need More Space, Fortunately for Self-storage

City living comes with cons—and for many, it’s sacrificing square feet. Fortunately for the self-storage sector, less space in the home means more is needed outside of it, causing an increase in storage units near multifamily hotspots.

The decade marked high construction volumes across the U.S., with almost 350 million square feet of storage space delivered from 2012 to 2021, 22% of overall existing inventory. Over the same time, 3.1 million new apartments in 50+ unit buildings were added, and 427,000 new rentals were added to the national market last year alone. But not all metros were created equal—RentCafe and YardiMatrix recently analyzed the country’s largest metros to identify the places self-storage is doing the best, in correlation with a growing apartment market. Chicago was No. 4.

From 2012 to 2021, Chicago added 11.5 million square feet of storage space and almost 72,000 multifamily units, reaching a peak for self-storage construction in 2016 with 2.1 million square feet of space delivered. Yet it’s just the start of what’s to come.

Developers are currently amping up their construction efforts to keep up with demand, despite economic challenges, with 2.6 million square feet of storage space currently planned and under construction.

Still, Chicago’s numbers are low in comparison with metros like Dallas and Houston. People continue to relocate to the Lone Star State from hubs like San Francisco, New York City, and even Chicago, bolstering its economy more and more.

One of the most popular relocation destinations in the country—Dallas-Fort-Worth-Arlington—saw a 17% population growth over the past decade, based on the report, leading, naturally, to increased demand for both housing and self-storage, and the market was quick to respond. Nearly 200,000 new apartments and 20+ million square feet of storage space was delivered during the decade, the most in any metro across the U.S.

Of course, Dallas’s quick recovery post-pandemic allowed for the resuming of construction much sooner than other markets. Almost 2.4 million square feet of new storage space and 26,000 new apartments delivered in 2021, according to RentCafe.

As for Houston, RentCafe also found that young professionals continue to flood in with the likes of Hewlett Packard, Maddox Defense, Axiom Space and Sun Haven relocating to the metro in the past few years alone, resulting in 15 million square feet of new storage space and 142,000 apartments delivering during the decade.

A Bit of Cheer: Holiday Travelers Returning to Hotels This Year

Another sign that the hotel industry is on the mend? The number of holiday travelers this year who plan to stay in hotels is on the rise, according to the Hotel Booking Index Survey from the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

The survey, conducted by Morning Consult, also says that hotels are cited as the top lodging choice among those who say they are certain to travel for leisure in the next three months.

The lodging association’s Hotel Booking Index (HBI) is a new composite score gauging the short-term outlook for the hotel industry. The 1-through-10 score is based on a weighted average of survey respondents’ travel likelihood in the next three months (50%), household financial security (30%) and a preference to stay in hotels for travel (20%). Based on the results of the survey, the AHLA Hotel Booking Index for the next three months is 7.1, or very good.

The survey found that the share of those who plan to stay in hotels during their holiday travels this season is on the rise. According to the results, 31% of Thanksgiving travelers plan to stay in a hotel during their trip, compared to the 22% who planned to do so last year. A total of 28% of Christmas travelers plan to stay in a hotel during their trip, compared to 23% who planned to do so last year. Among those absolutely certain to travel for leisure in the next three months, 54% say that they plan to stay in a hotel, according to the survey.

The survey didn’t bring only holiday cheer, however. The lodging association reported that overall holiday travel levels will likely remain flat, with 28% of Americans reporting they are likely to travel for Thanksgiving and 31% likely to travel for Christmas this year – compared to 29% and 33%, respectively, in 2021.

The survey also found that concerns about COVID-19 are fading among travelers but are being replaced by economic challenges like inflation and high gas prices. The survey found that 85% percent of respondents reported that gas prices and inflation are factors they are considering when deciding whether to travel during the next three months. That compares to 70% who said the same about COVID-19 infection rates.

The survey of 4,000 adults was conducted Oct. 14-16. Other key findings:

59% of adults whose jobs involve travel said they are likely to travel for business in the next three months, with 49% among them planning to stay in a hotel during their trip. In 2021, 55% of adults whose jobs involve travel said they were likely to travel for business during the holiday season.
64% of Americans would be concerned about delays or cancellations if they traveled by plane right now, with 66% of these respondents reporting a lower chance of flying this holiday season as a result.
61% of Americans say they are likely to take more leisure/vacation trips in 2023 than they did this year.
58% of Americans are likely to attend more indoor gatherings, events or meetings in 2023 than they did this year.
66% of Thanksgiving travelers and 60% of Christmas travelers plan to drive to their destinations, compared to 24% and 30%, respectively, who plan to fly.
“This survey bolsters our optimism for hotels’ near-term outlook for a number of reasons,” said AHLA president and chief executive officer Chip Rogers, in a statement. “The share of holiday travelers planning hotel stays is rising, plans for business travel are on the upswing and hotels are the number-one lodging choice for those certain to travel for leisure in the near future. This is great news for our industry as well as current and prospective hotel employees, who are enjoying more and better career opportunities than ever before.”