Posted by Paul Adler on Wed, Nov 23, 2011 @ 12:00 PM
Ardsley Realty Sells Warehouse for $3.9M
80k-SF Sports Center Development Planned in Ardsley
November 22, 2011
Elm Street Sports Groups LLC purchased the industrial building at 1 Elm Street in Ardsley, NY for $3.9 million, or about $49 per square feet.
Located in Westchester County, the two-story warehouse is being renovated into a multi-million dollar sports center with occupancy slated for fall 2012. The complex will provide more space for local sports teams which have experienced a major shortage in training facilities in recent years.
Ann Silver and Paul Adler of Rand Commercial Services brokered the deal for the buyer and the seller, Ardsley Realty Associate LLC.
Silver believes the complex has potential for growth. "We are excited about the creative reuse of the building, as well as the number of jobs it will bring to the area - it's a win-win situation, and we are very pleased to be a part of this project."
The sports center is expected to create 13 full-time jobs, 16 part-time jobs and 25 seasonal jobs.
Please refer to Costar COMPS #2206518 for more information on this transaction.
http://www.costar.com/News/Article/Ardsley-Realty-Sells-Warehouse-for-$39M/133658
Posted by Paul Adler on Wed, Nov 23, 2011 @ 09:54 AM
Holiday weeks like this become an excuse for many not to do biz. I find weeks like this and snow days to be very productive & rewarding if you really want to do biz.
Today at 7am I was invited to fully attended meeting of the BNI Premier Chapter meeting at the Blauvelt Diner. They needed a Commercial Real Estate Professional - Rand Commercial Services to the rescue. They are an exciting, dyanmic group of professionals who want to do biz and make Rockland a better place to live & work. Hooray for some old school work ethic!
Paul Adler, Vice President
Rand Commercial Services - www.randcommercial.com - paul.adler@randcommercial.com
Posted by Paul Adler on Fri, Nov 18, 2011 @ 02:48 PM
Marsha, Dr. Joseph, Joe, Matt, Greg & Danny Rand were honored today at the Rockland Economic Development Corp's annual luncheon. The award was presented to Marsha Rand as founder of Better Homes & Gardens|Rand Realty, Rand Commercial, Rand Mortgage, Hudson Abstract & The Hudson Group Insurance Company on behalf of the Rand Family.
The award was presented by Rockland County Executive, C. Scott Vanderhoef, REDC Board Chair, Steven Yassky and REDC President & CEO, Ron Hicks who announce that he was accepting an appointment in Planning & Economic Development in Dutchess County.
We are all grateful to part of the Rand Family of Companies. Congratulations to Marsha, Joe, Joe, Greg, Matt & Danny Rand for all that you do in our region.
Paul Adler, Vice President
RAND COMMERCIAL SERVICES - paul.adler@randcommercial.com
www.randcommercial.com
Posted by Paul Adler on Wed, Nov 16, 2011 @ 12:50 PM
Gerry Magnarelli & Nick Wolff of Rand Commercial Services sucessfully completed the White Plains Department of Public Safety Citizen's Academy on November 15, 2011.
This is another example of the caliber of men and women associated with Rand Commercial. Giving back to our community is a core value for Rand Commercial Services and it's agents.
We are proud of the efforts and commitment that both Gerry Magnarelli & Nick Wolff made by participating in the White Plains-Dept of Public Safety Citizen's Academy.
Gerry Magnarelli & Nick Wolff were both presented with Certificates from White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach, Police Commissioner David Chong, Police Chief James Bradley and Fire Chief Richard Lyman.
Job Well Done!
Posted by Paul Adler on Tue, Nov 15, 2011 @ 03:22 PM
RCS team takes on a day of learning and passes exam for OwnAmerica Investment Certification Designation (OICP). Members of Rand Commercial Services Team that participated in the DAY OF LEARNING & passed their OICP exam are: Christy Ann Gendalia, Patricia Paikin, Rich Aponte, Jon Paul Molfetta, Jim Damiani, Richard Sena, Karleen Jedzinak, Rick Weisman, Gail Saucier, Michael K Mcbride, Charles Emanuel, Brendan Burke, Ann Silver. All top of their field professionals!
Posted by Paul Adler on Tue, Nov 15, 2011 @ 03:12 PM
Multi-million dollar sports center planned for development
New City, N.Y. (November 2011) – Rand Commercial Services (RCS), an independent leading commercial real estate brokerage firm in the Hudson Valley, has closed a $3.9 million sale on an 80,000 square-foot warehouse in Ardsley, N.Y., in Westchester County. The closing date was October 31, 2011.
RCS brokered the sale for both buyer and seller. Paul Adler, RCS Vice President, and RCS agent Ann K. Silver, negotiated the sale, and Elm Street Sports Group LLC, of Scarsdale, purchased the property.
The warehouse at 1 Elm St., which is planned to be converted into a sports center, will undergo a multi-million dollar renovation in the coming months and is slated for occupancy in fall 2012. The complex will bring much needed field space for local sports teams, which have experienced a major shortage in training facilities in recent years.
“There simply are not enough fields for kids to play on,” a representative from the Elm Street Sports Group explained. The center will primarily serve as a training facility for children, with classes and private training sessions.
Silver said the warehouse, located in Village of Ardsley, has tremendous potential for growth given its prime location in Westchester County. “We are particularly excited about the creative reuse of the building, as well as the number of jobs it will bring to the area—it’s a win-win situation, and we are very pleased to be a part of this project.”
The sports center is expected to create 13 full-time jobs, 16 part-time jobs and 25 seasonal part-time jobs.
About Rand Commercial Services: Rand Commercial Services (RCS) is an independent, full-service commercial real estate brokerage that serves the Greater New York area. The firm specializes in repositioning and redeveloping properties to improve their returns in addition to assisting clients with more conventional sales and leasing. RCS has nearly 30 agents in Orange, Rockland, Westchester, Dutchess and Putnam counties, and also serves New York City, northern New Jersey and Connecticut. The company’s Web site is www.randcommercial.com.
Posted by Paul Adler on Thu, Nov 10, 2011 @ 11:45 AM
Rand Commercial's Adler quoted in CoStar
Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are waging a multi-front war on the rapid advances in online retailing to compete for the growing legion of shoppers armed with the latest in mobile technologies.
Retailers are battling outdated tax laws that give virtual stores an advantage, while also battling these retailers for market share, and they are also ruthlessly evaluating sales performance across their portfolios to trim excess square footage that is not meeting expectations.
In the latest salvo fired by store operators against their online counterparts, Simon Property Group Inc., the country's largest owner, developer and manager of retail real estate, filed a complaint this past week against the State of Indiana asking the courts to force the state to collect sales tax on goods sold by Amazon.com.
According to the suit, Amazon.com is required by Indiana law to collect sales and use taxes to the state for sales made over the Internet, but has consistently refused to do so.
In a statement, Simon said, "We have a responsibility to ensure the laws are equally applied to everyone. Main Street retailers are being harmed by this unequal playing field in Indiana, and their existence is being jeopardized and threatens the employment of hundreds of thousands of retail employees in our state."
Industry representatives at the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) are also weighing in. Speaking at an ICSC confab in Texas last month, Brad Greenblum, president of Greenblum Investment Partners in Austin, TX, said Texas lost $850 million of revenue last year to online retailers.
The trade group is pushing for legislation called the Main Street Fairness Act. The legislation would allow states to collect taxes from out-of-state sellers, which the ICSC claims would even the playing field for brick-and-mortar locations.
Shift in Marketing Dollars
On another front, nearly six in 10 middle market retail executives reported their companies are shifting marketing dollars away from old media toward new media, such as social media campaigns, according to the third annual Retail Finance Outlook study released by CIT Group Inc.
As part of that shift, 68% of respondents report increases in marketing and deals through social media channels, including Facebook and Twitter. In addition, 63% report that their web sales are growing (28%) or growing faster than other channels (35%).
In a sign that this trend will continue, some 58% of retail executives said they believe they need to improve their new media marketing strategies, while a further 7% characterize their companies as "late starters" in the new media game.
Jeffery J. McNaught, a partner specializing in real estate with the law firm of Lindquist Vennum in Minneapolis, told CoStar that even this approach is double-edged sword.
"It's easier, less work and more efficient to buy [some] items online. Smartly, such retailers like Best Buy have their own online stores, and have worked with the 'one stop' retailers like Newegg, Amazon to get their products on screens everywhere. But that is a sale lost for a brick/mortar franchisee or retailer on the ground."
As more retailers drive more sales to their Internet channels that is also creating changes in retail space utilization.
Suzanne Mulvee, real estate strategist, for CoStar Group, addressed that trend at CoStar's quarterly State of Retail Market webinar last week.
"I think the retailers are trying to make the bricks complements the clicks," Mulvee said. "I was at the ULI (Urban Land Institute) fall meeting and had the opportunity to speak with some retailers and found there are some that are already successful. Staples, for example, is very successful in deriving the bulk of its sales from the Internet."
But, Mulvee added, "Staples and all retailers are thinking very strategically about what they want and need on their floor. What they’re finding is, they don’t need as deep an inventory as they have previously. That takes space out of the back room of the store, but it doesn’t necessarily take the space out of the front end."
"That said, as far as the technological changes that are happening in what you can purchase on the Internet, Best Buy is a great example," she added. "When Best Buy first saw its explosive growth and was opening its stores en masse, they were filled with CDs and DVDs predominately. [However] you don’t buy CDs and DVDs in stores any more, or very seldom. You’re looking to purchase those online."
Mulvee agreed that its very challenging for retailers to determine which will be the next product category that will become digitized see sales diminish in physical stores. "Where retailers are looking to combat this is by adding more service and necessity goods," she continued.
"The defenses that retailers have lined up, I don’t know if they’re going to be sufficient for all [retailers] to weather the impact of the Internet," Mulvee said, adding that, "so I think you’ve got to be very selective about who you have in your center."
Even being picky isn't necessarily a guarantee for center owners, real estate executive say.
Chad M. Firsel, president and founder of Quantum Real Estate Advisors in Chicago, said retail stores are becoming the testing grounds for consumers who want to feel and touch an item before they go order it online.
Paul W. Adler, vice president of Rand Commercial Services in New York, told CoStar that, "Smart retailers are morphing their physical plants to deal with these changes in the market. The dinosaurs will disappear. Mobile tech and online buying centers, distribution outlets and distribution portals will be a new emerging market."
Harvard Business School professors Rajiv Lal and José B. Alvarez, addressed the topic last month in a paper entitled: "Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink."
Lal and Alvarez contend that mass-market retailers, particularly big-box "category killers," are under critical pressure from online competitors. For retailers that can react quickly enough, this upheaval is survivable. But those slow to see the tsunami wave on the horizon stand to be swept away.
The two define "category killers" as those highly focused retailers that specialize in a specific category of goods, including Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, and Staples. Their wide assortment, aggressive pricing, large stores, extensive store network, and deep expertise in the categories they served proved a massive competitive advantage.
But now, online competitors are threatening to make such large chains of retail stores, many of which spent much of the last decade adding floor space, less productive. And the impact of emerging technologies, expanding price and assortment transparency, and the increasing amount of excess retail space has created new challenges. The two believe that ultimately the war will be won on a new front: product and branding.
"Clearly, this is a new world for store retailers," Lal and Alvarez conclude. "To compete with online competitors, retailers will need to be agile both in eliminating or downsizing categories that do not benefit from their stores' assets, and in introducing new categories that cannot be bought without the help of the core assets of their stores."
"With this constant evolution of product categories, retailers will also need to be much more cognizant of how they develop and interpret their brands as they become more flexible in their offerings. Can you be an office supply store if you do not sell paper? What does it mean to be an electronics shop if the focus is on mobile devices and you don't sell televisions?"
"Store productivity will come only if a store becomes known for offering a shopping experience that is consistent with the needs of the category," the Harvard professors said. "An ever-evolving retailer that understands how key store-level assets can be deployed in a category to create a compelling shopping experience will separate the winners from the bankrupt over the next decade."