Steve Marcinuk

Ohio developers face a permitting problem unrelated to market demand or project quality, according to Brian Lorenz, Director of Planning and Permitting for the Ohio House of Representatives. Instead, Lorenz says, developers must navigate overlapping jurisdictions that require the same permit applications to be submitted multiple times—often with conflicting requirements that can make projects economically ...

The real estate market is facing a persistent inventory shortage, not because of strong buyer demand, but because homeowners who locked in low mortgage rates during the pandemic are unwilling to sell, according to Staten Island broker associate Kevin Borgersen. This supply constraint, he argues, is hindering transactions and reshaping how the market functions. Borgersen, ...

California has expanded its permanent supportive housing stock in recent years. Still, Brad West, Policy Specialist at the Supportive Housing Alliance, warns that the sector now faces a crisis most policymakers overlook: the lack of operating subsidies. While public discussion often focuses on construction financing and land, West says the real bottleneck is the ongoing ...

As real estate prices in established Midwest markets climb beyond the reach of many adaptive reuse projects, developers are reconsidering where to invest. According to one industry executive, secondary markets are positioned to benefit from an apparent economic reality: the cost of acquiring and converting buildings in legacy cities remains dramatically lower than in their ...

The multifamily acquisition market is splitting into two distinct channels with very different economics, according to one acquisitions executive who has closed over $300 million in transactions. While institutional capital typically targets properties marketed publicly through major brokerages, a growing group of operators is finding better pricing and deal structures by negotiating directly with owners ...

Dozens of permanent supportive housing buildings in California are constrained by outdated subsidy programs, with rental income levels well below the level needed to cover actual operating costs. As these buildings age, the financial mismatch is threatening the stability of the entire sector. The 2022 collapse of Skid Row Housing Trust exposed deep vulnerabilities in ...

From 2010 to 2023, property values in Arizona and much of the U.S. rose steadily, creating a hidden safety net for both lenders and borrowers. Geoff Ball, a hard money lender with two decades of experience in Arizona, says that era allowed questionable lending and borrowing decisions to go largely unpunished. Now, as price growth ...

Institutional investors entering secondary markets often overlook how neighborhood opposition and complex entitlements can derail otherwise viable projects, according to a Kansas City developer who advises fund managers. When institutional investors move into secondary markets, they typically bring strategies honed in significant cities, detailed market analysis, and the belief that their resources can overcome local ...

Florida’s real estate development faces a growing risk that is receiving little public attention: the long-term availability of potable water. Bill Eshenbaugh, founder of Eshenbaugh Land Company, warns that water constraints could soon outweigh regulatory and financial challenges as the state’s population and industry expand. “The biggest risk probably is where we get the availability ...

Florida’s shortage of available land in key development corridors is not primarily due to limited geography or environmental regulation, according to Bill Eshenbaugh, founder of Eshenbaugh Land Company. Instead, he points to the decision-making of multigenerational landowners, who keep productive land off the market even as prices soften and development demand slows. “Landowners today are ...

In Tampa Bay, institutional investors are not holding back capital in hopes of lower prices or improved sentiment. Instead, the extended timeline from land purchase to certificate of occupancy is making it almost impossible to underwrite new projects with confidence, according to Bill Eshenbaugh, founder of Eshenbaugh Land Company. Delays in permitting, regulatory changes, and ...

Industry veteran Sergio Grado, who has worked across Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio for over two decades, says Texas’s major real estate markets now face distinct challenges that generic investment strategies cannot address. Grado, a second-generation builder with experience in construction, business development, and distribution throughout Texas, observes that the differences among Houston, Dallas, ...

A severe labor shortage in landscaping and grounds maintenance is quietly pushing up costs and complicating project timelines for commercial real estate developers across Texas. Sergio Grado, a business development professional with experience at an international landscape architecture firm and founder of GradCo Distributors, says the workforce contraction is reshaping the economics of new construction ...

The home equity line of credit (HELOC), once a standard financial tool for American homeowners, is now nearly unavailable from mainstream lenders. Geoff Ball, President of HD Lending, LLC, describes HELOCs as “one of the hardest loans to get in the industry,” pointing to a dramatic shift in the lending landscape. Ball, a hard-money lender ...

The Phoenix metropolitan area has rapidly evolved from a relatively quiet city in the 1990s into one of the nation’s most active construction markets. Jim Roland, Senior Vice President of Arizona Operations at Alcorn Construction, has worked in the region for nearly three decades and has seen firsthand how Phoenix has attracted national and international ...