Owner of Bala Cynwyd’s Keystone Development + Investment Warns of Commercial Real Estate Slowdown
Bill Glazer, owner of Bala Cynwyd-based Keystone Development + Investment, is one of the busiest redevelopers in the Philadelphia area, reported Joseph N. DiStefano for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Since being founded in 1991, his company has updated or repurposed roughly 10 million square feet of office space and other commercial property.
Glazer is, however, warning that the upcoming period will be difficult for commercial real estate all around.
“Commercial real estate today is facing a triple threat: interest rate increases, which for us are unprecedented — over five [percentage points] within one year; lending and capital availability, which is down; recession and revenue pressures [which discourage tenants, making projects unattractive],” he said.
None of these market conditions are surprising, he finds.
“This is the real estate circle of life,” Glazer said. “We are in a cyclical business. We are now in this part of the cycle. The same stresses we’ve seen in the banking industry are playing out in real estate.”
Currently, most of the new, ground-up projects are being paused or sidelined or even shelved.
“Every time this happens, there is a flight to quality, to the projects most likely to succeed,” said Glazer.
Read all the CRE insights from Keystone Development + Investment in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Bill Glazer isn’t the only industry pundit seeing storm clouds on the commercial real estate horizon.
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