By DON FENLEY

Commercial real estate sales for NETAR CMLS listings

There were 103 sales of commercial real estate properties listed on the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors (NETAR) Commercial Multiple Listing Service (CMLS) in 2019. That’s five below the 2018 total and doesn’t include sales from other commercial listing services. (See attached chart).

When combined with local lease transactions for last year, the total local commercial real estate market had its best year since 2016.

While the inclusion of Kingsport on a list of the 15 cheapest places to buy land in America last week got a lot of social media attention, last year’s land sales across the region were flat with a small decline for the second straight year.

The property types that saw the most sales were retail commercial and industrial.

Local commercial real estate practitioners are reporting one of the inquiries they get is for industrial sites.

Combines sales and lease transactions of NETAR CMLS listings.

John Speropulos, Mitch Cox Realtors President, said in the year-end least transaction review, “There’re are not a whole lot of industrial on the market, and what’s there is not what many clients are looking for.” Of course, they is always the option to repurpose and upgrade existing industrial sites, but “there’s a little local sticker shock” associated with those costs he added.

Michael Green, Green Commercial Realty, added that industrial property was the “the most obscured property segment of all. I think it’s because we compete for users on a far wider geographic plain.”

CMLS’s current market statistics shows 1.4 million square feet of commercial listed for sale in the four-county Kingsport-Bristol MSA and another 736,066 square feet for sale in the three-county Johnson City MSA.

While assessments for 2020 vary, local commercial practitioners are “conservatively optimistic” about the New Year local conditions. The local market will likely feel the same slower growth projected for the national commercial real estate market. That’s a typical reaction during an election year.

The “election year” lull hasn’t dulled the positioning in the Bristol market as the quest to locate a casino in the Twin Cities plays out. An equal level of interest continues in the Johnson City market over the proposed development at Exit 17 in Gray.

Listings for land total 1,271 acres in the Kingsport-Bristol MSA and 1,288 acres in the Johnson City MSA.

Categories: REAL ESTATE