What’s going to happen with commercial real estate? Commercial real estate is not an area that I am an expert in. So I make no claims as to what I’m going to share as being the authority. But what I will tell you are some things that I think are general guiding principles that will be a value add.
Right now, I have been through some malls in recent days and have noticed that some of the retailers are shutting down. You’ve probably seen the bankruptcy ads or articles in the news. And so there are really stores shutting down. In fact, when I was in one mall, there was a really cool store that had kitchen utensils and kitchen gadgets and stuff. I’m not that into cooking, but it’s still a pretty cool store to walk in and check out. Sadly, it was closing down.
There are countless other examples it seems as one drives around retail outlets. One has to wonder, how is the commercial real estate industry ultimately affected? A lot of businesses are figuring out they can do a lot of things virtually. Once COVID passes, it is entirely possible that the need for commercial real estate will be in a degraded state for a while, maybe a very long time. I don’t ultimately know as, again, I’m not a commercial real estate expert. What I do know is you just have to wonder what is that impact ultimately down the beam and how can we be a part of its resurrection if it may even make sense to be a part of it.
So, we’re going to be digging a little bit more into it to learn more about it, perhaps there’s opportunities. And I guess that’s what this message is ultimately about is, with the contraction of commercial real estate, there may be some attractive opportunities that open up for some creative thinkers, some forward-thinking, to utilize some of these spaces that are otherwise being emptied, if not sitting empty at times. And let’s not forget multifamily. Even though multifamily has taken a bit of a hit, people are always going to need a place to live. And so we do think we’re going to see more opportunities in that space in the days ahead.
So those are just some random thoughts on commercial. And if that’s not something you do, it might be something you may want to just take the temperature of a little bit, and perhaps there’s an opportunity for you there today you had not considered previously.
Happy investing!