Saint-Gobain’s North American headquarters in Malvern recently hosted an event – entitled “Trends in Corporate and Commercial Real Estate” – as part of the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry’s Executive Roundtable series.

Michael A. Bray, a faculty member at Villanova University’s School of Business, and Stacy Martin, the Director of Commercial Sales and Leasing at Hankin Group, co-moderated a panel discussion of emerging trends to consider in real estate decisions.

Lauren Gilchrist, the Senior Vice President and Senior Director of Research at Jones Lange LaSalle in Philadelphia, noted that, with unemployment so low across the country, real estate developers are looking closer at urban markets when making decisions on where to locate warehouse and industrial facilities.

“What we’ve begun to see is that warehouse-location decisions are not just driven by transportation networks, but also by the availability of people to work in those warehouses,” she said. “That’s pushing companies and developers a little bit closer to urban markets.”

Gilchrist also indicated that 66 percent of economists believe that a market correction (recession) is likely to occur in 2020.

Joseph Fetterman, the Executive Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Colliers International in Philadelphia, agreed.

“The Fed is doing everything they can to have a soft landing so that we don’t go into a deep valley in the next cycle turn,” he said.

Mark Seltzer, the Vice President of Development and Leasing at Liberty Property Trust, sees a strong market with a lot of deals out there.

“There are companies doing things; there are buildings to buy or sell,” he said. “And there’s land for development.

“We are very active.”

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