This was one of the key conclusions drawn from “Retail & Real Estate 2025: Location Analytics Insights to Drive Success,” a March 13 virtual event hosted by Commercial Observer Partner Insights and presented by Placer.ai.
The event’s participants included Christine Mastandrea, chief operating officer at Whitestone REIT; Robert Young Jr., executive managing director at Weitzman; and Ben Witten, head of real estate at Placer.ai, who moderated the discussion.SEE ALSO: Using Historic Tax Credit Equity to Transform New York Commercial Real Estate
Kicking off with the topic of the vast increase in recent migration within the U.S., Mastandrea, whose company does business throughout Texas and Arizona, noted that the recent uptick has led to surprising shifts in the local population.
“The new consumer is a mixed group,” said Mastandrea. “Being in the Southern states, in particular in Arizona, you would expect that a lot of people move there for retirement. That has not been the case.”
Mastandrea said many younger people are moving to begin their careers in Texas or Arizona, and that cities in these states are also seeing a more globalized population, all of which presents a greater opportunity to commercial real estate companies within these regions.
“We see this as not only allowing us to appeal to a new consumer that is coming into a high degree of spend in their lives, but also, consumers from all over the world,” said Mastandrea. “We employ a lot of engineers in Houston, for example. In our company, we have around 28 languages spoken. That provides a lot of opportunity to reach new customers, and to reach them in different ways. People see things just being about omnichannel. In fact, this is about connecting communities.”
Witten mentioned t …
See the full article on this Arizona real estate event, or, read more Arizona real estate investing news. It’s up to you!