#nrei

[mazovshanka]

Kage is a "spider" - a brilliant hacker working for yakuza. He usually wears fancy suits and uses a special blade as a weapon. However he doesn't really have to use a weapon because he can simply break in cyborgised people's minds.

[mazovshanka]

My second cyberpunk boy got his body recently so here's a quick comparison with Raven.

Raven is Impldoll Ansel and Kage is R.Dean n.Rei on 2D 75 cm thin muscle body.

They are both 75 class dolls but actually Raven is 74 cm while Kage is 76 cm.

Here are my impressions about 2D body:

Pros:

the body is heavy, stable and sturdy

the box is big enough to fit full doll with head

the body comes with CoA, silicone joint pad, head puller and magic sponge

the body has silicone joint pads in shoulder and thigh joints

visible veins on arms, hands, legs and abdomen

can fully bend arms and kneels nicely

a pair of additional hands and neck protector are included

Cons:

only basic private part and a weird, useless octopus

hands are too big

it's very difficult to make the body pull legs towards the torso

the head puller had a sharp burr (I spent about half an hour trying to file it down)

The body can rotate its elbows and I don't know if it's good or bad. The bad thing about it is that it's very tricky to fully bend the arm while the elbow is rotated even a bit. The range of mobility is average I would say, however I'm still learning to handle this body.

[mazovshanka]

Some time ago I bought this head to be one of my OCs, a brilliant hacker known as Kage. He's n.Rei sculpted by a Korean artist R.Dean. It's a really lovely sculpt. I love his big lips and defined cheekbones. And the resin is thick. Actually it's too thick in some parts. It could be sanded better because there is a slightly jagged edge in one of the eyes. And there are magnets on just one side of the head. Moreover one of the magnets tends to fall out. The head came in a plain thin cardboard box but with a CoA. To sum up, I'm used to better quality but I'm really happy I got this head. Dolls and heads made by artists are very interesting and certainly unique and rare comparing to BJD companies' products.

[nicheretailstrategies]

12/2016 | Five Takeaways from ICSC New York National Deal Making Conference, Day Two

NAREIT | DIANA BELL |  DECEMBER 7, 2016

“More subdued,” was how one source described the second day of dealmaking at ICSC New York. Calls were still being made and some round tables were occupied, but the floor produced a more muted hum—the flurry of activity marking day one appeared indeed to be winding down. On day two we were privy to a handful of insights, shared below.

Virtual downsizing is growing. Retail tenants who are struggling or who may have qualms about the future of a specific store can restructure their lease using a virtual downsizing component, says Excess Space Executive Managing Director Al Williams, who adds that virtual downsizing has been a very active part of his firm’s leasing business this year. In virtual downsizing, a tenant offers to stay in a space, but only occupy and pay for a portion of it. The landlord then decides whether to physically partition the leftover space. “Landlords are being more flexible with retailers for now,” says Transwestern Vice President Richard P. Rizzuto. For 2017, Williams expects a large in-progress retail merger to bring “massive business activity” to his sector if it gets approved.

Subdividing mall space can be profitable. Subdividing big-box space and re-tenanting can increase mall incomes in multiples, says PREIT CEO Joseph Coradino. In one example he brought up, a 240,000-sq.-ft. Strawberry was subdivided into a 100,000-sq.-ft. anchor space and the rest turned into restaurants and smaller retail. “In one situation, we had 10 new stores take the place of a big anchor, and those stores are doing 1.5 times the volume of what was there originally,” Corradino says. Food and entertainment now occupies 15 percent of PREIT malls’ footprints, he adds. “Ten years ago in most malls, food and entertainment tenants were in the low-single-digits.” The typical conceptualization of anchors is changing, he continues, as it no longer has to be a department store. For instance, a beauty salon in the mall that may have trouble hitting its own revenue-per-person marks, but drives considerable traffic to nearby stores, is a keeper.

Densification brings opportunity. Urban densification provides investment opportunities for retail assets, says Midwood Investment & Development COO Mehul J. Patel. Midwood, for example, is actively getting out of the shopping center space in suburban areas through both straight sell-offs and 1031 exchanges, and pushing that capital into downtown mixed-use retail. “We believe there is real future growth in downtown retail, and we see high street retail as being most resilient,” Patel says.

There are two types of consumers in the U.S., and not in the way you think. Americans’ shopping behaviors differ from region to region, according to Ami Ziff, director of national leasing at investment firm Time Equities. Those who live in the gateway cities can shop at their convenience, surrounded by plenty of store choices and easily reached by e-commerce fulfillment centers. But in tertiary markets (and even in some secondary ones), consumers may have to drive an hour to get to the nearest strip center, and supply chain logistics have not yet been sufficiently built up to reach them through online delivery. Time Equities is working to reach the latter consumer, acquiring strip centers and enclosed malls and rehabbing them with aesthetic and experiential features that appeal to specific communities. Customizing a property to fit local community needs is key, Coradino agrees. “Malls used to be homogenous 10 years ago. We are finally past that. We are trying to make them unique to their communities,” he says.

Tenants get more involved. Retail tenants are becoming more actively involved in the deal negotiation process, taking on what Rizzuto calls “internal brokerage roles.” When faced with high rents, they are increasingly running demographics studies to ensure their rent outlay is worth the expense. “Retailers are being more diligent in controlling spend,” Williams says.

http://m.nreionline.com/retail/five-takeaways-icsc-new-york-national-deal-making-conference-day-two?NL=NREI-21&Issue=NREI-21_20161207_NREI-21_211&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1&utm_rid=CPG09000005958028&utm_campaign=7837&utm_medium=email&elq2=9017a35633bc44b0b90865ddd2689b50

[nicheretailstrategies]

04/2016 | Retail rents could rise 4% in 2016, led by class-A malls, urban centers

RETAIL DIVE  |  DAPHNE HOWARD  | APRIL 5, 2016

Overall retail rents in the U.S. could rise 4% this year, especially at class-A malls and urban centers, according to real estate firm CBRE cited by the National Real Estate Investor.

Last year, asking rents grew 2% and effective rents rose 2.2%, according to Reis Inc., a New York City research firm.

According to Reis, the average rental rate in U.S. cities is $20.09, with the vacancy rate at 10% in 80 metropolitan U.S. markets.

Dive Insight:

The National Real Estate Investor paints a picture of a slowly recovering retail real estate market, with pockets of high or low rents in the U.S. depending on variables like supply and demand and local economies. For example, cities like Denver and San Francisco are healthy markets for real estate owners, with growth for the year projected to be in the double digits. Both markets are seeing a influx of demand with a small amount of supply at the moment.

Rising rent is hardly good news for most retailers, which already contend with thin margins. But in some areas it is a sign of a healthy economy, which is key to sales.

Landlords are also getting the message that customer experience is key to retail success these days, and many are poised to help retailers in the effort to ensure that their locations attract shoppers. Successful landlords understand retailers' need to provide customers with a positive experience, even supplying space in malls for indoor or outdoor farmers markets to meet Americans’ increasing demand for locally grown and organic produce.

Of course, the needs vary by market, said Jeff Havsy, CBRE’s chief economist for Americas research and managing director of Econometrics Advisors, in an interview with National Real Estate Investor.

“There is a tremendous amount of spending power throughout the income distribution,” Havsy said. “All these people want to rush to the high end, but if that is not who lives around you, then it is a problem.”

Recommended Reading

National Real Estate Investor: Retail Rents Could Increase by 4.0 Percent in 2016

[nicheretailstrategies]

12/2015 | Retail REIT Acquisition Activity Slows

NREI  |  JENNIFER DUELL POPOVIC  | DECEMBER 10, 2015

The fourth quarter always brings a flurry of investment sales activity market players try to close deals before year end and retail REITs will probably close a few deals. But their acquisition activity this year is down significantly compared to previous years, and overall deal volume isn’t as robust as experts forecasted.

Year-to-date, retail sales transactions totaled nearly $59 billion, a 10 percent increase from the previous year, according toQ3 2015 Investment Outlook from commercial real estate services firm JLL.

“Retail investment sales volumes are not as strong as we expected going into 2015, and retail REITs have sat on the sidelines,” says Margaret Caldwell, a managing director in JLL’s retail capital markets group, adding that REITs haven’t been big sellers either. “They’re focused on the top markets, and we are seeing more activity in secondary and tertiary markets. Owners of core retail assets in top markets don’t want to sell because they can’t find suitable replacements.”

Increased price resistance

As of early December, REITs accounted for only 22 percent of retail property acquisitions, according to Real Capital Analytics (RCA), a New York City-based research firm. That’s quite a drop from the 33 percent of acquisitions REITs closed in 2014. In fact, retail REITs haven’t been this inactive since 2011, when they accounted for roughly 17 percent of deals.

Every other investor segment was more active this year than in 2014. Private investors, equity funds and cross-border investors accounted for nearly 10 percent more activity this year than last year, according to RCA.

“Properties are trading, but investors are being very careful,” Caldwell says, adding that there’s a bit of a disconnect between buyers and sellers.

Without question, pricing is part of the reason why investment sales momentum has slowed.

“Our numbers are showing some price resistance,” says Jim Costello, senior vice president with RCA.

Retail cap rates have been mostly stable over the last year, with no more than 10 basis point swings in any month, according to RCA data. Right now, cap rates are hovering around 6.6 percent, at about the same low levels seen in 2007.

Prejudiced against power centers

Investors have also shown a clear preference for urban street retail and grocery-anchored centers. These properties represented the majority of deals in 2015, signaling investors’ desire to take advantage of retailer demand in urban cores and a need for stable cash flow.

As a result, investment in urban properties has taken up an increased proportion of transactions (nearly 22 percent year-to-date), with investment volumes totaling near $10 billion, according to JLL. Meanwhile, investment in grocery-anchored assets makes up 20 percent of total retail investment volume to date, reaching nearly $9 billion, an 8.5 percent increase over last year. Grocery-anchored assets in primary markets are the darlings of investors, with a 57 percent jump in investment year-over-year.

Investors aren’t as keen on power centers, however. They accounted for just 7 percent of deal activity, according to JLL and RCA.

Costello points out that sales of power centers have declined every quarter this year, and sales were down 47 percent through the third quarter.

“They are certainly not a favored property type because it’s a format that has seen better days,” he notes. “The economic winds have been moving against power centers, and they’ll have to find ways to adapt and change if they want to survive.”

He contends that power centers are the property type that will suffer the most fallout from consumers’ increasing use of e-commerce.

“The category killers that anchor power centers are the ones that have been ‘disintermediated’ by the Internet,” he says. “The value proposition they offer—convenience and selection—can be found online.”

http://m.nreionline.com/retail/retail-reit-acquisition-activity-slows