What do DaVita Dialysis Centers, a tribe of diminutive people in South America and your 1031 exchange into a single tenant NNN property have in common?
Let me start with this, do you remember buying your plane ticket at your local retail center where your trusted travel agent was located? Yes, it's been a while, perhaps some 15 years since they dominated the landscape of retail spaces. Now, you don't go buy a paper ticket next to the Starbucks, you buy it on your laptop at the Starbucks.
Do you remember the more recent local Blockbuster Video store or Hollywood Video store where you walked in a few times per week to rent your VHS (ok, that's too far back, insert DVD for you youngsters). Now on-demand video and Hulu reign supreme.
Were you at the Howard Hughes Center mall last night in the Border's book store which is having a store closing sale? Why this travesty? Think Amazon, Kindle and Ipad magazine e-scriptions.
Ok Mario, what's the theme here? maybe... Technology kills things!
...and it kills things in relation to your commercial real estate investment.
One of the hot single tenant NNN property classes for sale are the dialysis centers that are popping up all over the map - think DaVita Dialysis as the Kleenex in this category. Hundreds of new DaVita centers are being built in local neighborhoods to service the needs of patients with poorly functioning kidneys typically an effect of long term diabetes disease. The investment concept around the sale of these NNN investments is that the centers will be well frequented by their base of committed customers for decades on out.
I was explaining my understanding of this to my muse Julie this morning in the car and she recalled Ecuadorian dwarfs in South America. (please hang on, there is a circular connection coming soon)
Apparently in the last few days, an article was posted about this tribe in the Andes where the genetic make up of the tribe makes cancer and diabetes virtually non-existent. So, the medical research world has invaded the little tribe to find the medical fountain of youth (or at least the fountain of anti-carcinogen) When (not if) this gene is isolated and when the drug company gets FDA approval, some of these ailments will be eliminated or reduced.
I may be overly focused on my favorite group of people - the commercial investors out there - and my concern is that there may be empty DaVita Dialysis centers on the landscape one day in the future - or at least some renegotiated leases because their business will slide.
Therefore, as a suggestion for your next real estate investment move, stay clear of over-valued NNN deals that may not be the hot investment vehicle of the near future. Instead, consider the basics of coffee, the local Burger King and my favorite - Taco Bell - as a healthy investment alternative. In my opinion, as healthy or not as we seem to be becoming, the US appetite will always crave the Whopper.
No comments:
Post a Comment