ACQUISITIONS CRITERIA

Shopping Malls

The investment and management of shopping malls is one of VCM’s key business operations. Introducing a better value proposition for both consumers and retailers, VCM brings the local people with a one-stop shopping and leisure experience. Building upon the successful investment and operation in Dalian, China, VCM continues expending its business operations in the Asia-Pacific and North America.

Today’s shoppers are looking for more than just what’s just available on a website. Malls are still considered a destination, but it’s because they now offer amenities, experiences and entertainment to enhance the shopping experience. They are now not only anchored by department stores but with popular restaurants, bars, salons, cinemas, and fitness centers.

VCM is seeking to acquire high-quality stabilized shopping centers, as well as properties that have redevelopment, renovation or re-tenanting potential to leverage our unique investment abilities, operating expertise, and industry relationships. We are seeking shopping centers that meet the criteria: secondary and tertiary markets on the East Coast of the United States with strong national or regional anchors.

OFFICES

Fueled by a combination of global, national, and local capital sources, liquidity remains abundant, surging above $18 billion in 2018. Private investors have largely focused attention on offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, where cap rates can reach the high-4 percent range. Meanwhile, institutional buyers are more interested in trophy assets and locations in Midtown Manhattan, where prices per square foot can exceed $1,000 in some cases. VCM will remain the attention of value-add offices, where building improvements can provide dramatic upside, particularly where rezoning allows for much bigger floor plans than was previously allowed on the lots.

Since September 2017, VCM has inspected over five office buildings in Manhattan and plans to finalize the purchase of the office property with up to $60 million by 2019.

HOTELS

New York City is one of the world's most popular travel destinations. Notably, New York City is the largest market in the United States for international travelers, who tend to stay longer and spend more money. According to Smith Travel Research (STR), a third-party data vendor that provides hotel industry data, there are currently over 115,530 hotel rooms in over 630 hotel properties in the five boroughs of New York City. Just over 80 percent of these rooms are in Manhattan. Over the past decade, the New York City hotel market has been in the midst of a substantial growth in supply, with 42 percent growth in new hotel rooms since 2010.

More contemporary, concept-driven boutique hotels are developing with a stellar performance. New brands with innovative ideas can also create the need for investment solutions. VCM therefore monitors trends in the hotel market closely and will focus on the proportion of boutique hotels in the overall investment portfolio over time.
 

apartment buildings

New York City’s housing market is dominated by rental properties.  Many of the city’s residents are unable to make the transition to home ownership due to high prices.  Even those who have the financial means to buy continue to remain in the rental market longer than intended, due to the low inventory of properties available for sale.  As a result, the home ownership rate in New York City is 32%, much lower than the national average of 63%, indicating that the Manhattan residential rental market will remain stable in the long term.  

Hence, VCM’s presence in the housing market in the Greater New York area will primarily focus on the acquisition and management of apartment buildings for the residential rental market. New York City’s real estate market woke up during the first quarter of 2019. Landlords were feeling confident. Instability in the sales arena, coupled with the seasonal increase in demand, caused the vacancy rate to fall to the lowest level in nearly four years. As a result, many chose to raise asking rents slightly - but continued to lean on incentives to attract clientele at these new higher prices.
 

Parking facilities

Parking facilities now present intriguing commercial real estate investments with their low cost of capital and strong underlying fundamental. A well-located urban parking facility offers stable, long-term revenue growth. This class of assets is becoming an important part of many diversified real estate portfolios. The ability to significantly reduce operating costs through automation as well as change parking rates for a short period are just some of the advantages of investing in parking facilities.

Building upon VCM’s expertise in the parking facilities business, VCM will introduce its innovative smart parking system to the parking facilities in the Greater New York area. The smart parking system, consisting of a smart charge system of automatic camera, license plate recognition, automatic display, and voice prompt technology, will improve the existing parking facilities while introducing a revolutionary solution to the urban traffic and everyday parking challenge.

Golf courses

It is estimated that there are more than 17,000 golf courses in the U.S. Between 1986 and 2005, more than 4,000 new golf facilities were established. Yet the traditional business model of standalone golf courses may not be able to meet the needs of a growing market size of an ageing population and of the dynamic market trend.

Therefore, VCM plans to acquire and improve existing golf courses in the Virginia, Florida, and Southern California regions through remodeling and re-configuration to take advantage of the landscapes as well as upgrade the available services to provide customers community-like golf courses with a range of amenities. 

warehouses

With the rapid expansion of e-commerce, the market has witnessed a substantial growing demand for warehouse space in the industrial real estate sector. According to Costar, one-third of all industrial leases over 500,000 square feet have been for e-commerce purposes since 2010. As for market size, Forrester Research projects that U.S. e-commerce sales will surpass $400 billion by 2019. In addition, the demand drivers of e-commerce are omnipresent and only gaining momentum.

There are three main categories of industrial real estate market, namely manufacturing, warehouse and Flex/R&D. VCM and it's in depth understanding of the logistical complexity will expand its business footprints in the industrial real estate market with its future warehouses investment and management in the U.S.