Weekly Perl: A Commercial Real Estate News Recap
CRE Lending Rebounds as Banks Navigate Distress Risks
According to Bisnow, banks are reentering the commercial real estate market after a multi-year pullback. Loan origination volumes hit $227B in the first nine months of 2025. That marks an 85% jump over last year and is nearly back to 2019 levels, according to Newmark.
Multifamily assets led the surge. These properties received about half of the loans originated in Q2. Even the office sector—largely avoided in recent years—is seeing renewed lending activity...
Chicken wars heat up with latest Raising Cane’s expansion
Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers is ending the year with a surge of new stores.
The Plano, Texas-based chain said it plans to open 14 restaurants across the country in December, bringing its brick-and-mortar presence to more than 950 locations. There has been “a steady rhythm of grand openings throughout 2025” as Raising Cane’s “continues to grow its national footprint,” according to the company. It will have rolled out nearly 100 restaurants this year, according to a spokeswoman for the chain...
CoStar: Retail vacancy rates to rise in first half of 2026
Retail construction starts have fallen sharply amid rising costs.
That’s according to a forecast from CoStar, a global provider of online real estate marketplaces company, information and analytics in the property markets. Following positive demand and a slowdown in store closures during the third quarter of 2025, the near-term U.S. retail outlook includes a rise in vacancy rates through the first half of 2026, peaking under 4.4% in the latter half of the year...
Papa Johns to open 52 locations across mid-Atlantic
Papa Johns plans to open 52 restaurants in the next five years across greater Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., through a franchisee as the global pizza chain reduces its percentage of corporate ownership.
Papa John's International, a chain that does business as Papa Johns and calls itself the world's third-largest pizza delivery company, said another franchisee took ownership of 85 of its shops around the mid-Atlantic region. The chain, based in Atlanta, Georgia, and Louisville, Kentucky, has about 6,000 restaurants in roughly 50 countries and territories...
How Passion and Purpose Are Fueling El Pollo Loco’s Next Chapter
El Pollo Loco CEO Liz Williams had been a fan of the brand years before becoming part of the team.
She lives in Southern California, where the fast casual is based. The executive also previously worked for Taco Bell, which has a corporate office minutes away from El Pollo Loco’s Support Center.
When Williams received the call to consider the opportunity, she had the same question on her mind as everyone else...
Retail Rebound Drives Discount Store Expansion Nationwide
After a slow start to 2025 with bankruptcies and weak demand, retailers rebounded strongly in the third quarter, reports WSJ. According to CoStar, tenants absorbed 5.5M more SF than they vacated—a sharp contrast to earlier quarters when closures outpaced openings.
The retail vacancy rate remained tight at 4.3%, thanks in part to minimal new construction. With few new builds in the pipeline, expanding retailers are increasingly snapping up second-generation space left behind by struggling brands...
Dollar Tree posts strong Q3 on heels of ‘record’ Halloween sales, lifts guidance
Dollar Tree Inc. reported an upbeat third quarter that beat Street estimates and raised its full-year earnings outlook as its multi-price format continues to attract more higher-income shoppers.
On the company's earnings call, CEO Mike Creedon said that Dollar Tree had 3 million more households shop with the chain during the third quarter of this compared to last year.
“Approximately 60% of these incremental shoppers came from high-income households, those earning over $100,000," he told analysts...
American Eagle sales rise on strong performance by Aerie; raises Q4 outlook
American Eagle Outfitters Inc. sustained its momentum during the third quarter as the company delivered earnings and “record” sales that topped Wall Street expectations.
The apparel retailer also raised its full-year forecast and sounded a confident note about the holiday season, saying its “strong momentum” had continued into the fourth quarter...
