Video Index: 0:00 My tour of Sofi Stadium 01:28 Today’s sponsor: BFC Funding – specializing in SBA loans 02:34 New listing: Chino Village Center 03:24 National Retail Federation’s retail predictions for 2022 04:23 Huge rent increases taking place nationwide 05:36 Placer.ai’s retailer comeback predictions of the year

Hello Investors! A few weeks ago, I took a tour of Sofi Stadium, home to the Super Bowl Champs, the Los Angeles Rams. Sofi stadium cost $5 billion dollars to build, and was completed in September 2020 and built on top of the former Hollywood Park racetrack. It has transformed the surrounding area in Inglewood and has sent commercial real estate prices in the area soaring. During the tour, I got to learn about the history of the stadium and also see the inside of the Corona Beach club luxury suite. At the conclusion of the tour, I got to run through the same tunnel that players go through at the start of the game, and even got to try my hand at throwing a football at targets and kicking a field goal. Some fun facts about the stadium – did you know that the circular display board hanging above the field is one of the most advanced in the world and weighs 2 million pounds?  And it requires 3 million pounds of equipment to hold it up! Another fact I found fascinating is that the roof of Sofi is lined with 27,000 LED lights, each the size of a hockey puck, which turn the roof into a 6 and a half acre TV screen.  These can be lit up to show different graphics, specifically to entertain passengers in the airplanes flying in and out of LAX to see.   I was invited on this tour by the sponsor of today’s newsletter, BFC Funding.  BFC specializes in SBA loans, helping small businesses purchase real estate and get up and running with as little as 10% down.  If you or someone you know is looking for an SBA loan, please contact Lee Kleinman at 818-438-0828 or lee@bfcfunding.com.  Thank you to Lee and BFC for such a fun experience at Sofi. New Listing:  Chino Village Center Chino Village consists of three buildings: A freestanding Wienerschnitzel drive-thru with a new 10 year lease extension A three tenant building with Jiffy Lube and a corporate lease to Subway A 10 unit shop building that is home to many local tenants. But what’s unique about this property is an approximate 2.5 acre piece of developable land that is currently used as a strawberry farm.  This land is zoned as neighborhood commercial, which allows for many different commercial uses such as retail, restaurant, or office. We have just gone out to market with this property for a week, and interest is very strong, with already a few offers received.  We are priced at $8,995,000 for the entire property, which includes the building and the land.  Please contact me with any questions. The National Retail Federation’s prediction for retail sales in 2022 The National Retail Federation (NRF), is predicting that retail sales in the U.S. will slow down in 2022, due to inflation and the war in Ukraine. The NRF is forecasting that in-store retail sales will only increase by 6-8% this year, compared to a record 14% increase last year. Keep in mind that that number is a bit misleading, since it tracks an increase versus 2020, which was the first year of COVID. However, the NRF predicts that online retail sales will grow by 11-13%. Even with less economic stimulus, the NRF believes that the U.S. economy will continue to grow steadily over the year, due to lower unemployment and stronger wage growth. This growth should cause the GDP to expand by 3.5% in 2022. The NRF’s chief economist believes that inflation will continue to be a problem well into 2023 and that the Ukraine conflict will cause economic uncertainty for the world economy. However, they believe that long term, spending growth of goods and services will end up at around 3%.   The crazy rising rental prices of residential real estate The average price for renting a home in the U.S. went up by 0.6% from January to February 2022. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that’s the biggest one-month increase in rent prices since 1987. Prices are going up as pandemic-era rent freezes and eviction protections expire. Landlords are trying to recoup the significant revenue losses that they suffered when people couldn’t or didn’t pay rent during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the number of households increased by 1.48 million last year, as young adults moved out of their parents’ homes and people with roommates looked to move out on their own.  Building supply chain disruptions and price increases for building materials have contributed to increased construction costs and therefore less supply to accommodate these new home seekers. Closer to home, the University of Southern California anticipates apartment dwellers in the region will see triple-digit rent increases over the next two years. By the end of 2023, they expect rents to go up by more than $200 in L.A. and the Inland Empire, $300 in Ventura County, and over $400 in Orange County. So for many of you who are owners of rental property, this could be good news for you in the form of increasing rents. Retailer comeback stories of 2022? owned supermarket giant, thinks so. Aldi is piloting age-estimation software at its first no-contact shop in southeast London, in the UK. This store is like an Amazon Go o utlet in the U.S., where consumers skip the check-out lines. An app will recognize when they walk out of the store with an item and charge them for the goods. The new Aldi Placer.ai uses anonymous cell phone data to track where you and millions of Americans are driving and shopping. They recently released a report that discussed several brands that people had written off that are rebounding and having a resurgence in foot traffic. Here are a few brands that Placer thinks could do surprisingly well this year: Staples This one is surprising to me because it’s so much easier to buy office supplies on Amazon, and I’ve seen a lot of office supply stores closing recently. But Placer’s data shows that foot traffic toward the end of 2021 was increasing by the month and December 2021’s store visits were actually higher than December 2019. AMC AMC movie theaters have faced some headwinds from both streaming services and the pandemic. However, reductions in COVID cases combined with a number of blockbuster action movies that people want to see on the big screen may make AMC a comebackstory. This one isn’t surprising to me, since I think we’re all rooting for the movie industry to come back – especially the Wall Street Bets people. Party City As COVID hopefully fades away, Placer is seeing Party City positioned for a comeback this year. As things open back up, Party City is opening over 100 new stores with overhauled product assortments that are already showing promising sales. I think this is a good call. Like going to the movies, I think people are relieved to be able to attend parties again. Macy’s Macy’s is next on Placer’s list. Although their store visits are down versus two years ago, Placer thinks that with strategic closing of underperforming stores, they have been able to increase their number of visits per location, which is an indication of possible turning things around. I hope you enjoyed this week’s newsletter and learned something. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time!

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