Feb 23

APG Broker Spotlight: David Divine

The brokers at APG are the heart and soul of our team.  To shine a light on the professionals that make up our staff, we are doing a regular series we call our Broker Spotlight.

Today’s spotlight is on David Divine, Director of Commercial Investment Sales.  Read on to find out more about how David can help you.

Where do you see the market going right now?

Throughout 2021 and the first half of 2022 we experienced historically low cap rates in the capital markets, driven primarily by incredibly high demand from buyers who wanted to enter and own property in the Raleigh-Durham market.  A lot of owners sold during this time due to compressed cap rates/high prices.  Multi-family and Industrial properties in particular achieved the lowest cap rates, followed by Medical Office and Retail assets.  Traditional office is not in demand due to higher-than-normal vacancy rates with companies shifting to work from home or hybrid schedules.

Sellers in the height of the market from 2021 thru Q2 2022, in turn, became buyers needing to do 1031 tax deferred exchanges, which further increased the demand for investment property, thus keeping cap rates compressed thru Q3 2022.   Due to the FED’s continued interest rate hikes starting in June 2022, we have seen demand decrease and activity cool down in Q4 2022 and 2023.  Cap rates have not increased as much as was expected, but we do expect them to gradually increase some until interest rates come back down.  The greater Raleigh area has performed better than most of the country due to continued demand for investment properties in our area.  This has kept cap rates compressed in Raleigh-Durham, in spite of the interest rate hikes, thus it is still a good time to be a seller in the Triangle area!

What Clients do you work with?

I represent with both sellers and buyers in the acquisition and disposition of income producing investment properties and land.   The majority of my clients are local to the Triangle, and the state of North Carolina.

What would you consider your trophy transaction?

Representing the seller of 1814 Westchester Drive in High Point, NC a 105,000 SF single tenant medical office building leased to Wake Forest Baptist Health, now Atrium Health.  The buyer was Global Medical REIT.  The acquisition price in 2019 was $24.75M, or $236/SF.  This was an institutional grade transaction due to the value and size of the asset, and the buyer being a real estate investment trust (REIT).

What should a potential client know about you?

Being a commercial real estate advisor in Raleigh for 25 years, and facilitating close to $1 Billion in transactions, has provided me with a deep knowledge of local and statewide commercial real estate markets.  In 2012, I shifted my focus and specialty to investment property sales.  I have been the Director of Investment Sales at APG Advisors (formerly Colliers Int) since 2017.  I have been the top producer in the Raleigh office in 2014, 2019, 2020, & 2021, and runner-up in 2022.  I achieved the esteemed Society of Office & Industrial Realtors (SIOR) designation and membership in 2021.

Whether you are actively seeking to place capital for acquiring an asset(s), or you are in the market to sell an asset, please consider reaching out to David for his vast local and regional expertise.