Market Insights

Pacific Retail Capital Partners’ acquisition of Lakewood Center in Southern California made headlines. Their plan: transform a 2-million-sq.-ft. shopping center into a walkable district blending retail, residential, entertainment, wellness, and green space. We’ve all heard this pitch before—blah blah blah, the “next generation mixed-use destination.” But here’s the real question: how do we take a glossy concept like this and make it work right here in Janesville?

Lee Enterprises, a prominent American media company, needed to downsize their office space for the Lake Geneva Regional News. The goal was to sell their existing 4,150 square foot office and find a smaller, more efficient space for their employees, all while maintaining a strong market presence.

The latest Rock Ready Index report is in for Q2 2025, and the numbers tell a compelling story for Rock County! From a new 238,000 SF industrial development to steady residential market activity and low unemployment rates, the economic momentum in our community is strong.

We talk a lot about warehouse space, new buildings, and job creation—but there’s a quieter industrial need that’s gaining traction fast: industrial outside storage (IOS).

The south side of Janesville—once a powerhouse of automotive manufacturing—might soon step into the future as a potential home for data center development. In a bold and strategic move, the City of Janesville has announced plans to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) to developers interested in transforming the former General Motors and JATCO sites into a next-generation economic engine. This news, first reported by The Gazette, is a significant pivot from the industrial past that defined these properties for decades. Once humming with the sound of assembly lines, these sites are now being eyed by developers for their infrastructure, scale, and redevelopment potential—key ingredients for data center operations.

As economic clouds gather—driven by tariffs, shifting monetary policy, and fragile consumer sentiment—the commercial real estate sector faces new headwinds. But the industrial real estate sector continues to show staying power.

If you’ve ever road-tripped through Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Missouri, or Colorado and stumbled across Buc-ee’s, you know it’s not just a gas station—it’s a destination. And now, that same mega-convenience store experience is heading to... Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

In our hyper-connected world, data centers are the unsung heroes powering everything from cloud computing to streaming services. As businesses and individuals generate massive amounts of data, the demand for data center real estate has surged, creating both opportunities and challenges in the commercial real estate (CRE) sector.

As we near the second half of 2025, the US retail CRE sector is standing firm—resilient in the face of market disruption, redefined by experience-driven and mixed-use formats, and regionally-driven, with growth clustered in suburban and Sun Belt markets.

While the national economy has shown uneven performance entering 2025, Rock County's Q1 economic dashboard tells a more optimistic story.