Commercial Title Insights — CRE Edition | August 2026
A monthly briefing for Michigan commercial real estate attorneys, lenders, brokers, and investors.
CRE Market and Deal Pulse
Metro Detroit Industrial: Absorption Goes Negative While Four More Spec Projects Break Ground
CBRE's Q2 2026 Detroit industrial figures show net absorption of negative 674,544 square feet, ending a four quarter positive streak, with vacancy up 20 basis points to 3.6% on large tenant move-outs. Meanwhile 2.8 million square feet is under construction across 10 projects, up 59.7% year over year, and four of the seven active speculative projects started this quarter. Softer absorption plus more speculative supply gives buyers and tenants real negotiating room.
Source: CBRE, Detroit Industrial Figures Q2 2026, July 8, 2026
National Warehouse Construction Is Up 18% as Developers Call the Bottom
More than 305 million square feet of warehouse space was under construction nationally in Q2 2026, up 18% year over year, while national industrial vacancy slipped 10 basis points to 6.9%. Developers have concluded the demand slump is over and are taking speculative risk again. Michigan's I-94 and I-96 corridors typically track national industrial sentiment with a two to three quarter lag.
Source: ConstructConnect, citing Cushman & Wakefield Q2 2026 data
Retail Expansion Plans Are Feeding the Next Wave of Net-Lease and Build-to-Suit Deals
Sleep Country Canada is entering the U.S. through a $702 million acquisition of Sleep Number, and Five Below, Ross Stores, and TJX's Sierra brand have each laid out multi-thousand-store growth plans. That converts into net-lease and build-to-suit demand, much of it in secondary Michigan markets.
Transaction Spotlight
Details anonymized to protect client confidentiality.
This month's spotlight is an acquisition that never moved the real estate by deed. The property was owned by an LLC, and rather than sell the property, the deal was structured around the purchase of one member's interest in the company. The funding came from a cash-out refinance of the commercial property the LLC already owned. Proceeds borrowed against the company's own asset paid for the membership interest.
That is really two transactions running together. One is the purchase of a membership interest, governed by the operating agreement and the assignment documents. The other is a loan transaction secured by the real estate, with a lender that needs a policy on the parcel. Different documents, different parties, different mechanics, closed alongside each other. It is a creative answer to a common problem: how to acquire an entity that owns commercial property when a straight sale of the real estate is not what the parties want. At Midwest Title Commercial, we have handled transactions like this before, so we are prepared and ready when one comes across the desk.
CRE Title and Closing Insight
Family and Entity Transfers of Michigan Commercial Property Uncap the Taxable Value
Michigan caps annual growth in a property's taxable value, but a transfer of ownership uncaps it. Taxable value resets to state equalized value the following year. The exemptions that let close relatives transfer property without triggering that reset are written for residential real property. A father-to-son transfer of a retail strip, a small industrial building, or an office condo is a transfer of ownership, and it uncaps. That is an expensive surprise precisely because it lands on assets held a long time, where taxable value has been capped well below market for a decade.
The entity route is not the workaround people assume either. Michigan treats the transfer of a controlling interest in an entity that owns real property as a transfer of ownership, and Michigan courts have applied that even where the parties on both sides were related. So never underwrite a Michigan acquisition, a refinance proforma, or a family succession off the current tax bill. Pull the SEV and the taxable value, model the uncapped number, and price the delta. Confirm the analysis with the client's tax counsel or the local assessor before anyone relies on it.
Sources: MCL 211.27a, Transfer of ownership and uncapping · Miller Canfield, Uncapping exemption for residential property
From Dave's Desk
Three conferences in ten days this July: the Michigan Land Title Association's summer conference at Boyne, the State Bar's Real Property Law Section summer conference on Mackinac Island, and the ALTA Large Agents Conference right after.
The Real Property Law Section week is where the Michigan commercial bar works through the issues that land on your files six months later. The other two are where the title side decides what it can insure, and how fast. I came back with a list of things to change here: turn time, process, and getting ahead of the recurring problems like access, survey, and entity authority. All of it points the same direction, which is being a faster, sharper partner for the attorneys, lenders, and brokers who bring us Michigan commercial work.
— Dave
Work With Our Commercial Desk
When you need title and closing services for a Michigan commercial transaction — acquisition, refinance, development, or workout — we handle the complexity from commitment through closing. Reach out for a quote, a pre-deal title walk-through, or a second set of eyes on a commitment you've already received.
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About Midwest Title and Dave Nykanen
Midwest Title's Commercial Division handles Michigan's most complex commercial closings — acquisitions, refinances, construction loans, multi-parcel assemblages, 1031 replacement legs, distressed asset sales, and large-scale development deals. Founded and led by Dave Nykanen, a licensed Michigan real estate attorney with three decades of commercial real estate experience as both a practicing attorney and a title agent, the division gives CRE attorneys, lenders, brokers, and investors a Michigan title partner who reads commitments the way you read them — as deal documents, not paperwork.
Contact:commercial@mwtmi.com | Midwest Title | Commercial Division | Michigan-Licensed Title Insurance Agent
This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
