- JPMorgan Says the Stock Sell-Off Is Overdone and Recession Risk Is Overblown “Financial markets should be able to recover from the recent sell-off with the help of the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government, according to JPMorgan Chase. The firm believes stocks have priced in a worst-case scenario that has not yet come to fruition. With fiscal and momentary stimulus, the risk/reward is ‘improving.’” (CNBC)
- WeWork closes a NYC location after employee tests positive for coronavirus "WeWork has temporarily closed the offices of its Meetup business after an employee tested positive to coronavirus. The employee has not been in the office at 12 East 49th Street since last Thursday, and started showing symptoms on Friday, according to an internal memo shared with The Real Deal." (The Real Deal)
- Can Architecture Slow Gentrification? Restore Oakland Wants to Show That it Can “Even now, seven months after it officially opened, Restore Oakland’s ambitious home makeover in the Fruitvale district is a work in progress. The theater-type marquee still announces long-gone tenants. The ground floor’s large restaurant space is only now coming alive. One corner of the exterior awaits a large mural.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Reinsurance Costs Are Going Up. Here’s What It Means for Property Owners “Here’s a grim note for the budget: the cost of insuring real estate is going up. Again. A sure sign: Reinsurance companies — the ones that sell insurance to insurance companies — have increased rates between 10% to 60% for insurance companies in South Florida, local insurance experts said since 2018 . Blame big losses in Hurricane Irma, Michael and Maria. That means property owners of commercial and residential real estate near the coasts will likely see their insurance rates increase.” (Miami Herald)
- Your Open-Floor Office Could Help Spread Coronavirus “Cubicles and private offices have made way for open floors, where a sneeze or cough can circulate uninterrupted. Companies have removed physical barriers between employees, encouraging them to socialize as much as possible. Between 2018 and 2019, the average office space per seat in North America declined by 14.3% to 195.6 square feet, according to brokerage firm JLL’s 2020 Occupancy Benchmarking Report.” (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)
- Coronavirus Prompts Colleges to Send Students Home “Colleges across the country are scrambling to keep the novel coronavirus off campus by taking unprecedented measures such as moving classes online, cancelling all group events and sending students home—possibly for the rest of spring semester. Harvard University Tuesday morning told students to move out of their campus housing no later than Sunday and not to return until further notice. Classes will be taught online remotely. The school, which has no confirmed cases of the virus, has a regularly scheduled spring break next week.” (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)
- Certain Real Estate Companies Are Embracing the Industry Disruption “In business, it’s often said that companies must either adapt or die when it comes to the wave disruption that’s affecting all sectors. That said, the same narrative can undoubtedly be applied to the real estate sector where change can move at a snail’s pace at times, but some companies are embracing the disruption wholeheartedly. It didn’t seem like long ago when the internet changed the typical real estate transaction, allowing prospective buyers and sellers to perform their own research as opposed to relying on an agent to guide their real estate decisions.” (ETF Trends)
- Chicago Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Cushman & Wakefield Lays Off Workers in Restructuring “Commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield laid off an undisclosed number of employees at its Chicago headquarters last week as part of a restructuring that the company said is not related to a slowdown in the global economy. The company confirmed the layoffs but declined to say how many workers were let go, or identify which of its offices were impacted. There were a significant number of layoffs in Chicago, particularly in communications, research and marketing, according to people familiar with the situation.” (Chicago Tribune)
- How Outdoor Voices, a Start-Up Darling, Imploded “In meetings, Mr. Drexler would quiz employees, expressing frustration when they couldn’t calculate things like profit margins on the fly, according to four people who witnessed the interactions. The exchanges prompted dismissive ‘OK boomer’-style text messages among the workers, two of the people said. By 2019, Ms. Haney was telling colleagues that Mr. Drexler was old and out of touch, according to two former employees.” (The New York Times)
- NYC’s Property Tax Reforms Are Pitting Homeowners Against Renters “New York City hopes to reform its byzantine property tax system, but the changes it has pitched so far will mostly benefit the owners of one- to three-family homes, rather than renters and commercial building owners. While many homeowners will be thrilled to get lower tax bills, real estate groups, the NAACP and several other activist and good-government groups feel that the proposals don’t address the biggest problems in the city’s tax system.” (Commercial Observer)
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