- A Pandemic Space Race: Self-Storage Roars Back “Before the pandemic, the industry averaged 3.5 percent annual growth for more than 30 years, said Roger Morales, the head of commercial real estate acquisitions for the investment firm KKR. After a drop in the first half of 2020, self-storage has roared back, buoyed by Americans carving out space for home offices or classrooms, as well as those who left urban centers to ride out the pandemic at their parents’ homes. Occupancy rates and rents are at record highs.” (The New York Times)
- Hines, Korean Penson Fund Bet Big on San Francisco Comeback “Real-estate developer Hines Interests LP and a South Korean pension fund are planning a $2.5 billion-plus office and apartment project in San Francisco, a vote of confidence in one of the markets most upended by the pandemic. Hines and the National Pension Service of Korea on Friday bought PG&E Corp.’s office campus for $800 million, the developer said. They plan to redevelop the site’s two office buildings and build a Foster + Partners-designed tower with around 600 rental apartments.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- U.S. Investors Hit by Evergrande’s Potential Collapse “Major U.S. investors took a hit because of the market uncertainty caused by Evergrande.” (Bisnow)
- Google Plans to Buy New York Office Building for $2.1 Billion “Google already leases the building and said it would exercise an option to purchase the St. John’s Terminal building in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan. In a blog post, CFO Ruth Porat said the building would ‘serve as the anchor’ of its new campus in the area. The deal is a positive sign for New York as it emerges from the pandemic even as major employers including Google have postponed their return-to-office dates.” (CNBC)
- Startup Firms Help Home Buyers Win Bidding Wars with All-Cash Offers “In today’s frenetic housing market, buyers who take out mortgages are struggling to compete with those putting up all cash. Cash offers are more attractive because there is less chance the deal will fall through or be delayed due to financing issues. Now, a number of startups are offering programs to help level the playing field. Some of these companies front buyers the cash to buy their homes outright, while others buy houses directly on a buyer’s behalf and then sell them to the buyer. The programs often target homeowners who need to buy a house before selling their current one.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- Chuck Schumer Calls for $80B in Public Housing Funding “Senate Majority Leader Schumer cited capital needs for NYCHA in excess of $40 billion.” (The Real Deal)
- How Office Owners are Girding for COVID Long Term, What Tenants Expect “Several months ago, around late spring, it was possible, if you squinted through rose-colored glasses, to envision a future where we’d put COVID-19 behind us and moved on to something resembling normal life. Then came the delta variant, and breakthrough infections, and the summer’s COVID case surge, and, well, even the most Pollyanna-ish among us has had to come to terms with the fact that the virus will likely be with us for the long term. Indeed, COVID as a communal challenge can’t be cured — it can only be managed.” (Commercial Observer)
- ‘It’s Debilitating’: Slow Return to Office Hurting Downtown D.C. Businesses “Office landlords, restaurant owners and neighborhood leaders say the slow return to work has created serious damage for the Downtown D.C. economy.” (Bisnow)
- CBRE Commits to Net Zero by 2040 “CBRE Group, Inc. today announced its commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040. This commitment encompasses carbon emissions from CBRE’s own operations and the properties it manages for investors and occupiers, as well as indirect supply chain emissions. ‘As the world’s largest manager of commercial real estate, we have a special obligation to help the world address the many challenges posed by the warming planet,’ said Bob Sulentic, CBRE’s president and chief executive officer.” (Business Wire)
- Marcus & Millichap Subject of Cyber Attack “Marcus & Millichap was subject to a cyber attack, but so far there is no evidence of a data breach.” (The Real Deal)
- When Sacred Ground Is Also Multimillion-Dollar Real Estate “Unbearable grief absorbed Anabella Levine when Champlain Towers South collapsed in Florida this summer, burying her beloved older brother and three cousins in the rubble of her building while she was away for the night. Identifying some of the remains took an excruciating 18 days. What she did not expect — what has consumed many of her recent days, even as she struggles with her family’s enormous sorrow — was a fight with the town of Surfside, the beachfront enclave where she and her cousins spent some of their happiest childhood days.” (The New York Times)
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