- Foreign Investors Are Piling into This U.S. Real Estate Play as a Coronavirus Safe Haven “Investors are looking for the calm in the coronavirus storm, and U.S. residential real estate appears to be it, specifically single-family rental homes. These investors are not, however, coming to the U.S. to tour the homes themselves. They’re buying them online. Roofstock, a five-year-old California-based fintech company, lists single-family rental homes for sale on its website, most with tenants already in place.” (CNBC)
- Some of Boston’s Priciest Real Estate Is Sinking into the Earth “In 2011, developer Koby Kempel paid $2.5 million for a red brick, former carriage house in Boston’s coveted Beacon Hill, one of the priciest neighborhoods in the country. Famed for its cobblestone streets and historic row houses, Beacon Hill has been home to former Secretary of State John Kerry and many other notable Bostonians over the years. When Mr. Kempel bought the circa-1900 house on Beaver Place, the underground wooden pilings supporting the foundation had been rotting for years, to the point where the building’s walls were ‘almost floating,’ he recalled.” (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)
- Can Lower Mortgage Rates Prop Up Real Estate ETFs? “The 10-year Treasury yield hit below 1% after the Federal Reserve instituted a 50-basis point cut on Tuesday, sending the markets in a daze as coronavirus fears continue to roil the major U.S. stock market indexes. Following the announcement, the markets surged and subsequently fell as more uncertainty crept into the minds of investors. Meanwhile, in mortgage land, rates are also falling, but not because of the central bank’s interest rate policy. They’re, in essence, marching to the beat of the markets.” (ETF Trends)
- Nursing Homes Are Starkly Vulnerable to Coronavirus “These institutions have been under increasing scrutiny in recent years for a unique role they play in inflaming epidemics. Research shows these homes can be poorly staffed and plagued by lax infection-control practices, and that residents frequently cycle to and from hospitals, bringing germs back and forth. Now, public health experts fear these facilities could become central to the rise and spread of the novel coronavirus.” (The New York Times)
- Rare World Trade Center Blueprints Are Up for Sale “When veteran architect Joseph Solomon left New York City for Denver in the 1970s, he brought along a work-related keepsake: a set of blueprints for the World Trade Center, one of the key projects of his career up until that time. Now, almost a half-century later, the set has returned home after an unlikely odyssey—which includes them being salvaged from the trash. James Cummins Bookseller, a Manhattan-based dealer of rare books, autographs and other items, is selling the World Trade Center documents at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair running Thursday through Sunday at the Park Avenue Armory.” (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)
- Stuy Town Tenants Sue Blackstone to Stop Rent Hikes “Tenants at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village are suing to block Blackstone, the world’s largest commercial landlord, from deregulating thousands of apartments at the massive complexes after a regulatory agreement expires this year. The lawsuit against Blackstone, New York City and the state seeks to prevent units from being deregulated and subject to rent increases starting in July.” (The Real Deal)
- Deserted Oil Wells Haunt Los Angeles with Toxic Fumes and Enormous Cleanup Costs “Thick oil was once so abundant beneath Southern California that it bubbled to the surface, most famously at the La Brea Tar Pits. But after more than a century of aggressive drilling by fossil fuel companies, most of Los Angeles’ profitable oil is gone. What remains is a costly legacy: nearly 1,000 wells across the city, in rich and poor neighborhoods, deserted by their owners and left to the state to clean, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis of state records by the Los Angeles Times and the Center for Public Integrity.” (Los Angeles Times)
- Developer Presents Plans for Warehouse at Phillipsburg Mall Property “With only a few tenants remaining, the aging Phillipsburg Mall may not have much to offer shoppers these days, but an outside developer sees the property as a prime piece of real estate for a warehouse. At a Lopatcong Township Council meeting Wednesday night, private real estate development firm CRG of St. Louis, presented plans to buy the mall property and build an 850,000-square-foot warehouse to replace the once-thriving shopping center.” (The Morning Call)
- Lehigh Valley Industrial Park Lands $111M in Financing “Located off I-78 at 7352 Industrial Blvd., Park 100 sits within a day’s drive of 40 percent of the U.S. The 92-acre site is the former home of a 1 million-square-foot Kraft Food processing plant and a handful of auxiliary buildings, all of which Ridgeline demolished to make way for the first phase of the industrial project. Park 100’s existing 730,000-square-foot distribution facility opened in 2018. Construction of the second phase of the rail-served property is currently underway and will yield an 811,200-square-foot production facility later in 2020.” (Commercial Property Executive)
- America’s Department Stores Are Still Trying to Get the Formula Right “It has been a mixed bag for America’s department store chains reporting 2019 holiday-quarter results. But one thing is clear. These companies are still trying to get the formula right to bring shoppers to stores. While big-box chains and discounters such as Target and TJ Maxx are seeing sales gains, retailers including Macy’s and Kohl’s are struggling to grow revenue.” (CNBC)
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