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Nine Must Reads for the CRE Industry Today (Oct. 4, 2021)

Recode argues that companies that have proposed pay cuts for remote workers are making a mistake. Bisnow reports how a shortage of expertise in life sciences real estate is causing challenges for the sector’s growth. These are among today’s must reads from around the commercial real estate industry.

  1. Broader Inflation Pressures Begin to Show “Alternative inflation measures can help suggest where inflation is headed, by cutting out statistical noise or zeroing in on historical pricing patterns, said Alex Lin, U.S. economist at BofA Global Research. For example, some remove extreme price swings like June’s surge in used-vehicle prices, which accounted for more than one-third of that month’s CPI increase.” (The Wall Street Journal)
  2. Google’s plan to cut pay for remote workers who relocate is a bad idea “While potential repercussions for cutting workers’ pay may not be immediate, humans are highly susceptible to loss aversion — losses are more painful than gains are pleasurable — and pay cuts could cause workers to either leave or resent the company. Alienating your existing workforce is always a bad idea, but it’s especially bad when tech companies are already struggling to find the workers they need.” (recode)
  3. Troubled Times For Dollar Stores, And They Aren't Even Dollar Stores Anymore “The latter stage of the coronavirus pandemic has been unexpectedly hard on dollar stores, as the logistics of getting cheap merchandise across oceans has been tied in knots and dollar-adjacent retailers are having a harder time finding people willing to work in pandemic-facing jobs that don't pay much.” (Bisnow)
  4. KKR Closes $4.3B Americas Opportunistic Real Estate Fund “REPA III is the successor fund to KKR Real Estate Partners Americas II (“REPA II”), which completed fundraising in January 2018 with $2.0 billion in capital commitments. The Fund received strong backing from a diverse group of new and existing global investors, including public pensions, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, family offices, high net worth individual investors and other institutional investors. As of September 2021, REPA III had already committed more than $1 billion of capital.” (ABL Adviser)
  5. How Real Estate Investors Can Use Artificial Intelligence “When considering investment opportunities, emotion must be put to the side and clear-cut logic should always prevail. That is why we use machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) when underwriting a deal and evaluating properties; the technologies help us ensure that we make better investment decisions based on hard data.” (Forbes Business Council)
  6. Help Wanted: Life Sciences Real Estate Expertise Is In Short Supply “Many local business development or industry groups are aware of the real estate challenges and the lab space shortage — Biocom California, for instance, is holding summits with local government leaders to focus on zoning changes needed to accommodate more lab construction — but they aren’t funding or providing educational or learning opportunities for real estate professionals to enter the field.” (Bisnow)
  7. PwC offers U.S. employees full-time remote work “The policy is a departure from the accounting industry's rigid attitudes, known for encouraging people to put in late nights at the office. Other major accounting firms, such as Deloitte and KPMG, have also been giving employees more choice to work remotely in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.” (Reuters)
  8. Why Secondary Cities Are Pulling Ahead “NAR compared 10 local indicators to national figures in 390 commercial real estate markets including vacancy rate, 12-month net absorption, year-over-year rent growth, leasing volume, cap rate and sales transactions in both square feet and dollars. The report notes several small- and medium-sized metropolitan areas are seeing increases in office occupancy rates that are outperforming most large cities and the national average.” (Commercial Property Executive)
  9. The Future of Cities After the Pandemic “In the midst of a lingering pandemic that has led some to question whether cities are still desirable places to live and work, designers at architecture firm Gensler and engineering, design, and consulting company Arup have dared to ponder a provocative question: In a time when many knowledge workers have grown accustomed to working remotely, could radical changes in the design of office buildings motivate them to return to the corporate workplace?” (Urban Land)
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