- A New White House Plan to Create Affordable Housing: Convert Empty Office Buildings “By opening up significant financing resources to office-to-residential conversions, as well as by providing technical assistance, the Biden administration aims to make it easier for these challenging rehab projects to advance — with an eye toward both sustainability and affordability.” (Bloomberg)
- Fissures Form For Big-Box Industrial As Tenants Delay Big-Money Moves “Top-line occupancy rates remain historically high — around 97% or higher — but occupiers are piling on caution as they approach leasing decisions, according to earnings reports from Prologis, First Industrial Realty Trust and other top industrial REITs.” (Bisnow)
- Listed REITs offer buying opportunity, analyst says “With the market for listed real estate investment trusts at historic lows, financial advisors may want to dust off the real estate allocation in clients’ portfolios and begin to expand that position. That’s according to Rich Hill, senior vice president and head of real estate strategy and research at Cohen & Steers, an investment manager focused on real estate securities like listed REITs and private funds that are not listed.” (Investment News)
- Fortress Approached Whitestone REIT About a Takeover “Whitestone, which had a market capitalization of $459 million at the close of trading Wednesday, rebuffed the alternative-asset manager, said one of the people, all of whom asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. Terms of the Fortress offer couldn’t immediately be learned.” (Bloomberg)
- How The Green Building Council Greened Its HQ “The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) says its newly built-out Washington, D.C., headquarters at 2101 L Street NW is the first-ever office to earn Platinum certification in LEED, TRUE and WELL, receiving the highest grades in the three separate certifications, which address the sustainability, efficiency and health of buildings, respectively.” (Commercial Observer)
- CBRE To Cut Costs as Real Estate Market Woes Persist, Profit Falls 56% “CBRE said it identified $150 million of cost reductions throughout the company, primarily focused on its transaction-focused business lines. A spokesman for CBRE declined to share further details of these cost-cutting measures with CoStar News. Chief Financial Officer Emma Giamartino told investors she would provide additional details on the efforts to cut costs when CBRE provides its 2024 financial guidance next year.” (CoStar)
- The Home Office Was a Must-Have During Covid. Now It’s Just Meh. “Real-estate agents are increasingly hitting snooze on advertising home offices. The reason, Estrada said, is because the push from prospective homebuyers for work-from-home setups is dwindling. A recent study by Zillow found that key words like ‘home office’ and ‘cloffice’ were mentioned significantly less during the first six months of 2023 compared to the same period last year.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- Yankee Fans Can Buy Mickey Mantle’s Childhood Home. The Price: $7. “Rally, a collectibles company that offers buyers fractional ownership in everything from sports cars to classic comic books, is getting into the real estate game. The company purchased the two-bedroom house, which sits at 319 South Quincy Street in Commerce, for $175,000 in 2022.” (The New York Times)
- HSBC's CEO Says China's Real-Estate Crisis Has Peaked “Quinn spoke after the bank set aside another roughly $500 million to cover expected credit losses in mainland Chinese commercial real estate, which includes office, industrial and residential properties. Through the first nine months of this year, the bank has now set aside $800 million to cover losses in Chinese real estate.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- Harvard professor highlights the importance of ventilation for "healthy buildings" “For the Harvard professor, founder of the university's Healthy Buildings Program, our building design and public health officials have ignored indoor air systems for too long – that is, until the COVID pandemic hit. But by then, it was too late. That lack of attention contributed to tens of thousands of COVID cases, Allen says.” (CBS News)
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