- Will Your Rent Keep Skyrocketing? Not If This Billionaire Is Right “For a real estate tycoon, Marvy Finger’s second-floor offices in a low-slung Houston office building are as modest as the first apartment buildings he erected nearly 60 years ago — and still owns. ‘I like simplicity and livability,’ says the 5-foot-5-inch, slightly stooped 86-year-old, whose unassuming uniform consists of khakis, oxford shirt, penny loafers and an Hermes tie offset by a Timex watch. His go-to drink is Johnnie Walker Black Scotch and he has a similar taste for value in business too. ‘It’s not sustainable,’ Finger says, of the 25% increase during the Covid-19 pandemic in apartment rents in key sunbelt cities like Tampa, Austin, Nashville and Houston.” (Fortune)
- Better.com, a Mortgage Lender and Early Pandemic Winner, Announces More Layoffs “Better.com, the mortgage lending company, plans to fire more than a third of its staff this week, the company said on Tuesday, a move that comes three months after its chief executive, Vishal Garg, set off an outcry by firing more than 900 employees on a Zoom call. The company, which is backed by SoftBank and has just over 9,000 employees in the United States and India, hired aggressively during the pandemic, quadrupling in size, at a time when mortgage rates were low and the online lending market expanded.” (The New York Times)
- Ross Stores to Open 100 New Stores in 2022 “Ross Stores is accelerating its physical growth. The off-price retailer opened 22 Ross stores and eight dd's Discounts stores in 15 different states and Guam in February and March. The new locations are part of approximately 100 new stores – 75 Ross and 25 dd's Discounts – the company said it plans to open during fiscal 2022, up from 65 in 2021. Ross recently raised its store potential targets for both its banners.” (Chain Store Age)
- Ukraine Invasion Upends U.S. Investor Bet on Russian Malls and Other Property “Real-estate developer Hines started investing in Russia soon after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. Before long, the American company became one of the world’s largest foreign owners and managers of Russian commercial property. Hines thought a reborn Russia would embrace market reforms and become more integrated with Western Europe. The Houston-based developer rode out ruble devaluations, financial crises and the economic sanctions that followed Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea to chalk up positive returns.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- New Hotels, an Influx of Residents and a Construction Boom: Inside Downtown LA’s Rebound “Downtown LA was hit hard by the pandemic, but things have been improving rapidly for this growing retail and residential hub. What lies ahead?” (Bisnow)
- Adam Neumann Backed Renter App Makes Sunbelt Apartment Play “A company that counts WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann as one of its biggest backers is getting into the property management business. Alfred Club, Inc., which created an app that connects high-end apartment renters with services such as personal shoppers and home cleaners, is buying RKW Residential, a Charlotte, N.C.-based property management firm, the companies said Tuesday.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- Morgan Stanley’s CEO Is Pushing for a Return to the Office and Says Employees Need to Give Up on ‘Jobland’ and Focus on ‘Careerland’ “Gorman told a Sydney business conference he's concerned it's harder to develop ‘career skills’ while working remotely from colleagues.” (Insider)
- As E-Commerce Grows, Walmart Builds More Fulfillment Centers “Walmart’s latest new piece of e-commerce infrastructure will be a facility in Pennsylvania. The discount giant is opening a new 1.8 million-plus-sq.-ft. fulfillment center in Shippensburg, Penn. Slated to open in spring 2022, the facility is expected to create up to 600 permanent, full-time jobs in the southern Pennsylvania region.” (Chain Store Age)
- Midtown Office-to-Apartment Concept Gains Hochul and Adams Support “Worried that the pandemic has made too many Manhattan office buildings obsolete, real estate interests have convinced Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul to join an effort to ease conversions to residential use south of 60th Street. The push to convert office space into apartments has the potential to transform the nation’s largest business district, and its older and less desirable office space, into a very different kind of Midtown.” (The City)
- Friendly’s Opens its First Fast Casual Restaurant “Casual dining chain Friendly's Restaurants is launching a new fast casual concept called Friendly’s Cafe, the company announced Tuesday. The first location opened in Westfield, Massachusetts on Feb. 26, and includes signature offerings from Friendly's menu served for both dine-in and off-premise guests.” (Restaurant Dive)
- Rapid Delivery Startups Drawing Criticism Over Apparent Flouting of Zoning Laws “15-minute delivery apps are facing a new NYC nightmare as NYC City Council members move to enforce zoning regulations — which they say the startups violate.” (Bisnow)
- WeWork Says It Will Close its Moscow Offices, a Week After its CEO Said There Were No Plans to Leave the Russian Market “WeWork has four offices in Moscow which, CEO Sandeep Mathrani previously told Bloomberg, collectively bring in around $10 million in revenue a year. In a statement released on Monday, WeWork said it was finalizing plans to divest from its Russian operations and had suspended its expansion plans in the country.” (Insider)
- McDonald’s Closes All Stores in Russia “McDonald's is temporarily closing all stores in Russia over strongman Vladimir Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the chain announced Tuesday.State of play: McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski said the company will continue to pay its 62,000 Russian employees, but added that ‘it’s impossible to predict when we might be able to reopen our restaurants in Russia.’ Kempczinski said McDonald's has been experiencing supply chain issues "along with other operational impacts" in Russia.” (Axios)
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