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WeWork Saks Fifth Avenue Photo: Saksworks

Eight Must Reads for the CRE Industry Today (Aug. 11, 2021)

Saks Fifth Avenue is converting some of its department store space into WeWork spaces, reports The Wall Street Journal. Citigroup becomes the latest employer to mandate that workers, who will be expected to come back to the office for at least two days a week, get vaccinated by mid-September, according to CNBC.

  1. WeWork to Run Co-Working Spaces in Some Saks Fifth Avenue Stores “The owner of Saks Fifth Avenue is converting parts of department stores into co-working spaces with WeWork, a strategy that marries the popularity of remote work with the struggles of bricks-and-mortar retail. Hudson’s Bay Co. plans to open its first five co-working offices next month in the New York City area, company executives said. The new venture, dubbed SaksWorks, calls for WeWork to run and staff co-working spaces in buildings that are owned by Hudson’s Bay.” (The Wall Street Journal)
  2. Climate Change Accounting for Companies Looms, with All its Complexities “U.S. and European regulators already demand or are expected to require that public companies disclose their greenhouse-gas emissions. That might include the emissions produced by their suppliers and customers. Regulators also want better disclosure of climate-related risks for public companies. These can range from physical ones such as effects from extreme weather to financial risks such as if a fossil-fuel asset such as a coal mine loses value.” (The Wall Street Journal)
  3. How Class-A Space Became the Space of Manhattan’s Office Market “In September 2020, as coronavirus cases surged in New York City and vaccines seemed especially far off, SL Green Realty Corp., one of the city’s largest office landlords, opened its hyper-amenitized, technologically forward-looking office tower at One Vanderbilt Avenue across from Grand Central Terminal. The opening seemed to be more brash statement than sound business move. Nevertheless, SL Green painted it as such.” (Commercial Observer)
  4. ‘Where the Power Is’: Data Center Developers Charge Toward Brownfields “Brownfield industrial sites are becoming increasingly attractive — and experts think that will continue to accelerate for the next decade.” (Bisnow)
  5. Landlords Defer to Tenants on Vaccination “Landlords are accountable for providing safe environments, but have resisted mandating vaccination in their buildings.” (The Real Deal)
  6. Citigroup Mandating Employees Be Vaccinated Before Returning to its Corporate Offices “The move was announced Tuesday as part of the bank’s plans to bring more workers back to corporate offices in the New York area, as well as Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, according to a LinkedIn post by the bank’s human resources head Sara Wechter. Employees at those offices ‘will be expected to return at least two days a week and vaccination is required’ starting Sept. 13, Wechter said.” (CNBC)
  7. Delta Variant Casts a Shadow Over Midtown Manhattan’s Shaky Recovery “In another sign that Midtown is beginning to turn around, there has been a marked increase in prospective tenants touring available office space, brokers say. Touring tends to be slow in June and July, when many people go on vacation, but not this year, said Paul J. Amrich, a vice chairman at CBRE, a commercial real estate firm. He has noticed a slight falloff in August but attributes that more to vacations than to Delta.” (The New York Times)
  8. Homeless Encampment Grows on Apple Property in Silicon Valley “Apple promised to help quell the Bay Area’s homelessness crisis with a series of big-ticket investments, but the tech giant soon may have to get more directly involved — addressing a problem that has spread to the company’s front door. A large homeless encampment is growing on the site Apple earmarked for its North San Jose campus, two years after Apple made waves with a $2.5 billion pledge to combat the Bay Area’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis.” (Mercury News)
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