Skip navigation
divorce-wedding cake destroyed

Seven Must Reads for the CRE Industry Today (April 11, 2020)

The Wall Street Journal looks at commercial cleaners hired to sanitize malls, banks and restaurants that remain open during the pandemic. Walmart hires an additional 100,000 new employees to keep up with rising demand, reports CNBC. These are today's must reads from around the commercial real estate industry.

  1. At the Mall Under Coronavirus: A Few Customers and Throngs of Cleaners “On a recent weekday here, the normally bustling food hall Grand Central Market was eerily quiet at lunch, with only a handful of customers and an army of cleaners spraying and wiping everything from the registers to the ceiling lamps on a continuous circuit.” (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)
  2. A High-Stakes Divorce Illustrates How the Rich Play Real-Estate Tug of War “A Houston billionaire is accused of using a complex web of trusts and limited liability companies to prevent his wife from accessing cash and the 13 homes they acquired together” (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)
  3. Cities Are Flouting Flood Rules. The Cost: $1 Billion. “It’s a simple rule, designed to protect both homeowners and taxpayers: If you want publicly subsidized flood insurance, you can’t build a home that’s likely to flood.” (The New York Times)
  4. Property Taxes Are Probably Still Due Despite Coronavirus “Local governments rely on them to pay for services like trash pickup and the public schools. But some are trying to give flexibility to homeowners in financial trouble.” (The New York Times)
  5. Walmart Hires 100,000 to Meet Surging Demand, as Toilet Paper and Sewing Machines Fly Off the Shelves “Walmart has hired more than 100,000 new employees so far to keep up with demand during the coronavirus pandemic.” (CNBC)
  6. Coronavirus: Many SF Complaints about Nonessential Construction “San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection has been inundated with complaints of nonessential construction being done in violation of the coronavirus health order, mostly driven by residents observing work illegally continuing in their neighborhoods as they shelter in place.” (San Francisco Chronicle, subscription required)
  7. Houston Office Vacancies Could Hit New High with Oil Crash and COVID-19 “The vacancy rate for Houston-area office space could increase by 4 percentage points by the end of the year as collapsing oil prices and the COVID-19 crisis slow leasing activity and lead to more available sublease space, a new report shows.” (Houston Chronicle)
Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish