- What does President Trump mean for housing? “It’s early days in President Donald Trump’s administration, but he’s already moving fast to make changes in the housing market. An hour after being sworn in, Trump stopped a cut to FHA costs that could save first-time homebuyers $500 a year. The longtime real-estate developer’s other plans could cap the popular mortgage-interest deduction, do away with the federal financial and mortgage watchdog and privatize mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Also, Trump’s order Wednesday to start a border wall as well as his plans to deport many more illegal immigrants mean fewer available construction workers, particularly for homebuilding.” (The Arizona Republic)
- Tampa firm partners with TIAA to buy Vegas mall in massive real estate deal “A subsidiary of Tampa's Third Lake Capital has acquired an open-air lifestyle mall in Las Vegas in a transaction that industry observers peg at around a half-billion dollars. Fairbourne Properties, which is wholly owned by Third Lake Capital, partnered with Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America to buy Town Square Las Vegas, said Ken Jones, CEO of Third Lake Capital. Town Square Las Vegas is a 1.2 million-square-foot retail center just south of the Las Vegas Strip. It counts Apple Inc. and Whole Foods Market Inc. among its anchors and has a significant entertainment component, including an AMC 18 Theatre and Stoney's Rockin' Country, a country music-themed nightclub…A 50 percent ownership stake in the St. Johns Town Center, a similar open-air property in Jacksonville, sold for $375 million in 2014. Town Square, completed in 2007, was hit hard by the Great Recession. The original developer eventually lost the property to foreclosure in 2011. Some retail centers, particularly enclosed malls, face a troubling future as more and more staples of mall shopping shutter their brick-and-mortar locations. But Jones says the outlook is sunnier for assets like Town Square, a trophy property with upscale tenants and steady tourism base to support its shops and restaurants.” (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
- Suburban Offices Woo Millennials With Food, Fitness and Fun “Suburban landlords trying to compete with sleek urban office settings are finding new ways to step up their game. Property owners in New York’s suburbs are investing heavily to remake bucolic corporate campuses built during the 1980s and 1990s, adding glass facades for natural light-filled offices and retail space for restaurants, cafes and, in at least one case, a supermarket with specialty services. They also are rolling out features such as modern fitness centers, bike-share programs, walking trails and spacious lobbies as spaces to socialize. “It’s all about landlords trying to attract tenants, and tenants trying to attract millennial recruitment,” said Daniel Loughlin, broker lead of real-estate services firm JLL’s New Jersey office. The suburban office market has lagged behind the New York City office market during this expansion, as preferences shifted to urban settings with restaurants, shops, nightlife and mass transportation, brokers and executives said. But the suburbs continue to have a larger share of the region’s jobs than the city, noted Kenneth McCarthy, principal economist for real-estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield. As of December, 54.6% of the jobs in the New York metropolitan area were in the suburbs, according to his analysis. As companies consolidate offices and look to take less space, landlords and investors are betting that overhauled, amenity-laden suburban office properties will attract large tenants already in the suburbs.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- Selfie Generation Turns Makeup Chain Ulta Into Rare Retail Star “In the Instagram era, where looking good on camera is more important than ever, one retailer has found a way to capitalize on the selfie craze. Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc., where women can buy a broad range of cosmetics and get their hair styled on site, was a rare bright spot in what was otherwise a disastrous 2016 for U.S. retailers. Shares of the Bolingbrook, Illinois-based company surged 38 percent last year, about four times higher than the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s gain. Ulta’s mobile app has a feature called Glam Lab that allows shoppers to take selfies and apply virtual makeup before they make a purchase. At its 950 stores, customers can also visit a professional skin therapist for “face mapping,” and get their eyebrows tweezed, trimmed and tinted. ‘They are changing the way people shop as they have allowed people to buy both mass and prestige, as well as get salon, brow and other services which historically would have been done at multiple locations,’ said Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. ‘No other retailer offers all three in the same spot.’” (Bloomberg)
- Health guru Deepak Chopra is now designing South Florida condos “Deepak Chopra, the endocrinologist who has bloomed into a world famous but sometimes controversial new-age health guru, is taking a shot at a new line of work: designing luxury condo units in South Florida. The move unites two recent trends in Miami’s amenity-laden, ultra-luxury condo market: high-profile brand names and healthy living. Chopra and New York-based real estate firm Delos have signed on to design air purification, water filtration and circadian lighting systems for seven units at Muse Residences in Sunny Isles Beach. Prices at Muse start at about $5 million, or roughly $1,500 per square foot. The 650-foot tower is expected to wrap construction in December.” (Miami Herald)
- How a 30-something real estate investor who lives off passive income was able to move his family to Ecuador for a year “It's not uncommon to dream of escaping work for a while to immerse yourself in the culture of a far-off country. For Chad Carson, a 37-year-old who lives entirely off passive rental income, that's reality. On a recent episode of the Mad Fientist podcast, Carson, who recently moved to Ecuador with his wife and two young daughters, explained how he was able to build wealth and create passive income after starting with just $1,000 in savings after graduating college in 2003. He used "house-hacking" and "live-and-flips" to increase savings and maximize earnings, and by 2007 he and his business partner owned 50 rental properties. Save for a few setbacks during the financial crisis, Carson continued growing his portfolio over the past decade, and today he manages 90 rental properties, mostly in and around his hometown in Clemson, South Carolina. "Rental properties are wonderful for building wealth ... [but] they're not going to produce a lot of income on the front-end — at least not consistently — because you might make $200 a month on a rental property, but then what happens if a year and a half from now, the heating and the air system goes out on that rental property? That's a $4,000 to $5,000 hit," Carson said. ‘And so really, the rental property game, as opposed to flipping properties, is all about generating big chunks of cash that you can use to pay your bills, and hopefully, to save money.’” (Business Insider)
- NYU enrolls at 180 Madison Ave. “New York University chalked up a block of nearly 100,000 square feet of office space in Midtown South, where the school plans to open a new research facility. NYU signed a lease for 58,000 square feet at the former garment hub-turned-TAMI building at 180 Madison Avenue, and has committed to taking another 41,000 square feet as leases expire and more space becomes available, sources told The Real Deal. The school plans to open a research center across a handful of floors near the base of the building later this year, and as leases expire it will expand into a contiguous block of roughly 100,000 square feet. NYU signed a long-term deal on the space, with an asking rent of $59 per square foot. The 23-story building, which sits at the corner of East 34th Street, was formerly known as the Lingerie Building due to the large number of intimate apparel companies that used to call it home. Most of the city’s large lingerie firms were located on Madison Avenue between East 32nd and 34th streets, but as the garment industry declined landlords in the area have been repositioning their properties to meet the demand for office space from growing industries.” (The Real Deal)
- Foundry Commercial to Develop 1 MSF Industrial Park “Foundry Commercial recently closed on a new industrial development site in the Airport West submarket of Charlotte. Formerly known as Beltway Business Park, the asset will provide roughly 1.1 million square feet of space once complete. Foundry partnered with Principal Real Estate Investors on the project, which is set to be rebranded as WestPark 85. Situated near Interstate 85, along Charlotte’s industrial corridor, West Park 85 will offer tenants a position on the route that connects the major markets of Charlotte and Atlanta. The property will provide connectivity to other major transit and commercial lines such as the I-77 and the I-485, as well as the Charlotte Douglas International Airport and the Norfolk Southern Intermodal railyard. WestPark 85’s location is suitable for tenants that require access to an extensive distribution network…The 32-foot clear height, rear-load, tilt-wall construction will feature ESFR sprinkler systems, and will cater to a tenants with various space requirements. The first phase of construction will break ground shortly and will consist of two buildings totaling 450,000 square feet of space, which will be delivered simultaneously during the fourth quarter of 2017. Depending on tenant demand, the second phase will be able to accommodate a large user that requires up to 800,000 square feet or up to four, multi-tenant buildings containing 650,000 square feet.” (Commercial Property Executive)
- Adaptive Reuse of MA Factory into Affordable Housing Complete “Union Crossing II, an adaptive reuse of the historic Duck Mill in Lawrence, Mass., into affordable housing, has been completed. The project is the second phase of a two-mill renovation by Lawrence Community Works. Duck Mill originally opened in 1896 to manufacture a heavy woven canvas called duck (more tightly woven than plain canvas), which was used to make sails, tents and other items. Manufacturing stopped in about 1950, and two floors of the building were occupied for 30 years by a furniture show room. After that, the building was mostly vacant until it was purchased by Lawrence Community Works in 2008 with redevelopment plans in mind. Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels Architects designed the redevelopment, while NEI General Contracting did the construction. The second phase offers 39 one-, two- and three-bedroom units. The space features original elements of the building including over-sized windows with views of the North Canal and the Merrimack River, 12-foot-high ceilings, wide open wood floors, and exposed wooden columns.” (MultiHousing News)
- Hilton to Open First Triple-Branded Hotel “Hilton recently announced a partnership with First Hospitality Group for the opening of the company’s first triple-brand hotel, bringing together the Garden Inn, Hampton Inn and Home2 Suites flags. The new hotel will be located next to North America’s largest convention center, McCormick Place in Chicago. Located at 123 E. Cermak Road, the triple-branded property will encompass approximately 379,000 square feet over 23 floors and a collective 466 guest rooms and suites. The project is expected to bring nearly 350 full-time jobs and more than 600 construction jobs to the local community. The property is slated to open doors in late 2018. Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn by Hilton and Home2 Suites by Hilton McCormick Center will have three district lobbies and dining areas and will share common amenities including a fitness room, a business room, indoor pool, and six rooms of extensive meeting space totaling approximately 7,000 square feet. The property will feature a variety of dining options, including a rooftop dining lounge totaling approximately 9,500 square feet on the 22nd floor, two street-level restaurants—one upscale American/Italian and one bar/tavern—and a full Starbucks coffee shop accessible from Cermak Road.” (Commercial Property Executive)
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