- The Housing Crisis Never Really Ended “We learned this week that new home sales fell in February by 6.1% from a year earlier and that existing home sales fell 7.1% from the previous month. This is despite the fact that home values remain relatively strong, as evidenced by the Case-Shiller home price index. With home prices reaching, or even surpassing, their pre-bubble peaks in many markets, weak home-sales numbers are likely not the result of weak demand. Indeed, the U.S. economy has created more than 13 million new jobs since the 2010, and more Americans are forming new households, pushing up the price of housing rents to all time highs.” (Fortune)
- Real Estate Offers a More Grounded Investment Opportunity Than Volatile Equity Markets “In this uncertain climate, real estate looks increasingly like a safe haven. Demand for properties seems likely to be strong, and one recent analysis predicts that home prices will increase this year. This comes amidst increasing unpredictability in equity markets, which is the result of a rare confluence of economic, political and social forces. Oil prices and the Chinese economy are depressed and other emerging and more industrialized markets are struggling.” (The Street)
- Real Estate Related Crowdfunding & P2P Lending Surge in China: Opportunity or Crisis? “The property prices in China’s major cities has surged in recent months, first in Shenzhen, then Shanghai and Beijing. The rapid appreciation of property is drawing people’s attention back to the concept of real estate crowdfunding. Real estate crowdfunding was first launched in US, and then introduced to China in 2014. By 2015, there were about 15 real estate crowdfunding platforms in China (e.g. Fangbaobao and Haofang Crowdfunding).” (Crowdfund Insider)
- Amazon's Newest Fulfillment Center Will Be in Kansas “Amazon is opening a new fulfillment center in Kansas as the e-commerce giant plots more ways to deliver packages to customer doorsteps. According to the Kansas City Star, the new 822,104-square-foot facility will be located in Edgerton, Kan. and will create around 1,000 full-time jobs. Amazon previously operated a 915,000-square-foot warehouse in Coffeyville, Kan., but it was shuttered in 2015. Amazon uses its fulfillment centers as warehouses for its own inventory as well as for third-party merchants who want sell to Amazon’s estimated 50 million Prime members.” (Fortune)
- SF Officials Agree on Changes to Candlestick Point Mixed-Use Project “The first phase of an $8 billion, 775-acre mixed-use development at the site of a former naval base and Candlestick Park stadium in San Francisco is moving forward with some changes to the original master plan, including swapping some office space for more retail uses.” (Commercial Property Executive)
- First Look at the 36-Story Tower Headed Just West of DTLA “The South Park high-rise boom is old news; 2016's hotness is the tower trend emerging just across the freeway from Downtown's South Park, in City West. So far the tallest entrant is this 36-story residential tower at Bixel and Seventh, first announced last fall, from developer Career Lofts LLC….The tower will be joined by a seven-story extended-stay hotel, which the Downtown News hears may be operated by Hilton's Home2 Suites brand. The hotel will have 126 rooms and a second-floor pool deck.” (Curbed Los Angeles)
- The apartment boom: Multifamily continues at torrid pace “Korman Communities and Cornerstone Communities will break ground this spring on a new multifamily project at the Village of Valley Forge in King of Prussia. The 275-unit complex will operate under Korman’s AVE brand of extended-stay properties that have furnished and unfurnished units. ‘We’ve been circling King of Prussia trying to find the right property for years,’ said Brad Korman of Korman Communities. ‘This fills a hole for us.’ The project is one of six new multifamily developments underway in King of Prussia and, including the redevelopment of 251 DeKalb, there are 2,000 new apartment units in the pipeline…" (Philadelphia Business Journal)
- Facebook snags another downtown office space “Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, which occupies 270,000 square feet at 770 Broadway, by Astor Place, has just leased an additional 200,000 square feet at 225 Park Ave. South near Union Square on the northeast corner of East 18th Street, sources said. As The Post first reported, BuzzFeed previously leased 189,000 square feet on the 11th to 16th floors at 225 Park Ave. South — with an asking rent of $85 per square foot. Facebook will have 78,666 square feet on the 17th to 19th floors at the top of the 107-year-old building to the south and another 122,000 square feet on a few of the floors between 6th and 10th.” (The New York Post)
- New York City REIT to Buy Midtown Manhattan Office Asset “Slowly but surely, American Realty Capital New York City REIT Inc.’s portfolio is getting bigger and bigger. The public non-traded REIT will add a quarter-million square feet of office space to its collection with the acquisition of 1140 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan. NYCR just signed on to pay BPGL Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI LP, $180 million for the Class A asset.” (Commercial Property Executive)
- $380M Lansing development includes hotels, housing “A $380 million development in Lansing is expected to include two boutique hotels, a medical office building, restaurants and housing. Joel Ferguson, president of Ferguson Development, tells the Lansing State Journal that construction on the Red Cedar Renaissance project is scheduled to begin June 1…. Plans for the project include 129 town homes and student housing that can accommodate 1,200 people. East Lansing is home to Michigan State University.” (The Detroit News)
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