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10 Must Reads for the CRE Industry Today (April 20, 2017)

The U.S. economy is experiencing only modest inflation, reports Reuters. The owners of the Trump Tower have failed to add extra public space to their property in exchange for a deal with New York City to add extra floors to the building, according to the New York Post. These are among today’s must reads from around the commercial real estate industry.

 

  1. U.S. Economy Shows Only Modest Signs of Inflation Pressures: Fed “The U.S. economy expanded at a modest-to-moderate pace between mid-February and the end of March, but inflation pressures remained in check despite more difficulties in attracting and retaining workers, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday. ‘On balance, prices rose modestly,’ the U.S. central bank said in its periodic gauge of the health of the economy derived from surveying business contacts nationwide.” (Reuters)
  2. Think Running Retail Stores Is More Expensive Than Selling Online? Think Again “Conventional wisdom suggests that running retail stores is more expensive than selling the same merchandise online. Conventional wisdom is wrong. It may also seem that using existing retail stores as mini-distribution centers to fulfill online orders for shoppers is a less expensive option than full-fledged distribution centers. But in actuality, it's typically the most expensive option.” (CNBC)
  3. As Economy Recovers, Commercial Real Estate in Houston Remains Mixed “Houston's office market is stabilizing and the appetite for commercial real estate is ratcheting up among out-of-town investors. But in the city's long robust retail sector, cracks are starting to show, analysts said. National retailers are closing stores and more fallout could be seen among banks and medical facilities, said Jason Gaines, a senior vice president with NAI Partners, a real estate services firm hosting a panel Wednesday morning on commercial real estate.” (Chron.com)
  4. Rental Real Estate or Stocks? “I generally prefer learning from someone else's experiences rather than my own. It's easier, faster, and cheaper that way. That's why I am passing along my personal experiences owing a rental property and giving the reasons for why I decided to sell it and reinvest the proceeds into a portfolio of income-producing stocks. Almost two years ago, my family and I moved from the Washington DC area to Lisbon, Portugal.” (Seeking Alpha)
  5. Trump Tower Among Dozens of Building to Flout Public Space Rules “Most of 333 buildings in the city that added public spaces in exchange for extra floors are violating their deals — and the Buildings Department isn’t doing anything about it, according to an audit released Wednesday. The violators include Trump Tower, which was missing tables, seats and signs required under an agreement that allowed it to grow by an extra 200,000 square feet, said Comptroller Scott Stringer.” (New York Post)
  6. How I Did It: Mary Ann Tighe on Cracking—And Staying On Top Of—The Brokerage Game “If you need to know what’s going on in New York City politics, inside the high-powered boardrooms on Wall Street or among the city’s cultural elite, book a meeting at CBRE’s headquarters in the MetLife Building and keep your ears open. ‘I often joke, you could stand in the hall of 200 Park Avenue and learn more about what’s happening in the city than almost any place you could go in New York,’ CBRE’s Mary Ann Tighe said.” (The Real Deal)
  7. Amazon, JPMorgan Close to Monster-Sized Deals at Manhattan West “J.P. Morgan Chase and Amazon are both nearing deals for at least 300,000 square feet of office space a piece at 5 Manhattan West, Commercial Observer has learned. The bank, which has occupied 125,000 square feet in the building since 2015, is considering taking an additional 300,000 square feet there—or the top three floors—for its financial technology arm, also known as FinTech, a source with knowledge of the deal said. Meanwhile, Amazon is mulling 350,000 for offices in 5 Manhattan West.” (Commercial Observer)
  8. Inland Real Estate Acquisitions Buys Shopping Center “Inland Real Estate Acquisitions purchased a New Hampshire shopping center shadow-anchored by a Super Wal-Mart with a grocery component. The Pentucket Shopping Center is a 199,335-square-foot retail center located in Plaistow, New Hampshire, approximately one mile north of the Massachusetts state border and approximately 40 miles north of Boston. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.” (Daily Herald)
  9. WeWork Wants to Up the Energy in Big Office by “Getting People to Work a Little More Closely” “Shared office space company WeWork is starting to expand with a broader real estate facilities management service, it said on Wednesday. WeWork is building on what it calls "on-site services" that began with an unnamed corporate client in Chicago that is reducing its leased space to two floors from three, said David Fano, the New York-based company's chief product officer.” (Business Insider)
  10. Judge Orders Harry Macklowe to Stop Meddling in Meyer Equities’ Midtown Deal “Harry Macklowe’s got to get his finger out of Meyer Equities’ pie, a New York State Supreme Court judge decided. Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich ruled that Macklowe has no power under a right-of-first-refusal agreement to purchase the home of the Children’s Aid Society in Midtown, which Meyer Equities has offered to buy for $28 million, according to a decision filed Tuesday.” (The Real Deal)
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