- For Growing Number of Struggling U.S. Cities, the Downturn Has Arrived “Christopher Clark was elected mayor last year, pledging to seek business tax reductions and lower water bills. They were popular goals that seemed in reach given that city revenues had been rising almost every year since the recession. On taking office, Mr. Clark quickly figured out the city’s progress had stalled. Property tax collections were down, and businesses were cutting jobs. A fall in city revenue, coupled with growing debt payments, meant there would be no relief from business taxes or water bills.” (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)
- With Disney, a Manhattan Neighborhood Reinvents Itself “When the Walt Disney Company announced in 2018 that it would leave its longtime home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for a former manufacturing district downtown named Hudson Square, some people may have scratched their heads. That a blue-chip corporation would move to an area between trendy New York neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and TriBeCa, without the cachet of either of them, could have seemed like baffling choice.” (The New York Times)
- Homebuilder ETFs Jump on Interest Rate Cut “Exchange-traded funds with exposure to the residential construction industry surged Tuesday morning after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates. The Direxion Daily Homebuilders & Supplies Bull 3x Shares NAIL, a leveraged fund, was 3.7% higher mid-morning and is up more than 14% in the week to date. The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF ITB, rose 1.2%, and the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF XHB, climbed 0.9%.” (MarketWatch)
- Hudson’s Bay Chairman Richard Banker to Take Over as CEO “Hudson’s Bay Co Chairman Richard Baker will take over as chief executive officer, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, after his bid to take the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue private was approved by shareholders. Current CEO Helena Foulkes, who has been at the helm since 2018, will step down, the source added. The move comes just days after shareholders approved the Canadian department store operator’s move to go private in a C$2 billion deal.” (Reuters)
- Coronavirus Slams U.S. Hotel Industry’s Global Operations “The hotel industry’s decadelong run of growth and rising revenue looked vulnerable at the start of the year. Now the spread of the coronavirus threatens to make it the worst performing year since the recession. The biggest hotel brands have already warned about how tough last month was, and how challenged the first quarter is going to be. Marriott International Inc. said during an earnings call last week that revenue per available room for Greater China, which represents about 9% of the company’s total room count, plunged nearly 90% in February compared with the year earlier.” (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)
- A Mall in Texas Closed Due to Coronavirus Concerns, and it Reveals How Shopping Centers Could Be Jolted by a Wider Outbreak “A mall in San Antonio, Texas, abruptly closed on Monday after learning that a patient who tested positive for the novel coronavirus had visited the shopping center. North Star Mall said it would close for cleaning for approximately 24 hours. ‘While the shopping center had been cleaned several times using CDC-recommended products, as an abundance of caution, we made the decision to close North Star Mall temporarily to allow for a further deep cleaning of the center,’ reads a statement posted to the mall's Facebook page.” (Business Insider)
- Where Is Miami’s Industrial Market Going? Codina Partners Clues Us In “Thirty years ago, Armando Codina launched his first industrial real estate project in Miami. Now, his daughter, Ana-Marie Codina Barlick, is leading the family-owned firm back into the warehouse industry with one of South Florida’s largest projects. The Coral Gables-based real estate development firm Codina Partners is overseeing Beacon Logistics Park, a complex with approximately 1.3 million square-foot of warehouse space now under construction at Northwest 145th Place and Northwest 107th Ave.” (Miami Herald)
- Massive Redevelopment Would Replace Former Parkland Campus “A Dallas real estate developer is giving the first look at an ambitious plan to repurpose the former Parkland Hospital campus northwest of downtown Dallas. Property company EB Arrow has teamed up with architect Gensler to draw up proposals for the 40-acre Parkland site at Harry Hines Boulevard and Medical District Drive. The plan is to convert the empty buildings and add new construction to create a medical-oriented mixed-use development.” (Dallas Morning News)
- The Running List of 2020 Retail Bankruptcies “Last year sent 17 major retailers into bankruptcy. For some — including Payless, Gymboree and Charming Charlie — it was their second trip to court. Bankruptcy also proved fatal for more retailers in 2019, as liquidations increased. Inside and outside of bankruptcy, retailers closed more than 9,000 stores. This is all to say that, while retail sales on the whole increase and the strong players become ever stronger, there are still many ailing retailers and sectors. The forces that pushed dozens of retailers into bankruptcy over the last four years or so are still present.” (Retail Dive)
- Target Stores and Amazon ‘Mini-Facilities’ Are Dueling for Same-Day Delivery Dominance “The same-day delivery battle between Target Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. is heating up with Target using its stores to its advantage and Amazon’s mini-fulfillment centers getting items into shoppers’ hands at an even faster clip. Target TGT, which announced its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings on Tuesday morning, said that same-day services experienced more than 90% sales growth in 2019. Target is using its network of stores to fulfill same-day orders, which the retailer says are growing more quickly than sales that ship to customers’ homes.” (MarketWatch)
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