- How Robots and Drones Will Change Retail Forever “Amazon’s one-million-square-foot distribution center in Baltimore is a massive fulfillment machine. Stand at one end of the warehouse, and its titanium-white scaffolding and seemingly endless conveyor belts disappear at a vanishing point that is, somehow, within the building. The machine is a dazzling combination of chutes, ladders, rollers and 11 miles’ worth of conveyor belts. Customers’ orders move from shelving into bins and from bins into boxes as they travel via the machine straight into delivery vans, passing by stationary workers at various points along the way. Humans are rarely required to move around here. It’s much faster, and cheaper, to have stuff brought to them.’ (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)
- Affluent Cities Gained at the Expense of Trump’s ‘Forgotten’ America Study “The economic divide between affluent U.S. cities and suburbs and the ailing, often rural, areas where blue collar and middle-tier service jobs are the norm grew wider after the onset of the Great Recession, a Washington-based think tank said on Monday. The crisis and ensuing rebound saw a ‘reshuffling’ of jobs, entrepreneurial energy, and human capital from worse-off areas towards those that have increasingly captured the benefits of growth, the Economic Innovation Group concluded after comparing demographic data for the 2007-2011 and 2012-2016 periods.” (Reuters)
- Downtown Dallas Tower Redo Attracts New Investor “Developers who are redoing one of downtown Dallas' largest skyscrapers are getting more time from the city to completed the deal. Drever Capital Management - which is redeveloping the 52-story former First National Bank tower - also told Dallas' economic development committee that they have a new investor in the project, Dallas-based Cienda Partners.Drever is spending $430 million to convert the 1.5 million square-foot office high-rise into a combination of apartments, hotel rooms and retail space.” (Dallas Morning News)
- Real Estate Managers Seek Edge with Better Data, Tech Experts “The new hot jobs in real estate are data scientists and technology experts as managers try to adapt to a new way of doing business. Real estate managers need this influx of talent to help reduce costs and boost returns by using internal and external data, investment performance attribution and predictive analytical algorithms to better determine which properties to buy and sell and improve cash flow.” (Pensions & Investments)
- Walmart’s Largest Acquisition Ever Will Hit Profit “Walmart Inc. lowered its profit targets and said it would open just 10 new U.S. stores next fiscal year, as the world’s biggest retailer focuses its efforts on e-commerce shopping. The lowered profit goal for the current year reflects the acquisition of Indian e-commerce company Flipkart, which Walmart paid $16 billion to buy earlier this year. At the time, Walmart said the deal was a long-term bet on a fast-growing market that would depress earnings.” (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)
- SL Green Leases All of 609 Fifth Ave.’s Office Space to WeWork “SL Green’s repositioning of 609 Fifth Ave. has paid off. The publicly traded real estate giant has leased the building’s entire office block — 139,000 square feet on 11 floors — to unstoppably expanding WeWork, The Post has learned. SLG took control of the property at the corner of East 49th Street a few years ago. It had served as a lender to previous owner Jeff Sutton but then bought Sutton out.” (New York Post)
- Airbnb Bill Might Limit Short-Term Rentals in U.S. Capital “Short-term rentals of Jackie Howard’s two-bedroom home near major tourist attractions in Washington, D.C. have helped her family pay for everything from plumbing emergencies to braces for her daughter. After Tuesday, when the district council is expected to vote on whether rentals on platforms like Airbnb and HomeAway can continue in the U.S. capital, Howard’s listing and thousands of others may become illegal. The legislation would bar people from short-term rentals of secondary homes and limit rentals of primary residences to a maximum of 90 days a year if the owner is not physically present.” (Reuters)
- Chinese Investors Sue Nick Mastroianni Over Alleged EB-5 Fraud “Nearly 80 Chinese investors have filed suit against EB-5 fundraiser and Jupiter developer Nicholas Mastroianni II, alleging he defrauded them of their EB-5 investments. Mastroianni, who’s been tied to President Trump’s longtime attorney, Michael Cohen, as well as to the Kushner Companies, founded the U.S. Immigration Fund for EB-5 investment. He’s known to have raised EB-5 funds for a number of major developers.” (The Real Deal)
- Seeking Concrete Solutions to Labor Shortages in Construction “The construction industry is booming. But as it oversees the building explosion across the U.S., the sector is also seeking solutions to its most vexing challenges. Among them are the industry's labor shortage and the world's growing need for natural disaster-resistant materials. In the current labor market, cited by many as among the tightest if not the tightest in a half century, few fields have labored under the skilled and semi-skilled employee shortage like the building sector. The past decade has served up a double whammy.” (Forbes)
- Why J.C. Penney Is Key as Sears Files for Bankruptcy “Sears Holding Corp. filed for bankruptcy late Sunday night Oct. 14. And instead of seeking an outright sale of the entire company, which, had there been a buyer, would have been to the delight of shareholders, it's likely the crashing retailer will liquidate tons of inventory. That could be to the delight of JC Penney. TheStreet's Zev Fima, analyst for Jim Cramer's Action Alerts Plus team, says JC Penney could be right in the middle of the sweepstakes for Sears inventory. JC Penney could buy tons of Sears inventory at a steep discount to market, which could act as at least somewhat of a tailwind to its margins.” (The Street)
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