Urbanexus Update - Issue #133
This selection of economic, real estate and community development news and information comes to you via H. Pike Oliver. Some items are behind a paywall.
The economy
A stuffed giraffe explains inflation — time.com Prices are going up in the U.S. economy because the supply chain that moves goods around is incredibly clogged.
Residential
Apartments near Amazon in Seattle go for $701K a unit
A limited liability company affiliated with Blackstone Group paid a Goldman Sachs LLC nearly $302.8 million for two apartment buildings near Amazon.com Inc.'s South Lake Union headquarters in Seattle.
Puget Sound rental homeowners fleeing the market,
A brokerage that specializes in rentals in King and Snohomish counties saw a 33% increase in the number of clients selling their property in 2020 compared with 2019. "Areawide, prior to last year, the biggest single-year spike we had seen was 16% from 2013 to 2014," said Cory Brewer, vice president of residential operations at Lori Gill & Associates/Windermere Property Management. "Specifically in Seattle, 48% is by far the biggest spike we have seen during this time."
Jim Henderson, president of Landlord Solutions Inc., is seeing the same trend, which he attributes to regulatory burdens. Brewer said new statutes related to the home rental market are to blame for much of the selling, especially in Seattle. He cited a city ordinance enacted in October 2019 intended to remove obstacles to housing and increase housing stability.
A partnership between Toll Bros and Equity Residential
Leading multifamily owner Equity Residential and luxury home builder Toll Brothers, through its Toll Brothers Apartment Living division, have established a strategic partnership to develop new rental communities in key U.S. metro markets.
The partnership initially will focus on acquiring and developing sites for multifamily communities in markets where both Equity Residential and Toll Brothers have a significant or growing presence—Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; Denver; San Diego and Orange County; and Seattle as well as Dallas-Fort Worth, where Equity Residential recently has reentered.
Neighbors fighting shared retreats — www.npr.org
On a sleepy cul-de-sac amid the bucolic vineyards and grassy hills of California's Sonoma Valley, a $4 million house has become the epicenter of a summer-long spat between angry neighbors and a new venture capital-backed startup buying up homes around the nation. The company is called Pacaso. It says it's the fastest company in American history to achieve the "unicorn" status of a billion-dollar valuation — but its quarrels in wine country, one of the first regions where it's begun operations, foreshadow business troubles ahead.
Buy a luxury building, then lower the rent A new program involving local subsidies aims to help middle-income Californians afford better housing. Critics say it's a bad use of public funds.
Hospitality
Renovation of California’s Sea Ranch Lodge
Sea Ranch Lodge, a hotel on the iconic holistic Northern California community, is undergoing a massive renovation and will reopen in October 2022.
Master-planned development
Mixed-use in Alabama — rebusinessonline.com
Nicol Investment Co. has started construction of Upland Park, a $200 million mixed-use project in Huntsville. The 60-acre project will include multifamily and senior living residences, restaurants, retail, office, entertainment and green space.
Walton acquires development land in greater Atlanta
Walton Global, a real estate investment and land asset management company, has acquired 808 acres in Georgia, which is anticipated to bring approximately 1,687 total homes to two new communities.
The company acquired two land parcels in the area. A property called Pinehills Trails with 652 acres is located in Paulding County just outside of Atlanta, and a property called Cannon Forest with 156 acres is located within the Jacksonville MSA in the city of St. Marys, Georgia.
Regional and metropolitan dynamics
Company headquarters leaving California
For the first six months of 2021, the number of companies relocating their headquarters out of California is running at twice the rate of recent years and is showing no signs of slowing, according to a study issued by Spectrum Location Solutions and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Big D is a big deal Located on the Southern Plains, far from America’s coasts and great river systems, the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area epitomizes the new trends in American urbanism. Over the past decade, DFW has grown by some 1.3 million people, to reach a population of just under 7.7 million, making it the nation’s fourth-largest metro, based on new figures from the 2020 census. Rather than building on natural advantages, the metroplex owes its tremendous growth to railroads, interstate highways, and airports, plus an unusual degree of economic freedom and affordability.
Phoenix now fifth most populous US municipality
According to the US Census, Phoenix is officially the nation's fifth-most populous city, surpassing Philadelphia in the 2020 Census. Much information and analysis await unpacking. Phoenix grew 11.2% over the decade, the biggest increase of the 10 largest cities. Jon Talton looks beyond the numbers.
Phoenix is not one of the Superstar Cities that capture jobs at the "frontier of innovation." Those are Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and San Diego. Phoenix is not one of the most educated cities, either. Among big-city peers, Seattle is fifth. Metro Phoenix lags at 80th on the list. Chicago is fifth with the best parks; Phoenix ranks No. 82. Seattle is No. 5 in gross domestic product per capita; Phoenix is No. 148.
Nor is Phoenix's position secure, its ascent guaranteed. A century ago, Cleveland was the fifth most populous American city.
People keep moving to the worst places for climate risk Lots of people are flocking to Arizona, Florida, and Texas—but no one is moving to Duluth, Minnesota.
Location of IT professionals in the USA
The San Jose metropolitan area and Cedar Rapids, IA have the most IT jobs per 10K residents. The transportation and warehousing industry is the fastest-growing employer for IT roles, experiencing a 54% increase in the number of jobs since 2015.
Urban strategy, planning, and zoning
Rethinking Rethinking New York — www.archpaper.com
Sharon Zukin reflects on working with Michael Sorkin for Rethinking New York, a book that is still just as pressing even 20 years after 9/11
California lawmakers open up single family zoning
To ease an affordability crisis, the California Legislature voted for a modest zoning reform, allowing two units on lots long reserved for single-family homes.
Evidence-based adaptation plans needed — www.eurekalert.org Extreme heat is an increasingly common occurrence worldwide, with heat-related deaths and illnesses also expected to rise. The authors of a new two-paper Series on Heat and Health, published in The Lancet, recommend immediate and urgent globally coordinated efforts to mitigate climate change and increase resilience to extreme heat to limit additional warming, avoid permanent and substantial extreme heat worldwide, and save lives by protecting the most vulnerable people.
The idea that residents should be able to meet their basic needs within a short walk or roll of their home was popularized by Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, and has been met with enthusiasm among urban planners and policymakers the world over, including in sprawling North America.
According to a newly published study by moveBuddha, mid-size American cities of 250,000 to 750,000 residents dominated the rankings of the top 25 potential 15-minute cities in the United States along with a few large cities, f, also making the cut. To calculate its data, moveBuddha collected and assessed data from the 78 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. To generate its scores, study author Joe Robison used walking and biking scores assigned to cities by Walkscore.com; it also takes into consideration a variety of additional factors using publicly available data.
Zoning for middle housing doesn’t make it so
Over several decades, detached, for-sale, single-family homes, and larger rental apartment buildings have dominated new construction. This has been driven by a combination of land use regulations, lending practices, construction litigation risk, and market forces — leaving duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, and small apartment or condo buildings largely out of the mix. In response, communities are looking at ways to reintroduce neighborhood-scaled “missing middle” housing in existing single-family neighborhoods, driven by the desire to provide more diverse and more affordable living opportunities, including more affordable for-sale housing.
But the results are often disappointing. Even with the opportunity to create two or more units on a property, single-family homes are often the most economically feasible option, whether by retaining an existing home or building a new one. This article by David Driskell and his co-authors helps to understand why and what might be done to achieve a better result.
Construction
Inside the Surfside condo failure — www.nytimes.com
An excellent New York Times investigation combines textual and visual presentation to show how faulty design and construction could have contributed to the collapse of the building in South Florida.
San Francisco’s Millennium Tower sinking intensifies The Millennium Tower in San Francisco halted work on foundation repairs as the building sinks another inch.
3D-printed homes in Austin, Texas — www.dwell.com A series of four 3D-printed homes have just been completed in East Austin, offering buyers an alternative in one of the country’s hottest real estate markets.
Rammed earth construction — archidose.blogspot.com
John Hill reviews a book that for the first time illustrates the history and significance of rammed earth construction in Central Europe, particularly in Switzerland, using historical examples to investigate the potential of that building technique for contemporary construction. It represents pioneering comprehensive documentation that will contribute to safeguarding existing architectural monuments, while also providing the foundation for further research.
Resilience and sustainability
A proliferation of green building rating systems raises the question of what’s being measured New York is using multiple systems of rating green building sustainability, leading to clashes between LEED certification and local lawes
Passings
Bernard Lax — www.archpaper.com Friends and colleagues pay tribute to the late Bernard Lax, founder, owner, and CEO of custom glass manufacturer Pulp Studio.