Urbanexus Update - Issue #41
Please scroll down for the weekly compilation of analysis, reporting and opinion about real estate and community development. Note that some links may lead to material that is behind a paywall.
Best wishes for a personally and professionally rewarding 2019.
The economy
Amy Liu of the Brookings Institution writes about how 2018 revealed fundamental truths about our increasingly digital economy.
Real estate investment and management
IPE Real Assets’ top 100 ranking of the world’s largest real estate investors has captured more than $1.23 trillion in real estate assets held by pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors.
The 100 largest property fund managers in the world manage $3.43 trillion of assets between them
Regional activity
Facebook to more than quadruple Los Angeles presence
Social networking giant Facebook is embarking on its largest expansion so far in Los Angeles, staking a major claim to space in one of the region's most prominent neighborhoods for technology companies as the confluence of internet and entertainment further transform the nation's second-largest city.
Denver can't build offices fast enough
Denver, despite having a skyline filled with construction cranes for years, still faces a shortage of office space next year. As the capital city of one of the 10 fastest-growing states, it can't keep up with demand as economic development officials lure more corporations in need of big blocks of offices. Since the start of 2013, the Denver area has added 10.6 million new square feet of office space, according to CoStar data, with more than half of that completed in 2017 and 2018. It hasn't helped much. That's because most of the space built was either developed for a specific company or was mostly pre-leased well before the buildings were completed.
Getting around
Why Is American transit overall so bad? Streetcar, bus, and metro systems have been ignoring one lesson for 100 years: Service drives demand.
Around the world
Five property rights hotspots for 2019
Battles over land and who owns it are unleashing unprecedented conflict as governments and companies seek access to more of the world's natural resources, while digital property, like personal data, is an increasingly prized commodity. With an estimated 70 percent of the world unmapped, more than 5 billion people lack proof of ownership, according to the Lima-based Institute for Liberty and Democracy.