Urbanexus Update - Issue #69
Please scroll down for the weekly compilation of analysis, reporting, and opinion about real estate and community development. Some links may lead to items that are behind a paywall.
The economy and unemployment
The health of local economies today will affect their ability to adapt and thrive in the automation age. Urban cores, the urban periphery of high growth metropolitan areas and niche cities (often small places that are scenic and/or where universities are located) are likely to have the strongest employment growth.
Retail
Charming Charlie will close all 261 Stores
Charming Charlie, a women’s fashion and beauty chain based in Houston, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday. It is the second time the retailer known for its colorful displays of jewelry, handbags, apparel and beauty products has filed for bankruptcy in less than two years. The company now plans to close all 261 of its remaining stores across 38 states.
Hospitality
New hotels and renovations in downtown Phoenix
The surge of development in Downtown Phoenix is not slowing down anytime soon. With the Cambria hotel coming at the end of this year accompanied by extensive remodels of three major hotels, we can expect just under 4,000 hotel rooms in the urban core by 2020.
Industrial
Data Center REITs — seekingalpha.com
The home of the cloud, Data Center REITs are the physical epicenter of the continued boom in outsourced IT spending, a long-term secular growth story with years to run.
Residential
Nothing is easy in San Francisco — www.sfchronicle.com
A cleanup fiasco at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard has paralyzed the city’s biggest redevelopment project, putting thousands of housing units on hold. But developer FivePoint (a Lennar spin off) is going ahead with big plans for its 280-acre property at nearby Candlestick Point.
The paradoxes of California's fastest-growing city
Dublin, CA (San Francisco Bay Area) really shouldn’t be in such high demand. It’s a full 24 miles from Oakland, and another 16 miles from San Francisco. Its immediate region has its share of jobs and its share of amenities, but no one would mistake it for Silicon Valley. If California cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles acted more like their counterparts in Texas, where center cities are adding huge numbers of new residents (see Josh Stephen's recent interview with the planning director of Fort Worth), alongside suburbs whose growth rates are in league with Dublin, housing costs would likely level off and the benefits of density might come to fruition.
Top-selling master-planned communities Every year since 1994, RCLCO conducts a national survey identifying the top-selling MPCs through a rigorous search of high-performing communities.
Real estate developers see money short-term rentals It's not just your neighbors getting in on the short-term rental game anymore. Apartment communities and multi-family developers across the country are finding ways to leverage the trend in new and lucrative ways.
Urban design
A ‘garden city’ in Los Angeles — la.curbed.com How progressive design built Village Green, an affordable "garden city" in the heart of Los Angeles.
Gentrification
A critique of a gentrification critique
Per Josh Stephens, journalist Peter Moskowitz has written a passionate -- but misguided and divisive -- analysis of the effects and causes of gentrification.
Transportation
The law insists on driving in the USA The automobile took over because the legal system helped squeeze out the alternatives.
Dangerous by design — smartgrowthamerica.org
Between 2008 and 2017, drivers struck and killed 49,340 people who were walking on streets all across the United States. That’s more than 13 people per day, or one person every hour and 46 minutes.
Environment and resilience
Misguided regulation in the name climate action Residents of the city of Lakewood have approved a ballot measure that caps annual residential development and requires City Council approval of all developments over 40 units.
Focused acceleration for climate action in cities Prioritizing efforts in four areas could help cities achieve 90 to 100 percent of the emissions reductions needed by 2030.
Solara is the largest apartment community in the U.S. to achieve net zero distinction. The one and two bedroom multifamily development is located in Rotterdam, N.Y. This asset is family-owned and managed by David Bruns, president of Bruns Realty Group LLC.
Construction technology
Memorable plywood applications of the 20th Century
The concept of laminating sheets of wood together with an adhesive dates back to the Egyptian pharaohs. But its widespread application in residential construction and interiors did not gain popularity until the 1930s when a chemist at the Harbor Plywood Corporation developed a waterproof adhesive.
Around the world
Paris, London lead European metropolitan areas
Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union (EU) indicates that Paris is the largest metropolitan area in the EU, Switzerland and Norway, with 12.8 million residents, according to the latest estimates. This is slightly more than number two London --- which may soon be outside the Union --- with 12.4 million residents.