Urbanexus Update - Issue #77
The curator of this weekly posting of real estate and community development news is H. Pike Oliver. Please note that some links may lead to items that are behind a paywall.
Investment
Real estate investment managers — video.pionline.com
Each year P&I collects data from the largest real estate investment managers. The data animation allows viewers to compare size, scope and changes in allocations. Hat tip to Kyle Reardon for finding this.
Retail
Some cities are less affected by e-commerce Retail sites in Chicago, Baltimore and Salt Lake City are less likely to be affected by e-commerce than L.A., Las Vegas and Oklahoma City.
Could 'dark kitchens' gobble up restaurants?
Often in under-utilised buildings, portacabins or warehouses on the outskirts of cities, dark kitchens allow chefs to cook up everything from burgers to biryanis and serve food directly to online consumers. This has some property experts predicting the death of bricks-and-mortar restaurants and, subsequently, local high streets in Britain as online deliveries become the norm.
Office
Office vacancy rates still higher in several US markets
The national office vacancy rate held steady at 16.8 percent in the third quarter compared with the prior quarter, and was up 10 basis points from the same period a year ago, according to Reis, which tracks commercial properties in 79 metropolitan markets. Individual markets have also shows signs of softness, with 39 of the 79 metros tracked by Reis seeing increased office vacancy so far in 2019.
Residential
Affordable group living in 30 square feet — www.wsj.com If successful, a few startups would be one of the first landlords in decades to bring low-priced housing to expensive U.S. cities without public subsidies.
Apartment surge after rent control removed
Toronto’s apartment crunch is finally easing as new supply hits the market and the removal of rent controls leads to record units on the drawing board, according to a new report. HT to Matthew Gardner for finding this.
$336M to build 2,998 apartments for homeless residents
Los Angeles lawmakers are queuing up $335.8 million to help build nearly 3,000 affordable apartments across the city, including the first Measure HHH units in Chatsworth (San Fernando Valley.)
Construction
How 'billboarding' is reducing construction time
Due to a convention center building's massing and complexity, traditional bottom-to-top construction would have meant more than four years of construction. Instead, the team chose a “billboarding” approach to cut a full year from the construction duration.
Environment
Map of auto emissions in America — www.nytimes.com
The New York Times provides interactive mapping that illustrates the scope and scale of the great project still facing the United States: to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector of its economy.