New York tops the list of cities for the highest rents on flexible office space, reports the Wall Street Journal. CNBC looks into the new trends in hotel design. These are among today’s must reads from around the commercial real estate industry.
- New York City Tops List for Flexible Office Rates “New York City is the most expensive big city in the world to rent a desk, according to a new report about flexible office space. The city topped a list of the largest international central business centers for the cost of renting flexible office space, which usually offers shorter terms than a conventional lease and provides furnished space ready to use.” (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)
- Communal, Cozy and Connected: Hotels of the Future Break New Ground “Business travelers beware: hotels are redesigning room layouts. It’s now 2017 — you work in coffee shops, your smartphone controls your home and car, and your business trips are short, two-day jaunts with a bit of leisure thrown in. Why can’t your hotel be the same way? New hotels seek to capitalize on that question. Out are the large but dark rooms, the voluminous dressers and utilitarian corner gyms, replaced by cozier rooms, bright common spaces, natural lighting and centerpiece gyms.” (CNBC)
- Is Dallas’ Housing Market Cooling Off? “They are workers relocating from Southern California, following employers like Toyota and Jacobs Engineering. They are college graduates moving from the Midwest to start careers in what is, reportedly, the country’s best city in which to find work. They are highly skilled immigrants from India capitalizing on a demand for tech workers. They are people from the East Coast who are simply tired of schlepping through slush every winter. They keep coming to Dallas, waves and waves of them, all looking for places to live. Looking and buying and boosting prices.” (D Magazine)
- Jared Kushner Got $285 Million Loan from Deutsche Bank Ahead of Election Day“Evidence of wider ties between Deutsche Bank (DB) and President Donald Trump’s family and businesses is emerging after a report that the German bank lent Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner $285 million ahead of the presidential election. Deutsche Bank finalized a $285 million loan to Kushner’s real estate company a month ahead of Election Day, The Washington Post reported late Sunday. Part of a refinancing package for property near Times Square in Manhattan, the deal was struck as Kushner was propelling the Trump campaign to the finish line and Deutsche Bank was settling fraud cases with federal and state authorities.” (The Street)
- Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Just Became One of the Largest Shareholders in an Obscure Real Estate Firm “Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is investing more money in the real estate business. Store Capital announced on Monday that Berkshire invested $377 million in the company, which represents a 9.8 percent stake in the real estate investment trust. The company issued 18.6 million shares of Store Capital shares in a private placement to a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, National Indemnity Co., at $20.25 per share.” (CNBC)
- Commercial, Multifamily Mortgage Originations in U.S. to Dip in 2017 “According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, commercial and multifamily mortgage originations in the U.S. will be down slightly in 2017, ending the year at $478 billion, a decrease of 3 percent from the 2016 volumes. Mortgage banker originations of just multifamily mortgages are forecast at $206 billion in 2017, with total multifamily lending at $245 billion.” (World Property Journal)
- Hines Nabs Sacramento Office Tower in $120M Deal “Hines recently snapped up Park Tower, a trophy office property in Sacramento. The company purchased the asset from CIM Group in a transaction valued at, according to the Sacramento Business Journal, $120.5 million. The 25-story Park Tower, as Cameron Falconer, senior managing director with Hines, said in a prepared statement, is ‘a best-in-class office asset in a very desirable location.’” (Commercial Property Executive)
- Staten Island Ferris Wheel Project is Spinning Out of Control “The giant Staten Island Ferris-wheel project is spinning out of control. The design team building the 630-foot-high New York Wheel on the borough’s north shore got into a bitter pay dispute with the developer — and walked off the job in late May. The developer then made desperate pleas to a federal judge to get the work started again, saying the revitalization of Staten Island’s waterfront was at stake.” (New York Post)
- Is New York Real Estate Showing Symptoms of Distress? “For Hans Futterman, it was a dream defaulted. The developer assembled a vacant plot of land — formerly a Shell gas station and a parking lot — at Frederick Douglass Boulevard and West 122nd Street in Harlem over roughly four years, from 2011 to 2015. He then secured approvals to construct a 12-story, 127-unit residential building on the site, which offers 205,000 buildable square feet. But in June of last year, Futterman, who declined to comment for this story, defaulted on a $36 million loan from RWN Real Estate Partners, and five months later his development firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.” (The Real Deal)
- NorthMarq Capital Buys SLC Mortgage Banking Firm “NorthMarq Capital has acquired Western Capital Realty Advisors, a leading commercial mortgage banking firm in Salt Lake City. The acquisition includes a $400 million loan servicing portfolio. John Bradshaw, Western Realty Capital’s founder, will join the company as managing director. Additionally, principals Nate Barnson, Larry Pinnock, and Dale Christiansen will come aboard NorthMarq as well as key employees Tara Jewkes and Tom Bradshaw.” (Commercial Property Executive)