What I'm Reading Green Machine: As if brick and mortar retail landlords and businesses don't already have enough cause for concern, a new study by the MIT Real Estate Innovation Lab found a tangible environmental benefit to online shopping. In particular, the study concluded that carbon emissions from online shopping...
February 11th – Blunt Challenge
What I'm Reading Blunt Challenge: The number of marijuana stores in the U.S. is poised to grow in 2021 and 2022 as more states legalize the narcotic, the federal government toys with legalization at the national level, and already large sales chains seek to get larger. This despite often complex...
February 9th – Hybrid Model
What I'm Reading Hybrid: Retail stores are increasingly adopting a hybrid model, whereby they accommodate both in-store shoppers and the fulfillment of e-commerce orders, creating a new asset class that sits somewhere between retail and distribution. This is likely to lead to major changes in the next few year. For...
January 29th – Behind the Scenes
What I'm Reading Behind the Scenes: Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard about the massive short squeezes (and crashes) in troubled retailer GameStop and struggling theater operator AMC over the past couple of weeks. Both companies' stocks have soared but, despite the increases in valuation, both...
January 27th – Long Road Back
What I'm Reading Long Road Back: COVID-19 has resulted in a near-total halt in business travel. Beyond the blows to airlines, hotels, travel agents and rental-car companies, the sharp drop in business travel is rippling through whole ecosystems of related commerce, including airport shops, downtown bars and restaurants, construction companies...
January 22nd – Deluge
What I'm Reading Deluge: Office occupancy losses hit record lows in 2020, totaling 84MM square feet with more than half of the losses occurring in CBDs. Expensive markets with a high concentration of tech-and energy-companies were the most impacted. The only relative bright spots were secondary and tertiary markets, which...
January 21st – Misplaced Priorities
One Big Thing President Joe Biden comes into office with a housing plan that includes a $15,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit. IMO, encouraging first time homebuying is a worthy goal but doesn't really solve our current problem - not enough houses are getting built to satisfy existing demand, which would...
January 20th – Coming Into Focus
What I'm Reading Coming Into Focus: With COVID-19's resurgence, the early days of the Biden Administration will likely have a heavy focus on health and economic stabilization with an emphasis on infrastructure as well. As a result, it is less likely that proposals to narrow or eliminate 1031 exchanges will...
January 12th – Fallout
What I’m Reading Fallout: CoStar is estimating that the reckoning from COVID will eventually result in $126 billion of distressed real estate sales with a heavy concentration in lodging and retail. However, with an estimated $200 billion of capital raised to capitalize on such an opportunity, it is difficult to see...
January 11th – Wait and See
What I’m Reading Wait and See: NNN lease investors had assumed that Republicans would win the Georgia Senate special election and the 1031 exchange would be safe. Now that the Democratic party candidates have prevailed, those investors are anxiously awaiting President Elect Biden’s first 100 day agenda to see if the...