Very, very few office buildings lend themselves to residential conversion, and even the handful of skinny buildings that do would require massive public subsidies to pencil out. Some landlords have another idea: converting their emptying portfolio into life science buildings.. How hard could such a conversion be?
Read MoreYears ago—beset by the Great Recession—one of Tennessee’s finest developers shook his head at his financial statement and drawled, “My net worth’s gone down by half, but my cash flow’s the same.” He wasn’t alone. Commercial real estate nationwide lost around forty percent of its value during those trying…
Read MoreThe Wall Street Journal reported last week that April’s commercial property sales were down 16 percent compared to April 2021. In detailing the market’s loss of velocity, the newspaper stated that the hotel, senior housing, office buildings and industrial sectors were particularly hard hit, while retail…
Read More"Thus far this year, we’ve dropped three projects because of breathtaking cost estimates.” A big-time San Francisco contractor told me the other night that he half-wished for another recession. Why? Because his subcontractors—the guys who actually do the work—are so inundated with jobs that they’ve…
Read MoreThe Urban Land Institute is arguably real estate’s most prestigious international organization. There to advise, the learned pundits at its spring meeting in San Diego seemingly predicted every possible economic outcome for next year. Some seers contended that we are back to 1981, and that our soaring…
Read MoreA couple months ago, I called my doctor to renew a prescription at Walgreen’s. She suggested trying NowRx, a Silicon Valley pharmaceutical start-up offering home delivery. It turned out that with no insurance required, NowRx would deliver 90 days’ worth of a generic heartburn medication* for $14.50.…
Read MoreDrought: (noun) 1. A prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water Despite our spectacular rainy season thus far, California fits within the first half of the definition of a drought: We are in a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall. But what about our shortage of…
Read More“There is no there there.” When Gertrude Stein wrote that deathless line about Oakland, it seems she wasn’t being snarky after all; she was grieving over the loss of her girlhood home to its path of growth. What would the poet say today?
Read MoreLandlords already know this: People are getting more toasted than Wonder Bread. Happy Hour starts at 3 o’clock. Tenants selling reality-relief are killing it.
Read MoreViewed a certain way, life resembles a Vegas sports book — its dramas have at least a few winners; not everyone loses. Covid-19 is no exception.
Read More“Scotts Valley evacuated. Our Safeway center is shut down,” my partner texted last Friday. That meant four of our shopping centers in Northern California were threatened by wildfires.
Read MoreRetail has the virus. Just as with people, different retailers are reacting to this infection very differently. Ailing merchants with comorbidities are suffering — or dying — while those without long-term illnesses are asymptomatic, even healthy.
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