Real Estate Daily News Buzz is designed to give news snippets to readers that our (yet to be award winning) editors thought you could use to start your day. They come from various business perspectives, real estate, government, the Fed, local news, and the stock markets to save you time. Here you will find the headlines and what the news buzz of the day will be.
Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average sank 210.79 points, or 1.2 percent, to 17,830.76. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slid 19.34 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,075.81. The NASDAQ composite closed lower for the sixth day in a row, falling 57.85 points, or 1.2 percent, to 4,805.29.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil, which is at its highest prices in almost six months, rose 70 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $46.03 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 96 cents, or 2 percent, to $48.14 a barrel in London. In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline rose 2 cents to $1.60 a gallon. Heating oil rose 3 cents to $1.41 a gallon. Natural gas fell 4 cents to $2 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Sport Chalet 58 Retail Leases Available in AZ, CA, NV — Sport Chalet will be closing all of its stores and has stopped selling online goods, the retailer announced this month. The retailer, which has 5 stores in Arizona, 2 in Nevada and 51 stores in California. Sport Chalet was founded in 1959 by Norbert J. Olberz, with its first store in La Canada Flintridge, where it remained headquartered for the next several decades. The company eventually expanded to Northern California, Arizona and Nevada. Sport Chalet Flyer
Sports Authority Scraps Reorganization Bid, Will Liquidate “Sports Authority Inc. has abandoned hope of reorganizing and exiting bankruptcy and instead will count on buyers to save parts of its sprawling retail chain, company lawyer Robert Klyman told a judge Tuesday. ‘It has become apparent that the debtors will not reorganize under a plan but instead will pursue a sale,’ Mr. Klyman told Judge Mary Walrath at a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.” (Wall Street Journal)
City of Tucson Gets another chance to defend elections system – A full panel of judges will reconsider a challenge to Tucson’s system of elections after a three-member panel last year ruled the hybrid of ward-only primaries and citywide general elections is unconstitutional. The City asked the court to reconsider the case with a panel of 11 judges, and that request was approved yesterday. The larger panel of judges will rehear the case, reviewing the same briefs as the smaller panel. They also will hear oral arguments the week of June 20 in San Francisco. Meanwhile, Tucson voters could get a say in whether to change the election system. The Tucson City Council will hold a public hearing on May 3 on a draft ballot question to change all elections to a ward-only system. That means you’d get to vote only for the council member who represents the ward in which you live.
US economy struggles at start of election year — It was not a great start for the U.S. economy. With consumers and businesses turning cautious, the U.S. struggled to grow in the first three months of a presidential election year that is shining the spotlight on the economy’s fitful recovery. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic health, expanded at a paltry annual rate of 0.5 percent in the January-March quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. That is slower than the fourth quarter’s 1.4 percent growth rate and marks the weakest performance in two years.
Sam Zell’s Real Estate Assets Selling at 20% Off “Investors who want to invest along with Zell need look no further than Equity Commonwealth (ticker: EQC ), an office property REIT, which traded for a recent $27.64. Under his leadership, the shares could gain nicely over the next few years. With a strong real estate market at its back, Commonwealth sold 91 properties for $2 billion in 2015. On the February earnings call, Zell characterized the company in the ‘midstream of our disposition program.’” (Barron’s)
Real Estate Activist Litt Bets Against IRET “An activist hedge fund focused on the real estate sector is launching its first public bet against the shares of a company, targeting Investors Real Estate Trust (IRET.N), according to documents obtained by Reuters. Land and Buildings, the real estate activist firm founded by a former Citigroup analyst, says IRET’s debt levels and its exposure to North Dakota’s struggling economy are among the reasons why the real estate investment trust’s stock is set to fall nearly 40 percent to a fair value of $4.40, the documents show.” (Reuters)
Sovereign Wealth Funds Move into Real Estate amid Volatile Stock Market “Real estate is now a prime play for sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) as equity markets remain unpredictable, said an analyst Wednesday. The Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute president Michael Maduell said, ‘They are looking for long-term investments where they can lock up their capital and not have to continually reinvest that capital.’ The institute analyzes investments by public asset owners such as SWFs and other long-term governmental investors.” (CNBC)
Hilton Names Thomas Baltimore CEO of its New Real Estate Company “Thomas J. Baltimore, Jr., the longtime chief executive of RLJ Lodging Trust, is returning to Hilton Worldwide to lead its new real estate spin-off, the McLean-based hotel giant announced Wednesday. Baltimore, who is resigning from Bethesda-based RLJ effective May 11, will become chief executive of Hilton’s yet-to-be-named real estate investment trust. Hilton announced in February that it plans to spin off its real estate and timeshare businesses.” (The Washington Post)
The Port Authority is Sitting on All This Prime Real Estate—but What Can it Really Do with It? “The Port Authority has options for the World Trade Center, among them is selling the fee position on the 16-acre site outright, selling the leases it has with Silverstein Properties on towers 2, 3 and 4 and selling its 90-percent interest in One World Trade Center. But each scenario presents its own set of difficulties. Take, for instance, the option of selling the land. Because the trade center sits on property owned by the state, the Port Authority does not pay property taxes.” (The Real Deal)
Feds Move to Sell State Street Buildings “Developers could finally get a crack at four vacant government-owned buildings on the State Street shopping strip, but they have to wait at the back of the line. The federal government has decided to dispose of 202, 212, 214 and 220 S. State in the Loop after spending more than a decade trying to figure out what to do with them. The buildings, in a national historic district, have sat empty amid a Loop renaissance.” (Chicago Real Estate Daily)
Study: North American Warehouses Get Smart “The warehouse is shifting from a building where you keep stuff to an intelligent hub that supports order management, customer service and general productivity. According to U.S. and Canadian results from a new global study of 1,378 warehouse and IT professionals conducted in October 2015 by Zebra Technologies, ‘Warehouse Vision Study,’ companies are investing in warehouse technology. Fifty percent of respondents currently have or are moving to a full-feature, best-of-breed warehouse management system (WMS).” (Chain Store Age)
IKEA to Build 1st of 2 Illinois Distribution Centers as Part of Chicagoland Project Boom “A 1.3 million-square-foot distribution center for home furnishings retailer IKEA is being built in Joliet, Ill., one of nearly $3.8 billion in industrial capital and maintenance projects in the Chicagoland area planned for this year. Industrial Info Resources, which is planning a free Market Outlook & Networking Event May 11 in Chicago, included the $80 million IKEA distribution center as one of the many projects expected to be built in the 14-county Chicago-Naperville-Elgin MSA between May and April 2017.” (Commercial Property Executive)
Panera to Close Standalone Paradise Units “Panera Bread Co. will close or convert some Paradise Bakery & Café locations and continue to invest in food safety, executives said Wednesday. St. Louis-based Panera purchased a majority stake in Paradise, then based in Phoenix, in 2007, when it had more than 70 locations in 10 states. Panera purchased the balance of Paradise in June 2009. Paradise now has just over 50 units in six states, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska, Texas and Utah.” (Nation’s Restaurant News)
