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 climbed 117.86 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 18,613.52. The S&P 500 index added 10.30 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 2,185.79. The NASDAQ composite index gained 23.81 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 5,228.40.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.78, or 4.3 per cent, to close at $43.49 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained $1.99, or 4.3 per cent, to close at $46.04 in London. Wholesale gasoline added 6 cents to $1.36 a gallon, while heating oil rose 6 cents to $1.38 a gallon. Natural gas fell a penny to $2.55 per 1,000 cubic feet.
US stock indexes close at record highs; oil up -- Strong gains by energy companies and retailers helped nudge each of the major U.S. stocks indexes to a record high close Thursday, erasing mild losses from the day before. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index and Nasdaq composite had previously hit new highs last Friday. The Nasdaq also notched a record close on Tuesday. Investors welcomed some better-than-expected quarterly results from Macy’s and Kohl’s, which spurred gains for several other big retail chains. Energy stocks led the rally, getting a boost from a surge in oil prices. An industry report released Thursday projected a more even balance in the supply and demand for oil this year.
Department stores hope to recapture appeal, be destinations — Department stores trying to recapture their appeal to consumers are making plans to provide more experiences like spas and restaurants, and offer exclusive selections to transforms the store into more of a destination. With shoppers increasingly buying online or from niche retailers and discount stores, the onetime pillars of retail are trying to rethink their business to keep up with consumers who want a different experience in stores than they find on their phones. That includes more attentive sales staff, pampering guests with beauty treatments and bringing in new kinds of merchandise. Macy’s announced plans Thursday for “re-creating Macy’s physical store presence” to adjust to customer tastes. It reported another quarter of falling profits and sales, though it said some moves like sprucing up its fine jewelry area and adding back some sales staff are helping. It also said it’ll close 100 stores early next year on top of the 40 it closed this spring.
A virtual-reality Olympics? It’s OK, but TV is still king — If you want to glimpse the future of sports broadcasting, you can check out the Rio Olympics in virtual reality. But if you really want to immerse yourself in the competition, just turn on the TV. NBC, BBC and other Olympic networks around the world are offering the opening and closing ceremonies and selected events in VR, giving viewers a 360-degree perspective — that is, the ability to look up, down and all around — when they wear special headsets. It’s a first in Olympics broadcasting, and NBC itself admits that its more than 100 hours of VR coverage is experimental. It’s good that television networks are getting a head start on figuring out what works with the new technology. Watching the Olympics in VR can occasionally transport you, giving you the sense of actually being there in Rio. But those moments are still too few and far between.
Six Commercial Real Estate Trends to Watch for What Remains of 2016 “The U.S. property market landscape in 2016 has looked much like it did in 2015, with somewhat less impressive numbers, as a number of interwoven themes come into play and, yet, bode well for savvy investors who can step out in front of ongoing—and, in some cases, intensifying—economic, demographic, and technological trends. On the economic side, the U.S. Federal Reserve made it clear last December that the central bank sees U.S. growth as relatively stable, notching the federal funds rate higher by a quarter point. Nevertheless, underlying inflation is extremely tame in the United States, providing no impetus for significantly higher rates.” (Urban Land)
Blackstone Enters Non-Traded REIT Market with $5 Billion Fund “Blackstone Group LP is seeking to raise $5 billion for its first nontraded real estate investment trust, targeting individual investors in a market that has been plagued by conflicts of interests, high commissions and poor performance. The move by the world’s biggest alternative-asset manager follows regulatory rule changes aimed at increasing transparency in the industry for nontraded REITs, which aren’t listed on exchanges and are primarily marketed by brokers to individual buyers.” (Bloomberg)
Westfield Sets Official Open Time for WTC Shopping Center “After more than a decade in the making, the massive shopping center in the new World Trade Center complex will finally open to the public starting at noon on Tuesday. Westfield, the retail leaseholder, will mark the opening of some 365,000 square feet of stores and restaurants with a private party and a special performance on the underground “Oculus” floor, followed by exclusive VIP cocktails and dinner at Eataly Downtown.” (New York Post)
N.J Approves $800 Million Bond Plan to Complete Mega Mall “New Jersey’s Local Finance Board approved a plan to use an out-of-state lending agency that specializes in risky securities to finance an $800 million bond sale to resurrect American Dream, the unfinished mega mall begun more than a decade ago. The project in East Rutherford, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Manhattan, has failed to fulfill several promised grand-opening dates as developers ran out of cash. It now anticipates opening in mid-2018.” (Bloomberg)
Standard & Poor’s New Real Estate Sector is a Catalyst for REITs “On September 17, Standard and Poor’s will start a new Real Estate sector which will include all of the real estate investment trusts (REIT) that are currently classified in the Financial sector. Many institutional investors, mutual funds, and exchange traded funds are going to be required to move capital into this new sector when it becomes official. Sam Miklosko tells us what to expect and how we can take advantage of this situation. Sam started his REIT Opportunity fund at Marketocracy in April, 2009. His returns have averaged 20.58% since then, which compares nicely to the S&P 500’s 15.67% return over the same period.” (Forbes)
Crescent Real Estate Heads Up the Tollway with New Office Tower Buy “Developer and investor Crescent Real Estate LLC has purchased an office high-rise on the Dallas North Tollway. Crescent and Boston-based Long Wharf Real Estate Partners LLC bought International Plaza III, a 13-story office tower at 14241 Dallas Parkway in Farmers Branch. The 354,182 square foot building is just north of the Galleria Dallas. Built in 2002, the high-rise is part of the International Plaza office complex.” (Dallas Morning News)
Video Game About Gentrification Lets You Play the Role of Real Estate Speculator “Game designer Paolo Pedercini believes it’s time to rethink the lessons of SimCity. Like many, the Carnegie Mellon assistant professor played the smash-hit city simulation, but he felt there was something missing. The centrally controlled, city-from-scratch idea doesn’t quite gel with the messy reality of today’s cities. But to give game players a better sense of the realities of gentrification and development, he felt a little bit of magical realism was in order.” (Curbed)
Mary Ann Tighe on ‘Perfectly Good’ Third Avenue Office Buildings, Frozen Land Market “CBRE top producer Mary Ann Tighe says New York City commercial owners are reluctant to adjust their prices after seven years of positive market growth. ‘So many buildings have traded and so many proformas have been reset that there’s a tremendous reluctance to reprice even if there’s a suggestion that you might,’ she said, speaking Tuesday on CNBC’s Squawk Box. ‘Land trades are frozen right now — the seller/buyer expectations are completely out of whack.’ As such, prices remain historically high.” (The Real Deal)
Hilton to Complement South Florida Medical Campus “Hilton Worldwide has teamed with Baptist Health South Florida to open a 150,000-square-foot, 184-room hotel as part of the upcoming Baptist Hospital campus in the Miami/Dadeland area. The campus will also include the Miami Cancer Institute, a new $430 million clinical and research center, which will house South Florida’s first proton therapy center, and the Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute. Located at at 9100 N. Kendall Drive, Hilton Miami/Dadeland will include a 6,200-square-foot ballroom, over 2,000 square feet of state-of-the-art flexible meeting space.” (Commercial Property Executive)
The Treacherous Waters of Opening a NYC Restaurant “In the midst of this, New York’s restaurateurs are learning that creative solutions to location issues are required in this economic climate. ‘You used to look for the big three [categories of potential customers]—you wanted residential, commercial and tourists,” said Gerard Renny of the restaurant consultancy Pacific Street Hospitality, whose venues have included Bar Stuzzichini and the Wild Horse Tavern. “But over the years, since the rents have gotten higher, you have to try to settle and just figure out what you can do to make a space work.’” (Commercial Observer)