Real Estate Daily News Buzz December 20, 2016

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Real Estate Daily News Buzz December 20, 2016

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.

Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average inched up 39.65 points, or 0.2 percent, to 19,883.06. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 4.46 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,262.53. The Nasdaq composite advanced 20.28 points, or 0.4 percent, to 5,457.44.

Crude oil inched up 22 cents to $52.12 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 29 cents to $54.92 a barrel in London. In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline rose 1 cent to $1.56 a gallon. Heating oil remained at $1.67 a gallon. Natural gas fell 2 cents to $3.39 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Tucson’s  Jeremy Brown named Greatmats’ Dog Trainer of the Year for second year in a row – Local dog trainer Jeremy Brown of The Complete Canine is on the brink of being announced the winner of Greatmats 2nd Annual National Dog Trainer of the Year Award for the second year in a row. Brown has been training dogs for over a decade, and now is the owner and head trainer of his own business, The Complete Canine. He competed against four other dog trainers from around the country to maintain his title as National Dog Trainer of the Year. Voting ran through Nov. 30, and Brown received 451 votes—over five times more than the second place trainer, at 89 votes. He was nominated both years by clients whose dogs he had worked with. (DailyWildCat)

Deutsche Bank Could Settle U.S. Penalty This Week—Sources “Deutsche Bank could this week agree a penalty with the U.S. Department of Justice over the sale of toxic mortgage debt, one person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday. The penalty stems from a 2012 initiative launched by U.S. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, to penalize banks for allegedly selling sub-prime debt while misleading investors about the risks, a practice that contributed to the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. ‘There is a good chance that the case will be off the table before Christmas,’ the person said, adding that an announcement could come as early as Wednesday.” (Reuters)

Human-less Stores Are Now Possible—And It Might Be the End of Retail “Are retailers really willing to consider disassociating from associates? I hope that’s not the lesson that merchant executives take away from two recent self-checkout moves. The first, from Amazon, was a fully self-checkout store, where items are logged as they are placed into a cart. It uses a network of cameras and motion sensors to guess when something is purchased. The flaw? There are no people to clean up the mess when the software guesses wrong. It’s like the world’s largest vending machine.” (ComputerWorld)

Real Estate Is Chipotle’s Competitive Advantage “Wedbush’s Nick Setyan believes Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.’s access to favorable real estate has been ‘the envy of the category precipitating a virtuous cycle of increasing brand equity, higher volumes and an increasing volume gap relative to competition.’ However, Setyan maintains an Underperform rating on the company, with a price target of $370, saying that while real estate is a moat, it is ‘also a challenge moving forward.’” (Benzinga)

Here’s How Much Jared Kushner and His Family Are Really Worth “A recent Forbes cover story on Kushner detailed the critical role he played in helping deliver Trump’s stunning election win. Now, he and his wife Ivanka are reportedly shopping for homes in Washington D.C. and Ivanka Trump will apparently assume some of the responsibilities typical of America’s First Lady while Kushner will likely have his own office in the West Wing. Forbes estimates that Jared Kushner, his brother Josh and his parents, Charles and Seryl, have a fortune worth at least $1.8 billion, more than half of which Forbes estimates is held in real estate.” (Forbes)

JPMorgan Dethrones Deutsche as Top CMBC Bookrunner “While U.S. CMBS issuance is on track to dip to $76 billion this year – down 25 percent from $101 billion last year – JP Morgan was able to hold relatively steady with just an 8 percent drop in volume. That helped it increase its market share from 13 percent last year to 15.9 percent in 2016. As reported last week, JPMorgan’s CMBS trading desk has also quietly emerged as a major construction lender in the Greater New York City area, taking a leading role in issuing at least $2.7 billion in loans in recent years. The ramp-up comes as the bank’s commercial banking unit grows more cautious on real estate financing.” (The Real Deal)

Staten Island Ferris Wheel is $300 Million Over Budget “The big wheel keeps on burning — through cash. The cost of the New York Wheel project on Staten Island is nearing $600 million, more than $300 million over its original estimate. The opening of the 630-foot Ferris wheel on the St. George waterfront, initially slated for early next year, is now scheduled for 2018. Problems getting funding for what is expected to be the world’s tallest Ferris wheel and a major tourist attraction contributed to the delays, said a source familiar with the project.” (New York Post)

Did Retailers Doom Their Holidays with Deep Discounts? “During the holidays, retailers hope to keep sales profitable by getting shoppers into stores without discounting too heavily. But a few studies on holiday spending indicate that this year’s discounts were some of the deepest. A study conducted by DynamicAction Inc. and reported in The Wall Street Journal, indicated that receipts featuring promotions increased 79 percent year-over-year in November 2016. The receipts from the first week of December showed double the deals from the previous year. Another study by Nomura Instinet indicated that of 21 retailers tracked, only Gap’s Athleta and Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance ran fewer promotions in the first weekend of December 2016 than in that window the previous year.” (Retail Wire)

JEMB Shopping 50% Stake in 75 Broad “JEMB Realty is looking to sell a 50 percent stake in its 715,000-square-foot Financial District office building at 75 Broad Street. The Lower Manhattan-based landlord is marketing the property as a value-add investment with the building at 86 percent occupancy and below-market leases set to roll over, Real Estate Alert reported. At the same time, JEMB – which would retain the remaining 50 percent ownership in the building – is looking to refinance 75 Broad with a fixed- or floating-rate mortgage of up to $260 million.” (The Real Deal)

Here’s What Everyone Gets Wrong About Dodd-Frank, According to the Real Star of ‘Big Short’ “’The Big Short’ star says this is what everyone is getting wrong about Dodd-Frank star says this is what everyone is getting wrong about Dodd-Frank. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act — designed to help prevent another financial crisis, has not discouraged banks from lending — as many critics of the regulations contend, said Steven Eisman, the strategist portrayed by Steve Carell in ‘The Big Short.’ Eisman, a senior portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman, said the argument that Dodd-Frank has slowed loan activity ‘certainly sounds great,’ but ‘there’s only one problem with the thesis, it’s not true.’” (CNBC)