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.
Tuesday, the Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 2.91 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,412.91. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 50.81 points, or 0.2 percent, to 21,029.47. The Nasdaq composite dipped 7 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,203.19.
Benchmark U.S. crude lost 14 cents to $49.66 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 45 cents to $51.84 a barrel in London. Wholesale gasoline remained at $1.64 a gallon. Heating oil dipped 1 cent to $1.55 a gallon. Natural gas tumbled 17 cents, or 5 percent, to $3.15 per 1,000 cubic feet.
US consumer spending, incomes grew solidly in April — Americans increased their spending in April at the fastest pace in four months, bolstered by a solid gain in incomes. The strong performance for spending and income growth underscored the view that the economy is poised to rebound after a lackluster start to the year.
Wal-Mart works to close gap between itself and Amazon — Wal-Mart's acquisition of Jet.com is accelerating its progress in e-commerce as it works to narrow the gap between itself and the online leader. Wal-Mart is betting its online future on essentials like produce and groceries and has adjusted its shipping strategy. But Amazon keeps innovating too.
Albertson’s Can’t Find a Grocery Chain to Take Over “Albertsons’ quest for a takeover target is not going so well, The Post has learned. Cerberus Capital-controlled Albertsons, America’s second-largest grocery chain, had approached Sprouts Farmers Market months ago, but Sprouts is now trading at too high a multiple for a transaction to happen, two sources close to the situation said. Largely due to reports in March that it was in talks with Albertsons, Sprouts saw its shares spike 30 percent, giving it a $3.3 billion market cap.” (New York Post)
U.S. Consumer Confidence Falls More Than Expected in May “The Consumer Confidence Index, which had previously decreased in April, fell again in May, The Conference Board announced Tuesday. But U.S. consumers remain optimistic on the whole. The index now stands at 117.9, down from its April reading, the group said. Economists were expecting the index to drop slightly to 119.8 for the month of May, according to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates. The Consumer Confidence Index last fell to 120.3 in April after hitting 125.6 in March, its highest level since December 2000.” (CNBC)
Blackstone Regains Crown as World’s Largest Property Manager “Blackstone has regained its crown as the world’s largest real estate manager from Brookfield after a tightly fought race in 2016 when huge investor inflows drove the value of global property to fresh highs. New York-based Blackstone’s property assets increased 6 per cent to €143bn, leapfrogging Brookfield, which slipped to second spot after real estate assets managed by the Toronto-based group rose 2.6 per cent to €141bn in 2016.” (Financial Times)
This Is What Will Happen to All the Empty Stores You’re Seeing “One of the inevitabilities of retail real estate now is that it will be less valuable in the future than it was in the past. You don't need a crystal ball to see that there's more supply than demand of retail square feet. Basic economics says when that happens the price goes down. Landlords are not acting quickly to recognize that, they are not acknowledging that their asset is less valuable, they are not lowering the price of their space fast enough to generate new leases and soak up what's coming on the market.” (Forbes)
Investors Double Down on Rental Properties “It was a rare lucrative business for Wall Street in the aftermath of the financial crisis: snapping up properties in foreclosure and renting them out. So good, in fact, that now, as the distressed pool dries up, some investors are refusing to let the rental-model fizzle. They’re building more and more of the houses themselves. American Homes 4 Rent, a 5-year-old real estate investment trust and the biggest of the publicly traded landlords by number of homes, is buying lots and houses around the U.S., and Colony Starwood Homes plans to purchase at least 600 properties over the next year from more than a dozen builders.” (Tulsa World)
The Commercial Real Estate Technology Purge Is Coming “I am expecting a downturn for CRE tech. Are you ready? Maybe I can help. ‘But Duke, things are going so well, what are you trying to do?’ I’m not trying to do anything other than stating the facts that we need to progress and to do that we need to get leaner meaner and smarter. You think we are already there now? We are not even close, not by any measure.” (cre.tech)
Paydirt: EB-5 Was Kushner’s Kryptonite “It took a real estate gaffe for the developer-in-chief to finally sour on his princeling. Jared Kushner, dubbed ‘The Secretary of Everything’ for his vast and amorphous White House task list, got himself in trouble with President Trump over a stunt Kushner Companies and its associates pulled earlier this month with One Journal Square, according to a new report in the New York Times. The offense? Invoking Trump’s name and Jared’s influence over him to entice Chinese investors into bankrolling the Jersey City project through the EB-5 program.” (The Real Deal)
Kennedy Wilson Fund Grabs $144M Office Campus “Kennedy Wilson Real Estate Fund V has acquired 400 and 450 N. Brand Blvd., a two-building, 437,000-square-foot office campus in Glendale, Calif., for $144 million. The transaction was paid for with $50 million in equity from Fund V and a five-year interest-only loan of $94 million. JLL’s Executive Vice President Tom Bohlinger and Senior Vice President Jon Lange represented the seller, a venture of MetLife Inc. and Beacon Capital Partners, as well as the buyer. JLL’s Managing Director Brian Halpern and Senior Associate Alex Kane led the team on the financing.” (Commercial Property Executive)
Chicago-Based GGP to Open 30 Lolli & Pops Candy Boutiques “GGP Inc. announced that boutique sweet shop Lolli & Pops will partner with the real estate company to open 30 new brick-and-mortar stores in GGP locations. ‘Our regional shopping centers are the heartbeat of the community, and curation is a fundamental strategy,’ GGP CEO Sandeep Mathrani said. ‘We’ve embraced working with Lolli & Pops because their philosophy coincides with our mission to provide a fun environment of search and delight.’” (Illinois Business Daily)
Downtown Atlanta Trophy Asset Changes Hands “Chicago-based Zeller Realty Group has purchased downtown Atlanta’s 100 Peachtree. CBRE represented the sellers, Five Mile Capital Partners, of Stamford, Conn., and Equitable Real Estate Partners. The purchase price was not disclosed. The 33-story, 622,000-square-foot, Class A building was developed by Equitable Life Insurance Co. in 1969 as its Southeast headquarters. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the tower is currently 82 percent leased to tenants that include Accenture, Koch Industries, Georgia’s Own Credit Union, law firm McGuireWoods and software maker CallRail.” (Commercial Property Executive)