DAILY READS: Dec. 23, 2019

‘The Second’ Is Best: How El Segundo Grew Into LA’s Premiere Office Market

Over the past two decades, the coastal enclave has transformed into a premier submarket with an advantage on pricing, rents and specialized office space. The combo is attracting top-tier employers in seemingly every major sector; from the Australian-based Moose Toys to Beyond Meat, El Segundo’s vast tenant base demonstrates that the city is competing with, and sometimes besting, places like Santa Monica, Culver City and Playa Vista.
—Commercial Observer

Seven CRE Economists Offer Their Predictions for 2020

“(Michael Knott, head of U.S. company and sector research, Green Street Advisors:) ‘Continued steady, but unremarkable improvement in fundamentals as supply roughly matches demand and modest appreciation in property values, but with notable deviations. Coastal/infill industrial and manufactured housing will continue to shine, while malls will struggle, and lodging will be a challenge.'”
—National Real Estate Investor

Operations Center, 350 Jobs Mark Google’s Entry into Memphis Metro area

“The operations center, which is expected to open in late 2020, will be the company’s entry into the Memphis metro area. It will also be the company’s first operations center in the U.S.”
—Commercial Appeal

These Housing Markets Changed the Most in a Decade — and this South Florida Metro Soared

“At the start of the decade, Florida was the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis. But as 2020 arrives, a dramatic turnaround finds the Sunshine State enjoying one of the most robust post-crisis recoveries in the nation, according to a new report from Redfin, a technology-minded real estate brokerage. Leading the charge in South Florida: Broward, where the median home price increased 161% from $106,000 at the beginning of 2010 to $278,000 at the end of 2019, according to Redfin.”
—Miami Herald

The Rise of Amazon has Led to a Split Between Thriving and Struggling Malls

“The past decade has spawned a division between the haves and have-nots of U.S. malls. In the last 10 years, more consumers shifted their purchasing to Amazon from brick-and-mortar retailers. RadioShack, Toys R Us and Sears went bankrupt. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of stores have gone dark as retailers seek to cut costs.”
—CNBC

In Scooter Startups, Landlords See a Competitive Edge—and a Path to the City of the Future

“For real estate owners, it helps create better connections to transit and destinations in their communities. For us, it’s an investment to make [Spin] the most useful mobility service in the cities we operate in,” says Ted Bronstein, Spin’s vice president of partnerships.”
—Fortune

Where Are the Tech Zillionaires? San Francisco Faces the I.P.O. Fizzle

“San Francisco has been left as a slightly more normal town of tech workers who got rich-ish, maybe making a few hundred thousand dollars. But that doesn’t go far in a city where the median cost of a single family home is about $1.6 million.”
New York Times

Even With Tax breaks in Limbo, Huge Eastside Trail-Bordering Development Moves Forward

“Developer New City Properties, best known recently for the new “Beltline Kroger” and concrete office block above it, 725 Ponce, has secured permits to begin land development on 12 acres next to Historic Fourth Ward Park, according to What Now Atlanta.”
—Curbed Atlanta

Houston’s 12 Largest Office Leases Of The Year

“Houston’s diversification has become a part of the city’s narrative, but energy tenants still made up the majority of the year’s largest deals. Nearly half of the top dozen deals were renewals, indicative of the city’s overall lack of demand. One positive for the city is that no one office market seems to be overly dominant. Powerhouses like the Central Business District and Galleria areas remain strong, but some of the largest deals of the year were in suburbs, where a competitive market has tenants finding favorable deals. With the help of research from NAI Partners, let’s look at the largest leases of the year.”
—Bisnow

These housing markets will feel the biggest impact from the ‘Silver Tsunami’

“In the decade between 2007 and 2017, around 730,000 homes hit the market that were previously owned by seniors each year. But that number is expected to grow exponentially over the next couple decades. Between 2017 and 2027, 920,000 homes will be released into the market each year by people aged 60 or older, according to a new analysis from real-estate company Zillow ZG, +1.22%. By the decade between 2027 and 2037, the figure is project to hit 1.17 million homes a year.”
—MarketWatch