DAILY READS: Dec. 27, 2019

With New Democratic Majority, Virginia Sees a Push for Denser Housing

“The bill would legalize duplex homes—townhouses, cottages, duplexes, and so on—in any place currently zoned for single-family homes. The bill doesn’t ban single-family housing outright, and it leaves questions about siting, design, setback, and other considerations to local governments to decide.”
—CityLab

Top-tier Malls Feeling Pain of Changing Consumer Behavior

“The owner of King of Prussia mall in Pennsylvania and Phipps Plaza in Atlanta, Simon Property Group, reduced its 2019 guidance on net income from an estimate of $7.04 to $7.14 per share to $6.76 to $6.81.”
—The Real Deal Chicago

Montage Beverly Hills Sells for Estimated $415 Million

“’It’s Beverly Hills,’” Atlas Hospitality Group President Alan) Reay said. “’It is one of the most desirable areas in the entire United States. (There are) huge barriers to entry (in the market), it is a trophy hotel, and it’s purchased by a company out of London that really only specializes in trophy hotels.’”
—Los Angeles Business Journal

For Trump Organization, Office Skyscrapers Make Up for Lagging Hotels

“With hotel expansion plans thwarted, marquee hotels in New York, Panama and Toronto stripped of the Trump name, and revenues lagging or relatively flat at properties like Doral, rising rent collections at office and commercial properties have provided the Trump Organization a sorely needed boost.”
—New York Times

Around the World, Luxury Real Estate Poised to (Mostly) Strengthen

“Paris leads the agency’s 2020 forecast, with a 7% luxury price increase, followed by Miami and Berlin, where luxury units are also relatively affordable and in short supply.”
—Bloomberg

Real estate Transactions: Common Desk to Add Galleria Area Coworking Option

“Common Desk, which offers an all-inclusive model in its monthly membership, recently leased 25,000 square feet in The Block, a warehouse redevelopment project at 2339 Canal St. in the East End for its Houston debut in late summer 2020. The Galleria location, which is planned to open in early fall 2020, will offer its Fiction Coffee in-house brand, custom art and finishes throughout the space, private offices for growing teams, hospitality suites for enterprise users and full-service workspace amenities.”
—Houston Chronicle

Midtown Development Pipeline Includes 26 Major Projects Right Now

“In 2019, nine major developments wrapped, according to Midtown Alliance: Welcome, Coda, Alexan on 8th, AC/Moxie Hotel Midtown, Vireo, Pershing Point, Forty by SCAD, Boundary, 208 12th Street, and one urbanized Whole Foods Market (the Southeast’s largest) with a party on the roof. All the while, new development ambitions have cropped up, long-proposed ideas have inched toward realization (or fizzled), and dirt and heavy machinery keep moving at breakneck pace.”
—Curbed Atlanta

Why London’s Commercial Property Market Is Set for 2020 Revival

“Such steady demand should have set the stage for rising rents and appetite from investors to buy buildings and start new projects, but that’s not how things panned out. Uncertainty reigned as the U.K. missed Brexit deadlines and contested a general election to break the impasse. In this confusion, landlords postponed offering buildings for sale until the political dust settled.”
—National Real Estate Investor

Mosaic Funds $69M Construction Loan for California Student Housing

“The 885-bed private dormitory, which is being constructed by Michigan-based Shamrock Acquisitions, will go up near the campus of the University of California, Merced, which opened in 2005 and remains the U.C. system’s newest university.  Shamrock will use the proceeds to refinance outstanding development debt and to pay for construction and other sitework, according to a Mosaic spokesman.”
—National Real Estate Investor