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Bisnow's Most Popular Articles Of 2017

Lawsuit stories overwhelmingly captured Bisnow readers' attention this year. What else clicked hard? These are the 10 most popular Bisnow articles of 2017.

10. EXCLUSIVE: Life Time Plans Expansion Into Co-Working And Residential, Drops 'Fitness' From Name

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An interior rendering of the first Life Time Work location in Ardmore, Pa.

Life Time is evolving from a chain of fitness centers into an all-encompassing, “healthy way of life” brand with co-working, healthcare, retail and residential components.

The 25-year-old company based in the Minneapolis area has changed its name from Life Time Fitness Inc. to Life Time Inc. on all legal documents, and will be rebranding nearly all of its existing centers to match. The move is one the company characterizes as a logical progression from years of offering an expanded set of wellness amenities.

The first Life Time Work will be part of a location opening in early 2018 in the Philly suburb of Ardmore, as a co-working space “fully integrated” with the fitness component, Life Time Vice President of Corporate Communications Jason Thunstrom said.

Read full story here.

9. These Companies Are Relocating Headquarters In Search Of Young, Qualified Talent

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San Francisco's Financial District.

It used to be much simpler. Young professionals would graduate from college, research companies within their field and move to wherever the jobs were. That is no longer the case, Resource Real Estate’s Marty Caverly said. Now companies are the ones researching and relocating.

Today’s young talent is much more concerned with a city’s lifestyle offerings than its job market. This shift in priorities has forced companies to follow the talent, investing millions in office development and expansion in the country’s leading and secondary markets — a trend that is growing in prevalence as the labor market tightens and young talent becomes more scarce.

Bisnow tracked down several examples of companies that have relocated or are in the process of relocating headquarters in search of young talent. 

Read full story here.

8. Mattress Firm's Expansion Left It With Too Many Stores Too Close Together. Can It Survive The Correction?

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Mattress Firm, Montrose

As retailers close en masse across the country, Mattress Firm has expanded aggressively, with 1,500 new stores since 2010. The retailer's fraud allegations against the men making its real estate decisions have raised new questions about the company's aggressive growth.

“It's quite obvious [Mattress Firm] expanded too quickly," Transwestern Director of Research Stuart Showers said. "They pushed very hard for growth, so it made it easy to cover [the alleged fraud] up. A lot of these locations don't make much sense. They're deals just to get a deal done."

Read full story here.

7. Xceligent Shuts Down Operations, Files For Chapter 7 Liquidation

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Xceligent abruptly closed Dec. 14.

London-based Daily Mail and General Trust, which owns commercial real estate data firm Xceligent, announced Xceligent's board decided to file for Chapter 7 liquidation. A court-appointed trustee will distribute the company's assets. The decision came one year to the day after Xceligent's legal battle with commercial real estate data giant CoStar began. 

Read full story here.

6. Xceligent Files Antitrust Suit Against CoStar, Alleges Years Of Anticompetitive Behavior

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Commercial property data firm Xceligent filed an antitrust countersuit against The CoStar Group June 28, alleging the $9B, Washington, D.C.-based data giant created a monopoly and engaged in years of anticompetitive behavior.

Xceligent accused CoStar of employing internet blocks and data alteration practices to prevent its users from sharing their property information with its competitors. Xceligent also accused CoStar of violating restrictions the Federal Trade Commission placed on the company in 2012 to keep it from becoming a monopoly.

CoStar founder and CEO Andrew Florance has claimed Xceligent is engaging in a systematic effort to steal and resell his company’s proprietary images and data, its most valuable assets, while Xceligent views the lawsuit as the latest in a string of attempts by CoStar to dismantle its competition in the courts.

The legal battle, kicked off in December 2016, had the potential to determine not only the fate of the two companies, but also the future of how information on commercial property — the single-biggest investment asset class in the United States — is shared.

Read full story here.

5. Beach Houses, Taylor Swift, A $100K Yacht: The Details Behind Mattress Firm's Real Estate Fraud Lawsuit

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Mattress Firm's headquarters in Houston

What do a $100K fishing yacht, shell corporations and Taylor Swift have in common? They all are allegedly involved in the massive fraud and bribery scheme Mattress Firm claims was carried out by two of its former executives and its national retail broker.

Read full story here.

4. Castle Rock Development To Have Year-Round Skiing

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The centerpiece of Miller's Landing is Snowsports 365, a year-round sports complex.

P3 Advisors broke ground in November on Miller’s Landing, a 65-acre mixed-use project in Denver. The centerpiece of the $300M project is Snowsports 365, a year-round snow sport complex that will be able to accommodate up to 400 skiers an hour.

Read full story here.

3. What It's Really Like To Be A Woman In CRE

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There is something missing in the C-suite corner offices and late night deal-making sessions of the commercial real estate industry: women. Men dominate the jobs that start with “chief” or end with “VP,” and according to CREW Network, the income gap between men and women in the industry is 23.3%. In the C-suite it is worse. At Bisnow, we are proud that more than half of our employees are women, yet we struggle to diversify our senior ranks, and fill our event panels each year, with more women.

As evidenced by the scores of women who now sit at the heads of boardroom tables, career trajectories for women have improved, but the oft-whispered grievance that it’s just one big “old boys’ club” survives. A palpable sense of disrespect, fear and frustration persists as women continue to grapple with wage disparity, sexism, upward mobility and sexual harassment. Some women feel left out, left behind and, at times, voiceless. 

Bisnow reached out to dozens of women from New York, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas — and everywhere in between — and granted them anonymity to answer one question: What is it really like to be a woman in this industry?

These are the voices of 22 of the most powerful women in U.S. commercial real estate. They have developed, financed, designed and built some of the biggest properties in North America — and they have something to say.

Read full story here.

2. Major U.S. Retailer Files Suit Alleging Multi-State Real Estate Fraud, Bribery Scheme

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The country's largest mattress retailer is accusing a host of real estate companies and executives, including its nationwide real estate broker, of a multiyear scheme that involved inflated store rents, bribes, high-priced gifts and kickbacks from developers. The company claims the scheme may have affected more than 800 stores nationwide.

Read full story here.

1. The 2017 Richest In Real Estate

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Amancio Ortega

No other industry carries as much influence on our lives: where we work, how we eat and shop, the way we experience sports and entertainment — and how that all relates to wherever we call home. Commercial real estate is at the core of our daily lives. That’s why it would be an injustice to only gauge this industry in concrete, steel, dollars and square feet. This is an industry full of innovators solving complex problems for the masses — a collective that goes far beyond the honorees below.

Lists are inherently imperfect, which is why we billed ours as the (almost) definitive list of power, money and innovation in the industry. But it is categorical in one respect: these men and women have profoundly transformed our neighborhoods and reshaped our cities, businesses and lifestyles. We live in their world.

Read full list of 100 richest people in real estate here.