The Bisnow Weekender: The CRE Clock Is TikToking
Thanks for reading the Bisnow Weekender, my personally curated roundup of the most impactful news, notable quotes, binge-worthy show recommendations and other colorful highlights from the Bisnow world of commercial real estate and beyond.
TikTok is more than a national security irritation for the U.S. government.
These days, it’s also a powerful deal-making tool in commercial real estate. Just ask Aviva Sonenreich, who has transformed her TikTok profile into real-world success, closing deals worth millions.
As Deputy Newsletter Editor Kayla Carmicheal reports this week:
“Four years, a million followers and 8.9 million likes later, Sonenreich said deals using the app are commonplace for her. She has sold a $2.6M building and a three-property mixed-use complex. She has leased properties from videos and built a robust network. There is a tightknit community of fellow CRE pros on the app, she said, and they refer deals to each other.”
However, as the platform faces intense scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers, the future of TikTok real estate wheeling and dealing is up in the air. The platform has been ordered to close up shop unless someone in the U.S. buys it — and that someone could be in commercial real estate.
American billionaire and real estate magnate Frank McCourt, executive chairman of private development firm McCourt Global, confirmed this week that he hopes to purchase TikTok. His vision is to use his proprietary Project Liberty technology to put the control of personal data and digital identities back in the hands of users.
McCourt’s bid is likely to be challenged. Indeed, former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has expressed interest in purchasing the app, as have Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary and Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision.
Brokers told Bisnow this week they will migrate to other social media apps if TikTok goes away (X, anyone?).
“I'll be heartbroken,” one broker told us. “But I also understand that if it's truly a security concern, it should probably go away. But who's to say that somebody else here stateside doesn't invent another really cool app that takes its place?”
Welcome to the weekend, folks.
— Mark F. Bonner, Bisnow Editor-in-Chief
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Voices From The CRE Battlefield
Safety Tips for Women at Business Conferences. Thank you @Bisnow for sharing our message!
— Beck-Reit Commercial | DeLea Becker (@BeckReit) May 16, 2024
Conference season 2024 is here, yet for many women in real estate, it's also a time of heightened vigilance. Reports of harassment persist, impacting professionals across industries. Here… pic.twitter.com/Ias86kVrzE
“Hey Grandpa, what was it like back in the day when you woke up and couldn’t care less what CPI was that day?” pic.twitter.com/UCtZKE3PKo
— Jeff Feldman (@JeffFeldman_) May 15, 2024
The Best Of Bisnow News: May 13-17
New CRE Group Calls Out Harassment, Assault On Eve Of Conference Season — National Reporter Patrick Sisson
An awareness campaign, launched on the eve of RECon, an enormous annual event in Las Vegas from ICSC, is meant to highlight the risks women face at all such large industry events, according to organizers.
Members of Power Beacons, who said unwanted advances and harassment still occur with some frequency, hope to encourage event organizers across the industry to be more proactive with messaging around this issue.
“You’re in this environment in Vegas, and drinking is foundationally part of the culture,” said Marissa Limsiaco, president and founder of Otso, an Austin proptech firm, and a founder of the Power Beacons group. “When you mix that with a professional environment, then you get what’s been happening.”
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TikTok: CRE's Hidden Deal-Maker — Deputy Newsletter Editor Kayla Carmicheal
TikTok has 1.5 billion monthly active users that span demographics. Its hyperlocal focus and visual emphasis make it an easy platform for CRE players to network, secure clients and showcase properties. Most of the industry is missing out on its potential, CRE TikTokers said, leaving the pickings ripe for those who have learned how to parlay the app into deals.
And as they watch TikTok fight the federal government for its survival, brokers Bisnow interviewed said they worry about the implications for their businesses.
“TikTok does very well performancewise, and it's producing income in commercial real estate,” said CRE8 Advisors broker Eddie Gonzalez, who is closing a $2M deal for a client that found him on the app two years ago.
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One Of Largest U.S. Architecture Firms Cuts Staff Amid 'Changing Industry Landscape' — Houston Reporter Maddy McCarty
The Washington, D.C.-based firm formerly known as Page Southerland Page confirmed a reduction in workforce in an email to Bisnow Tuesday, though it declined to say how many employees were laid off.
In a prepared statement, Page said the “strategic adjustments” are meant to help it adapt to “a rapidly changing industry landscape.”
More Big News From The Week …
— Inflation Ticks Down, Keeping Hope Alive For 2024 Rate Cuts
— Goldman Sachs Closes $7B Real Estate Debt Fund To Fill Lending Gap
— Real Estate Billionaire Assembling Bid To Buy TikTok
— U.S. Reshoring Rush Running Up Against Labor Market Malaise
— Creation Of Housing Caucus Coincides With Growing Federal Interest In Real Estate
— RTO Boosts Business Travel, Puts A Dent In Domestic Leisure Traffic As Hotel Demand 'Normalizes'
My Slightly On/Off-Topic Media Diet
Is Disinflation Back On Track? (NYT): “The acceleration in measured inflation over the past few months was probably a statistical illusion; inflation wasn’t as low as it seemed in late 2023 but probably hasn’t risen much, if at all. Underlying annual inflation is probably around 2.5 percent, maybe even less. So my guess is that we’ve already won this war — that we have basically achieved a soft landing, with low unemployment and acceptably low inflation. But I could be wrong, and even if I’m right, it’s going to take at least a few more months of good inflation news before this happy reality sinks in.”
The Housing Crisis In The U.S. Is Flipped Upside Down In Japan (Fortune): “While the U.S. housing market has suffered from a lack of supply in recent years, the opposite is the case in Japan, where a shrinking population has sent the number of empty homes soaring. Vacancies in that country have hit 8.99 million, according to data released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on April 30. That's an increase of 500,0000 from the prior survey in 2018 and an 80% surge from 20 years ago.”
High Debt Levels Put Europe At Risk Of ‘Adverse Shocks,’ ECB Warns (FT): “In its twice-yearly financial stability review, the ECB said many European governments had not fully reversed the support measures introduced to shield consumers and businesses from the impact of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. It argued that the combination of ‘high debt levels and lenient fiscal policies’ could spook investors. This in turn could ‘raise borrowing costs further and have negative financial stability effects, including via spillovers to private borrowers and to sovereign bondholders,’ it said.”
The Possible Collapse Of The U.S. Home Insurance System (NYT/The Daily): “A Times investigation found climate change may now be a concern for every homeowner in the country.”
The Property Firm That Could Break China’s Back (The Economist): “Land in Shenzhen, China’s southern technology hub, is scarce. Plots in years past have grabbed sky-high prices. But when Vanke, one of the country’s largest property firms, puts 19,000 square metres of land up for sale on May 18th, it will do so at a discount of 900m yuan ($125m), or 29%, on the price it paid seven years ago. The sale reeks of desperation. Vanke has been forced to flog its assets to pay its mounting debts. The company’s struggles are another sign of the worsening situation in China’s property industry.”
The Inside Story Of Elon Musk’s Mass Firings Of Tesla Supercharger Staff (Reuters): “The meeting could not have gone worse. [Elon] Musk, the employees said, was not pleased with Tinucci’s presentation and wanted more layoffs. When she balked, saying deeper cuts would undermine charging-business fundamentals, he responded by firing her and her entire 500-member team. The departures have upended a network widely viewed as a signature Tesla achievement and a key driver of its EV sales. Tesla Superchargers account for more than 60% of U.S. high-speed charging ports, federal statistics show, and the company has been the biggest winner so far of $5 billion in federal funding for new chargers.”
Do You Need A Dentist Visit Every 6 Months? That Filling? The Data Is Weak (Ars Technica): “In a viewpoint published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, the researchers point out that many common—nearly unquestioned—practices in dentistry aren't backed up by solid data. That includes the typical recommendation that everyone should get a dental check-up every six months. The researchers note that two large clinical trials failed to find a benefit of six-month check-ups compared with longer intervals that were up to two years.”
Bisnow Weekend Interview Preview
Alternative real estate sectors like student housing, senior living and healthcare are having an extended day in the sun. And Paul Bashir is at the forefront of taking sectors that are already established in the U.S. and pioneering them in Europe.
In the Weekend Interview, Bisnow caught up with the European CEO of $55B fund manager Harrison Street and talked about how you should never bet against the global influence of the American consumer.
Bisnow: Why is American consumer behaviour so important, and how did it become such a dominant factor abroad as well as at home?
Bashir: We look at a lot of data from the U.S. And what we've learned in real estate is we are all consumers. Whether we sit here in the UK, whether we sit in France or Germany or in the U.S., we might have different habits, driven by our environment. But fundamentally, our needs are the same.
The Weekend Interview goes live every Friday evening — head to www.bisnow.com over the weekend to check it out!
Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!
Here are this week’s top jobs over at Bisnow's careers platform, SelectLeaders. Reach out to SelectLeaders Managing Director Ryan Neale to learn more. You can email him at ryan.neale@bisnow.com.
Executive Director, ULI — Provide strategic and thought leadership for ULI LA, guiding its program of work for the future.
Chief Financial Officer — Oversee all aspects of financial operations, with a focus on supporting commercial real estate acquisitions and investment.
Associate Vice President, Investments — Lead real estate investments, financial analysis and underwriting for ground-up rental developments, adaptive reuse and residential alternatives across the Sun Belt and East Coast.
Senior Vice President — Lead strategic planning to maximize the performance and value of a substantial CRE investment portfolio.
Hey, Elizabeth, What Are You Going To Binge This Weekend?
I’m not a huge television person, but with the release of Season 3 of Bridgerton this Thursday, you’ll know I’ll be relishing in the piping-hot tea of the ’Ton (and enjoying a cup of Earl Grey myself to set the mood). While the plot is certainly beguiling (who can resist a friends-to-lovers trope?), what I love most about the series is its music curation, turned on its head through classical variations to match the story and dance scenes. While some of the music revealed in the first four episodes isn’t necessarily surprising (see: Jealous by Nick Jonas), others like Snow on the Beach by Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey merit a curious eyebrow raise, and I’m excited to see how the musical selections will help to move the story along.
— Elizabeth Baker, Director of National Events Production
Upcoming Bisnow Events And Webinars
Tuesday, May 21 (Denver): Denver Mixed-Use and Hospitality
Tuesday, May 21 (Virginia): National Data Center Investment Expo Conference (DICE East)
Wednesday, May 22 (Miami): South Florida Development and Construction
Wednesday, May 22 (Boston): Boston Healthcare Summit
Wednesday, May 22 (New Jersey): New Jersey State of the Market
Wednesday, May 22 (Austin): Transformations in Central Texas Healthcare Real Estate
Wednesday, May 22 (Los Angeles): Los Angeles Affordable Housing Conference
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How did I do? You can send all love letters and dissents directly to me at mark.bonner@bisnow.com.
