Atlanta Seeing Surge Of 1031 Investors Fleeing The Coasts

Software company LogMeIn had most of its 3,500 workers commute into the office daily before the coronavirus pandemic. Going forward, almost none of them will.

After seeing their employees could be productive at home, LogMeIn's executives in October introduced a long-term, remote-centric work strategy that will have roughly 3% of its employees coming into the office every day.

This strategy is leading LogMeIn to cut half of its 230K SF footprint in its Boston headquarters and about one-third of its worldwide office space.

"The decision we made to go remote-centric was one that was not made to solve for a short-term problem like the pandemic, but rather one that we believe reflects the way our employees want to work permanently," LogMeIn Vice President of Global Real Estate Andy Hook told Bisnow in an email.

Read the full story here.

This series delves into the myriad ways people enter the commercial real estate industry and what contributes to their success.

Before Elizabeth Birch closed her first commercial real estate deal, she had already served as a top attorney for Apple and spent a decade leading a major civil rights organization.

Birch joined CBRE in 2017 as a D.C.-based vice president representing office occupiers. She had previously spent a dozen years running her own consulting company, and before that she spent a decade as president and executive director of the Human Rights Campaign. 

While at HRC, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the U.S., Birch pushed presidents and lawmakers to support more inclusive policies. She also dipped her toes in commercial real estate, as she helped the nonprofit establish a new headquarters in Downtown D.C. 

She began her career as a lawyer, working in San Francisco at global law firm Bingham McCutchen. In 1989, she became chief of litigation and human resources counsel at Apple Computer Inc. 

Read the full story here.

In Case You Missed It...

Could the surge in urban logistics investment be an example of herd mentality?

Patron Capital founding partner Keith Breslauer has wondered out loud about the capital markets' stampede into last-mile e-commerce units.

His warning shot comes as Oxford Properties agrees the £4.7B acquisition of M7 Real Estate, which becomes its primary European logistics platform.

Read the full story here.