Developers Of Build-To-Rent Single-Family Pushing Back On Opposition

State and local governments lease tens of millions of square feet of office space across the country, but that number is falling fast as the push for remote and hybrid work has made civil servants rethink their real estate.

From California to Georgia and Maine to Utah, the pandemic thrust government agencies into an entirely new way of working. Two years later, many have found that offering flexible working arrangements can solve two ever-present challenges they face: attracting and retaining their workers and maximizing taxpayer dollars.

“The savings are real,” Nebraska Department of Administrative Services Director Jason Jackson said. “I think future administrations are going to be hard-pressed to say, ‘We should be spending more on office space.’” At the end of 2019, state and local governments leased 22.6M SF of privately owned, corporate-grade office space…

Read Full Story

In Case You Missed It...

Derith Jarvis experienced déjà vu in 2018 when he landed his current role as JLL’s senior vice president and regional senior director of research and strategy.

It is the same position Jarvis, a Black Dallas-based real estate professional with nearly two decades in the industry, said he interviewed for seven years prior, when he felt he was a top candidate. Now, he said he is the supervisor for the person who ended up getting the job the first time around. What changed? 

“I was told very specifically they wanted a minority candidate,” he said. “Because of what I do and how small that world is, in Dallas specifically, there are only so many people qualified to lead research teams at organizations. At the time, I was probably the only minority candidate out there with experience.” 

Read the full story here.

In the last few weeks, the world has watched as Russia has led an unrelenting attack on Ukraine.

Western governments have rushed to put sanctions on Russia itself, and global companies have withdrawn from the country in retaliation. There has also been a renewed focus on where wealthy Russians with connections to President Vladimir Putin have been parking cash, particularly in places like the U.S. and UK property markets. 

The British government, for example, has now said it is pushing legislation that would put a registry of overseas property ownership in place — all while moving to sanction individuals, such as Roman Abramovich.

On this episode of Bisnow Reports, we’re hearing from Mark Hollingsworth, an author who specializes in Russia and Russian oligarchs, who wrote the book Londongrad: From Russia with Cash. He speaks about what impact new rules will have on property markets, why it has taken a war to make these changes a priority — and where oligarchs may be looking to buy property next.

Read the full story here.

Deb Smith has been a big name in real estate capital markets for years, particularly in the world of commercial real estate mergers and acquisitions. From working M&As at Lehman Brothers until 2007 to co-heading CBRE Global Investors' M&A division to co-founding and now co-leading The CenterCap Group, Smith has been involved in more than $100B in M&A and restructuring transactions.

It is a far cry from where she thought she would be growing up. Smith was born in a dairy farming community in rural Australia and didn't even think about going to college until a high school teacher planted the idea. The dramatic pivot in her life taught her at a young age not to get too caught up in a big plan and instead be ready to adjust as scenarios play out.

The CenterCap Group is a boutique investment bank specializing in real estate and, uniquely, it is run by three women. Smith heads the firm's strategic capital and M&A and execution efforts. The firm of 10 tries to stay ahead of competitors by focusing on contrarian deals — it advised on multibillion-dollar retail and coworking deals in the last year, when the pandemic was causing many to step back from those assets.

Read the full story here.