As More Churches Approach Fiscal ‘Breaking Point,’ Housing Projects Are Providing A Lifeline

Chicago-based developer Sterling Bay is expanding its life sciences efforts amid a nationwide industry upswing and has tapped a groundbreaking leader to head its push.

Suzet McKinney touts an impressive résumé in the public sector, tackling health care system logistics last year in Illinois after leading past national pandemic and international disaster responses. Sterling Bay hired McKinney, a Black woman, in January, making her the rare woman and person of color in the rapidly growing life sciences sector of commercial real estate.

McKinney will guide her hometown firm into the red-hot life sciences asset class and aim to retain homegrown talent in Chicago, which she said can become the next great cluster, but has lagged behind and lost talent to the San Francisco Bay Area and Boston and Cambridge. Sterling Bay’s Lincoln Yards, a…

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A company seeking a scientific breakthrough in green energy production will attempt the feat at a new 47-acre site in the life sciences cluster of Devens, Massachusetts. Commonwealth Fusion Systems has agreed to buy the plot from MassDevelopment, it announced Wednesday. The company will sell 11 acres of the site, at 111…

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The coronavirus pandemic has had a protracted impact on the construction industry, exacerbated by pre-existing trade tariffs on construction materials. Beyond the complications of workers falling ill and job sites shuttered last year due to shelter-in-place orders, high prices and slow delivery schedules for construction materials such as lumber and steel have maintained a stubborn strain on the industry.

The supply chain issues and rising costs began about a year ago when public officials across the nation issued orders halting work on many construction sites. As soon as those restrictions started to lift, there was a rush of demand for residential homebuying from people wanting to upgrade their square footage or achieve homeownership for the first time, which created a surge in demand for construction materials, according to Ken Simonson, chief economist of the Associated General Contractors of America.

This followed sweeping logistical challenges resulting from the pandemic and shutdown hampering production and distribution facilities' ability to fulfill the need for materials. It coincided with a rise in remodeling work and ventilation system upgrades for schools and other facilities to accommodate social distancing protocols, also driving demand.

“All of this caused huge disruptions to the supply chain for many materials just as the demand came roaring back,” Simonson said. “And sawmills in particular, once they shut down, it wasn't necessarily easy to resume production to get the logs coming in and so forth. So, they've been playing catch-up for almost a year now.”

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Everyone in the world of business and real estate is talking about the future of the office, hybrid work models and flexible office networks. How will companies and their staff use office space in future? Well, one of the world’s largest banks is pioneering a new hybrid work strategy and has given Bisnow an insight into its thinking and strategy. 

Standard Chartered Group Head of HR Tanuj Kapilashrami explained at Bisnow London’s recent Future of Office digital summit why the company has become one of the first major global firms to strike a deal with a flexible office provider that will allow a big chunk of its staff to work remotely for a big portion of their time. 

The answers lie in data, in thinking about productivity in a new way and about carefully measuring where people are working, rather than just guessing. 

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During the pandemic, many construction projects in the LA area were considered essential and continued as other businesses were shuttered. Now, at the beginning of a new year and with the promise of coronavirus vaccinations and an economic rebound, construction experts are beginning to prepare for a very different year. 

Residential construction will be a leader in 2021, reports predict, with commercial trailing behind. The continuation of a labor shortage will be a factor in what are predicted to be rising construction labor costs in the coming year, especially as other sectors of construction begin to rebound. 

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