Packed Trains, Bustling Sidewalks: Boston Return To Office Is Finally Materializing

HYM Investment Group appears poised to win the bid for a major Roxbury development site after its only competitor bowed out and it secured the endorsement of a key committee.  A Tishman Speyer-led team dropped its bid for the site last week, and on Monday night,…

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The UK student accommodation sector's credentials as a countercyclical market that can continue to perform well as other areas of commercial real estate struggle will be put to the test in coming months. 

On one hand: the continuing expectation of strong demand from students for UK higher education and the structural undersupply of both purpose-built student accommodation and housing of all kinds in big UK towns and cities.

On the other: financial market turmoil that no area of real estate can escape and the particular vulnerability of the student accommodation business model to the sharp rise in energy prices.

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More than a quarter of LGBTQIA+ people say they have faced discrimination at work in commercial real estate, according to the responses to Bisnow’s online survey last month, one of the first attempts at studying the population and experiences of the queer community in the industry.

Of the 227 people in the industry who took the anonymous survey last month, 168 identified as a member of the community, or 74%. Respondents were from all corners of the country and all parts of the industry, from construction workers in Boston to developers in Houston, finance executives in LA and brokers in Chicago. 

More than 76% of queer respondents said they are out at work, while roughly 10% said they are only out to a few close colleagues, and 10% said they aren’t out professionally. More than half of the survey’s respondents said they hadn’t faced discrimination at work, but 25.9% said they had been discriminated against, while another 23% said they faced microaggressions but not outright discrimination.

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As ESG investing takes hold in companies across the country and governments seek ways to slow climate change, California is poised to ramp up its existing green power initiatives with a new rule that goes into effect Jan. 1.

The rule requires new commercial and taller multifamily buildings to have solar panels and batteries installed at their projects, and the costs that come with meeting the new standard can be hefty, depending on building type and its location in the state. But some developers are getting creative with ways to offset those costs, working together with solar companies to share the burden.

Trammell Crow Co. has one such partnership with Altus Power for its Southern California projects. And although TCC Director of Sustainability James Murray-Coleman sees the new rule as a “stick” used by the government, rather than the proverbial carrot, he acknowledged that the changes are inevitable in California and beyond.

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