Chicago Industrial Deliveries At Highest Level In Over 2 Decades, But Signs Of Trouble Loom

Securing a mortgage to buy a home has become more expensive than at any time since 2000, making people less likely to move and restricting the migration flows that have become more common during the pandemic.

The number of existing homes sold in the U.S. has fallen every month since February due in large part to spiking mortgage rates. The standard 30-year fixed mortgage rate started this year around 6% — already double the rate during the early part of the pandemic — and it has shot up over the…

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Construction delays are often a source of frustration for office landlords and occupiers, but one tenant at the under-construction 830 Brickell tower in Miami’s financial district has turned it into an opportunity.

Juliana Fernández, founder of the design firm AEI Spaces, said one of her clients has used the delays in the trophy building's construction to adjust its plans for the space as the future of work continues to shake out. 

“At 830 Brickell, the delay in construction has been wonderful for us because we’ve designed the project three times because they keep changing their minds on what their employees need and what they want,” Fernández said at Bisnow’s South Florida Office Summit last week.

The push to get employees back to the office is the driving force behind office leasing in South Florida. Companies are investing heavily in creating attractive spaces that will make their workers want to commute, and landlords are responding by expanding the focus of amenities to offer tenants solutions that…

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In Case You Missed It...

With lab space availability increasing and economic uncertainties piling up, Alexandria Real Estate Equities is doubling down on its strategy to sell underperforming properties and plow the cash into its megacampuses, executives said during a third-quarter earnings call Tuesday. 

The macro environment is a challenging one that Chairman Joel Marcus described as a “de facto recession.” Beyond general economic strife, the life sciences real estate market is in the midst of a shift that has made things trickier for landlords like ARE. An April report from CBRE indicated total lab and research and development space across the U.S. would grow by 20% over the following two years, with a record-high volume of new construction underway.

Alexandria Senior Vice President of Science and Technology Hallie Kuhn emphasized the company’s confidence in the science that drives the tenants at the core of the company’s success. The runaway success of obesity drugs, the incorporation of artificial intelligence and machine learning in drug discovery, the quickening rate of Food and Drug Administration approvals this year — 45 thus far, on track to beat the all-time record — and Big Pharma acquisitions suggest increased need for lab space. 

More than $400B will be spent on biotech this year between federal funding, venture capital and private funding.  “We see demand holding steady today and believe it will trend upward,” CEO Peter Moglia said. But the real estate reality industrywide offers less optimism. The stock market has responded with a…

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