When Bankruptcy Is A Blessing: Huge Rent Growth Drove Strong Q2 For Shopping Center REITs

In the feverish haze of the hottest summer on record, construction workers in Texas found out they soon will no longer be guaranteed mandated water breaks. In Florida, undocumented workers are subject to new restrictions on the services they’re able to access — including healthcare. And political battles over immigration policy and border security make legislative compromises or reforms increasingly unlikely.

The need to build is everywhere, but it’s becoming harder to find construction workers willing to do the jobs, and some states are making it even harder by cracking down on undocumented immigrants, a major source of construction labor.

For decades, with an acceleration after the Great Recession, the nation’s construction workforce hasn’t kept pace with growing demand due to early retirement, a lack of vocational education and disinterest from young adults to pursue blue-collar work. That has put additional pressure on immigrants, documented and undocumented, to fill the gaps. 

“One thing is pretty darn close to certain and that is that demographics mean we'll be looking at labor shortages in labor-intensive industries, essentially for the rest of our lives,” said Cullum Clark, director at the Bush Institute-Southern Methodist University Economic Growth Initiative.

Undocumented workers are an increasingly vital part of the construction workforce. But it is becoming more difficult for this part of the labor pool to grow, due to a lack of enforcement of worker protections, crackdowns on illegal immigration and an inability to reform immigration laws or expand visa programs.…

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In an era when many commercial real estate companies are scaling back, Lincoln Property Co. is embarking on an ambitious growth plan that has already resulted in several key appointments and acquisitions.

Earlier this year, Connecticut-based Stone Point Capital made what was characterized as a sizable investment in the Dallas-based firm that will allow it to add more industrial, mixed-use, office, retail, production studio and life sciences properties to its portfolio.

At the same time, Clay Duvall and David Binswanger became co-CEOs. The pair succeeded founder and Chairman Mack Pogue and Duvall's father, CEO and President Bill Duvall.

“Stone Point gave us some capital to strategically grow,” the younger Duvall said. “At some point, when the capital markets do unthaw, we will have an opportunity to take advantage of what’s been a dislocation in the marketplace.” Taking over the helm of a major company as the nation hurtled…

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Many of the nation’s largest multifamily players remain on the hook in a massive class-action suit involving rent fixing allegations after a Tennessee federal judge set aside motions to dismiss the claims Monday.

Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., chief U.S. District Court judge for the Middle District of Tennessee, deferred a series of motions asserting the case against property management software company RealPage and some of the biggest names in commercial real estate should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction and failure to state a claim.

The judge did, however, order plaintiffs to amend and refile their complaint by Sept. 7 and set a new deadline for additional motions to dismiss.

More than 30 lawsuits alleging software sold by RealPage enabled owners of rental property to collude to inflate rents have been consolidated in Nashville federal court since April, bringing together cases filed by renters from Seattle and Colorado to Boston and New York. Tenants across the nation allege…

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