Coen van Oostrom, the man who built the greenest, smartest office building in the world, sees two things when he looks at commercial real estate in the United States: lagging sustainability and a market with a heap of potential.

“If I came to the United States and said, ‘Hey, I'm a Dutch developer and I make beautiful buildings,' I would have no chance against Related Cos. and all these other powerhouses,” said van Oostrom, the founder of OVG Real Estate and Edge Technologies. “But when it comes to sustainability or technology, they are behind what is happening in Europe at the moment. And that gives us a fighting chance.”

There is no doubt breaking into the American real estate market, particularly New York City, can be a battle. But van Oostrom brings with him some impressive credentials.

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Just as Walmart is pulling back from the U.K. grocery business, the market is awash with rumors of a big push by Amazon.

Last weekend it was reported that Amazon had made the most tentative of approaches to buy Waitrose, the upscale supermarket, in a move that would have mirrored its purchase of Whole Foods in the U.S. The report indicated that the approach was rebuffed, and Waitrose's owner, retail partnership John Lewis, said it never happened, although the manner of the approach leaves plenty of room for plausible deniability.

But a potential major U.K. supermarket purchase by Amazon, and the proposed mega-merger between Sainsbury's and Walmart-owned Asda — seen as a defense against the growth of the e-commerce giant — has brought into focus the Seattle-based firm's ambitions in the international grocery market, and how e-commerce in general is radically reshaping the $7.5 trillion global grocery market.

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