More Frequent Floods Turning Elevators Into Death Traps With Little Oversight
As Hurricane Harvey bore down on Texas in 2017, Jill Renick spent her last moments alive at the Omni Houston Hotel, where she worked as the spa director.
At 5:40 a.m. Central time on Aug. 27, 2017, Renick called the front desk, telling colleagues she was stuck in the elevator in the basement, with water rushing in. A surveillance video showed she freed herself from the elevator, but by that point waters in the basement were waist deep. Shortly after, the power went out. Flood waters continued to rise. Her body was found 11 days later in the ceiling tiles.
Renick's family is suing the Omni, which didn't have a flood sensor — required by the city — that may have prevented the elevator from descending into water.
Elevator guidelines that require features like flood sensors aren't always mandated or enforced.…
Read Full Story
|
|
|
Top stories on Bisnow.com
|
Will Miami Marlins Finally Build Youth Academy That Was Promised In 2007?
Twelve years ago, when the Miami Marlins — then called the Florida Marlins — were angling for public subsidies for a new baseball stadium, one of the selling points was that they would build a youth academy where urban kids…
Read Full Story
|
|
|
South Florida Industrial CRE Broke Several Records In 2018
South Florida is one of the country's industrial real estate darlings, and last year proved it once again.
South Florida's industrial sector smashed several records in Q4 2018, a new report from Newmark Knight Frank found. An NKF spokesperson pointed out…
Read Full Story
|
|
|
The World's 3rd-Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund Makes Huge Plans In Small Town
LONDON — When the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority bought two slightly tired shopping centers in Slough, U.K., for £130M in 2016, it was a bit of a head-scratcher.
First, shopping centers. Even in 2016, before things got really bad in retail, global investors like ADIA were selling rather than buying shopping centers.
And Slough? In the past few years ADIA has been buying and building in Paris, New York and other global gateway cities. Slough, a town of 161,000 people about half an hour west of London — a town known as the unsexy setting of the U.K. version of "The Office" — felt a little off-pitch.
Read the full story here. |
|
|
|
|
|
Amid Notes Of Caution, Investors Look Favorably On U.S. CRE
The latest monthly jobs report shows the U.S. economy continues to purr, and even though some investors now sound notes of caution, most remain optimistic about the nation's real estate market for 2019.
“The only place you can be assured of business doing pretty well overall is in the U.S.,” TVO Capital Management CEO and Chairman Wayne Vandenburg said.
Read the full story here. |
|
|
