The Real Deal: Celeb names rise in brick-and-mortar retail game . “Celebrities are translating their brands’ e-commerce success to deals for physical retail spaces. Stores for brands connected to big names account for more than 300,000 square feet of retail space nationally, according to JLL data reported by the Commercial Observer.”
NPR: ‘X’ logo installed atop Twitter building, spurring San Francisco to investigate. “The city of San Francisco has opened a complaint and launched an investigation into a giant ‘X’ sign that was installed Friday on top of the downtown building formerly known as Twitter headquarters as owner Elon Musk continues his rebrand of the social media platform. City officials say replacing letters or symbols on buildings, or erecting a sign on top of one, requires a permit for design and safety reasons.”
San Francisco Chronicle: Zillow and other rental websites agree to disclose ‘junk fees’ in deal with White House. “As rents and security deposits have climbed in recent years, so too have various fees that push renters’ monthly bills even higher — including charges for applications, trash collections and paying rent online. In an effort to bring more transparency to the shadowy costs to the rental market, major housing websites like Zillow and Apartments.com will make rental fees clearer and more prominent to help consumers more effectively comparison shop.”
Gilroy Dispatch: Google’s Gilroy farm plans to sell trees to the public. “The 40-acre piece of land is owned by Google, the Silicon Valley tech giant that purchased the Gilroy property in 2019 with the goal of growing trees in an environmentally sound way for its future and current campuses. But Google, in an era of remote work and a shifting economy, has lately reevaluated its real estate portfolio, shedding office spaces in the northern end of the county. As a result, the 15,000 trees growing in Gilroy—including coast live oak, alder, willow, California maple and more—won’t all end up at a Google project as originally intended.”
Mountain View Voice: Google reportedly cuts office space in Mountain View, Sunnyvale by more than a million square feet. “Google is downsizing its office space in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, reportedly leaving behind more than a million square feet across multiple addresses. The company confirmed that the tech giant is ‘ending leases for a number of unoccupied spaces,’ but wouldn’t share the exact locations.”
Tap Into Bordentown: State Database of Available Business Space Possible Under Proposed Law. “Legislation that would create a statewide database of available commercial space that small businesses could buy or rent is now under consideration by Governor Phil Murphy.”
CNBC: Google asks some employees to share desks amid office downsizing. “The new desk-sharing model will apply to Google Cloud’s five largest U.S. locations — Kirkland, Washington; New York City; San Francisco; Seattle; and Sunnyvale, California — and is happening so the company ‘can continue to invest in Cloud’s growth,’ according to an internal FAQ recently shared with cloud employees and viewed by CNBC.”
San Francisco Chamber of Commerce: San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Invests in Downtown with Launch of NEW Data Dashboard and Urban Planning Initiative. “This dashboard is open to the public and highlights key indicators of the city’s downtown economy. It is intended for elected officials, new and existing businesses, and media to explore downtown office activity, areas of investment, and sector-specific demands to inform decisions around the recovery of San Francisco.”
Greater Greater Washington: A one-building quest to undelete suburban DC history. “What follows is the saga of identifying the original builder/tenant of this structure, and piecing together its history over half a century. It’s every bit as tricky and puzzling as detective work or archaeology. I love the challenge, and I also love uncovering bits of very recent, seemingly ordinary, and mostly forgotten commercial and land-use history. Enjoy.”
Bloomberg: Amid job cuts, Meta is closing a New York office . “Meta Platforms Inc. is planning to close one of its offices in New York after scaling down its expansion plans in the city, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is exercising its option to terminate its lease at 225 Park Ave. South in Manhattan, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information was private.”
Techwire: New Portal Provides Statewide Property Data. “Symbium, a startup working on tools to help make zoning and permitting work easier at the local government level, has launched a portal allowing anyone to look up information about properties across the state of California. Typically available via local assessor websites, real estate search engines and other such projects, the Symbium portal gives users the ability to search for a specific property, browse by area or filter by information such as assessed value, lot size or land use.”
CNBC: Only 28% of New York office workers are back in the office. “Only 28% of Manhattan office workers are back at their desks and fewer than half will return by January, according to a new survey. Employers expect that 49% of office workers will return on an average weekday by January, according to a survey of 188 big employers in Manhattan by the Partnership for New York City. That’s up from the current level of 28%, yet the survey suggests that remote work will endure long after January and reduce demand for office space in New York.”
New York Times: How Data Is Reshaping Real Estate. “The added layers of technology in stores and entertainment venues — crowd-tracking cameras, information gleaned from smartphones, tallies of neighborhood foot traffic and sophisticated demographic data — aim to replicate the data measurement and analysis of the online experience. But privacy advocates are sounding the alarm about the technology as Big Tech is under increased scrutiny.”
Gothamist: In Pandemic’s Aftermath, Calls Grow For NYC To Regulate Commercial Rents. “The City Council’s small business committee is considering a controversial proposal to limit how much landlords can raise rents on commercial tenants. The measure, first introduced by City Councilman Stephen Levin almost two years ago, would apply to storefronts and offices up to 10,000 square feet, which could also include some supermarkets. Levin, who sits on the committee, said rising rents have forced small businesses throughout the city to shut down, and that the pandemic has exacerbated the problem, creating a proliferation of vacant storefronts. ”
Reuters: Google to invest over $7 billion in U.S. offices, data centers this year. “Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Thursday it plans to invest over $7 billion in offices and data centers across the United States as it takes on a surge in internet traffic after pandemic restrictions drove more users and advertisers online. The company’s investment related to U.S. offices and data centers was over $10 billion last year and more than $13 billion in 2019.”
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