RXR Realty, one of the largest real estate owners and developers in New York City has some of the Big Apple’s most notable properties in its portfolio. They include the office towers at 75 Rockefeller Center, the Starrett-Lehigh Building, and 1166 Sixth Avenue. The firm, led by Scott Rechler, has also embarked on several public-private partnership developments over the years, including the massive, nearly $1 billion redevelopment project of downtown New Rochelle and the sprawling, $1 billion mixed-use development project in Glen Cove on Long Island. But one of the firm’s largest purchases was ..read more

For years, real estate companies have been using technology to help them maximize the revenue of their properties. Many multifamily landlords use software created by property management software firms RealPage and Yardi called YieldStar and RENTmaximizer. Both software products use extensive shared rental data to suggest the highest rent price that a residential unit could get in the local market. It quickly became an easy way for any property firm to price their units.  It’s easy to see why this would catch on. Pricing a rental is incredibly important, especially because a small increase ..read more

The race to fill the gaping hole in housing in the U.S. continues with developers delivering apartment properties at a rapid pace across the country, from ground-up developments to office-to-residential conversions. The affordable housing market is in particular need of new supply. In many jurisdictions, developers are required or incentivized to include a minimum number of affordable housing units in multifamily development projects. But, some developers are taking it even further to create mixed-income properties that provide a substantial percentage of both affordable and market-rate housin ..read more

This has been a perfect storm for the commercial real estate lending industry. Higher interest rates have slowed down the economy and made loans prohibitively expensive. Falling property prices and liquidity fears are causing banks to slow or stop lending on commercial properties. And stubbornly high seller expectations have reduced transactions to a fraction of pre-pandemic levels.  All of this combined to push commercial lending to a standstill. The second quarter numbers of the Mortgage Brokers Association show commercial and multifamily loan origination dropping by an unbelievable 54 ..read more

New York City’s office sector didn’t escape the ravages of the pandemic, and, as remains the case in most of the country’s leading office markets, the post-pandemic rightsizing and return-to-office issues continue to hinder the market. You would think SL Green Realty Corp., Manhattan’s largest office landlord with a portfolio of roughly 30 million square feet, would be in a bit of a panic. But the New York office REIT is plugging right along, albeit not without some challenges.  SL Green recently released its third quarter 2023 earnings report, and there were losses that, compared to 2022 ..read more

The post-pandemic climate has yielded a precarious commercial real estate market.  So, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to ask your chatbot to scour the market and find a property that’s a good investment? Well, one can ask that question, but you won’t get a viable answer—at least not yet. AI isn’t capable of performing the multi-faceted analysis that goes into assessing the practicality of a potential transaction, but it can execute a host of tasks that provide vital assistance in investors’ decision-making process. The performance of due diligence is key to making a successful real estate ..read more

Property owners are experts in the problems that PropTech is meant to solve. Because of that, many PropTech investors have a real estate background. Most of the venture capital PropTech investment firms are either led by former property executives or have major property companies as LPs or board members. This gives them a deep understanding of what kinds of technology the property industry is able (or willing) to adopt. It also gives startups another reason to take their investment capital. Which company wouldn’t want introductions with some of their biggest potential clients? But now we are s ..read more

Last month, Colorado adopted new energy performance standards for large buildings. The new rules were established by Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as cut costs for both owners and tenants. Regulation 28, as the new standard is called, will apply to around 8,000 buildings in the state, including most commercial, multifamily, and public buildings 50,000 square feet or larger. The new rule was created to help Colorado meet its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.  The new law is the latest building emiss ..read more

In today’s topsy-turvy commercial real estate market, getting a loan with favorable terms seems like an impossible dream. Interest rates were not hiked in the most recent Fed meeting, but they remain at a 22-year high. Banks, keen to reduce their risk, have tightened up lending, enacting stricter standards for potential borrowers to meet. But despite this difficult landscape, lenders are increasingly taking a shine to properties with more green qualities and shifting away from buildings that lack energy efficiency and other sustainable features, or what many term brown assets. Describing asset ..read more

Companies are still trying to court (or command) workers back into the office, attempting to lure them with the latest amenities that would make any home office seem lackluster and soften the chore of commuting. One of the increasingly coveted office offerings is one of the simplest—no complex installation or high-tech equipment required. It’s outdoor workspace, and at the proposed 15-story office project at 1811 Sacramento St. in Downtown Los Angeles’ Arts District, developer Skanska USA has partnered with architecture firm Perkins + Will to create functioning outdoor workspaces, which appear ..read more