Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

Each week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in leadership and the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners": corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. Each day we can become a better version of ourselves.

1. With 900M sf of office leases expiring by 2025, owners are getting more aggressive

Office owners have been dealing with more than two years of uncertainty around the future of their properties, but the demand for their space is about to get an even tougher test. 

“Roughly 11% of the leased office space in the U.S. is set to expire this year, according to JLL, which equates to about 243M SF — a 40% jump from 2018. By 2025, 900M SF of office leases nationwide is set to expire.”

There's an anticipation that so much space will become available over the next two years, and landlords are reacting by giving even more concessions,” Vestian Global Workplace Services Chairman Michael Silver said. “It's extraordinary how compounded the situation is, and fierce competition for tenants is breaking out into the open.

2. Wells Fargo renews 620K SF lease in win for San Francisco office market

In a win for San Francisco’s office market, Wells Fargo is renewing its lease at 333 Market St., keeping its 620K SF for another decade, the San Francisco Business Times reports.

“Wells Fargo earlier this year exited its space at 45 Fremont St., while making plans to sell its current space at 550 California St. But it is not leaving the city entirely.”

“We are committed to our San Francisco-based employees. We will continue to have a major employee presence in San Francisco, but we have more real estate than we need to support these employees. San Francisco remains the location of our company’s headquarters," Wells Fargo told the SFBT.

3. ‘Deals are still happening’: What to expect in Atlanta real estate.

A recession is a possibility, in the words of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who anticipates continued interest rate hikes to bring inflation under control. Just last week, the Fed raised rates by three quarters of a percentage point, the biggest hike in 28 years.

“But ask 10 different economists and you’ll get 10 different opinions on where “this thing” is headed, Colliers’ national director of research Steig Seaward said. It’s true — analysts with Morgan Stanley predict a 35% chance of recession by the first half of 2023. Goldman Sachs forecasts 30%, up from its 15% prediction in April. Forecasters with Deloitte say a recession is less likely than some analysts would have you believe.”

Atlanta’s real estate ecosystem is beginning to see the effects of record inflation and rising interest rates. Some key players report companies are pulling back from leasing activity until more encouraging economic indicators emerge. 

4. Labor shortage stymies construction work as $1 trillion infrastructure spending kicks in

WASHINGTON—Construction projects across the U.S. are running short on labor just as $1 trillion in federal infrastructure money starts to kick in, leading companies to get creative in their quest to attract and retain workers.

“In Southern states, contractors advertise sunny weather and 12 months of work on help-wanted websites in the frostier Northeast and Midwest, where highway construction goes dormant during the winter months. Project managers in remote areas are luring employees with signing and referral bonuses and per diems for housing, knowing they won’t be able to find enough workers locally.”

Central Florida Transport, one of the state’s largest aggregate haulers, created a full-time driver advocate position to help its truck drivers with tasks that are tough to do during a busy workday, such as scheduling healthcare appointments or finding a loan broker.

5. Amazon shows off its latest warehouse automation: Fully autonomous robots, high-tech scanners and more

Amazon will show off four new pieces of robotics technology, including fully autonomous robots and high-tech scanners, at its re:MARS event in Las Vegas. The new technology comes ten years after Amazon’s purchase of Kiva, which set up an arms race among retailers to deliver products ever faster and more efficiently with help from automation.

“In addition to the autonomous robot and scanners, the technology that Amazon is showing off includes a robotic workcell for movement of heavy packages and a containerized storage system. The latter is currently being beta-tested in Texas, while the others are in early-stage alpha tests.”

“This is the real stuff,” Tye Brady, Amazon Robotics’ chief technologist, told Forbes in advance of his speech at re:MARS. “There’s a big difference between doing something in a lab or something you show on YouTube and something that we will deploy in our fulfillment centers.”

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!