Bookmarks: 5 Interesting Articles That May Help You This Week

Each week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners:" corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. I welcome your comments on these articles.

1. Millennials Could Drive Resurgence in Suburbs … If They Choose to Exit Urban Areas

Cities may have commanded much of the attention of investors and developers over the past decade, but suburbs hardly fell out of favor.

In fact, people of all ages continued to move to the suburbs, giving them roughly double the urban population, according to CoStar analysts in a recent webinar entitled “Playing the ‘Lawn’ Game: Strategy in the Suburbs.”

The suburbs, in fact, may be just the place for investing in apartments, office and retail properties, if millennials, the largest living generation, decide to do what previous generations have done before them and move there in droves. Indeed, one large block of millennials, those born in the early 1990s and reaching their 30s, are now forming families and looking to put down roots.

Their first stop likely will be in rentals. “A bet on them gradually putting on the trappings of adulthood feels safe, and bet against them being able to own homes at the same rate as their elders is also reasonable,” Andrew Rybczynski, a CoStar senior consultant, said in the webinar.

2. Young People Are Going to Save Us All From Office Life

Illustration by Shannon Lin/The New York Times

When Ariel Coleman, 28, quit her last job, as a project manager in the corporate office of a bank, it wasn’t because her new employer offered her a raise, a different role or more seniority. “The work-life balance is just much better,” she said.

At her new company, Omfgco, a branding and design firm in Portland, Ore., everyone works from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays at whichever hours they choose. Ms. Coleman can go for a run or walk her dog.
At the bank, she said, people judged her for taking all her paid time off. At Omfgco, it’s encouraged, which is why she didn’t mind answering work emails while sitting by the fire on a recent camping trip.

“It’s: Get your work done, but don’t worry about when those hours are,” Ms. Coleman said. “A client calls me at 8 o’clock at night and I’m happy to talk to them, because that means the next day at 10 a.m., I can take my dog to the vet. It enables me to make my career more seamless with my life. It makes it feel more like people are human.”

3. U.S. Unemployment Hit 50-Year Low in September

U.S. unemployment dropped to a half-century low in September and job growth continued at a modest pace, signs the economy is holding up despite a broader global slowdown.

The jobless rate dropped to 3.5% in September from 3.7% in August, marking the lowest rate since December 1969 when it also logged in at 3.5%. Employers added 136,000 jobs in September, and payrolls for August and July were revised up, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Job gains and historically low unemployment have helped buffer the U.S. economy against weakness in manufacturing at home and abroad that have stoked concerns of a deepening slowdown.

A falling unemployment rate should allay fears of a recession, said Josh Wright, chief economist at iCIMS Inc., a maker of employee-recruiting software.

4. Reports On The Death Of Parking Needs Are Greatly Exaggerated

“Parking is a tricky issue because every landlord friend I talk to tells me we’re going to have driverless cars,” Cushman & Wakefield Executive Vice Chairman Tim Relyea said at Bisnow’s Future of Downtown Houston event Tuesday. “Every deal now has provisions about parking being reduced down the road. Yet every deal I’m doing Downtown, tenants want more parking. It’s long term, they’re committed and they need it. That’s one thing Downtown needs to keep a handle on. Downtown monthly parking rates reflect a $5-10 SF premium relative to rents for offices in the suburbs.”

Downtown and adjacent neighborhoods EaDo and Midtown have been exempted from Houston’s minimum parking requirements under an ordinance approved by city council. The move was celebrated by opponents of parking minimums who argue they eat up space in the urban core and no longer reflect the state of commuter habits. Why not let developers decide their own parking situation, they say.

But as parking minimums are stripped away, Houston’s parking needs are increasing.

5. UPS wins first broad FAA approval for drone delivery

United Parcel Service received federal approval to operate a fleet of drones, giving it broad privileges to expand unmanned package delivery, the shipping giant said Tuesday.

The company’s Flight Forward subsidiary plans to use the approval to deliver packages to hospital campuses, with potential to expand to other services later. It’s the first time the Federal Aviation Administration has granted such broad approval to a company to operate a fleet of drones as an airline.

The approval is a milestone in commercial drone delivery, with companies including Amazon, Uber and Google parent Alphabet, under its Wing Aviation unit, racing to add unmanned aircraft to their fleets to save on costs and deliver goods faster.

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

Ken Ashley