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. My First Cold Call

One Saturday morning, I was driving around Athens, Georgia. I was behind the wheel of my trusty hand me down 1984 Pontiac Bonneville. My mind wandered thinking about my plans for…a wedding engagement.

“Karen was the girl of my dreams; smart, breathtakingly beautiful and she laughed at my jokes. Really the perfect combination. She is the smartest woman I had ever met except that she would hopefully marry me. ”

The question of "how" occupied my thoughts for days. As you can imagine, I wanted it to be special and memorable, but also not a copycat kind of approach. And in the dark days before YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, ideas were a lot harder to come by.

2. Reverse Engineering The Office

Office brokers like me have (likely deservedly) taken pot shots for seeing return to the office as the only way forward. We opine that the office will cure what ails you. Get back in and you can be happy, promotable and better looking.

“But what if I were a high-skill knowledge worker who wanted to work remote, permanently? How could I convince my company and what would I need to do to stay employed and qualify for promotions or bonuses? As a thought experiment, I reverse engineered heading back to the office and put myself in the shoes of someone who would be returning to work as a fully remote employee.”

Here are seven things I found you would need to be accomplished to be remote-ready:

3. Alphabet Freezes Hiring, CRE Investment Could Be Next

Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., is slowing hiring efforts, a move that could impact the tech giant's considerable real estate footprint.

“During the company’s third-quarter earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said full plans to slow hiring will be made clearer in 2023, but the pullback is already underway.”

Porat said that employment growth in Q4 will be less than half what it was in the previous quarter, though Q3 was an outsized one for hiring at the company, with nearly 13,000 new employees joining the Alphabet ranks, CoStar reports.

4. Atlanta Deal Sheet: KDC Buys Back Part Of State Farm's Campus

KDC purchased Park Center Buildings 2 and 3 in Dunwoody from State Farm for an undisclosed sum. KDC developed the buildings as part of a three-tower build-to-suit for State Farm that it started in 2014. Park Center 1, which is 620K SF, was completed in 2016 and is directly connected to the Dunwoody MARTA Station.

“State Farm subleased most of Park Center 1 last year to Carvana as the insurance giant pivoted to a hybrid work model amid the pandemic. The two buildings KDC bought are located off Perimeter Center Parkway and Hammond Drive.”

Building 2 is 621K SF with some 39K SF of ground-floor retail, while Building 3 is 440K SF. DeKalb County property records have yet to reflect the details of the transaction, but the county valued Building 2 at $240.4M and Building 3 at $177.3M earlier this year.

5. U.S. economy grows in third quarter, reversing a six-month slump

The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the third quarter, marking its first increase in 2022 and a sharp turnaround after six months of contraction — despite lingering fears that the country is at risk of a recession.

“The report on gross domestic product, released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, revealed a more upbeat snapshot of the economy less than two weeks before the midterm elections, even as high inflation has proved a persistent problem for Democrats.”

“The irony is, we’re seeing the strongest growth of the year when things are actually slowing,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG. “There are some real cracks in the foundation. Housing is contracting. The consumer is slowing. GDP is growing, but not for all of the right reasons.”

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

Ken Ashley