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. TikTok Studios, Zoom Rooms and Co-Working Spaces Are the New Must-Have Home Amenities

When Ric Bucher, a television and radio basketball commentator and writer who is a familiar face on Fox Sports, finished a roughly $40,000 office remodel in his Half Moon Bay, Calif., home, he wondered if it was worth it. His workspace, completed about three years ago, was soundproofed, professionally wired, attractively lit, and rigged with professional-grade cameras and microphones. The idea was that if he ever needed to record a podcast or tape a television segment from home, he could.

“It was a very expensive proposition, and we asked, ‘are we doing the right thing?’ ” Mr. Bucher, 59, said of conversations with his wife, Corrine Bucher. Then the pandemic hit. Now Mr. Bucher is able to tape and record studio-quality segments for national Fox Sports shows and for his podcast. “There is no question that it has been a huge benefit to my career,” he said.

Mr. Bucher’s renovation, with its focus on making him look and sound good on camera, may have once seemed specific to his unique profession. But today, developers and home builders believe that the future, even after the virus is under control, will involve a lot more work from home, videoconferencing, and remote collaborating.

2. Here Comes the Life Sciences Land Rush

The office, as we’ve been told many times, is over. As the coronavirus pandemic drags on in the U.S., millions of white-collar workers remain homebound, companies are shedding their HQ spaces, and the viability of downtown business districts — and even whole cities — is in doubt due to the ongoing economic devastation of Covid-19.

But most people who work in the life sciences — pharmaceutical, biotech and other medical research fields — can’t do their jobs from their couches or backyard sheds. For them, the pandemic has helped fuel a real estate scramble.

In the last two months, pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb announced plans to take over 360,000 square feet in a forthcoming development in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while across the river in downtown Boston, biotech firm CRISPR Therapeutics will be leasing 263,500 square feet of a development dubbed “The 105.” Those deals underscore the bullishness around this sector, which has attracted billions of dollars in institutional investment.

3. Brookfield Weighs $3 Billion Life Sciences Real Estate Portfolio Sale

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is exploring a sale of its life-sciences real estate portfolio, and seeking about $3 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Toronto-based alternative asset manager is working with advisers to sell roughly 2.3 million square feet of life-sciences real estate it acquired as part of its 2018 purchase of Forest City Realty Trust Inc., said the people, who requested anonymity because the information isn’t public.

A Brookfield representative declined to comment.

4. Apartment Rents Are Plunging in the World's Richest Cities. It's Time For You to Negotiate

In the world’s big financial centers — from New York to Toronto to London to Sydney — rents for city apartments are plunging.

International students who normally bolster demand are stuck at home and young renters — the most mobile group in real estate — are finding fewer reasons to pay a premium to live in what is, for now, no longer the center of things.

“You’re daft if you aren’t negotiating lower rent right now,’’ said Tim Lawless, Asia Pacific head of research for data provider CoreLogic Inc. “Supply is high and occupancy has fallen off a cliff.”

5. Commercial real estate investors predict price recovery in 2021

Commercial real estate investors predict up to a 10% fall in property value as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but prices are expected to recover by next year.

According to a survey of 325 directors and investors, 39% expect commercial real estate assets will fall between 5% to 10% in value in 2020, whilst nearly 31% expect a fall of 10% or more as a result of the pandemic.

However, 90% of the respondents expected asset prices to go back to pre-pandemic levels by 2021, according to the survey carried out by Duff & Phelps.

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

Ken Ashley