Office owners dump lesser buildings for whatever they can get, American cities are starting to thrive again but just not near office buildings and Disney’s Orlando campus cancellation a blow to neighboring projects.
| Real Estate | The prognosis for urban office districts looks pretty grim these days. Now, some developers are ready to offload their most challenged office towers at deep discounts. Peter Grant explains how these sales are enabling the market to determine how far office building values have fallen after a long stretch with virtually no sales comparisons. If central business districts are in a rut, many residential neighborhoods in big cities are starting to thrive again. The pandemic and its fallout have done little to dent the overall appeal of cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, foot-traffic and rent data show. Konrad Putzier and Kate King take a look at neighborhoods from Chicago’s Logan Square to Manhattan’s SoHo district to survey the recoveries. Disney’s decision to scrap a proposed $900 million office park in Orlando creates a 60-acre hole inside in a master planned community. And it is clouding the future of many nearby real-estate projects already under way. Deborah Acosta reports about how a dustup between the Florida governor and Disney is spilling over to Lake Nona, the 11,000-acre community project in Orlando. —Craig Karmin, Real Estate Bureau Chief |
| | Office Owners Dump Lesser Buildings for Whatever They Can Get |
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| | Silverstein Properties has agreed to sell 529 Fifth Ave. for $105 million, $66 million less than what it was refinanced at in 2020. PHOTO: PETER GRANT/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL |
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| The office-building sales pipeline in New York is beginning to grow, market participants said. |
| $489.5 million | The total sale value of office buildings purchased by investors in the first quarter of 2023, the lowest volume since the fourth quarter of 2009, according to data firm MSCI Real Assets. |
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| | American Cities Are Starting to Thrive Again. Just Not Near Office Buildings. |
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| | As people spend more time at home, they frequent local shops, gyms and restaurants, boosting the economy of places such as Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown. PHOTO: PHOTO: AL DRAGO/BLOOMBERG NEWS |
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| “We’re now back to what cities really are—they’re not containers for working,” said Richard Florida, a specialist in city planning at the University of Toronto. |
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| The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich is being wrongfully detained in Russia after he was arrested while on a reporting trip and accused of spying—a charge the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny. Follow the latest coverage, sign up for an email alert, and learn how you can use social media to support Evan. |
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| | | Disney’s Orlando Campus Cancellation a Blow to Neighboring Projects |
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| | Disney recently said it was dropping plans for an office campus in Orlando, Fla., near its Walt Disney World Resort and theme parks. PHOTO: JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES |
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| | | Home Prices Rose in March for Second Straight Month |
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| | Home sales have slumped in the past year due to higher mortgage rates. PHOTO: JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES |
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| The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index climbed 0.4% in March compared with February on a seasonally adjusted basis. |
| $388,800 | The median existing-home price in April, down 1.7% from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. |
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| | One more thing moving from California to Texas: wildfire risk. (Bloomberg) Louisville weighs Airbnb moratorium. (Courier Journal) The ticking time bomb in America’s downtowns. (Slate) |
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