August 2021

Real Estate and Development

New York just surpassed San Francisco as the most expensive rental market in the U.S. - The coronavirus pandemic caused a massive disruption to New York’s real estate market early on, but demand has since turned around. Rents are not only rebounding but returning to pre-pandemic levels. CNBC

NYC apartment leases with major concessions are coming up for renewal. Here's how to negotiate - In addition to landing apartments with lower rents, New York City renters who signed new leases during the pandemic scored major concessions, like multiple months free, paid broker fees and sometimes other freebies like flexible move in-dates, relaxed pet policies, or reduced fees for storage, and parking spots. But what is happening now—as those freebie-laden leases start to come end—especially those with free months, which made apartments much more affordable? NYC renters are about to find out. - Brick Underground

Ramped-up testing helps contractors fight delta variant - Ezra Laniado has been fighting the pandemic on his jobsites, one COVID-19 test at a time. As the owner of Landmark Construction Crew, a Los Angeles-based commercial contractor, he learned early on that keeping his teams up and running meant making sure that anyone who got sick stayed away, and then immediately got tested. - Construction Dive

Why Life Sciences Is The Hottest Sector In CRE - The life sciences sector was the outlier while much of the business world suffered through 2020. According to CBRE, life sciences employment in July 2020 was actually higher than the year prior, and venture capital funding at that point was setting records. Commercial lab space, meanwhile, grew 12 percent in 2020, with a similar growth anticipated for 2021 in the form of new construction, and lab space rents have been rising unabated. - Commercial Observer

 

Architecture and Design

Meet the millennial New Yorkers dropping as much as $45,000 on interior designers to help pimp out their pandemic pads: 'Time is the biggest luxury' (featuring photography by Leon Cato) - A 2,000-square-foot apartment is a unicorn in New York City, but when Rachel Martino nabbed such a gem last June, she didn't know what to do with it. By March, she decided to bring in outside help: an interior designer. She likened it to using a wedding planner. - Business Insider

How can design help the visually impaired? - Dutch designer Simon Dogger has created projects that open up the museum world for blind and visually-impaired visitors. He speaks to art historian and disability activist Amanda Cachia about access technologies, inspirational personal experiences and the virtues of physical spaces - Wallpaper

Creating Digital Equity in a Hybrid Workforce - Experts suggest that nine out of ten organizations are moving to hybrid, but as we learned in this podcast, hybrid is the hardest. As so many make the switch to a hybrid workforce, a multitude of new considerations are brought to the forefront in creating an equitable workforce and workplace. On a Zoom screen all the boxes are the same size, but what happens when three people are in one room and only one is virtual? Is the experience digitally equitable? Does the remote person feel “less than” or “left out” when cameras go off? In order to make hybrid stick, we must find ways to create an equitable experience.  - Interior Design