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Hello and welcome to episode number 9 of RENT TV's commercial real estate news and views podcast with Steve Blum on August 10th, 2020. I'm Steve Blum, your host and founder and CEO of RENT TV.com, our news and media company for the commercial real estate industry. Now in our 21st year providing daily news stories, market reports and more for the commercial real estate industry on our website, RENT TV.com, and our email newsletter, The Real Estate Insider goes to over 60,000 commercial real estate professionals three times each week. We were also putting on conferences before the pandemic hit, and we have produced our share of videos over the years while also broadcasting videos from other commercial real estate companies on our website, RENT TV.com. And thank you for tuning into our new episode of our weekly podcast, RENT TV's commercial real estate news and views, a brand new news program for our incredibly dynamic and ever changing industry. In these shows, streaming to you from the heart of Silicon Beach and Marina del Rey, I will give you my take on recent national and western region issues, store and stories, followed by a review of major deal and development news from around the US. I will then touch on tech news in our tech drive segment, and then I will discuss recent and upcoming podcasts, webinars, events and recordings of interest in our power segment. Hopefully you like what you hear, it is my goal to make this show a profitable use of your time. And I am confident we will accomplish that today, as we have put together a show packed full of industry information that could help your business. But before I start with the industry wide news and reports segment, I want to give a huge thanks to our very first podcast sponsors, Capitol Rivers Commercial and Redwood Mortgage, who I will tell you about more later in the show. I also again want to thank all of those who sent the very positive feedback about our new podcast, and to those who sent constructive comments, which I do listen to as we try to craft this podcast to best serve our audience of very busy real estate professionals. So let's get into this show, which I start with the industry market report segment and I am taping the show against the backdrop of news, which includes Congress still not passing the next stimulus bill, which many need to pay rent this month. I know many multifamily owners are focused on that. But on a positive economic news front, there is the just announced improved national employment report showing the US adding a higher than expected 1.8 million jobs in July, bringing the unemployment rate down to 10.2%, which is much better than the peak of around 15% just after the pandemic hit, but still not even halfway back from the total number of jobs lost as a result of shutting down the economy. Now I suspect much of the improvement in the jobs number was in the service sector, since a brief email report we received from Wells Fargo economics noted that the service sector expanded in July despite rising virus cases and outbreaks, noting that the service sector woke up from hibernation with a huge share of businesses seeking a pick seeing a pickup in activity. However, office owners shouldn't share too much since the report noted that service providers are not yet ready to bring back their full staff to their offices, especially with the recent uptick in COVID cases. Next I'll tell you about specific commercial real estate reports and these days it's all about the effects of COVID on various real estate sectors. And this week I have a few new reports to summarize for you starting with an industry wide survey by NAAP, the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, the trade group mainly comprised of developers and investors, which did its fourth monthly survey of its US members on the impacts of COVID-19 on their businesses, which is mainly development. The survey was completed between July 15th and July 20th and very interestingly most respondents said that deal activity, buying and selling actually improved across all sectors in July. However, unfortunately, but not surprisingly, 50% of respondents now expect the coronavirus to impact their development business operations for more than a year. NAAP's July coronavirus impact survey results found that more developers are facing delays in permitting and entitlements, financing, supply shortages and contractors declaring force majeure or filing for bankruptcy due to the pandemic. The report noted the increases in disruptions is a reversal of previous trends, which it showed improving conditions for current development projects, but the persistence of the disruptions has many developers now extending expectations for the length of time COVID will affect their operations with nearly 76% citing added delays in permitting entitlements. Also on their checklist of items affecting their business, the second highest number of responses, 52% marked a significant decline in leasing and preleasing of space as a reason. The delays and the spike in US cases in recent weeks may have led to the increased pessimism of the respondents when estimating how long they expect their businesses to be impacted by the pandemic with approximately 91% stating they expected the outbreak to significantly impact their businesses for six months or longer. This report follows NAAP's latest biannuals commercial real estate sentiment index, which was released in May that went into negative territory for the first time since it began in 2016, which indicated that unfavorable commercial real estate conditions are expected for 12 months. However, as noted earlier, the July survey wasn't all doom and gloom as those who replied saw somewhat of an increase in acquisitions activity depending on the sector, with more deals getting done and being marketed than in previous months. Industrial saw the most activity since most of the pros that did the surveys still said they had not witnessed any new office or retail deals for acquisition or development in July. Another study, the summer 2020 Allen Mackens UCLA Anderson forecast California commercial real estate survey mirrored the findings of NAAP's national study and showed uniform pessimism and a drop in sentiment for developers across all commercial real estate sectors into 2023. This biannual survey projects three years ahead for its outlook for California's commercial real estate industry. Now, to summarize their findings on the specific sectors, starting with office, they see market demand for space decreasing due to work from home policies and the shared sentiment is about as gloomy as it was in December 2008 during that implosion of the economy. They see rising vacancy rates and downward pressure on rents over the next three years and they do not think we will see a rapid return to pre-recession, office using employment, which implies a continued decrease in new office construction over the ensuing three years. The shining star through all of this is industrial properties due to the shift to online shopping and the panelist actions also indicate that they too aren't very pessimistic about the sector as 60% of the panelists in Southern California and 43% in Northern California are planning at least one new development in the next 12 months and many are planning multiple projects. While the report notes that the recession may cost short-term downward pressure on rental and occupancy rates, it does conclude that if the demand for warehouse space increases at about the same rate as projected, then 2023 will only see a mild erosion of rental rates when adjusted for inflation and there remains the possibility of some erosion in occupancy but that does not mean that industrial space markets will be depressed rather that they will not be as tight and imbalanced as in recent years. Although I must say from all the sources I have seen and spoken to, many think industrial space will only get tighter and rates will go higher. As for the sad retail sector, the UCLA alamakans report predicts that it will continue its downward spiral as the current recession has tripled down on the struggles with loss of household income and shelter in place policies, reducing demand for brick and mortar retail and creating a new set of online shoppers and third, increases in the savings rate on the part of households in response to the recession portends less consumption. While some retail activities will return like personal services, marginal retail properties will not find tenants willing to pay sufficient rent to keep the properties in the retail space. The pessimism expressed by the panelists from the Bay Area in Southern California in the latest survey continues the trends from the past three years and the prevailing view is that retail properties will be generating significantly lower returns in 2023 compared to today. The alamakans' UCLA survey predicts multifamily markets in Cali will only moderately decrease due to the continued shortage of housing across the state. Though there is pessimism that has come with the recession which has hit each of the multifamily markets and the state equally, the view that rental and occupancy rates will not be as good as they are at present has not affected the rate of activity by developers. As the economy grows, the demand for housing in the Bay Area and SoCal will grow alongside it. The UCLA forecast is looking at a 30-month recovery in the state and though there remains a great deal of uncertainty with regard to the current public health crisis, it is likely that the market for multifamily housing will remain robust. And to accentuate that point, most of the forecast panelists stated that their plans for future activity hasn't changed or has actually increased because of the pandemic. The result is they expect a quick turnaround in this sector sentiment in the next survey this December. A bit about the survey. It was started in 2006 by Alan Matkins, one of the premier real estate law firms in California and UCLA Anderson School and it polls a panel of California real estate professionals in the development and investment markets on various aspects of the commercial real estate markets with a goal of looking at markets three years in the future as well as building conditions over the three-year period. A dim review of the national multifamily sector was presented by an article by Catherine Tucker on Globe Street highlighting a report by Yardi which stated that while the coronavirus pandemic has already hurt rental apartment owners, it's going to get rougher. The Yardi report titled COVID-19 Weaves on Multifamily as Rents Fall and More Pain is Coming summarized that the pandemic injected a huge amount of uncertainty and volatility into multifamily that the market will have to deal with for months or even years to come. They noted it hasn't been as bad as it might have been yet because of the federal subsidy for unemployment income of $600 a week. But with that expiring this week and no deal done yet by Congress, concern is growing about late or missing rent payments ahead so trouble could be on the horizon. So those initial hopes for a V-shaped recovery were too rosy and the effects of the pandemic will linger until the population is confident about health measures, the Yardi researcher said. They said the US economy is in recession and overall rent levels dropped for the first time since the global financial crisis that caused the Great Recession of 2008. More troubling perhaps is a noted shift in demand from luxury units aimed at those who could afford to buy to lower priced rent by necessity housing for those who lack the wealth to buy. But supply and new housing is weighted toward the luxury end since building of lower priced rental units is inhibited by the cost. Also making matters even more challenging, the pandemic will weaken the supply pipeline for materials and delay projects that have not yet started construction so new development of all kinds has been and will be delayed. Coming to the office sector, which may best be described as nervous right now, I have info from the Wall Street Journal article this week by Konrad Puzier and Mark Moorer to share with you from this past Wednesday's property report section in an article titled Office Markets Under Pressure as Coronavirus Squeezes Cities, which discusses the problems now facing urban office properties such as all the reasons people may leave dense cities and the fact that people will now be working more at home. And tourism and biz travel has evaporated, so they say that urban office markets are going through their worst period in decades and they note that a modest drop in building occupancy can lead to a big drop in profit. And as for value, they point to Moody's Analytics Reese estimates that the value of office buildings will fall by 17.2% in 2020, which isn't far from the 19.2% decline for retail properties or 20.5% for lodging. On the positive side, longer office leases, lower interest rates and low levels of debt will help landlords to some extent. But shrugging off those positive encouraging factors, the article notes how major office REIT shares such as those of Boston Properties, Elsel Green and Vornado are down between 37% and 50%. Also, more mortgages on buildings or in special servicing, such as the $106.3 million mortgage on the Denver Energy Center, currently still owned by Gemini Rosemont, that was the example in the Wall Street Journal article. Puthier and Marr then conclude by noting how corporate office tenants of all shapes and sizes are looking to reduce their office space footprints and they use hydric and struggles and Dell technologies as examples of major companies with many locations looking to downsize. Another report from Moody's Reese noted that office fundamentals started to slip in the second quarter as the national office vacancy rate jumped by 10 basis points ending the quarter at 17.1%. Reese forecasted that the national office vacancy rate will rise to 19.3% by year end and peak at around 20% in 2021. That exceeds the previous historic high vacancy rate of 19.7% at the peak of the savings and loan crisis in 1991. Further, Reese reported that only 3.3 million square feet of office space came to market this past quarter compared to a quarterly average of 11.8 million square feet in 2019 because construction slowed dramatically. Asking rents for office also fell by 0.1% and effective rents fell by 0.4% after both had risen by 0.4% in the first quarter before the pandemic hit. Reese further projects record declines in rents down 6.2% for asking rents and 10.5% for effective rents with a continued slide in 2021. And lastly, for this industry report segment, throwing more shade on the retail sector, I have a newly released report from CBRE titled The Evolution of Online Retail Drives Retail to Industrial Conversion Projects Across the US. In the report, CBRE finds that 13.8 million square feet of retail space has been converted to 15.5 million square feet of industrial space across the country since 2017. As e-commerce continues to expand and industrial rents reach new all-time highs, this activity will likely increase in the coming years. The new survey shows 59 retail to industrial conversion projects that have been completed, proposed or underway since 2017, which was a major increase from the previous survey in January of 2019, which counted only 24 projects. John Morris, the America's Industrial and Logistics and Retail Leader for CBRE noted that as online retail evolves and expands, many retailers and developers will find opportunity to convert underperforming stores into final-mile distribution sites to support e-commerce operations. With rising industrial rents and changing consumer patterns, we should see this activity continue to grow as more retail sites will be economically viable for these type of conversions. The recent survey indicated the top five markets for these conversions include Milwaukee, Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha, and Dallas-Fort Worth, making up one-third of the total number of projects nationally. This is primarily due to the volume of, quote, dead malls that plague the Midwest. However, as the retail market continues to evolve, this type of activity should increase across most of the country, according to the CBRE report. Sorry that there was not a whole lot of great news in that segment, but as the president said, it is what it is. Now I want to tell you about a different kind of commercial real estate company, one that really knows the industry and will put that knowledge to work for you. We're talking about Greg Aguirre and the team at Capitol Rivers Commercial, one of the show's sponsors. In recent weeks, when the commercial real estate world was locked down and panicked, they figured out a way to help. They offered to assist to any commercial landlord or tenant, no strings attached. And they did. In one case, a restaurant owner had signed a lease for a downtown Sacramento location when things were fine, but the landlord gave him possession at the height of the shutdown. Unsure what to do, he contacted Capitol Rivers for advice. Greg went over the options for him in a situation which allowed him to knowledgeably approach his landlord about a potential lease restructuring. In short, these are not your typical real estate brokers. To reach Capitol Rivers, visit their website at capitolrivers.com. Work with the best, work with Capitol Rivers. Okay, in this segment of the show, I discuss real estate issues, such as things like legislation regionally or nationally, as well as executive moves and mergers. But in this new day and age, all the focus is on the ways governments can help prevent all the cracks that are forming throughout our industry from growing into major structural problems and causing more economic pain and disruption. And what everyone, especially in the multifamily sector, has been worried about is the continuation of the enhanced $600 per week federal unemployment insurance that was set to expire before Trump signed his executive order this weekend, cutting it to $400 per week. And it is the general opinion that this will help renters pay their rent. So as long as it doesn't disincentivize them from returning to work, the consensus is it's got to be done. Unfortunately, it ain't clear as of yet if Trump's executive orders will take effect or get held up in the courts. And the next pandemic real estate issue of the week is the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures. And given the points I shared from Stuart Gabriel from UCLA last episode, it seems that these need to be enacted in a more standardized and predictable way to help renters and owners of real estate during the pandemic crisis. Until now, the eviction protections have been a hodgepodge of executive orders by governors and municipalities and county boards, and then implemented by sheriffs who have stopped serving eviction orders. But many of these are expiring and others are getting successfully challenged in courts and reports are that many sheriffs do plan on now executing those eviction orders. So it is a real issue that needs to be dealt with. As of now, the feds haven't passed a law. We saw that Cuomo extended the eviction moratorium in New York. And out here in LA County, it goes until September. And that's the same with the state of California. And while it is one of Trump's new executive orders, it is unclear if it really protects tenants or if it's just a plea to be nice. So it seems that for eviction moratoriums to really stick through the pandemic, it needs to be done in the form of legislation passed by the local municipality or state legislatures, unless Pelosi and McConnell can somehow come to an agreement soon, which includes this in it. So unfortunately, it seems like we'll have to see if this gets messier before it gets clarified or any better. Next, as I've been telling you about and will continue to discuss until November, the issue which besides the pandemic economy is the most pressing challenge facing both commercial property owners and tenants in California is the state's Schools and Local Communities Funding Act of 2020. Pay attention to that name. It's known as the split role initiative, however, which is qualified. It has qualified for the November 2020 ballot. If approved, it would modify Prop 13 to provide for the reassessment of commercial, industrial and office properties to their full cash value. Thereafter, commercial, industrial and office properties are to be reassessed every three years. What a mess. So if you have any issues or opinions about issues you want to bring to my attention, please send those to me at sbloom at rentv.com. And many times we will discuss those in upcoming shows. Now let me tell you about another sponsor of the show, Redwood Mortgage. Redwood Mortgage is a direct portfolio lender providing loans on commercial office, industrial, multifamily, mixed use and residential investment properties in California. In business for over 42 years, Redwood Mortgage is established, trusted and well capitalized. A good place to go when the banks say no, call Redwood Mortgage at 800-659-6593 or redwoodmortgage.com. Now let's get into our real estate version of the Sports Highlight Reel with our very exciting Rent TV Roundup of major deal and development news from around the US. And we'll start with a national portfolio transaction and then go to the East Coast and head West. Starting with the national portfolio deal, it was widely announced this past week that Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division is buying a stake in a 46 asset, last mile industrial portfolio owned by Dauphin Industrial. The portfolio of over 6.3 million square feet caters to e-commerce oriented tenants and is located in metro areas including Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Orlando, Phoenix, Raleigh, Houston, Tampa, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Reno and Jacksonville. The properties are valued at $500 million according to a source cited by Bloomberg and are on average 94% occupied with an average property size of 126,000 square feet and are leased to such blue chippers as Amazon, Frito-Lay, Brinks, Pods and Sherwin-Williams. As we all have witnessed, e-commerce has been driving the industrial property sector for years, but the pandemic has accelerated that trend with e-commerce sales jumping 92.7% in May alone, which has led to the projections from industry experts such as JLL that the demand for industrial space will be growing by about a billion square feet within the next five years. Next, let's head to the Big Apple to report that Facebook has leased all 730,000 square feet of the office space that make up the historic Farley Building at 421 8th Avenue, which everyone in New York knows is the iconic Beaux Arts post office building right across the street from the Garden and next to Penn Station. The Farley is 95% owned. Next, let's head to the Big Apple to report that Facebook has leased all 730,000 square feet of the office space that make up the historic Farley Building at 421 8th Avenue, which everyone in New York knows is the iconic Beaux Arts post office building right across the street from the Garden and next to Penn Station. The Farley is 95% owned by Vornado Realty Trust, the huge rete led by founder, chairman and CEO Steve Roth, and the remaining 5% is owned by the related companies. The Farley occupies a double wide block between 31st and 33rd Street and stretches from 88th to 9th Avenues. The landmark building was designed by McKinn, Mead and White and originally opened in 1912. Vornado is converting the Farley into a mixed use development featuring creative office space, and it is a central part of Vornado's new Penn district where the rete owns 10 million square feet and is in the midst of a more than $2 billion transformation of the neighborhood alongside government infrastructure and transportation improvements of more than $3 billion. The full complex will include Facebook's office space, the Moynihan train hall and 120,000 square feet of retail space with food and beverage, full service restaurants and lifestyle brands. The project is expected to be completed in phases beginning by year end 2020. In addition to this lease, Facebook also leases office space at Vornado 770 Broadway and in nearby Hudson Yards. Now I have a pair of New York City multifamily financing deals to report to you. First in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, where LIHC investment group and Rockport Mortgage Corporation closed a $65 million FHA Section 223F financing loan for Renwick Garden Apartments, a 224 unit subsidized Section 8 property consisting of a single 15 story building located at 332 East 29th Street that is owned by LIHC, which is a real estate investment group committed to the preservation of affordable housing. Renwick Gardens benefits from a project based Section 8 contract and as part of the loan refinancing, LIHC and HUD Housing and Urban Development agreed to enter into a new 20 year mark up to market Section 8 contract extending the affordability of the property for another 29 years through 2049. The funding will also be used to facilitate repairs of the property to enhance and improve residents quality of life, including renovated bathrooms for all units and upgrades to common areas throughout the building. So far this year, Rockport has provided FHA 223F loans for several other LIHC owned properties, including $42.5 million in Fort Lee, New Jersey, $24 million in Verona, New Jersey and $27 million in Pine Hill, New Jersey. The next New York City apartment financing deal to report is that JLL Capital Markets secured $55 million in joint venture equity on behalf of Cape Advisors for a 534 unit multi-housing development on a 2.5 acre waterfront site in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens. As noted by Ingrid Thunberg on Globe Street, the project is one of the city's largest multifamily developments and it will feature three buildings at 30-77 Vernon Boulevard, which is near the Astoria East River ferry stop and the R&W subway lines. The development site was acquired by a partnership led by Cape Advisors in early 2018 and they plan on having tenants moving in sometime in 2021. Quotes from the JLL Capital Markets execs noted that 30-77 Vernon Boulevard is uniquely positioned to accommodate New York City renters seeking abundant space, top of the line amenities and extraordinary waterfront views overlooking the East River in Manhattan. The property offers the best of Astoria and easy access to all of New York City from the adjacent ferry stop. Next, let's head down to downtown Durham, North Carolina to report about a major office building sale as Longfellow Real Estate Partners has acquired Durham ID, the 330,000 square foot office development at 200 and 300 Mara Street, which they acquired from Bain Capital Real Estate for $138 million or about $418 per square foot. The transaction, which was completed by JLL on behalf of the seller's Bain Capital, is the Southeast's largest office investment sale since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recently constructed two building LEED Gold certified development features office space, ground floor retail and an adjacent eight storey 1225 space parking structure. The property represents the first phase of the Durham Innovation District, a 1.8 million square foot development, encompassing offices, lab space, retail and residential uses. Moving further south to Florida, I have some industrial leases to tell you about starting in Pompano Beach, where Duke Realty, the major industrial REIT, signed leases with two companies that will fill up its Copins 95-1731 project, a Class A logistics facility at 1731 West Copins Road that contains 101,000 square feet, which Duke developed on spec. The recently signed transactions that brought the building to full occupancy include a 41,000 square foot lease with a leading transportation and logistics company and a 60,000 square foot lease with a supplier of pipes, valves and fittings. Stephanie Rodriguez, VP of leasing and development for Duke in South Florida, noted that though the pandemic has had an impact on all sectors of commercial real estate, they're finding that users are still leasing space, particularly if the building's features and accessibility can improve their distribution efficiency. Copins 95-1731 is a modern distribution center close to I-95 and Florida's Turnpike, which provides these tenants a state of the art facility with unparalleled highway access. The tenants in these deals were repped by an industrial brokerage team from Cushman and Wakefield, while Duke was repped by Ms. Rodriguez. In South Florida, Duke Realty owns, operates or has under construction more than 8.5 million square feet of logistics real estate. Nationwide, Duke owns or has an interest in roughly 156 million rentable square feet of logistics real estate assets in 20 major US logistics markets. The other notable Florida industrial lease was signed by another major national developer as Lincoln Property Company leased a 92,500 square foot space in Medley, which is in the Miami sub market within its Medley 104 industrial center at 9,400 Northwest 104th Street, and they leased it to US Play, Inc. The tenant was repped by a brokerage team from JLL, while Lincoln was repped by Cushman and Wakefield. As Ingrid Tunberg from Globe Street reported, Lincoln recently spent $6.5 million renovating and repositioning the multi-tenant 263,000 square foot asset. US Play will join current tenant Artifacto, which occupies 98,000 square feet of space. The property still has 72,000 square feet of space available, which has 25 foot ceilings, new office space and 20 dock doors, and it is positioned for distribution and light manufacturing. Heading northwest to downtown Nashville, we have a story with a lot of hotel industry news in it as Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, the Bethesda, Maryland based hotel REIT has completed the sale of the historic 125 room Union Station Hotel Nashville autograph collection at 1001 Broadway to Southwest Value Partners for $56 million. As Gail Kalinowski reported for Commercial Property Executive, Southwest Value based in California and led by co-managing partners Carrie Mack and Mark Schlossberg is also building the 17 acre mixed use Nashville Yards development across the street from the Union Station Hotel, and that will include the Grand Hyatt Nashville, the 591 room hotel that is set to open soon. Now Southwest finance the Union Station acquisition with a five year 30.3 million loan from International Bank of Commerce. The Union Station building is a former railroad terminal that opened in 1900, then was turned into a hotel in 1986 and became a member of the historic hotels of America in 2015. Pebblebrook bought the hotel in December 2014 for $52.3 million. The Nashville Yards complex, which we mentioned the mixed use campus is slated to have more than 3.5 million square feet of office space, about 1000 multifamily units and 400,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space. The development will include a 20 story 566,000 square foot class eight tower at 1001 Church Street. That will be Amazon's operation center, which is scheduled for completion in 2021. Now, Pebblebrook has been continuing to sell hotel properties as part of its disposition program after acquiring Los Sal Hotel properties in November 2018. In January, it signed a deal to sell the 422 key intercontinental bucket Atlanta and the 237 room Safitel, Washington DC for 331 million. Also in the nation's capital, Pebblebrook sold the 137 key Rouge Hotel, located less than a mile from the White House in September for 42 million. And the company in 2019 sold the 343 room liaison Washington Capitol Hills for 111 million and the 335 key Hotel Palomar for 141 and a half million. Now, in June, John Bortz, Pebblebrook's chairman, president and CEO, described the hotel industry as being devastated by the COVID-19 crisis, noting that about 20% of hotels closed and approximately 75% of the workforce was furloughed. Last week, and it's just released second quarter 2020 earnings report, the company stated it could not provide 2020 guidance at this time due to the uncertainties caused by the pandemic, noting it plans to release new guidance when it has more clarity. The company did note the 24 of its 53 hotels and resorts are now open and expects to reopen five more by mid August. Bortz also stated that the company has seen an uptick in the leisure segment that has benefited its drive to resorts and they have been experiencing improvements in operating performance each week while seeing gradual recovery and demand in its urban hotels. Also on a positive note, Pebblebrook has recently completed the redevelopment of Hotel Zena, Washington, D.C. and Viceroy Hotel, Washington, D.C., and of several properties in California, including Le Park West Hollywood, San Diego Mission Bay Resort, Chaminade Resort in Santa Cruz and Viceroy Santa Monica Hotel. For a big industrial deal, let's now head up to Romeo, Illinois, 25 miles from downtown Chicago, where Prologis, the massive worldwide owner of industrial properties, has acquired the 1.3 million square foot industrial development called Interchange 55 Logistics Park for $98 million or $75 per square foot from Aquari Real Estate. As Ingrid Thunberg, that prolific reporter from Globe Street posted, the transaction represents Prologis' largest acquisition since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The two building class a spec development located at the junction of Interstate 55 and Interstate 355 has a 659,000 square foot building A and a 684,000 square foot building B. Each property features 36 foot ceiling heights and cross-docked configurations. They were just built in late 2019 and sold at 30% occupancy since they did lease at building A, so it has only 257,000 square feet available, while building B was sold in shell condition. Macquarie, the seller, was repped in the sale by brokers in the Collier's International Chicago Office, who noted in their press release that although there have been significant challenges presented by the global pandemic, the capital markets have quickly concluded that well-located modern industrial product will be a good long-term investment. Shifting to some multifamily deals, I will slide down to Houston, where BSR, an apartment rate, acquired the 370-unit Broadstone Park West apartment community from Starlight Investments for $51 million. BSR financed the purchase through its credit facility of $40 million, as well as $10.4 million in its trust units. The garden style property was originally constructed in 2014 and features a clubhouse fitness center and resort style swimming pool. With the recent purchase, BSR now owns 2,332 apartment units within the Houston metropolitan area. Their transaction represents BSR's 11th property acquisition since May 2018, when the REIT completed its initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Adding 3,235 total apartment units to its portfolio since then, the REIT has acquired properties in the Houston metro area, Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth metro areas, Oklahoma City and in Arkansas. John Bailey, CEO of BSR, noted that the acquisition of Broadstone is another example of BSR growing according to our defined clustering strategy. We will add value to the property by applying it to our internal management platform, as we have done with other properties acquired since our IPO. Now in a multifamily buy in Arizona, Knight Vest Capital paid $62.5 million for Signature Place, a 300-unit community and Tempe, Arizona, and that price works out to $208,000 per unit. The seller in the deal was Western Wealth Capital. Located at 600 West Grove Parkway in South Tempe, Signature Place community amenities include two resort-style swimming pools, a fitness center, lighted tennis courts and outdoor grilling areas. All units at Signature Place have 9-foot ceilings, fully equipped kitchens, full-size washers and dryers, and private patios, and some units even have fireplaces. CBRE's Phoenix Multifamily Institutional Properties Group represented Western Wealth Capital in the deal. Knight Vest, founded in 2007, has become a major player in repositioning multifamily assets, transforming more than 100 properties. Now we should note that the Phoenix Multifamily Market posted a near-record low vacancy rate of 3.9% in the first quarter of 2020, leading into the pandemic, and the rate increased only 60 basis points to 4.5% at the end of the second quarter, according to the CBRE Economic Metric Advisors. Phoenix had the strongest one-year total return for multifamily investments out of the 29 largest U.S. Metros in the second quarter of this year. Now the region's 10.5% one-year return was comprised of 5.5% appreciation return and 5% income return, according to the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries. Now let's head to the Golden State, where we always have a few deals to report on, starting in the no-cow town of Morgan Hill, where Trauma Crow Company acquired a fully entitled 24-acre site in which the firm is planning to develop a 440,000-square-foot light industrial development comprised of five Class A buildings. Currently undeveloped land, it is located west of Highway 101 within the Morgan Hill Ranch Business Park. In press release, I got noted that the demand for new Class A light industrial space in Santa Clara County continues to be robust even in the current economic situation. Trauma Crow plans to submit a development application for this new project to the city during the third quarter of this year, but hopefully it won't take too long to approve since the intended project is consistent with the existing development agreement for the land. TCC currently owns an additional 60 acres of undeveloped land on the immediate east side of Highway 101, where the firm plans to build an industrial and manufacturing technology park, comprised of six buildings, to house headquarters facilities, regional manufacturing and assembly distribution facilities, and expansion space for existing Morgan Hill commercial tenants. Robert Jew, head of development for CBRE Global Investors Americas, said that the Morgan Hill Ranch site is the final commitment in one of CBRE Global Investors Development Funds. The fund series has made 50 investments over the past 10 years. Their fund team is now actively thinking about the next steps when it comes to investment in various development opportunities as we approach the next economic cycle. Now Trauma Crow Company was founded in 1948 and is one of the late nation's leading developers and investors in commercial real estate. It has developed or acquired 2700 buildings valued at nearly $65 billion and over 590 million square feet. Wow. A little bit north up in Palo Alto in Silicon Valley, liquid biopsy company Garden Health Inc. leased nearly 250,000 square feet for roughly 12 years at the former Hewlett Packard Enterprise headquarters location at 3000 Hanover Street. And what the Mercury News said is the largest office lease in Silicon Valley so far this year. The building is in the Stanford Research Park and is owned by major Silicon Valley real estate player Sandhill Property Company. Garden, headquartered in Redwood City, is leasing the top two floors of the four story building for office and lab space to support their anticipated future growth. According to the article and Garden's SEC filings, the rent started starts out at just under $4 per square foot per month and then has set increases for a couple of years, followed by 3% annual bumps thereafter. In addition, it was revealed that Garden got the first five months free and about $100 per square foot for T.I.'s. Sandhill Property Company was represented in the deal by brokers from Cushman and Wakefield Palo Alto office, as well as brokers from New Mart Night Frank's Palo Alto office. Brokers from Seville represented Garden in the deal. In case you didn't know, liquid biopsy companies like Garden focus on detecting DNA that has been shed by cancer cells and is floating in the bloodstream through a simple blood draw. The technology they use is meant to replace organ biopsies where snippets of tissues are extracted and analyzed to find cancer cells. Next, heading down to SoCal and El Segundo, major national office investor Boston Properties acquired a 50% interest in an existing joint venture that owns Beach Cities Media Campus, a 6.4 acre site on the Rose Krantz Avenue corridor that is fully entitled for development of approximately 275,000 square feet of Class A creative office space. Boston Properties Venture Partners are Continental Development Corporation and Mars Ventures, which had owned 75% and 25% of the asset respectively prior to this new partnership. Continental Development is a premier developer and owner of Class A properties primarily in the El Segundo and South Bay sub markets of LA with more than 500 tenants across its more 4 million square feet portfolio. It's also been a great long term client of Rent TV. The media campus is on the western border of Continental Park, Continental's 3 million square foot 86 acre office and mixed use campus, which is home to several Fortune 500 and emerging office tenants. Rose Krantz Avenue, not far from where I'm sitting right now, is one of the most in demand creative office, restaurant and retail nodes in the South Bay of LA and his minutes from LAX. Boston Properties CEO Owen Thomas noted that this marks Boston Properties third investment in the LA region since entering the market in 2016 and provides us a fully entitled site located in a desirable sub market to support future development. The company is the largest publicly traded developer, owner and manager of Class A office properties in the U.S. Continental Development's President Richard Lundquist said that their team has been exploring partnerships, opportunities for some time and he is thrilled to officially establish a relationship with Boston Properties on this fantastic site. He added that their collective and longstanding experience in building high quality projects will lead to the delivery of a world class media campus. Now it's set to Hollywood for our last two deal notes. First, the news that locally based BLT Enterprises has acquired Television Center, a nearly two hundred thousand square foot creative office and production campus situated on six point four acres in the heart of Hollywood. And that was in a sixty four million dollar transaction. The movie studio asset was previously home to Metro Pictures and a division of Technicolor. At present, tenants at the property include media, technology and entertainment firms along with a Gold's gym. The asset is bounded by iconic streets in Hollywood that include Santa Monica Boulevard and Cahuenga Boulevard along with Romaine Street. Bernard Huberman, founder and president of BLT Enterprises, noted that this was a once in a generation opportunity to acquire an asset of this scale in the Hollywood media district, which is undergoing a renaissance with the convergence of media and technology companies. He added that the prior ownership did a phenomenal job of transforming the property from its original uses and there are many opportunities for built to suit development and redevelopment. BLT was a BLT was represented in the deal by Lee and Associates West L.A. And acquisition financing was arranged by Sunrise Mortgage. And our last item to report on in this deal and development segment is the news that the new owners of the Always Challenge Hollywood and Highlands Center, which is God Capital USA and DJM, will be spending a hundred million dollars to redo and reposition the property one year after shelling out more than three hundred million dollars to purchase the landmark. A big part of the plan is to revamp the upper floors of the 19 year old shopping complex to convert that retail space to offices. The four hundred and seventy five thousand square foot complex located next to the TCL Chinese theater will be rebranded Ovation Hollywood as part of a project that will transform the five story structure. Upon completion of the renovation, the property will house 135,000 square feet of retail, nearly 100,000 square feet of offices, 85,000 square feet of restaurant and dining areas, 65,000 square feet of entertainment space and 40,000 square feet of event space. Now, in addition to changes to the programming of the existing Hollywood and Highlands Center, the plan renovations also include cosmetic updates to the property that the Gensler Design Project calls for updates to the property's color schemes, exterior signage, as well as redesigns of pedestrian corridors to make them more inviting. The most substantial changes are proposed for the Center Central Courtyard, which was originally designed to reference the Babylon set of the D.W. Griffith Film Intolerance. For all those who've been through it, you know what I'm talking about with the arches. Well, the proposed renovation calls for a new look that would reference Hollywood's Art Deco heritage. Construction of the roughly one hundred million dollar project is scheduled to begin before the end of 2020 and conclude in 2021. The Ovation location is one of the most prominent anywhere in Hollywood, which attracts more than 25 million visitors each year. And the project coincides with a new master plan for the Walk of Fame, which calls for expanding sidewalks and adding new street trees to the carter. DJM and Gaut capital's revamp comes as coronavirus accelerates the well-documented struggles of brick and mortar retail in the era of e-commerce. But on the flip side, Hollywood has been a major beneficiary of this as a location for new media companies to operate as large nearby blocks of office space built by Killroy Realty and Hudson Pacific have recently been leased to the likes of Viacom and Netflix. And that's it for our deal roundup. Now it's time to zip along the tech drive where we discuss the various combinations of real estate and technology such as new websites and services. And now as a result of the covid pandemic, new technologies to make buildings safer. So with that in mind, I will tell you about San Diego based parallel capital partners installing state of the art plasma air sterilization systems at its two Phoenix high-rises, one Arizona center and one North Central. According to Matt Root, CEO and managing partner of parallel capital partners, which owns and operates properties throughout the Southwest, the new systems will be installed in an effort to significantly reduce airborne pathogens in light of the coronavirus outbreak. He said it is also important for us to ease tenant concerns and devise a plan to ensure they feel comfortable coming into the office. So there's growing evidence that clean, disinfected air can help mitigate the spread of the virus. And we believe this system is one of the safest, most energy efficient and effective ways to reduce or eliminate pollutants in the air. He said that the plasma air systems are designed to proactively attack pathogens via positively and negatively charged oxygen ions significantly improving air quality and they will be installed in the central air conditioning systems of one North Central, a 20 story building on the corner of Washington Street and North Central Avenue and one Arizona Center, a 19 story high rise within the iconic Arizona Center. He said their goal is to monitor the efficacy of these systems and ultimately install them in other high rise properties in their portfolio. Now, while we were not informed of the cost of the systems or who the subcontractors were, but if we find out that info, we will pass that along. But I am curious if this is something that others in our audience are considering. So let us know. Next in our Tech Drive segment, we have news that is no surprise at all. And that is that the Prop Tech segment, both in funding and operations, hasn't escaped the ravages of COVID-19. Although the pandemic is sparking new advances in the space, and that is according to Metaprop's mid-year 2020 Global Prop Tech Confidence Index. Metaprop is a New York City based real estate tech VC firm and their index highlighted that Prop Tech's fast rise came to an abrupt halt amid the COVID-19 pandemic induced turmoil. However, even as the business of real estate technology experiences its own downturn with investor and startup confidence dropping to lows not seen in four years, they did note that signs of a recovery surface. They always got to be looking at the positive. First, the bad news, the new investor confidence index dropped to 5.9 out of 10, marking a year over year decline of 33%. The change in confidence, which had grown increasingly robust over the last few years, came as a result of decreased deal flow, extreme market volatility, and political uncertainty. Looking ahead, only 33% of the investors plan to make more investments in Prop Tech compared to the 64% who expected to increase investment activity at mid-year 2019. The decline in certainty among startups was just as palpable with the startup confidence index falling 35% over the last six months to 4.7 out of 10, compared to one year ago when only 19% of startups expected it to be harder to raise venture capital over the upcoming 12 months, now a startling 56% anticipated an increased challenge. Additionally, 21% of startups predicted that their space will be less competitive in the next 12 months while only 5% felt that way a year ago. Now examining the drastic change in 6 and 12 month stats, Aaron Block, the co-founder and managing partner of Metaprop, and a friend of one of my friends and who also said thanks, but no thanks to us, noted in an executive summary of the report that nevertheless, there is cause for optimism since COVID-19's detrimental impact on the real estate tech market's health has been somewhat mitigated by the pandemic's hastening of the real estate industry's adoption of Prop Tech. Among investors and startup founders, a respective 89% and 84% believe the coronavirus is accelerating the adoption of Prop Tech and that this solidifies his belief that although confidence levels are down in the short term due to market volatility and the pandemic, long-term views around the adoption of Prop Tech have never been stronger. That's what he told commercial property executive in the article that we saw this in. He said that a lot of the activity currently underway is around existing technologies that are being tweaked for post- COVID-19 uses, such as those able to facilitate close interactions between workers. He added that with such an economic event, that would put additional pressure on building owners, managers, developers and landlords to adopt Prop Tech and would make it increasingly important to find smart and creative ways to save time, money and resources. However, we will have to see how long the wait will be for that activity to arise. Since also this week, it was reported that Metaprop disclosed in a regulatory filing last month that it was able to raise only about half of a stated goal of $100 million for a fund to back the next generation of startups. Now, despite this negative funding news, there were several reports this week about various real estate related tech services and websites successfully raising capital to grow. But since this show is getting a bit long, I will save those for next week's Tech Drive. And for the next and last stop on the Tech Drive, I will report about a future tech event, thereby making this also a good lead in into our next power segment about podcast events and webinars. And the tech event I reference is the just announced RealCom slash IBcon 2020 event, which will be on October 28 through 30th, and it will combine onsite and online components. Part of the event will be held at the Marriott Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora, Colorado, just outside Denver. This newly built world class resort will provide a state of the art environment for a safe and productive event. In addition to the onsite event, RealCom IBcon will be introducing an engaging and highly interactive virtual conference component. Now RealCom, led by Jim Young, is a leader in this space that we expect they will create what will be a valuable event, whether it's either online or in person. Find out more and register at RealCom.com. And now let's fully dive into our power segment, where I tell you about podcasts, webinars, events and recordings for the industry. Get it power? And I will start by telling you about the eye-catching new video we recently posted on the homepage of RENTTV.com for CBRE and Trauma Crow, titled the Center at Needham Ranch, Ready for Occupancy. This great video shows off the new project stunning architecture with soaring ceilings, modern offices and exceptional loading and so close to L.A. The property is being marketed for Trauma Crow by Craig Peters at CBRE. Now to learn more about having RENTTV broadcast and highlight and market videos you produce, send me an email at Sbloom at RENTV.com. Now as for real estate podcasts I'm a fan of, I'll mention a couple that I haven't told you about yet in these episodes. And one is called Teague Talks, where Hunter Hotel advisors CEO Teague Hunter, T-E-A-G-U-E, Teague Hunter, based out of Atlanta, conducted very interesting and formative conversations with various leaders in the hotel sector. And in his latest episode, he talked with Puneet Shah, CEO of Liberty Group, who is also a minority owner of the Miami Marlins baseball team. So tune in to find out how Mr. Shah raised his first fund and became a minority owner of the Marlins. Go to HunterHotels.net and find Teague Talks to tune into these. Another series of podcasts I've become a fan of and started tuning into is by DLC Management Company, a retail investment and management company out of Elmsford, New York, that has a series of podcasts called Retail Retold, where they talk mainly with the real estate decision making makers of major retail tenants to tell the story of how that store ended up in your neighborhood. And they explore the ins and outs of retail deal making. They've done like 40 of these podcasts and they are very good. The latest is with Bill Papides, president of Mattress Warehouse, along with Tracy Jones, their VP of marketing. The next podcast I'll tell you about that I recommend you watch this week was the latest installment of Walker and Dunlops CEO Willie Walker's Walker Wednesday discussion, which last week was with a high powered group comprised of Doug Bibby from NMHC National Multifamily Housing Council, Bob Brexmit with the NBA Mortgage Brokers Association, and Jeff DeBeer with the Real Estate Roundtable. And in that podcast, they discuss the next one trillion dollar stimulus bill being crafted on Capitol Hill, still being crafted and its impact on the multifamily mortgage and commercial real estate industries. Catch these podcasts from Willie Walker at the Walker Dunlop website. Now let's shift to upcoming events, which are pretty much all online now, starting tomorrow, August 11th through August 20th will be the Marcus and Milichap Multifamily Forum for Southern California that they produce with Green Pearl in a reimagined all digital online conference format spanning 10 days. So what's interesting about this conference, 10 days from August 11th through August 20th, so they've organized it in brief, easy to consume portions each day to minimize disruption to your work and personal life. You could join live to interact daily with the speakers through the Q&A feature or view the recordings at your own time. Either way, don't miss the group networking discussions that allow you to connect with your peers directly and forge new connections and reestablish existing relationships. Find out more and register at the Marcus and Milichap website. I think it's 229 or 299 to join in. Now the next online event to inform you of is the IMN Distressed Hotel Virtual Forum taking place on September 15th. This full fledged virtual event will be complete with multiple panel sessions, exhibits, networking, chatting, meeting rooms. Interest has been strong given the timely nature of this topic. Their recent webcast featured over 1,200 registrants. So there are a limited number of complimentary registrations available for the event. So go to imn.org slash real estate to find out more. And to update you on events that were planned to be in person, but now given the continued issues with the virus, it looks like they're all going to be viral as well, virtual as well. And hopefully they'll go viral, starting with globe streets or real shares, net least conference was what which was going to take place at the Marriott marquee in Times Square. And what Obama is that now they just announced that it's just online and their marketing material now says the virtual conference will continue to capture face to face interactions and superior networking as well as executive level discussions with the very best in the net least space. I will feature live keynote presentations and interactive panel discussions. There'll be dedicated video networking with sponsors and deal makers, access to a library of content. So with the current CRA landscape, Globe Street says that nobody is offering a way to connect, kind of connect like this year's Globe Street net least conference. The cost is only $99. Find out more at GlobeStreet.com. Also making the decision in the past week to cancel the in person event and go only digital is Crittenden, whose real estate finance conference is scheduled for September 16th through 18th, titled moving into 2021, the new normal that was scheduled to be at the Mandarin Oriental Miami. But now that's not happening either. Instead, attendees will have access to panel presentations and utilize opportunities to network online from the comfort of their home and office. Since they just made this decision to go totally virtual, the website now says stay tuned for further updates as they work on transferring that event. And lastly, still holding out hopes for an in person event this year is Globe Street's 30th annual apartments conference, which is scheduled for October 27th and 28th at its usual spot, the Western Bonaventure in downtown LA. And they hope by then to have their annual gathering with more than a thousand senior level deal makers through a combination of in person and virtual experiences. Now, amidst the global health crisis, Globe Street apartments will present a comprehensive program featuring leading developers, owners, operators, and institutional investors. And to help celebrate 30 years, they're planning on having their inaugural Globe Street Apartments Awards dinner on October 28th, where they gather the nation's top multifamily influencers for an evening of celebration. Stay tuned for news if that still goes on live or has to go virtual as well. And that's it for our show today. We hope you enjoyed it. And we appreciate any feedback on any of the products or services or anything else you heard in the show. Please email me those comments at sbloom at rentv.com. We do plan on reading the better and more interesting ones. Let me again thank our sponsors Capitol River's commercial and Redwood Mortgage for their support. And until our next podcast, this is Steve Blum from RENT TV wishing you your clients and properties, strong profits and prosperity.