NATIONAL NEWS
- GNC to close 900 stores. The nutrition retailer has about 4,100 locations in the United States. The latest closure will remove almost half of its mall locations. Q2 sales decreased by 4.6% from $617m in 2018 to $534m.
- Would you buy a house on Amazon? Considering you can buy just about everything else, why not? Residential brokerage, Realogy Holdings struck a deal with Amazon to list its brokers on the e-commerce sites. If users purchase a home through the new service called TurnKey, they’ll be rewarded with benefits including Echo devices, Ring doorbells, and home maintenance assistance through Amazon Home Services.
- WeWork IPO is coming. The We Company (parent company of WeWork) has filed for IPO paperwork and is expected to launch in September. WeWork has a current valuation of $47b after a $6b equity investment from SoftBank. Investors are skeptical as WeWork has lost billions in recent years.
- Pool Party! Swimply.com is the Airbnb of swimming pools. Hosts set their rate, and Swimply takes a 15% fee. Some hosts are making up to $10k a month. While the idea sounds awesome, Swimply has a lot of hurdles to overcome, from insurance to licensing and regulations.
MULTIFAMILY NEWS
- The multifamily market shows little signs of slowing down in Tampa. The region, in total, posted “$1.7 billion in multifamily sales in the first half of 2019. That’s up $400 million, or 30%, over the previous high of $1.3 billion in the first six months of 2016.“
- GenZ is about to disrupt the multifamily space. Reports show that by 2020, Gen Z will make up 40% of consumers worldwide and have $143B in buying power in the coming years. Developers are rethinking how to build out space for Genz’ers as their known as “communaholics” according to a report by McKinsey & Co.
- Greystar heads to Portland. Greystar, the largest apartment operator in the United States and one of the largest developers has started construction on its first-ever residential development in Portland, Oregon. The soon-to-be-named project will feature 182 apartments and 8k square feet of retail space.
- Redondo Beach is leading the charge for rent growth in Los Angeles. Rents have increased by almost $200 since the beginning of the year. According to the US Census and occupancy close to 98%, construction development in the area has yet to catch up with demand resulting in rents picking up speed.”
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