The Bisnow Weekender: Barkeep, Pour Me A Fine Libation

Thanks for reading the Bisnow Weekender, my personally curated roundup of the most impactful news, notable quotes, binge-worthy show recommendations and other colorful highlights from the Bisnow world of commercial real estate and beyond. 

Maybe you’ve heard, but we host a lot of events.

We host events in the city you operate in. We host events in the city you visit on vacation. We probably even host events in your neighborhood.

We host events on construction, multifamily, life sciences and industrial. We cover the future of the office, capital markets and emerging subsectors like cannabis and electric vehicle infrastructure — and 46 other topics and trends that occupy the minds of real estate professionals.

We do morning events, all-day conferences and multiday retreats. We host digital summits and webinars. 

In 2023 alone, Bisnow hosted 357 events in four countries: the U.S., the UK, Ireland and Canada. We welcomed 85,000 attendees — the biggest developers, lenders, analysts, thought leaders and owner-operators in the multitrillion-dollar world of commercial real estate.

Five thousand speakers graced our stages and screens. We served 10,000 gallons of coffee, more than 34,000 breakfast sandwiches, and we unfolded exactly 73,150 chairs.

Next year will be even bigger. More than 400 events and webinars are on our calendar for 2024. We are expanding into more domestic and international markets, and we are developing new event experiences that are going to help you close more deals, make more money, deepen your business network and, hopefully, expand your mind as you tackle the work that touches virtually every person who walks the Earth.

Next week, we will host our final 14 events of the year — from Tampa to Chicago to Reston, Virginia to New York, Washington, D.C., and everywhere in between.

It takes a lot of work at Bisnow to provide these exceptional experiences — 16 event producers who build the events soup to nuts, 12 coordinators who pour the coffee and manage the on-site experience, five marketing professionals who get the word out, 44 salespeople who work with you and your company to get your message to the masses, and 35 reporters and editors who scour the news that shapes the industry to create meaningful, in-depth content.

My hat is off to them and everything they have accomplished this year. We take seriously the privilege of being the town square of commercial real estate, and we thank you for being a huge part of it. 

I hope to see some of you next week as we go into the final push of 2023.

— Mark F. Bonner, Bisnow Editor-in-Chief

Voices From The CRE Battlefield

“With the advancements of online document-editing technology, it means that really, anybody can do it.”

— Daniel Berlind, CEO of Snappt, a multifamily application verification service, told Bisnow Atlanta Reporter Jarred Schenke. According to a Bisnow investigation, fraudsters on TikTok and Reddit are learning how to obtain fake documents in great numbers to secure leases. They then default on rent and exploit a lengthy eviction process to stick around for months before disappearing.

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“I’ve never seen a market like this.” 

— Lesa Nickelson French, senior managing director for Savills, told Bisnow Houston Reporter Maddy McCarty. Tenants now have the upper hand in Houston’s office market. With a rise in construction costs and delivery of new buildings since 2020, some submarkets and asset classes are seeing record-high offerings of tenant concessions, including lengthy free rent and generous construction allowances. 

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“Cities must at some point make a decision: When they grow up, what will they be? We are all at that point now.”

— Michael Kowski, president and CEO of the McKinney Economic Development Corp., referring to Collin County, Texas, which is becoming one of the fastest-growing regions in the U.S. With older cities running out of room for new development — and once-rural communities bustling with change — Collin County is at a pivotal point in its metamorphosis.

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“This commitment to diversity is not a mere trend; it's a strategic move that enhances performance, fosters a more inclusive and equitable work environment, and positions CRE and related industries for sustained success in the years to come.”

— JBG Smith Executive Vice President Michelle Tierce, speaking of this year’s Bisnow Women Leading Real Estate event in Washington, D.C. Honorees told Bisnow D.C. Reporter Emily Wishingrad that improving representation doesn’t just bolster equity — it bolsters the bottom line. 

The Best Of Bisnow News: Dec. 4-8

How Renters Are Using TikTok, X To Defraud Landlords At Luxury Apartments — Bisnow Atlanta Reporter Jarred Schenke

So, how do you live rent-free in America?

According to a Bisnow investigation, the answer lives on TikTok and Instagram, where fraudsters are learning how to obtain fake documents in great numbers to secure leases. They then default on rent and exploit a lengthy eviction process to stick around for months before disappearing.

Law enforcement is aware, but they have been slow or unwilling to respond to the trend, which has ballooned nationally. Internet-based real estate fraud has grown from $213M in 2020 to nearly $400M in 2022, according to the FBI (which doesn’t investigate these types of crimes).

Ric Campo, CEO of Camden Property Trust, shared his personal ordeal: “Having been personally [affected], where my identity was stolen and trying to rent apartments with our competitors, has been a real eye-opener.”

His experience offers a cautionary tale for landlords and may well serve as a wake-up call for law enforcement and policymakers who have yet to address this burgeoning issue.

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Triple Five Group Says American Dream Occupancy Has Hit 'Critical Mass' After Delays And Losses — Bisnow Dublin Reporter Mark Faithfull

Depending on who you speak to, the 3.5M SF American Dream mall in New Jersey is either a growing toddler starting to find its feet or a problem child — a bold and pioneering model, billed as a one-of-a-kind retail and leisure extravaganza, or a project where the only luck to be had is bad luck.

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'It's Time To Be More Realistic': Data Centers' Nuclear Ambitions Suffer Setback — Bisnow Data Centers Reporter Dan Rabb

A future in which data centers are powered by small nuclear reactors, easing the substantial energy use that plagues the property type, is likely further away than industry leaders had hoped.

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PODCAST: Behind The Numbers Of Bisnow's DEI Data Series — Bisnow New York Reporter Miriam Hall

Joining host Miriam Hall, in her final episode hosting the show, are Bisnow Deputy Managing Editor Ethan Rothstein and Melina Cordero, founder of leadership and diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm P20. They discuss not only the results of the analysis but also the process of gathering the data, the political backlash against DEI programs and the latest on corporate diversity efforts beyond the numbers.

More Big News From The Week …

Expected $15B In Federal Money Is 'Gasoline On The Fire' For Airport Construction

Ghost Kitchens Begin To Fail As ‘Pandemic Buzz’ Wears Off

Ex-Blackstone Real Estate Executive Launches New Investment Fund

Senators Push For LIHTC, Zoning Changes Amid ‘Flicker Of Hope’ For Housing Reform

My Slightly On/Off-Topic Media Diet

Why Americans' 'YOLO' Spending Spree Baffles Economists (BBC): “‘If 18 months ago, you'd have said the Federal Reserve Bank could raise interest rates by 500 basis points, and the consumer would chug on, relatively unfazed, I would have been extremely surprised,’ said Ellie Henderson, an economist at UK-based, global bank Investec. ‘I'd have said, “that's just not how economics works.”’” Well, up is down and down is up — at least when it comes to retail spending in America. Consumers spent another $12.4B on Cyber Monday — a 9.6% increase over last year. This holiday splurge follows a pattern of U.S. consumer spending that has buoyed the American economy in the past year, making up nearly 70% of the real GDP's 4.9% third-quarter growth. 

These Are The World's Most Expensive Cities To Live In Right Now (Bloomberg): “Singapore and Zurich surpassed New York to become the world’s most expensive cities to live in this year, according to a new global survey.” The only U.S. cities to crack the Top 10 were New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The cheapest big city in the world? The Syrian capital of Damascus. And the biggest global movers in the rankings are in Mexico — Santiago de Querétaro and Aguascalientes.

How The Christmas Poinsettia Became A $213M Industry In The U.S. (Axios): “The poinsettia, which blooms for only a couple of weeks in November and December, is one of the best-selling flowers worldwide. It’s especially popular in the U.S, where the market grew to $213.7 million in sales last year, according to the USDA. That's a 40% increase from 2020.”

Paris Is Getting A Whole New Metro Network. And It’s Huge (CNN): “The venerable Paris Métro is about to get its most significant upgrade in decades with the arrival of the Grand Paris Express, a new 200-kilometer (120-mile) system that will add four lines and 68 brand-new stations to the network.” In New York, this would literally take 100 years. Just ask the Q line on New York's Upper East Side, which needed a paltry century and $4.5B to add three stations.

Wikipedia, Wrapped. Here Are 2023’s Most-Viewed Articles On The Internet’s Encyclopedia (AP): “English Wikipedia raked in more than 84 billion views this year, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind the free, publicly edited online encyclopedia. And the most popular article was about ChatGPT (yes, the AI chatbot that’s seemingly everywhere today).” The second most read article? DEATH.

Rizz Named Word Of The Year 2023 By Oxford University Press (BBC): “According to Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary, it is defined as style, charm, or attractiveness, and the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner.” I sure hope you’re not cheugy like me.

Taylor Swift’s Benjamin Button Is Time’s Cover Cat of the Year (WSJ): “‘Time Magazine: We’d like to name you Person of the Yea-,’ Swift wrote on social media. ‘Me: Can I bring my cat.’” You must mean Purrson of the year. 

Bisnow Weekend Interview Preview

This week, Bisnow West Coast Editor Molly Armbrister spoke with Anita Kramer, senior vice president of the Urban Land Institute Center for Real Estate Economics and Capital Markets and co-editor of the ULI Emerging Trends in Real Estate Report.

Kramer has edited the report for 11 years, experiencing the evolution of commercial real estate through the lens of hundreds of conversations with market leaders across the country. The 2024 Emerging Trends report was released Oct. 31 and is jam-packed with insights into how this year’s rocky road for CRE will twist and turn in the new year. Every year, the report ranks the top 10 cities for overall real estate prospects.

Bisnow: As someone who has put together this report 11 years in a row, what changes have you seen in the marketplace? How have outcomes changed?

Anita Kramer: One thing that has truly changed over the last 11 years, and [I] started to notice this in maybe 2013, 2014, 2015, is the recognition of the smaller markets. So there were the primary markets and everything else was secondary, tertiary, and that was all there was to it. Tertiary wasn’t touched that much. Secondary, certain ones were considered to be OK. Over time, we noticed that the primary markets were not staying in the top 10 and that the somewhat smaller markets, relatively smaller markets and growing markets were kind of emerging up into their own.

The Weekend Interview goes live every Friday evening — head to www.bisnow.com over the weekend to check it out!

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

Here are this week’s top jobs over at Bisnow's careers platform, SelectLeaders. Reach out to SelectLeaders Managing Director Ryan Neale to learn more. You can email him at [email protected]. 

Deputy Director - New York City Department of Housing — Assist in overseeing the agency’s financing programs.

Vice President, Asset Management — Play a pivotal role in optimizing the performance and value of a $175M portfolio.

Head of Property Management — Lead property management for a $7B portfolio.

VP of Acquisitions and Asset Management — Lead acquisitions and asset management for a premier Southeast owner-operator.

Upcoming Bisnow Events And Webinars

Tuesday, Dec. 12 (Tampa): Tampa Bay State Of The Office

Tuesday, Dec. 12 (Chicago): Chicago Property Management Summit

Tuesday, Dec. 12 (San Antonio): San Antonio Multifamily Conference

Tuesday, Dec. 12 (Phoenix): Phoenix Office & Mixed-Use Summit

Tuesday, Dec. 12 (Denver): Denver SFR And Master-Planned Communities Summit

Tuesday, Dec. 12 (Los Angeles): Future Of Tri-Cities And San Fernando Valley

Tuesday, Dec. 12 (New York): New York Women Leading Real Estate

Wednesday, Dec. 13 (Reston, Virginia): National DICE Data Center Management

Wednesday, Dec. 13 (Richmond, Virginia): Richmond 2024 Development Conference

Wednesday, Dec. 13 (Webinar): Cannabis Real Estate Deep Dive

Thursday, Dec. 14 (Philadelphia): Philadelphia 2024 Forecast

Thursday, Dec. 14 (New York): Tri-State Cannabis & Real Estate Conference

Thursday, Dec. 14 (Sacramento): Sacramento Multifamily & Affordability Conference

Thursday, Dec. 14 (Washington, D.C.): DMV Women Leading Real Estate

Hey, John, What Are You Going To Binge This Weekend?

I'm taking a Capsule Corp. ship back to my teen years and bingeing some Dragon Ball Z. Anyone who grew up in the prime of the Toonami era knows exactly how epic those battles were in the Frieza and Cell sagas. Here’s a great quote from one of my favorite characters, Goku: “I am the hope of the universe. I am the answer to all living things that cry out for peace. I am protector of the innocent. I am the light in the darkness. I am truth. Ally to good! Nightmare to you!”

On another note, I may have to start rewatching Boardwalk Empire. You can never have enough top-notch Prohibition-era shows on deck. Barkeep, pour me a fine libation — in a highball glass, if you will.

 — John Knowles, Bisnow Studio B Writer

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How did I do? You can send all love letters and dissents directly to me at [email protected].