In the News—Week of June 28 2021

 In The Title Trove

Around the Nation

Former Sears stores go on market to generate cash  

As many as 50 former Sears stores are going on the block as a real estate investment trust that emerged from the Sears bankruptcy attempts to generate cash, Bloomberg reports. Seritage Growth Properties wants to unload properties it is less interested in developing, CEO Andrea Olshan says. Seritage is facing some time pressure. The enterprise is valued at around $800 million and has a $1.6 billion loan from Berkshire Hathaway that comes due in 2023. Seritage owns 154 former Sears sites and has a stake in another 25. 

Energy & Environment

Homebuilders in Maine brace for more energy-efficient codes 

Contractors in Maine face a building challenge because building codes are changing in July, the Bangor Daily News reports. The Legislature is trying to make buildings more energy efficient. Walls in homes will be required to have better thermal barriers and structures will have to be tighter. “The benefits to what we’re proposing with these energy codes is they give us better heating performance in the winter and better cooling performance in the summer, thus saving you year-round,” Maine’s state building official, Paul Demers, says.

Texas

Texas pink granite has lost its luster with office-building designers

Pink granite from Texas was once all the rage for office buildings in Houston. But alas, like the mullet hairstyle of the same era, its day seems to be done. Building owners and designers want nothing to do with it, the Houston Chronicle reports. There is more than enough of it now, and it so 1980s, which happens to be when many Houston office buildings were built. Many edifices from that period are getting an update. Glass is back in a big way. For some of us, it is sad. Anyone know a good fern bar where one can get a good wine cooler to chase the it’s-not-the-1980s-anymore blues away? 

FDIC signs office lease for 163,000 square feet in Dallas

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. — yeah, the folks who insure your deposit at the bank — signed one of the largest leases for office space in downtown Dallas in the past decade, The Dallas Morning News reports. The FDIC has leased a 163,005-square-foot office in the Plaza of the Americas. “This commitment is fantastic news for downtown Dallas and is indicative of the district’s overall attractiveness,” says Kim Brooks of commercial property firm Transwestern, which represented FDIC in the transaction.

Arizona

Phoenix ranks 11th for net lease volume in the first quarter

Investment in net-lease properties showed signs of a strong recovery in the first quarter. AZ Big Media reports that nationally activity was close to pre-pandemic levels, shrinking just 2.6% from the same quarter a year earlier. In net-lease properties the tenant pays building operating expenses as well as the base rent. Figures from CBRE show Phoenix ranked 11th for net-lease investment volume in the first quarter. The market ranked fourth in the net-lease retail space. “Given that Phoenix leads the nation in housing and population growth, we continue to see record buyer demand for our net-leased properties,” CBRE Senior Vice President Geoff Turbow says. 

Mexico

FIBRA Uno celebrates 10 years on the Mexican Stocks exchange 

Fibra Uno celebrated 10 years of being listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange last month and growing from a portfolio of 13 properties, PR newswire reports.  Fibra Uno was the first Fibra listed on the exchange. “We have done many things in 10 years, but the truth is that I am very pleased with what we do for Mexico; I love it. I wanted to go faster to help Mexico continue to grow,’’ the real estate investment trust’s CEO, Andre El-Mann Arazi, says.

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