Toll Brothers reports first quarter growth nationwide and big gains in California
Luxury homebuilders Toll Brothers reported $132.1 million net income in the first quarter of 2018, up from $70.4 million in the same period the year before. They also reported a 28 percent growth in revenue from the year-ago quarter. The company’s City Living division, which focuses on the New York City metropolitan area, signed 47 new contracts in this quarter compared to 22 over the same period in 2017. In California, Toll Brothers signed 388 deals worth $646 million and reported a 93 percent growth in the value of contracts signed. [TRD]
Co-working now takes up 27M square feet of office space across the US
The co-working craze sweeping the nation now shares some 27 million square feet of office space, according to a report by Yardi. More than a quarter of that space is in Manhattan’s 245 co-working locations. Los Angeles has the second most shared office space with 3.7 million square feet. Miami is third on the list with 1.38 million square feet but the city ranks first on the list in terms the share of overall office stock used by co-workers, as 2.7 percent is coworking space. [TRD]
Beacons could point the way forward in smart building technology
With the ability to map the inside of buildings the way GPS maps the outside world, companies are betting that Bluetooth beacons can show the way forward in smart buildings. WeWork is using beacons to improve the design of its buildings by tracking the movement of people inside, and others are working on in-building mapping programs to help people find elevators or restrooms. With beacons, Chris Kelly, co-founder of the tech-focused office services firm Convene, said, “everything in a building is moving from defense to offense.” [TRD]
Co-working company Industrious raises another $80M
Industrious, a WeWork competitor in the co-working space, raised $80 million in a Series C funding round, led by real estate-focused investors Fifth Wall Ventures, the company announced. The latest investments bring Industrious’s total funding haul to $142 million. Industrious currently has 35 co-working locations in 25 cities, and hopes to expand to 50 or 60 by the end of the year. The company plans to use the latest investment money to strengthen its data gathering and grow its staff by some 75 people. [TRD]
MAJOR MARKET HIGHLIGHTS
New York City to sell air rights at $625 per square foot to fund affordable housing
New York’s City Planning Commission approved a $625 per square foot price for development rights in West Chelsea in an effort to fund affordable housing construction in the area. The final price was higher than the $500 per square foot rate which had been proposed but lower than the $800 per square foot price local community board wanted. An estimated 90,000 square feet of air rights remain available as most space in the neighborhood has already been sold. [TRD]
A $350M rental complex planned for Philadelphia’s Schmidt’s brewery site
Plans to build a 1,200-unit rental apartment in Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties neighborhood will complete the redevelopment of a former Schmidt’s brewery. Developer Bart Blatstein, who has built and sold two other projects at the site, is proposing a $350 million mixed-use development on the remaining 4.4-acres, which have been vacant since Blatstein began acquiring the properties in the early 2000s, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The developer plans to break ground as early as March 2019 and expects the project to take five years to complete. [Inquirer]
David Beckham’s Miami soccer stadium still faces roadblocks
David Beckham’s long-awaited Miami Major League Soccer team was launched this year, but the organization still has a way to go to build its proposed 25,000-seat stadium in Overtown. Wealthy activist and landowner Bruce Matheson alleges Miami-Dade County gave Beckham’s group “a secret discount from the taxpayers” with a no-bid, $9 million deal for three acres of county-owned land. In addition to a lawsuit brought by Matheson, the team’s ownership group, which includes Marcelo Claure, Jorge and Jose Mas, and Simon Fuller, needs to secure land-use changes, rezonings and the contentious permanent closure of Northwest Seventh Street, the Miami Herald reported. [TRD]
Google solicits prefab construction proposals for 10,000 Mountain View residential units
As Mountain View plans for a major building spree to house thousands of Silicon Valley tech workers, Google is exploring prefab construction techniques. In December, the city approved a long-term plan, which was backed by Google and other companies, that included the potential construction of 10,000 new housing units. Now Google is talking to eight firms about modular or prefab construction and has met with Katerra, a tech startup that manages construction projects, according to The Information. Google said that it had no concrete plans yet. [TRD]
The Seattle area has the hottest housing market in the nation
Single-family home prices grew 12.7 percent in the Seattle metropolitan area in December, capping a 16-month run as the nation’s fastest growing housing market, according to the monthly Case-Shiller home price index. Seattle’s hot streak is the longest since San Francisco’s housing scene exploded during the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s. Washington also leads all states in home price increases, as it has since 2016, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. [Seattle Times]