Amazon takes brick-and-mortar retail head-on with instant pickup, By Julie Littman, Bisnow
“Amazon unveiled a new feature this week allowing customers to pick up items within a few minutes of placing an order. The service launched Tuesday at five fully staffed locations near five college campuses in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Berkeley, College Park, Maryland, and Columbus, Ohio.”
Steady fundamentals suggest retail poised to end the year strong, By Chuck Sudo, Bisnow
“Retail, despite thousands of store closings and hundreds of bankruptcies filed this year, is not in the dire straits that dominate headlines. In fact, while retail may be bifurcated, it is also thriving in spots.”
Solid us employment, retail sales growth bode well for continued “slower but steady’ economic expansion, By Randyl Drummer, CoStar
“Tuesday’s Commerce Department report of a major boost in U.S. retail sales in July, combined with a stronger-than-expected jobs report earlier this month, suggests that the U.S. economy continued its slow but steady expansion in the third quarter.”
A close look at urban core apartment market performances, By Greg Willett, NREIOnline.com
“The U.S. apartment completion volume across the country’s 100 largest metros has accelerated to more than 80,000 units per quarter in 2017, up from around 60,000 units a quarter in the previous couple years. That aggressive new supply tally is creating a more competitive leasing environment for top-of-the-market product, especially in urban core settings where so many communities are coming on the market within blocks of each other.”
Have millennials forced corporations to leave suburban offices? By Karina Estrella, Urban Land Institute
“Millennials are thought to be the driving force behind this migration as companies continue to find top talent in larger, urban environments. Businesses want to either hire or sell to millennials, which is why more firms are beginning to relocate from secluded, traditional suburban office parks to more modern office space in cities where millennials prefer to live.”
The ‘space’ age of retail – integrating technology into today’s shopping center, By Katie Sloan, REBusiness Online
“It was not so long ago that the actual merchandise was the focal point of most malls and shopping centers throughout the country. Technology, social media and the rise of a new generation has changed that focus. Or, at least, altered that focus, blurring the lines between products and services, retail and entertainment and ecommerce and bricks and mortar.”