Curated daily by our industry experts. Stay informed on how tech is shaping the real estate industry with these important headlines.
Bloomberg
When she first heard that “slow streets” might be coming to Durham, North Carolina, alarm bells went off for Aidil Ortiz. It was late May, and by that point, dozens of other world cities had restricted vehicle access to miles of residential streets. With Covid-19 placing a premium on safe outdoor space, the goal was to encourage socially distant walking, biking and play.
Amazon
Amazon’s new Housing Equity Fund is a more than $2 billion commitment to preserve existing housing and create inclusive housing developments through below-market loans and grants to housing partners, traditional and non-traditional public agencies, and minority-led organizations. The fund will support Amazon’s commitment to affordable housing and will help ensure moderate- to low-income families can afford housing in communities with easy access to neighborhood services, amenities, and jobs….
Business Wire
RealPage, Inc. (NASDAQ: RP), a leading global provider of software and data analytics to the real estate industry, today announced the acquisition of WhiteSky Communications, LLC. WhiteSky provides managed communications services, enabling multifamily, student and other properties to provide managed bulk Internet, video, voice-over-internet protocol (VOIP) phone, and Wi-Fi services. With WhiteSky, residents of these properties regularly pay significantly less for high-speed, secure, community-wi…
Bloomberg
Even after Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on almost everything else, the new year begins with surging growth for renewable energy. “2020 was the year of positive surprises for the environment in a way that very few saw coming,” says Jeff McDermott, head of Nomura Greentech. “It was the breakout year in sustainability and infrastructure.”
Crunchbase
iLobby has received a $100 million strategic investment from Insight Partners to help scale its go-to-market strategy and expand its visitor management offerings. The new investment is the first private raise for the Toronto-based company, which has been growing 100 percent year to year for the last several years and is profitable, said CEO Ariel Mashiyev….
Bloomberg
Fifth Wall, a Los Angeles-based venture firm, is planning to raise capital through a special purpose acquisition company, a sign that the momentum behind a vehicle that became mainstream in 2020 has continued into the new year.
AXIOS
As I wrote to close out 2020, the popularity of hybrid remote/in-person working will give rise to “third workplaces” — places to take calls, attend meetings and write memos that aren’t your home or your office….
The New York Times
This past fall, Henry M. Paulson Jr., the former Treasury secretary, got a call from Paul David Hewson, better known as Bono. The musician-activist-investor had an idea and “an ask”: Bono, who helped found TPG’s $5 billion Rise funds focused on “impact investing,” told Mr. Paulson that the investment firm wanted to create an even bigger platform to focus exclusively on combating climate change — and he wanted Mr. Paulson to run it.
Fast Company
When a new elevated highway was built in New Orleans in the 1960s, like other “urban renewal” projects in the U.S., it ripped through a predominantly Black neighborhood that had been thriving. Hundreds of homes were razed. Hundreds of businesses were lost. On Claiborne Avenue, the central boulevard in the neighborhood, hundreds of oak trees were torn out of a wide median that neighbors had used as a park. A coalition of community members now want to take the aging highway down—and it’s the type …
Wall Street Journal
The company that created the popular videogame “Fortnite” has agreed to purchase a North Carolina mall and plans to redevelop it as a global headquarters, the latest sign that struggling malls are evolving into new kinds of real estate.
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