WeWork And Ivanhoé’s $3B Property Buying Spree Is On Hold

As it went into the summer, WeWork had a big war chest of equity to spend on buying buildings it occupied. But as with much of its business, that strategy is now on hold. WeWork said in May that it was raising just shy of $750M of equity from investors for its own property fund, and announced it was setting up a joint venture with Canadian pension fund Ivanhoé Cambridge to invest up to $2.9B of equity in real estate assets. Ivanhoé was to provide $1B to the venture, called Ark, which would be ma…

WeWork dials 911 — layoffs in New York City, that is

Layoffs at WeWork will total more than 900 in New York City, according to a filing by the company this week. The co-working giant announced last month it would lay off about 2,400 employees across the company. The filing to New York state, which was required because of the high number of positions to be cut, specified that 911 New York employees will be affected — all in Manhattan except for seven in Queens. WeWork declined to comment. According to the filing, which was reported Wednesday by Qua…

Cities are innovating to build trust around their smart city data

Trust. This was a common answer at the recent Smart Cities Week in Washington, DC to the question, “what is your biggest challenge in implementing smart city projects?” It was the answer given by multiple municipal representatives at different times and in different sessions. Not project planning. Not capital expenses. Not vendor selection or approval processes. Trust. Trust by residents that there is accountability in the planning process. Trust that data will be handled securely. Trust that th…

Hemlane Raises $2.5M in Seed Funding

Hemlane, a San Francisco, CA-based modern property management solution that combines technology with local agents, closed a $2.5m seed financing round.  The round was led by Prudence Holdings, with participation from Aglaé Ventures, Stanford-StartX Fund and several technology entrepreneurs including Thumbtack Founder Marco Zappacosta and Vouch Insurance Founder Sam Hodges. The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach. Founded by Dana Dunford and Fr…

Developers Keep Building Offices, But Workers Are Using Fewer Of Them Than Ever

Developers are building more office buildings today than at any point in the last decade, but the changing nature of the work could threaten long-held beliefs about the way the office market will behave as we enter the next decade. The office construction pipeline in the U.S. at the end of the third quarter was 118.5M SF, the highest point it has reached in this economic cycle, according to JLL. All the while, the number of U.S. workers who actually report to an office — and the average space th…

Inside the Top Apartment Trends of 2020

Forcing The Conversation: Why This Expert Says CRE Needs To Keep A Sharper Eye On The Future

As the pace of transformation throughout the economy accelerates, real estate professionals can’t escape kaleidoscopic changes. Geoffrey Kasselman, the newly hired partner and senior vice president, workplace strategy, at CRG, the real estate development arm of Clayco, said it is time to prepare for the coming earthquakes, even if they are difficult to predict. “I’m not an alarmist, but everything is being remade on a global scale by a number of disruptive technologies that are robust and conver…

Conductor execs buy their company back from WeWork

It’s been less than two years since WeWork announced the acquisition of SEO and content marketing company Conductor — but those two years have been bumpy, to say the least. Briefly: Parent organization The We Company’s disastrous attempt to go public resulted in the ouster of CEO Adam Neumann, an indefinite delay of its IPO and reports that the company was weighing the sale of subsidiaries Meetup, Managed by Q and Conductor. So it’s no surprise that Conductor is, in fact, being sold — not to ano…

Second Century Ventures Announces First REACH Australia Class

Second Century Ventures, the strategic investment arm of the National Association of REALTORS®, has announced its inaugural REACH Australia cohort. REACH is a technology growth accelerator program designed to launch and propel companies into the real estate industry. Second Century Ventures announced the global expansion of its award-winning REACH accelerator in July of 2019 to further support the international real estate sector. REACH Australia is the first region opened outside of the United …

Zippin Raises $12M in Series A Financing

Zippin, a San Francisco, CA-based startup enabling cashierless checkout for brick and mortar retail, closed a $12m in Series A funding. The round, which brought total funding to $15m, was led by Evolv Ventures, with participation from SAP.iO, Scrum Ventures, major Latin American distributor Arca Continental, and Nomura Research Institute and NTT DOCOMO Ventures from Japan and existing investors Maven Ventures, Core Ventures Group, Pear Ventures and Montage Ventures. The company intends to use th…