Editors’ Weekly News Roundup September 2 – September 6
Two Washingtons—the state and the District of Columbia—were the points of origin for three of the five most read Connect CRE stories for the week ending Sept. 7. Coming out of Seattle was the week’s top story, a breaking news report on a take-private bid.
The bid was a $3.8-billion offer for Nordstrom, Inc., and the bidders were led by the descendants of company founder John Nordstrom. As reported in Nordstrom Family Leads Bid to Take Company Private, the group also includes Mexican department store chain El Puerto de Liverpool. The Nordstrom family has attempted to privatize the upscale department store chain before, and it remains to be seen whether they’ll have any more luck this time than they did in 2018, when the company’s board rejected the bid.
Moving from Washington State to Washington, DC, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued a timetable for enactment of the new requirements on loans for multifamily properties. GSEs Will Implement New Multifamily Lease Standards in February 2025was the week’s second most read story; readers learned that henceforth, newly originated enterprise-backed loans will come with timetables for rent increases, lease expirations and grace periods on late payments.
A pair of regional stories that also drew national readership ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the past week’s top five. Insurer Allstate has made headlines more than once in recent years over its office space, including the October 2021 announcement that it would sell its Northbrook, IL headquarters campus to industrial developer Dermody Properties. A few months later, it acquired a building in downtown Chicago for possible headquarters use, and now the company has sold it.
As the headline Allstate Sells Chicago Office Building at Steep Discountsuggested, the insurer’s sale of the10-story building at 29 N. Wacker Dr. reflected a gap between office pricing in early 2022 and today. Allstate paid nearly $30 million for the property 32 months ago and sold it for slightly more than one-third that amount.
The price tag in the week’s fourth most read story was more, well, Texas-sized. DFW Airport Begins $9B Renovation described a capital improvement plan that’s expected to take six years and will entail more than 180 projects. It’s intended to accommodate continuing growth in passenger volume at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, projected at 90 million for calendar 2024.
Following a drop-off in 2023, commercial mortgage volume is expected to rise this year and next. However, Connect CRE readers learned in MBA Trims Projections on CRE Mortgage Volume Increases for 2024, 2025 that the gains will be smaller than the Mortgage Bankers Association projected this past January.
That being said, current MBA figures still call for CRE mortgage volume to total $1.2 trillion over the next two years. “The recent moderation in interest rates, coupled with the large volume of loans maturing in coming quarters, should prompt an uptick in mortgage borrowing from the low levels we’ve seen over the last two years,” said Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s head of commercial real estate research. The story was the fifth most read last week.