1. Thailand: Hotel Operator Plans European Expansion
Thailand-based hotel operator Minor International is looking to ramp up what’s been a steady expansion in European countries over the past decade as it seeks to capitalize on improving travel demand.
Yuan Fang, senior vice president of development for Europe and the Americas, told Hotel News Now during an investment conference that the company will be establishing its presence in countries not already served by its 540 hotels operating under brands including Anantara and Tivoli. Goals include expanding its NH Collection brand in regions such as Helsinki and Paris, Fang said in a video interview.
2. UK: Meta Sheds Space in London’s West End
Facebook parent Meta is close to completing its planned disposal of much of the regional headquarters space that it recently vacated in London’s West End as part of a global pullback in its office footprint.
The company confirmed earlier this year that it was vacating more than 270,000 square feet leased at London’s Rathbone Square office property, owned buy German investment firm Deka, after previously paying owner British Land £149 million to break another lease at Triton Square for a building it never occupied. Sources said brokers are in talks to have the Rathbone Square space filled by potential tenants including cloud-based software provider Monday.com.
3. France: The Changing Face of Paris Office Real Estate
Shifts in demand created by the pandemic have spurred an overhaul of office deployment strategies as companies pull back on their space in greater Paris, according to a study by Cushman & Wakefield.
The brokerage reports a general slowdown in real estate activity by companies in the region over the 2021-2023 period compared to the pre-COVID period of 2017-2019, both in terms of volume and number of transactions. “When there is movement, it tends to be downward,” reflecting a slowdown in transactions and a reduction in space that has accelerated since the health crisis, said Olivier Taupin, who heads office and industrial transactions at Cushman & Wakefield in France.
4. Germany: Office Values Drop More Slowly
Office property values in Germany’s five largest cities declined in this year’s first quarter, but at a slower rate than in prior quarters as overall office investment remained subdued, according to brokerage JLL.
The brokerage’s “Victor Prime Office” index fell by just 0.7% in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter of 2023, after drops of 2.7% and 7.8% in the previous two quarters. In Munich, there was even a slight upward trend in office values as the first-quarter index rose 1.4% over the prior quarter, due to some high-priced sales.
5. Canada: Wildfires Threaten Lives and Real Estate
Widespread forest fires in Western Canada have been wreaking havoc in areas in the north of Alberta and British Columbia, threatening lives, businesses, nature and real estate with destruction and other costs that authorities have yet to estimate.
More than 100 firefighters and 14 helicopters were sent to fight the conflagration near Fort McMurray, Alberta, that forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 residents in southern sections of the city, roughly 10% of the entire city's population. Fort McMurray, where a 2016 fire caused $4 billion in insured damage, is an important hub in Canada’s energy industry and some of its notable properties include offices of Tervita Corp. and a Peterbilt industrial structure.
6. US: Retailers Rethink Expansion Amid Scarce Financing
The era of relatively easy financing in the years leading up to the pandemic is officially over, pushing some brands that had relied on venture capital to reconsider plans for brick-and-mortar expansions, according to retail professionals at the ICSC trade group conference in Las Vegas.
The combination of higher interest rates, a wobbly economy and a record pullback in venture-based funding has hit the retail industry with a powerful punch, forcing companies to abandon the growth-first strategy. That approach helped buoy retail landlords’ tenant rosters leading into and through the early years of the pandemic, but the pipeline of potential tenants is showing signs of drying up.
This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.