SEATTLE — Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced financial results for its third quarter ending Sept. 30, posting sales of $96.1 billion, an increase of 37 percent compared with third-quarter 2019. The sales numbers exceeded even the Seattle-based e-commerce giant’s optimistic prediction of $87 billion to $93 billion in sales. Operating income nearly doubled, rising from $3.2 billion to $6.2 billion between the second and third quarter. As the COVID-19 pandemic has raged on, Amazon has reaped benefits as consumers switch from in-person to online shopping. However, that comes with a variety of increased costs as well. In the company’s guidance for the fourth quarter of 2020, it expects to incur $4 billion in COVID-related costs, such as personal protective equipment, enhanced cleaning and increased wages. As a result of the increased costs, Amazon stock actually dropped following the news, falling from $3,248.86 per share at 2:30 p.m. Thursday to $3,094.10 at 9:45 a.m. Friday. On a long-term basis, though, this is a modest fall. The stock price closed at $1,779.99 on Oct. 30, 2019.
SEATTLE — Starbucks Coffee (NASDAQ: SBUX) reports that global comparable-store sales fell 9 percent in the fiscal fourth quarter on a year-over-year basis, but the company’s performance still beat economists’ expectations. Total revenue for the Seattle-based coffee chain reached $6.2 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Sept. 27. Economists had expected the total to be $6.06 billion. “I am very pleased with our strong finish to fiscal 2020, underpinned by a faster-than-expected recovery in our two lead growth markets, the U.S. and China,” says Kevin Johnson, president and CEO of Starbucks. “These results demonstrate the continued strength and relevance of our brand, the effectiveness of the actions we’ve taken to adapt to meaningful changes in consumer behavior and the extraordinary efforts of our green apron partners to serve our customers and communities in challenging circumstances.” The latest results are a big improvement from the fiscal third quarter, when global comparable sales plummeted 40 percent year-over-year due to the coronavirus shutdowns. Looking ahead, Starbucks expects same-store comparable growth of 18 to 23 percent and plans to open 2,150 new stores over the next fiscal year. As of Sept. 27, 2020, Starbucks operated 10,109 stores in the Americas. Starbucks’ stock …
BELLEVUE, WASH. — A real estate investment fund backed by Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (NYSE: BAM) has purchased Block 16, a 343,528-square-foot office building in Bellevue fully leased to Facebook. A joint venture between Wright Runstad & Co., Shorenstein Properties and institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management sold the recently completed property for $365 million. Block 16 is part of The Spring District, a transit-oriented mixed-use development situated on the east side of Lake Washington from Seattle. Wright Runstad and Shorenstein Properties are the master developers of the campus, which sits south of Bellevue’s central business district near SoundTransit’s future Spring District/120th light rail station. Spring District will ultimately feature 3 million square feet of creative office space, including REI’s headquarters that Facebook purchased last month for $390 million. “The Spring District has become a choice location for high-quality office tenants in Bellevue,” says Greg Johnson, CEO of Seattle-based Wright Runstad. In 2017, University of Washington’s Global Innovation Exchange building opened at Spring District, as well as over 800 residential units and several open spaces accessible to the public. Wright Runstad plans to develop another 530,000 square feet of office space across two buildings at Spring District by …
CANTON, MASS. — Shares of Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DNKN) rose by more than 15 percent yesterday as the Massachusetts-based coffee and breakfast chain moved forward with talks to be acquired by Atlanta-based Inspire Brands, the parent company of chains like Arby’s and Jimmy John’s. The New York Post reports that the deal, which would take Dunkin’ private is valued at $8.8 billion. Dunkin’s stock price closed at $89.80 per share on Friday, October 23 and peaked at $104.87 per share in yesterday’s trading before closing just below that mark. Dunkin’ opened at $101.69 per share today, up nearly 30 percent from a year ago. The New York Times reports that Inspire Brands has offered to purchase Dunkin’, which will release its latest earnings report on Thursday, at $106.50 per share.
NEW YORK CITY — The Howard Hughes Corp. (NYSE: HHC) has unveiled plans for a $1.4 billion multifamily project in Manhattan’s Seaport District. The proposal calls for the transformation of a full-block surface parking lot along the boundary of the South Street Seaport Historic District into a mixed-income development that would include some of the area’s first new affordable housing in decades. The development would ultimately feature 360 apartments, about 25 percent of which would be affordable, as well as 260 condominium units. In terms of the multifamily component, the centerpiece is 250 Water Street, where Dallas-based HHC plans to develop at least 100 affordable apartments that would be reserved for households earning 40 percent or less of the area median income. Only 2.5 percent of all housing in the Seaport District qualifies as affordable, and the median household income is more than $150,000. The project would also rehabilitate the historic South Street Seaport Museum, which has faced numerous obstacles over the past two decades, including a two-year closure following 9/11, flooding from Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and an existential threat to attendance from COVID-19. In addition, HHC would develop a new museum building on an adjacent vacant lot. The …
SAN FRANCISCO — Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS), a longtime apparel tenant in enclosed regional malls nationwide, has announced plans to close 350 stores under its Banana Republic and Gap banners in an effort to transition focus to e-commerce and off-mall retail locations. Store closures are scheduled for completion by fiscal year 2023, which ends Feb. 1, 2024, with 75 percent scheduled to close in 2021. By that time, the company expects 80 percent of its revenue to come from e-commerce and off-mall locations, including street-front retail stores and shops in strip and outlet centers. Gap is the latest mall staple to shutter locations amid struggles due to the COVID-19 pandemic, following Ascena Retail Group — the parent company of Ann Taylor, Justice, Loft, Lane Bryant, Catherines and Lou & Grey — Bed Bath & Beyond, J.C. Penney and GNC. Gap’s comparable sales were up 13 percent at the end of the second quarter, due in large part to an expanded focus on e-commerce and to the success of the company’s activewear brand, Athleta, which saw a 6 percent increase in sales during the quarter. The company also began producing and selling face masks at the start of the pandemic, sales …
By Ora Reynolds and Mike Bell, Hunt Midwest Kansas City industrial real estate is trending upward with no shortage of leasing activity. The city’s location in the heart of America, with 30 percent more interstate miles per capita running through it than any other city, offers efficiency and redundancy for global e-commerce and distribution operations. With over 270 million square feet of existing industrial space in both surface and underground business parks, ample land for new buildings, a skilled logistics workforce and robust power and fiber infrastructure, Kansas City is one of the preferred geographic locations for distribution centers and is poised for continued growth based on these strong fundamentals. The nation’s transition to online purchasing at an unprecedented pace has created ripples of change. The increase in e-commerce is driving demand for more distribution space at a rate of 1.25 million square feet for each $1 billion increase in online sales, and this demand puts an increasing pressure on the supply chain for resiliency. Americans are purchasing everything online, from food and essential supplies to clothing and gifts. In the second quarter of 2020, Americans increased their online purchasing by $211.5 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. …
Over the course of the past six months, the student housing industry has grappled with a variety of challenges. For colleges and universities, the largest hurdle heading into the fall semester was deciding the safest route to take for reopening campus. This included decisions on everything from whether or not in-person learning would be allowed, to whether students would be welcomed back into residence halls at normal volumes. These questions was deliberated over throughout the summer, sending a ripple effect through the industry as transactional volume slowed while investors waited to see how universities would proceed. As we move toward the close of October, universities have selected their path forward, and while these choices haven’t been set in stone due to the changing nature of the coronavirus, the industry is now able to get a better view of the pandemic’s impact on the fall semester and the outlook moving forward. Leaders in market analytics and multifamily research sat down for an early afternoon panel yesterday at the NMHC/InterFace Student Housing Conference to provide a comprehensive update on the economy at large with a focus on the student housing sector. Economic Update “COVID-19 ended almost an 11-year expansion period for the …
SAN FRANCISCO — Chicago-based REIT Ventas Inc. (NYSE: VTR), through its Life Sciences and Healthcare Real Estate Fund, has acquired an 800,000-square-foot life sciences campus in San Francisco for roughly $1 billion. The San Francisco Business Journal reports that the property is the Genesis South office and life sciences hub, which consists of two office and lab buildings totaling roughly 720,000 square feet, as well as a 72,000-square-foot building. The Class A campus is located on the city’s south side and consists of three newly built or renovated buildings. The campus was 96 percent leased at the time of sale with a weighted average lease term of more than six years. The property is purpose-built for advanced research functions and is predominantly features lab space supporting biotechnology and other life sciences research. Nearly half of the tenant roster consists of publicly traded companies with market capitalizations of $10 billion or higher that are backed by venture capital or private equity firms. The price represents a capitalization rate of approximately 5 percent. The seller was a partnership between Boston-based Bain Capital and San Diego-based Phase 3, according to IPE Real Assets, which provides global intelligence for institutional real estate investment. In …
For years, “just in time” has been the key to driving efficiency of retailers and manufacturers alike. This model by and large combined low-cost production in Asian markets supported by speedy air carrier distribution to move goods while holding minimal cushion for backup stock. Post-pandemic thinking could bring that epoch to an end. The crisis has underscored our distribution networks’ fragility, which are now vulnerable to closed facilities, ports and borders. Many businesses are planning major restructuring of their supply chain processes due to the disruptions that we all have endured in recent months. The new model based on quick recovery will likely be driven by resiliency that ensures adequate merchandise availability in the event of threats to a business’ supply chain stability. This will require more warehouse and distribution space to store goods for deliveries in last-mile markets. The noticeable effects continue to grow as more last-mile oriented warehouse space is leased closer to the end-user. Industrial users see the impact of the pandemic as a short-term challenge that is altering the long-term growth strategy of their corporate planning. By way of example, Publix’s Southeast store sales climbed 21.8 percent for the second quarter of this year. Grocery now …