LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has rolled out Phase I plans for reopening the state. Hutchinson says gyms and fitness centers will be able to open Monday, May 4, while restaurants will be allowed to operate dine-in services at one-third capacity Monday, May 11. The guidelines for gyms and fitness centers include the use of facemasks for staff and patrons except when exercising, daily temperature checks for employees and patrons and social distancing of at least 12 feet while exercising. Additionally, Hutchinson placed restrictions on patrons who can enter, including but not limited to those who have returned from travel to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Orleans or overseas within the past 14 days; have had a fever of 100.4°F or greater in the past two days; or had contact with a person known to be infected with COVID-19 within the previous 14 days. The guidelines for restaurants require daily health screening of staff, use of facemasks and gloves and strict social distancing. The governor requires that tables be 10 feet apart; employees interacting with patrons must wear a facemask covering the nose and mouth; kitchen staff are encouraged to wear a mask; employees must wear …
ROCKVILLE, MD. — Federal Realty Investment Trust will implement a new program dubbed The Pick-Up at its properties beginning Friday, May 15. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the Rockville-based company said the program will offer a singular service across its tenants to limit physical contact. Federal Realty will introduce the new service where permitted by local jurisdictions. When a customer places an order with a retailer or restaurant within a Federal Realty-owned property by phone or online, the customer can designate a pick-up time and will be assigned a designated parking space. Employees will then bring the order to the customer’s car. Federal Realty owns properties including Bethesda Row and Pike & Rose in Maryland, Santana Row in Northern California, and other properties in Florida, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois.
INDIANAPOLIS — Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG) has released plans for reopening several of its malls in the first half of May. The openings are based on current state and/or local stay-at-home orders put in place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously scheduled to open today, some properties in Georgia and Indiana have been delayed to a May 4 opening. View the reopening schedule here. Indianapolis-based Simon says its protocols have been reviewed and approved by experts in epidemiology and environmental health and safety. The protocols are in effort to help prevent further spread of COVID-19. Simon employees, contractors and vendors will be required to screen themselves at home prior coming to work. Anyone with a temperature exceeding 100.4 degrees or who exhibits flu-like symptoms will be required to stay home. Employees will be trained in COVID-19 safety guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They will wear protective face masks while on property and be instructed to maintain six feet of distance from coworkers or shoppers. Simon will ensure that property occupancies do not exceed a targeted level of one person per 50 square feet. Food court seating, as well as common area seating, will …
BLUE ISLAND, ILL. — Clark Construction Group, in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has completed the transformation of the MetroSouth Medical Center, a shuttered hospital just south of Chicago, into an alternate care facility to treat COVID-19 patients. Located in Blue Island, the facility now features 585 beds, including 265 high-acuity beds for critically ill patients. Clark completed the project in 22 days. The project team also included architect Perkins and Will, engineer Salas O’Brien, Hill Mechanical, Titan Electric, RG Construction and Consolidated Flooring. The MetroSouth Medical Center closed in late 2019.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Another 3.8 million Americans have filed first-time unemployment claims in the week ending April 25, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The newest figure shows that since the sudden shutdown in the second half of March due to the outbreak of COVID-19, about 30 million people have filed for unemployment. This is the fourth consecutive week, though, that the weekly filings have decreased from the prior report. During the week ending April 18, 4.4 million claims were handled, which was down from 5.2 million during the week ending April 11. The Department of Labor reports the four-week moving average is 5 million, down from 5.8 million the previous four weeks. On Wednesday, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) reported that the gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States shrank by 4.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020, which is the largest quarterly decline since the fourth quarter of 2008 when it contracted by 8.4 percent. As of this writing, there were 61,005 deaths and nearly 1.1 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has outlined Phase I of the state’s plan to slowly start reopening. Phase I, which will be enacted tomorrow, includes allowing retailers and restaurants to reopen, though they’re advised to operate at 25 percent capacity to comply with social distancing protocols. Schools will continue to do online learning. Visiting senior living facilities will still be prohibited. Gyms, bars and personal services such as hair salons will also remain closed. To help with testing demand, the state will open five more drive-thru testing sites, bringing the total number of state-supported sites to 13. The new testing sites will be in Broward, Escambia, Lee, Sarasota/Manatee and Miami-Dade counties. The governor’s office reports that to date, the testing sites have conducted 88,000 tests. The governor’s office sought advice from several organizations and those in leadership roles to roll out the parameters, including speaking with healthcare system executives, elected officials, law enforcement, small business owners and unemployed residents.
HOUSTON — Although vacancy ticked up slightly and asking rents fell marginally relative to the fourth quarter of 2019, Houston’s retail market emerged from the first quarter of 2020 with a high occupancy rate (94.6 percent), positive net absorption (400,000 square feet) and positive year-over-year rent growth (6.5 percent triple-net), according to a new report from Colliers International. The market also had 1.7 million square feet of new retail space under construction at the end of the first quarter, which the report cites as one of the lower quarterly figures for this cycle. However, negative impacts due to the COVID-19 outbreak will inevitably hit the market during the second and third quarters, the report projected. The Colliers research team found that Houston restaurants that have traditionally favored dine-in service have reported revenue declines as high as 90 percent in some cases. With many retailers not expected to reopen after the pandemic subsides, the report found that Houston’s vacancy rate could spike to 12 or higher by year’s end, putting downward pressure on rents.
PHOENIX — Sprouts Farmers Market has expanded its grocery pickup and delivery platform to 30 of its store in Texas as the Phoenix-based grocer faces heightened demand amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Customers may choose between same-day pickup and ordering several days in advance. Sprouts has partnered with Instacart to roll out its delivery service and plans to have it available at its 340 nationwide stores by early May. Sprouts currently operates about 45 stores in Texas, with two more slated to open in the coming months in Houston and Tyler.
NEW YORK CITY — Macy’s Inc. plans to reopen 68 of its approximately 775 stores Monday, after state and federal mandates forced the retailer to temporarily close its stores during the COVID-19 outbreak. The New York City-based retailer plans to open an additional 50 stores on May 11. The department store chain closed all of its stores and furloughed most of its storefront workforce on March 17. The closures also included the company’s subsidiary chains, Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury, but all three chains have maintained their online services. The newly opened Macy’s stores will offer touch-free consultations and demonstrations of beauty products and will only offer a few fitting rooms at a time, which will be frequently sanitized.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) sent a letter to the U.S. Congress on Monday requesting more funds for small business hotels across the country. According to a report from AHLA, small business hotels won’t be able to bring back laid off employees or prevent further layoffs with the current funds offered by the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the Small Business Association (SBA) initiative established by the CARES Act. The PPP funds cover 47 percent of a hotel’s operating costs, the AHLA says in the letter. The Washington, D.C.-based organization also reports 61 percent of U.S. hotels, approximately 33,000 properties — are defined as small businesses. The letter was signed by more than 13,000 hotel owners. AHLA projects that 2020 hotel occupancy will go as low as 38 percent, the lowest figure since the Great Depression. Furthermore, the report finds that hotel staff nationwide has been cut by 70 percent since mid-March. AHLA states even after recovery begins, the hotel sector will not generate significant revenue to cover costs, given that hotel occupancy is not projected to return to pre-crisis levels before 2021 and revenue won’t return to pre-crisis levels until 2022.