Congressional Democrats and Republicans broadly agree chokeholds should be prohibited in most circumstances, but differ over shielding police from lawsuits and the federal governments role overseeing police departments.

At stake in negotiations over legislation are legal changes to address public demands raised during weeks of unrest following the death of George Floyd.

A policing overhaul bill will transform the culture of policing to address systemic racism by holding police accountable and increasing transparency, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement yesterday. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) called on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bring the House Democrats bill to the Senate floor.

The House measure, introduced June 8, is going nowhere in the Senate because it is just another attempt to federalize every issue in front of Congress, McConnell told reporters yesterday.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) will introduce the Senate GOPs own bill this morning at 9:30 a.m. The measure is expected to address choke-holds, no-knock warrants, and how to prevent officers fired for misconduct from getting rehired by other police forces. The legislation is likely to include some of the priorities President Donald Trump stressed in an executive order signed yesterday.

McConnell left it up to Democrats how to proceed on the Republican bill, which would require at least 60 votes to pass the Senate.

They could either shoot it down as insufficient or be willing to take the risk to go to the bill and see what changes, if any, we can all agree to in order to get to 60, he said. Shaun Courtney has the latest.

Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/CNP/Bloomberg

Scott attends Trumps signing of an executive order on policing at the White House on Tuesday.

Black Soldiers More Likely to Face Discipline: The U.S. military has failed to examine causes that lead Black servicemembers more likely to be investigated or face military justice and disciplinary action than their White counterparts, the governments top watchdog, lawmakers, and representatives of military services said. The Air Force alone has found that Black airmen were likelier than Whites to be subject to courts-martial and nonjudicial punishment from fiscal 2013 through 2017, the Government Accountability Offices Brenda Farrell told the House Armed Services personnel panel. Roxana Tiron has more.

Trillions in Stimulus Go Unchecked: The U.S. has spent more than half of $3 trillion in economic rescue funds passed by Congress with little of the oversight intended to ensure the money goes to the right places.

Three new oversight bodies are barely functional: A special inspector general was only recently sworn in, a congressional panel still lacks a chairman and staff, and President Donald Trump quickly removed the official who was going to lead a separate accountability committee. At the same time, about $2 trillion in stimulus money has already been distributed, according to an estimate from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group focused on fiscal policy.

The sheer size of the pandemic response means theres a wide swath of issues to investigate. But mistrust in Washington is so deep that the oversight groups investigations are already mired in politics. Leaders of both parties have failed to agree on a chairman to lead the congressional oversight panel. And Democrats are already voicing concerns on whether Trumps hand-picked special inspector general for the stimulus can be independent from his former boss. Read more from Laura Davison.

U.S. Plans a Reset of WTO Tariff Commitments: Trumps trade chief, Robert Lighthizer, will tell U.S. lawmakers today the time has come to renegotiate Americas fundamental tariff commitment at the World Trade Organization. Currently, outdated tariff determinations are locked in place that no longer reflect members policy choices and economic conditions, Lighthizer said in prepared remarks for the Senate Finance Committee starting at 3 p.m. Hes scheduled to testify earlier in the day to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Many countries with large and developed economies maintain very high bound tariff rates, far above those levied by the United States, the trade representative said. The United States must ensure that tariffs reflect current economic realities to protect our exporters and workers. Read more from Bryce Baschuk.

Trump Nominee Vows to Back Objective Science in Consumer Job: Trumps nominee to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission promised senators yesterday to champion policies supported by objective and transparent science, but Democrats accused her of doing the opposite in her work as a chemical industry lobbyist and at the EPA. Nancy Beck, a toxicologist and former chemical industry executive and lobbyist, in 2017 was named principal deputy assistant administrator for the EPAs Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, which oversees chemical regulations. Beck is currently detailed to the White House, where she reviews EPA chemical regulations. Read more from Adam Allington.

FTC Scrutiny of Google Sought Over Scams: Two Democratic lawmakers urged the Federal Trade Commission to probe Google over online ads that perpetuate alleged frauds regarding stimulus aid checks of up to $1,200. While advertisers bear the primary legal responsibility for deceptive ads, Google should also face scrutiny over the continued failure to address the known problem of fraudulent actions, wrote Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) in a letter to the agency. Read more from Ben Brody and Rebecca Kern.

Targeted Relief Urged for Clean Energy: Renewable energy backers called on Congress to make the fourth time a charm by ensuring that relief to wind, solar, and energy efficiency, which was lacking in the first three coronavirus recovery packages, makes it into the next one. The coronavirus deep impact on the U.S. energy sector, which has lost 1.3 million jobs, was the focus of dueling hearings in the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Energy and Natural Resources committees yesterday. Read more from Dean Scott and Kellie Lunney.

Pompeo Urged to Boost Support for Yemen Peace: A bipartisan group of U.S. senators asked Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to pressure Saudi Arabia and Yemens president to accept a UN envoys push for a broad cease-fire and move toward political negotiations to end the conflict. In a letter to Pompeo yesterday, the nine senators said the U.S. is uniquely positioned to bring together all sides for talks given its influence with Saudi Arabia, where Yemen leader Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi is now based. Read more from Nick Wadhams.

Partisan Gap Could Limit U.S. Recovery: Democrats and Republicans hold starkly diverging views of the U.S. economy and the gap is widening as the pandemic persists, casting a shadow over Trumps hopes for a V-shaped recovery powered by pent-up demand as nationwide lockdowns ease.

One closely watched metric, the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment, reveals the political divide over the economy. Overall, the index rebounded from 72.3 in March to 78.9 in May on the strength of better-than-expected May jobs numbers. But it only ticked up 0.7 points for Democrats while surging 11 points for Republicans. That gulf could expand as Election Day approaches and political sentiment becomes more entrenched closer to the vote. Read more from Gregory Korte.

Kaplan Says U.S. Recovery Faces Risks: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan said its possible the U.S. economy recovers faster than expected, but the performance will depend on public health. Theres downside risk to the recovery and theres upside, Kaplan said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg Televisions Kathleen Hays. Which one will prevail is going to have less to do with monetary and fiscal policy and a lot more to do with how effectively we execute the healthcare policies. How well we do that will determine how fast we grow, he said. But theres certainly an upside case. Read more from Catarina Saraiva.

Feds Jobs, Inflation Mandates Blur 70s Law Aimed at Inequality: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is testifying before Congress this week in hearings mandated by a 1978 law that was meant to prevent mass joblessness and dissolve racial inequality. Neither has happened. The Humphrey-Hawkins Act is instead mostly known for giving the U.S. central bank its dual mandate of maintaining full employment and price stability. But the legislation, championed by the late Rep. Augustus Hawkins (D-Calif.), was originally conceived as a great equalizer, one that would carry forward the legacy of the civil rights movement by ensuring that every American who wanted a job would be able to have one.

Four decades of ever-widening inequality later, a pandemic that has induced the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression is shining a spotlight on problems with how the legislation was implemented and the lack of political will to correct it. Read more from Matthew Boesler.

Study Finds Trump Tax Break Fails to Deliver for Communities: Trump recently highlighted the opportunity zone tax breaks he signed into law in late 2017 as a reason his administration has done more for the Black Community than any president since Abraham Lincoln.

A new analysis by the left-leaning Urban Institute questions if the program is meeting its goal of spurring development and creating jobs in undercapitalized communities, many of which of are majority Black. It was sobering for us in terms of how hard it is to do impact projects under the program, said researcher Brett Theodos, one of the authors of the study. Its not impossible, but its harder than it might seem, and certainly than it should be, for a program purporting to help neighborhoods. Read more from Noah Buhayar.

Oklahoma Says Rally Goers Will Face Risk: People who plan to attend Trumps campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday should get tested for the coronavirus before the event and consider getting tested afterwards, Oklahoma State Health Department Commissioner Lance Frye said in a statement yesterday. Attendees should follow public health guidance including wearing cloth face coverings and those in vulnerable groups and age 65 and older should stay home, Frye said in the statement, Elizabeth Elkin reports.

Trump Campaign Asks Donors to Convention With $1M Package: Trumps presidential campaign is enticing big-spending donors to the Republican Partys convention in August by offering packages that cost almost $1.2 million dollars per couple. Trump Victory, the joint effort of the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, sent out invitations Tuesday with details of the perks available at the convention in Jacksonville, Florida, from Aug. 24-27. The invitations, obtained by Bloomberg News, offer various tiers of support, all with different levels of access to Trump as well as RNC and campaign officials. Read more from Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou.

Biden Ties Climate Change to Racial Equality: Democratic nominee Joe Biden linked climate change and pollution to the struggle against racial inequality, vowing to fight as president for environmental justice. In remarks yesterday webcast by the League of Conservation Voters, Biden said he would defend communities of color where people, in fact, tend to be victims of being put in spots where the water is not clean, the air you cant breath.

Climate change is not just an environmental issue, Biden told the environmental group, which has endorsed him. They now look at it as a health issue and a jobs issue and an equity issue.

Poor people and people of color often face higher exposure to pollutants, according to the American Lung Association. Pollution sources tend to be located near disadvantaged communities, increasing exposure. Read more from Ari Natter.

Facebook Wants to Register 4M Voters: Mark Zuckerberg hopes Facebooks social networks will spur 4 million Americans to sign up as new voters before the 2020 U.S. election, double the number the company claims to have helped register before the 2016 election and 2018 U.S. midterms. Voting is voice. Its the single most powerful expression of democracy, the best way to hold our leaders accountable, and how we address many of the issues our country is grappling with, Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive officer, wrote in an op-ed published yesterday by USA Today. I believe Facebook has a responsibility not just to prevent voter suppression which disproportionately targets people of color but to actively support well-informed voter engagement, registration, and turnout. Read more from Kurt Wagner.

Trump Signs Suicide Bill, VA Spending Bill: Trump yesterday signed into law a pair of measures, according to a statement: S. 2746, which establishes the Law Enforcement Officers Suicide Data Collection Program to collect data on the suicides and suicide attempts of federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement, and S. 3414, which authorizes $2.27 billion in medical facility construction projects for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

U.S. Sues to Block Boltons Tell-All Book: The U.S. government sued to block the publication of a tell-all book by former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who claims Trump was willing to endanger the nation in order to be re-elected. Boltons book The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir is due out on June 23 and has been touted by publisher Simon & Schuster as the book Donald Trump doesnt want you to read. Read more from Erik Larson and David Yaffe-Bellany.

U.S. Backs Trump Aide for Latin America Bank: Trumps administration plans to nominate a U.S. adviser to head the top development bank for Latin America, seeking to break the organizations six-decade tradition of choosing a chief from the region. The Treasury Department says it is backing Mauricio Claver-Carone, senior director of the National Security Council for Western Hemisphere Affairs, to head the Inter-American Development Bank. Ben Bartenstein and Eric Martin have more.

South Korea Warns Kim Jong Un Against Provocations: South Korea warned North Korea against further provocations, after Kim Jong Uns regime pledged to dismantle the last remnants of President Moon Jae-ins legacy of rapprochement and move troops into disarmed border areas. Jihye Lee and Shinhye Kang have more.

To contact the reporters on this story: Zachary Sherwood in Washington at zsherwood@bgov.com; Brandon Lee in Washington at blee@bgov.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giuseppe Macri at gmacri@bgov.com; Loren Duggan at lduggan@bgov.com; Michaela Ross at mross@bgov.com

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What to Know in Washington: Lawmakers at Odds on Policing Revamp - Bloomberg Government

Tim Hortons is making a very big expansion onto SkyTrain with the opening of three new retail locations inside stations this year.

TransLink told Daily Hive Urbanized the fast-food restaurant chains new locations are at Rupert Station, Stadium-Chinatown Station, and Surrey Central Station.

The Rupert Station restaurant is located within a 524-sq-ft space inside the station, but just before the fare gates, outside the fare paid zone. This location opened earlier this month.

A 320-sq-ft location opening at Stadium-Chinatown Station will be situated after the fare gates, inside the fare paid zone just across from the recently opened Boba Boy, which occupies the 450-sq-ft retail formerly used by Waves Coffee.

Tim Hortons being built inside Stadium-Chinatown Station. (Kenneth Chan / Daily Hive)

Additionally, the location inside Surrey Central Station occupies an 850-sq-ft retail unit within the2019-built, $24 million station expansion project. This Tim Hortons will be accessible from the street, outside of the fare paid zone.

Both of the locations at Stadium-Chinatown Station and Surrey Central Station will open sometime later this summer.

Tim Hortons being built inside Surrey Central Station. (@Channel_Juan_11/ Twitter)

Given the extenuating circumstances with the recent severe drop in ridership, the public transit authority says it has offered rent deferral to tenants of its in-station retail program, depending on their particular financial circumstances. Several businesses closed at the start of the crisis, but they have since reopened and implemented health safety measures.

SkyTrains Expo and Millennium lines typically see 359,000 average daily boardings combined, but at the peak of the crisis in earl April ridership dropped to just 65,000 per weekday.

According to TransLinks statistics for 2018, Rupert Station saw 4,300 average weekday boardings, Stadium-Chinatown Station saw 17,200, and Surrey Central Station saw 13,100.

Layout of the retail units inside Stadium-Chinatown Stations west concourse, with the Tim Hortons unit (left) and Boba Boy unit (right) shown. (Sitings / TransLink)

Retail units that are located not only within high-traffic stations but also before the fare gates outside the fare paid zone with general public access and visibility typically see far greater success and longevity.

The Tim Hortons expansion is the largest single chain addition to SkyTrains retail offerings since 2009, when Jugo Juice opened four locations inside the Canada Lines underground stations in Vancouver. Some of these Jugo Juice locations inside the fare paid zone were short-lived, with the franchise owners pursuing legal action against the Canada Lines private operator, SNC Lavalins ProTrans BC.

And in early 2019, the INS Market convenience store tucked away deep inside the fare paid zone of Yaletown-Round Station was forcibly shuttered, after less than a year of business and just weeks after escalator construction began in front of the stores entrance. Legal letters posted on the window of the closed store stated the franchisees missed two consecutive monthly rent payments.

Artistic rendering of the now-completed Surrey Central Station expansion, showing the location of the new retail unit for Tim Hortons. (Sitings / TransLink)

In recent years, TransLink has opened new retail locations with a two-pronged approach of utilizing existing void spaces within stations and adding purpose-built retail spaces during extensive station renovation projects.

The 2016-completed renovation and expansion of Main Street-Science World included a particularly large retail component of approximately 2,000 sq ft of combined retail space, with Tim Hortons and A&W occupying the west entrance units and Starbucks taking over the east entrance unit.

Prior to the health crisis, with the opening of these Tim Hortons locations, the public transit authority had budgeted $940,000 in revenue from its in-station retail program for 2020 up from $800,000 in 2018, and $500,000 in 2017.

TransLink had also originally budgeted $1 million in annual retail revenue by 2022, when its retail floor area will grow to 17,000 sq ft up from 10,000 sq ft in 2017.

In addition to revenue, the retail units provide TransLink with a manned presence that can help improve passenger safety, based on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Principles.

Commercial real estate listings also show TransLink is actively attempting to lease a 350-sq-ft retail unit at Gilmore Station, and 190-sq-ft and 352-sq-ft retail units at Holdom Station. The retail units inside both of these stations are located in the fare paid zone.

Available retail units inside Holdom Station. (Sitings)

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New Tim Hortons locations opening inside three SkyTrain stations | Dished - Daily Hive

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The King Fahd Causeway Authority (KFCA) has announced the completion of a new development project which will increase the bridges passenger capacity by 45 per cent.

Following the suspension of passenger travel in March, major renovation works have been completed including the introduction of new gates on the Saudi side and dedicated e-Payment lanes to facilitate processing of the bridge toll on both sides.

The project comes as a part of efforts aimed at increasing the capacity of the causeway that connects the two Kingdoms and bears considerable economic importance for both countries, particularly for their tourism sectors. Analysis of tourism data for 2019 shows that Bahrain welcomed 11.1 million visitors last year, of which 9.7 million (88 per cent) arrived via the King Fahd Causeway.

It was recently announced that Bahrain Customs has installed high-tech artificial intelligence scanners at the King Fahd Causeway, automating data collection and allowing shipment inspections to take place before reaching the border. This has greatly increased both the speed and capacity for processing as demonstrated by a 15 per cent growth in trade between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in the first quarter of this year.

King Fahd Causeway was opened in 1986, and today it is one of the busiest land border crossings in the Middle East with an estimated 390 million passengers having used the bridge since its opening. In spite of the global spread of coronavirus, the commercial shipping of necessary goods across King Fahd Causeway has continued.

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King Fahd Causeway capacity increased by 45% ahead of... - Construction Business News

NEW YORK (REUTERS) - US retail sales likely experienced a record rise in May as 2.5 million Americans went back to work, although any rebound will retrace only a fraction of the historic drops in March and April amid the coronavirus lockdowns.

The monthly report, due to be released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday (June 16), is expected to show overall receipts at US retailers jumped 8 per cent last month, according to a Reuters poll of economists. That would exceed the previous record increase of 6.7 per cent in October 2001 as Americans resumed spending following what was then a record pullback in the aftermath of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

While certainly an eye-catching bounce, it would retrace only about a quarter of the sales drop registered in the record back-to-back declines in the two previous months when widespread stay-at-home orders were imposed to stop the spread of Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Sales in April fell 16.4 per cent after tumbling 8.3 per cent in March.

The US economy dropped into recession in February as the viral outbreak brought a record-long expansion to an abrupt end.

Employment fell by about 22 million in March and April, but payrolls rose unexpectedly in May by just over 2.5 million, supporting the thesis that consumer spending could be recovering and that the worst of the downturn might have passed.

"Given the bounce in job growth in May and the fact that some state economies started to re-open in the second half of the month, it's reasonable to expect that spending partially rebounded in May," NatWest economists Michelle Girard and Kevin Cummins wrote in a note to clients.

The likely sales rebound was probably led by strong auto sales as the relaxing of lockdowns across the country allowed car dealership showrooms to reopen. May's sales rate climbed above 12 million vehicles per year after dropping below 9 million in April, according to Wards Intelligence.

Gasoline prices also have stabilised, which likely helped support a retail sales recovery last month. Excluding gas and autos, sales had dropped 16.2 per cent in April.

The closely watched "retail control" figure, which further backs out building materials and food services in addition to excluding gas and automotive-related sales and most closely tracks the consumer spending component of gross domestic product, is expected to have risen 4.7 per cent, according to the Reuters poll. That, too, would be the largest increase since the government began tracking it in 1992.

"For what it's worth, chain store reports for May suggested some hints of a turnaround," the NatWest economists said, citing commentary from the weekly Johnson Redbook retail sales report that pointed to a pick-up in seasonal merchandise as more states reopened and the weather warmed.

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US expected to report record rise in monthly retail sales for May - The Straits Times

JSE listed diversified real estate investment trust Redefine Properties (JSE: RDF) along with equity partners Madison International Realty and Griffin Real Estate in European Logistics Investment BV and in joint venture with its strategic development partner Panattoni Europe.

Will commence construction on a 50 000 sqm build-to-suit (BTS) manufacturing and warehouse facility for Weber-Stephen Products in Zabrze within the Upper Silesian metropolitan area in Poland.

Weber is a privately held US manufacturer of charcoal, gas and electric outdoor grills and related accessories.

The building is planned with over 5 000 sqm earmarked for office space. The site is provisioned for an additional 30 000 sqm if Webers growth exceeds expectations.

The project will be Webers first manufacturing facility in Europe and when complete will employ approximately 450 people. The construction will begin in August 2020 and will be ready for occupation during the second half of 2021. The BTS facility will serve as Webers primary distribution operation for Europe, Asia and Africa.

Zabrzes proximity to three international airports (Katowice, Krakow, Ostrava) and easy access to the A1 motorway (Gdask d Czechia Austria), and the intersection of the A1 and A4 (Germany Wrocaw Krakow) serve Webers interests well.

The logistics real estate sector is proving to be more resilient than other real estate classes during Covid-19. According to Savills, the pandemic has had no significant impact on occupier demand in Poland in the first quarter of the year. The leasing volumes during Q1 2020 have been on a par with the same period last year (1.1 million sqm) with a notable increase in demand for temporary space.

Polands total warehouse and the industrial stock reached 19.0 million sqm at the end of March 2020, with the largest markets being Warsaw (4.4 million sqm), Upper Silesia (3.2 million sqm) and Central Poland (3.1 million sqm).

According to Andrew Konig, CEO, Redefine Properties, the coronavirus pandemic is expected to intensify the demand for warehousing as supply chains are restructured and to meet the growth in online spending. The growth in e-commerce is benefitting logistics especially the development of last mile delivery facilities.

Our strategy in Poland is centred around creating a leading logistics platform and Zabrze located in Upper Silesia, one of the most attractive logistics locations in the country was a natural choice for Weber, says Pieter Prinsloo, CEO of Redefine Europe.

The sustained investments in improving road infrastructure has enabled easy access to other parts of the country, as well as to the rest of Europe making Upper Silesia a popular region among international companies looking for high-quality warehouses in good locations. The facility to be developed in Zabrze is our next investment in the region, following the development of the warehouses and logistic parks located in Ruda lska, Sosnowiec and Bielsko-Biaa.

ELIs portfolio includes 16 assets with a total gross lettable area of circa 480 000 sqm and approximately 120 000 sqm under construction. In the next three to four years, ELI plans to expand by about 2 million sqm through development activity.

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Redefine's European logistics platform set to expand its footprint in Poland - eProp.co.za

Published 17 June 2020

Inverness city centre is set to receive an affordable housing boost after plans to redevelop the former Arnotts building in Union Street were given the green light.

The long-empty B-listed store, which was also a House of Fraser, will be turned into a mix of two and three-bed apartments with retail space on the ground floor.

Properties at 33-41 Baron Taylors Street will also be redesigned with shopfronts facing onto the street offering opportunities for new bars, cafs and restaurants.

Edinburgh-based developer Swilken Estates expressed its delight at the approval.

A spokesman said: This is fantastic news for Inverness. The development is due to provide 53 affordable houses and a further six new high street shops.

We also expect to create at least 140 local jobs during construction and support a wider regeneration of Union Street and the surrounding area.

Our priority now is to continue to work with the council to implement the plans we had in place before the onset of COVID-19 as soon as possible and try and make up for the lost time due to the delay to planning consent.

We are delighted to be making this investment in the town centre and to be supporting the creation of affordable housing and good quality commercial space to support the retail sector in Inverness.

Stewart Nicol, chief executive of the Inverness Chamber of Commerce, said the investment would be invaluable.

He added: It is superb news, my understanding is that it is a 15 million investment and that is coming from the private sector that is a massive injection of money into the city centre.

It is coming post-COVID so I am hopeful that having had the project approved the developers and the construction guys would be able to do a lot of the preliminary work so when they are given the green light they are ready to go.

I think the other aspect to that is the house building construction has been particularly badly hit so that is good news all round.

I understand that is mainly affordable housing so it helps get people on the housing ladder and it helps get people in and around the city centre spending their money and leading their lives.

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Housing and retail plan approved for Inverness city centre - Scottish Construction Now

Construction is complete on VYV East, a 432-unit residential building at 444 Warren Street in Jersey City. Designed by Perkins Eastman anddeveloped by Brookfield Properties and G&S Investors, the structure is the second building to rise in the 18-acre Hudson Exchange West development following the completion of its sibling VYV at 474 Warren Street. Both edifices feature a curtain wall of dark gray brick and glass panels, and culminate in relatively flat parapets. The entire development will consist of 12 new towers with 5,400 units and 350,000 square feet of amenity, retail, and dining spaces.

A select few apartments on the southeastern corner of VYV East have balconies that run the height of the building from the top of the podium to the pinnacle. They provide views across the Hudson River of Hudson Square, Soho, Tribeca, and the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. The structure also contains 9,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space that is being marketed by RKF.

VYV (left) and VYV East. Photo by Michael Young

VYV East. Photo by Michael Young

VYV East. Photo by Michael Young

VYV East is bound by Warren Street to the west, VYV and its multi-story parking garage to the north, light rail tracks to the east, and Metro Plaza Drive to the south. The waterfront is only two blocks away to the east, while the Harsimus Cove Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station is right across Metro Plaza Drive. TheNewport Centre mall is a short walk from the front doors, as are big-box stores like Bed Bath & Beyond, BJs, and Shop Rite, which are located immediately to the west.

A completion date for the entire masterplan has yet to be announced, but is likely several years off.

Subscribeto YIMBYs daily e-mailFollowthe YIMBYgram for real-time photo updatesLikeYIMBY on FacebookFollowYIMBYs Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews

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Construction Wraps on Hudson Exchange West's Second Tower, in Jersey City - New York YIMBY

A rendering of the Ellsworth building, planned on the southwest corner of Fifth and South Streets.(Photo: provided by the City of Lafayette)

LAFAYETTE Withother developments in various stages of completion around downtown Lafayette, financing for another new project adding both commercial and residential space was approved Thursday morning.

The newest project is The Ellsworth,a $17.7 million mixed-use project slated for downtown. The five-story building is planned to be built on the southwest corner of Fifth and South streets, on a parcel of land next to Regions Bank. Its development waspart of a resolution passed by the Lafayette Economic Development CommissionThursday morning.

Once completed, developers say The Ellsworth will include 97 loft-styleapartments, 2,000 square feet of commercial space along South Street and 40 public parking spaces in a garage during business hours.

More: $20M downtown Lafayette project aims to fill 600 block of Main Street for first time in half-century

The building will be designed to be C-shaped with the inside of the C facing downtown, Shelby Bowen, president of Rebar Development, said Tuesday. The shape will allow a second-story courtyard and dog park, and the fifth floor will have an outdoor patio space overlooking downtown Lafayette.

The Regions Bank parking lot, located on South Street between Fourth and Fifth Streets, Thursday, May 21, 2020 Lafayette.(Photo: Nikos Frazier | Journal & Courier)

Bowen said it was a five-year process to identify the right spot, then another two years to work with Regions Bank and get site control.

Lafayette is an attractive place for us to invest, Bowen said. It will be one of the jewels of downtown Lafayette.

Bowen said while working with Mayor Tony Roswarski on the project, Roswarski was insistent upon high-quality project that was going to look good now and look good in 100 years.

"It has been a long process, but we do want this to be a signature piece," Roswarski said. "It's a great project that helps to continue to increase that density in downtown, which keeps it vibrant and growing."

More: $16.8M Nova Tower planned as southern gateway to downtown Lafayette

The project was led by Rebar Development, a Fishers-based firm that focuses on downtown redevelopment projects and public and private partnerships in central Indiana.

In addition to The Ellsworth, Rebar Development has also worked on other mixed-use projects in central Indiana, including The Levinson in Noblesville, The Barlow in Plainfield and 1300 Block in Speedway.

The Ellsworth also received a $2.3 million redevelopment tax credit from the Indiana Economic Development Commission. After an investment has been made, the state is providing a tax credit that can be sold as equity to make the project possible, Bowen said.

To help fund the project, Lafayette will issue up to $4.5 million in bonds,which the city expects will be paid back with taxes generated by the new development.

This is not the only project currently being planned fordowntown Lafayette developers are also looking to fill a parking lot on Main Street across from Lafayette Brewing Co. with a $20 million project, 631 Main Street Apt & Retail with retail space and 100 apartments.

Among other projects finished or just started:The Marq at Second and Columbia streets; a $16.8 million, five-story Nova Tower project on South Fourth Street; and Pullman Station, a $10.5 million, five-story mixed-use project expected to feature 76 apartments and 7,900-square-feet of commercial and retail space on the first floor on a former Lafayette City Hall parking lot at Fifth and South streets.

Construction for The Ellsworth willbegin infall 2020.

Emily DeLetter is a news reporter for the Journal & Courier. Contact her at (765) 201-8515 or via email at edeletter@jconline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @EmilyDeLetter.

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$17M retail-apts project coming to Fifth and South, second in recent weeks for downtown Lafayette - Journal & Courier

By: Michael Young 8:00 am on May 21, 2020

Activity has yet to begin at 444 Washington Boulevardin Jersey City, the site ofa 722-foot-tall skyscraper from Gerner Kronick + Valcarcel Architectsand Tower Cove Jersey City Urban Renewal. In addition to the70-story tower, which will contain 950 residential units, there will be a second 575-foot-tall structure, as well as a neighboring six-story building containing 17,192 square feet of retail space and a 382-vehicle parking garage.

Recent photos show the state of the site, which is bound by Washington Street to the west, Thomas Gangemi Drive to the north, and 2nd Street to the south. The northern section of the Avalon Cove residences is where construction is planned to proceed. This area is currently occupied by two one-story car garages and several surface-level residential parking spaces separated from the sidewalk by a black gated fence.

The northwest section of the Avalon Cove property where the main skyscraper will rise. Photo by Michael Young

The car garages that currently stand where 444 Washington Boulevard will rise. Photo by Michael Young

Both skyscrapers will be clad in sleek aluminum and brushed stainless steel faades. 444 Washington Street will yield 505 studios, 265 one-bedrooms, 160 two-bedrooms, and 20 three-bedroom homes. Residential amenities include a multipurpose terrace on the second floor and an outdoor terrace and swimming pool on the 59th floor. A pair of open-air public spaces called the East Coast Greenway Plaza and Overlook Plaza will be built along Thomas Gangemi Drive and sit adjacent to the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway. These plazas will include a pedestrian terrace, a childrens play area, and a dog run. The existing 498 Avalon Cove apartments will bring the total number of units in the development to 1,448.

Aerial rendering of 444 Washington Boulevard

A start and completion date for 444 Washington Boulevard has yet to be announced.

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AvalonBay's 70-Story Tower Planned for 444 Washington Boulevard Appears to be on Hold, in Jersey City - New York YIMBY

How is a retailer supposed to survive when he is restricted from opening? How should he deal with his landlord in these unprecedented times? As a tenant representative agent, my real job is to determine how much business my customer can do in a given space and negotiate for a rent that is prudent. We enter into our retail leases and negotiate rent based upon our expectation of retail sales. Today with the current COVID-19 epidemic, we find ourselves in a situation where the vast majority of retailers are restricted from doing any business but are expected to pay rent.

Call Your Landlord Before He Calls You. It acknowledges that you are having a problem and sets the stage for a discussion towards how the two of you can together work things out.

Know what to ask for. The initial alternatives are either a full or partial rent forgiveness or a postponement of rent. Landlords are rather unrealistic in their understanding of the narrow margins existent in the restaurant business.

Retail space is unique. The value of retail space is directly proportionate to the ability to do retail sales in that space. The more sales you can do, the more valuable the real estate. So initially plead for a forgiveness of rent. No sales = No ability to pay rent.

A landlord and tenant originally made a deal, based upon an expectation of a certain level of sales. However, when they are precluded from full operations, they have not made the expected sales and therefore cannot afford to pay the contract rents.

Courts have a nice phrase regarding rents: Use and Occupancy. But if there legally cannot be any use, should there be a legal obligation to pay rent?

A survey of Long Island retail landlords show that 46.6% of them have received less than 50% of scheduled rents due April 1st.

The landlord must pay real estate taxes (no government has given any relief on that), along with insurance and some security and utilities. An offer to help cover those items is a compromise position. The largest obligation is probably his mortgage. Well, maybe its time for landlord to go to his mortgagee and ask for a forbearance, or delay, or interest only. On one webinar, a representative of the Federal Reserve revealed the Fanny and Freddie may be open to such discussions.

Ask an understanding landlord to simply hit the pause button for 90 days. Then resume the rent and extend the term by that postponement. That way the landlord will receive every dollar he had initially bargained for.

You can put a landlord in a better position by offering to extend your lease term for additional years, in exchange for forgiving rent now. He will know that he will have some certainty of scheduled income for a longer time.

Some landlords are willing to help tenants by not forgiving, but by allowing a tenant to defer rent for perhaps 90 days and then pay it back over the next year or two as additional rent. That would amount to a 12.5% increase if spread over the next two years.

Do you have something that could benefit landlord? In exchange for rent forgiveness, you might relinquish an exclusive on a product category. For instance, a 2,000 s/f tenant such as Row House might have an exclusive on fitness, when a yoga studio would want to take other space in the center.

This is not the end. This is not the beginning of the end. But this may be the end of the beginning - Winston Churchill.

If restaurant tables are required to be 6 apart, either by edict or by social convention, seating capacity in restaurants will be reduced to about 50% of current levels. Fewer seats equals lower sales. As we emerge from this, we will have to crawl before we can walk.

In recovery, what is a fair and equitable rent? A restaurant can endure a 10% gross occupancy cost (Rent + CAM + RE Tax). Will your landlord be willing to accept that as a workaround for the next year until we all get inoculated?

After 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy, it took six months before markets returned to something resembling normal. We would like to think that with flattening the curve It is time to declare victory. Not nearly! Right now, New York has an infection rate of 1.6%. So, if we lift restrictions, we only have 98.4% of the population to worry about. Who will the customer be on the other side of this crisis? Will it be part of the 98.4% who cares to be reckless? Or is it the worker who has not had a paycheck for 90 days?

The Gap or Old Navy has an advantage. They can close for 90 days, but when they reopen, they still have 100% of their inventory. In a restaurant, all the perishables will have perished. Most of the food in a restaurant is sold before it is paid for. So the restaurants have an outstanding payable even before they accept new inventory to reopen.

What is a landlords BATNA?

What is their Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement?

The National Restaurant Association did a survey in mid-March. 3% of their membership had closed their restaurants PERMANENTLY! Another 11% of their members said that they might have to close permanently, if this lasted for 30 days. Now, a month past that survey, and we have no vision of where is the light at the end of the tunnel. Some experts have predicted anywhere between 20% - 40% of all restaurants closing permanently.

With a glut of restaurant spaces available, and a significantly slackened demand, how long with it take to find a suitable replacement tenant. With the supply / demand curve so distorted, what percentage of the previous rent can he achieve? With uncertainty in the marketplace, how long will it be before he can achieve parity with previous rent?

An in-place tenant is valuable. A landlord is far better off accepting a viable rent from a tenant in place rather than having to go out and find a replacement. Otherwise he needs to search for a new tenant, pay fit out costs, absorb down time during construction, have to pay an additional leasing commission, await liquor license approval and probably settle for a lower rent than he has in contract rent presently.

Whatever happens, the landlord has a high safety net in that he still owns the real estate. If the operator cannot reopen, or operate profitably, then there is no value to his leasehold or his unamortized investment in the space.

Is someone wants to buy a car, and cannot do that today, he can buy that durable in 3 months and the retailer gets the sale at full price. However, the restaurateur who does not sell a meal today, cant make that up next week or next month. There is no shelf life to a restaurant demand.

A restaurant is a low margin, high turnover business. It is a warehousing, storage, preparation, cooking, assembly, and sales facility. It is a labor intensive undertaking. A restaurant doesnt go broke on its P&L. It goes broke on its cash flow.

People will not stop eating. We are social animals and will still want to gather. The industry can weather a storm but needs to be able to meet reasonable obligations and maintain cash flow along the way.

Landlords need to understand the demands. It is going to be a challenge.

Partial List

Tenants who did not pay their rent April 2020

Cheesecake Factory GAP WeWork Knotel VMH - Staples - Victorias Secret - Subway Foot Locker - H&M - Old Navy Nordstrom LOFT - Dave & Busters - Barnes & Noble -Kirklands - LA Fitness - Party City

AMC Theaters, Cinepolis, Harkins Theaters and Regal Cinemas.

75% of the stores in NYCs most expensive neighborhood, the $25 billion Hudson Yards didnt pay their April rent.

Paul Fetscher, CCIM, CRX, CLS is president of Great American Brokerage Inc. a New York based commercial real estate firm.

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How to deal with landlords in the age of COVID-19 - by Paul Fetscher - New England Real Estate Journal Online