Subject: Economic News (ECO)

The rest of this legislative year promises to be clouded with uncertainty, stemming largely from the recent increase in lawsuits to kneecap regulations.

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report The Commercial Real Estate Finance Council's annual conference, held this week at the Marriott Marquis hotel in midtown Manhattan, drew 1,250 registered attendees. That number grew as some had signed up at the door. ...

The average quarterly cost to insure an apartment unit throughout the county was $180 during the second quarter, up 33 percent from a year ago, according to Marcus & Millichap. When compared to five years ago, insurance costs are up ...

Multifamily property insurance rates are projected to increase up to 50 percent in 2023. That would be on top of last year's 20 percent increase. Some markets, specifically those hit by weather-related disasters, are getting hit the hardest.

Trepp Inc. has partnered with the Chao-Hon Chen Institution for Global Real Estate Finance at New York University on the "innovation challenge," through which students will compete on their proposals for solving a number of issues facing commercial real estate buildings. ...

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report Roughly 1,300 attendees have registered so far for the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council's upcoming January conference in South Miami Beach, Fla. That's in line with the number of registrants that the trade group ...

Houston Business Journal Construction is underway on a 116,500-square-foot medical-office building in Houston. Healthpeak Properties Inc. is developing the five-story property at 7500 Fannin St. It already is 36 percent preleased and will include a parking garage that's being built ...

Crain's New York Business The Omni Berkshire Place hotel in Manhattan has furloughed 268 employees as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. The 398-room property, at 21 East 52nd St., expects to hire back the workers when the hotel reopens. ...

Boston Business Journal Federal Realty Investment Trust has offered a parking lot site at a Kmart store it owns in suburban Boston to be used to disinfect N95 masks worn by healthcare workers treating coronavirus patients. The site, at 77 ...

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report The $2.2 trillion stimulus package signed into law last Friday includes a number of provisions that ought to provide a positive impact on the commercial real estate sector. For starters, $349 billion will be ...