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☆ I was a consultant at McKinsey. Here's the frustrating way they pushed me out.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-14 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

AdvertisementThis is an as-told-to conversation with Ezra Gershanok, a former Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company and the cofounder of sublet startup Ohana. I was hired straight out of college as a Business Analyst, an entry-level consultant role at the firm. Related storiesFor me, the pace of the work started to slow down in the second half of 2021 and into 2022. Several jobs at the firm started to be seen as redundant. So, it's possible to get positive feedback from the clients you're working with and your direct manager, even when the higher-ups are trying to push you out.

Persons: Ezra Gershanok, Gershanok, Zillow, —, McKinsey doesn't, I'd, Ohana, We've, Spencer Rascoff, Surabhi Gupta, they're, Lakshmi Organizations: McKinsey & Company, Post, McKinsey, Service, Apple, Engineering Locations: Seattle, sublease, NYC, Lakshmi Varanasi, lvaranasi@businessinsider.com

☆ Industrious merges subsidiary to create a new force in coworking
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-12 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A spokesman for Industrious said it would own a 40% stake in the merged subsidiary. The vacancy rate for office space nationally hit 18.6% at the end of 2023, according to data from CBRE– the highest level since 1992. About 771 million square feet, about twice the size of Manhattan's entire office market, sits empty nationally. How Industrious won the coworking warHodari has been an astute and resilient player in the coworking business. At the time, most coworking companies sought to rent space from landlords then sublease that to their clientele at a hefty markup.

Persons: WeWork, Jamie Hodari, Hodari, Deskpass, Sam Rosen, Deskpass Stephanie Bassos, CBRE, Breather, Rosen, Adam Neumann, Shlomo Silber, Silber, lockdowns, You've Organizations: Business, Deskpass, Bond Locations: New York, Chicago, Breather

☆ A tenant stopped paying rent and listed his landlord's home on Airbnb. The landlord is now stuck living in his van.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Hannah Getahun | Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A Washington homeowner says he's living in a van after a man moved into his home and stopped paying rent. And all the media and other attention is great, but it doesn't really do me any good," Jason Roth told Insider. AdvertisementAdvertisementAfter paying just a portion of one month's rent, Roth says Hunter stopped paying anything at all. According to court documents viewed by Insider, Hunter told Roth in an email in July that he wanted to pay his outstanding rent. In California, an Airbnb host could not evict a renter who stayed in a home for 570 days after the tenant stopped paying rent and reported the host to the city.

Persons: —, he's, Jason Roth, Roth, Kareem Hunter, Hunter, I'm, Roth Hunter Organizations: Service, Seattle, Kings County Superior Court, Kroger Locations: Washington, Kings County, Airbnb, California

☆ Dropbox handing over 25% of San Francisco HQ back to landlord as commercial real estate softens
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Dropbox said Friday that it's agreed to return over one quarter of its San Francisco headquarters to the landlord as the commercial real estate market continues to soften following the Covid pandemic. In a filing, Dropbox said it agreed to surrender to its landlord 165,244 square feet of space and pay $79 million in termination fees. Under the amendment to its lease agreement, Dropbox will offload the space over time through the first quarter of 2025. In addition, Dropbox took a $175.2 million impairment on the office last year "as a result of adverse changes" in the market. Dropbox had tried working with its landlord to sublease space at the headquarters, but the real estate market deteriorated, finance chief Tim Regan, told analysts on a February earnings call.

Persons: Dropbox, it's, we've, Drew Houston, Dropbox's, Uber, Tim Regan Organizations: San Francisco, Vir Biotechnology, CNBC, Private, KKR, Kilroy Realty Corp, San Francisco Chronicle, Microsoft Locations: Mission, Dropbox

X, formerly known as Twitter, sued Atlas Exploration in San Francisco Superior Court on Thursday in a complaint alleging breach of contract. X has faced an array of legal actions over unpaid rent and other invoices following Musk's $44 billion buyout last October. In one case, the owner of X's main office at 1355 Market Street in San Francisco sued X for more than $3.1 million in unpaid rent. Britain's Crown Estate, which manages the property portfolio belonging to the monarchy, in January filed claims against X over alleged unpaid rent on its London headquarters. The case is X Corp v Atlas Exploration Inc, San Francisco Superior Court, No.

Persons: Carlos Barria, Elon, X, Atlas, Kevin Hill, Hill, Jonathan Hawk, Mike Scarcella, Leigh Jones, Chris Reese Organizations: REUTERS, Elon Musk's X Corp, San, Twitter, Atlas Exploration, San Francisco Superior Court, Inc, X, X Corp, Exploration Inc, San Francisco Superior, Thomson Locations: San Francisco , California, U.S, San Francisco, San Francisco's, Britain's, London

Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen takes part at the panel discussion "Trade: Now what?" Revolution connects more than 20 Flexport services including freight services, supply chain financing, customs paperwork and product storage, fulfillment and replenishment in a single place. Petersen credited Clark with creating the products for Flexport, but said the company lost focus on customers and expenses during his year as CEO. Flexport released several of Clark's hires but said Parisa Sadrzadeh, who helped build Amazon's delivery network, remains at Flexport overseeing small business products. Flexport bought Shopify's logistics business, including e-commerce fulfillment provider Deliverr, earlier this year.

Persons: Ryan Petersen, Arnd, Sellers, Petersen, Dave Clark, Clark, Flexport, Parisa Sadrzadeh, Shopify, Lisa Baertlein, Lincoln Organizations: REUTERS, Logistics, Walmart, HK, Thomson Locations: Davos, Switzerland, San Francisco, China, Flexport, Los Angeles

☆ Amazon is reportedly getting into legal fights with landlords as 'zombie' Amazon Fresh stores pile up
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-04 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon is facing lawsuits from some landlords over its proposed Amazon Fresh grocery stores. Amazon canceled or paused some Fresh stores over the last year as it rethinks its grocery strategy. Amazon opened its first Fresh store in 2020 and has about 44 stores three years later, according to its website. This summer, it laid off hundreds of Amazon Fresh store workers, too. AdvertisementAdvertisementAmazon has also tried to get out of leases for Fresh stores in other parts of the country.

Persons: Mark Sagliocca, Sagliocca, Andy Jassy, Paul Organizations: Amazon, Service, Salisbury Partners, New York Post Locations: Wall, Silicon, Long, New York City, Salisbury, East Meadow, Amazon, New York, Nassau County, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Seattle, Minneapolis, St, Twin

New York is doing better than San Francisco — Manhattan has a vacancy rate of 13.5 percent — but it can no longer count on the technology industry for growth. More than one-third of the roughly 22 million square feet of office space available for sublet in Manhattan comes from technology, advertising and media companies, according to Newmark. The company has opted not to renew leases covering 250,000 square feet in Hudson Yards and for 200,000 square feet on Park Avenue South. Twitter, Microsoft and other technology companies are also trying to sublease unwanted space. The large amount of space available for sublet is also driving down the rents that landlords are able to get on new leases.

Persons: Newmark, ”, Ruth Colp, Haber, Colp Organizations: sublet, New, New York State, Spotify, Trade Center, Twitter, Microsoft, Wharton Property Advisors Locations: York, Francisco —, Manhattan, New York, Hudson Yards

☆ What 'Ted Lasso' gets wrong about venture capital
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Keeley (Juno Temple) starts her own PR agency with funding from an elite venture capital firm. To her dismay, the venture firm installs a chief financial officer to keep watch over the agency and its freewheeling founder. Even Edelman, the world's largest PR firm, cracked $1 billion in revenue after 70 years in business only last year. "The logic that a PR agency would be a good VC deal is ratchet," said Kathy Osborne, founder of Kamel PR. Overnight, the venture firm fires Keeley's staff and shuts down the company, without so much as a call to Keeley.

Persons: Ted Lasso, Keeley, Keeley Jones, girlboss, what's, Juno Temple, Jack Danvers, Keely Jones, Jodi Balfour, Edelman, Kathy Osborne, Kamel, who's, Jack hadn't, Beard, Jack, hasn't, Cash, Barbara Organizations: Apple, Juno, Apple TV, Public Relations, Kamel PR Locations: American, English

☆ Amazon is abandoning several of its Fresh stores and seeking tenants to sublease them and one landlord is suing over rent
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon is trying to sublease several planned Amazon Fresh stores in the Midwest. Amazon has opened fewer Fresh stores for months, but grocery remains a priority for the company. Amazon is also facing a lawsuit from its landlord at a planned Amazon Fresh location in Philadelphia, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. Amazon has been slowing the pace of new Amazon Fresh store openings for the better part of a year. Do you work at an Amazon Fresh store and have a story idea to share?

☆ Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, who lets employees work from anywhere, says many CEOs calling workers back to the office are 'going away to the Hamptons for the summer'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Airbnb's CEO recently shared his thoughts on different work models in a wide-ranging interview with The Verge. Brian Chesky said many CEOs mandating a return to the office will spend their summers in the Hamptons. Airbnb lets employees live and work from anywhere without a loss of pay. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, who lets employees work from anywhere, says many executives mandating a return to the office are likely spending their summers traveling. "I still think that's happening.

☆ No office tower is safe from the roiling market — not even a trophy building housing Google and Visa deemed one of the best
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Potential problems at One Market Plaza show how far San Francisco's office market may fall. One Market Plaza has long been considered the pinnacle of San Francisco's office market. Autodesk plans to downsize by about 73,000 square feet to 211,000 square feet, a spokeswoman told Insider. Google did not respond to a request for comment on its plans for One Market Plaza. One Market Plaza could indicate how far San Francisco's office woes reachTurbulence at One Market Plaza indicates the extent of the problems facing San Francisco's office market.

☆ Go check out this map that shows just how many vacant office buildings are in downtown San Francisco
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Over 18 million square feet of San Francisco's office space is vacant, the SF Chronicle reported. Thirty-one percent of San Francisco's downtown offices is reportedly open for lease or sublease. The Chronicle's interactive map of the vacancies in downtown San Francisco's office buildings is worth checking out. The rising amount of vacant office real estate partly reflects remote work's impact on office attendance. A telling sign for San Francisco's office building market could come from a 22-story office tower on 350 California Street that is reportedly expected to go for $60 million, after it was valued at $300 million in 2019.

☆ Lyft CEO tells employees they must return to the office
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Lyft’s new CEO David Risher announced another change for the ride-share company: Workers will soon have to return to the office. On Friday, Risher announced “the first steps in a plan for a flexible model with more regular in-office work,” a Lyft spokesperson said. “Personal connection matters and Lyft is about bringing people together,” a statement from Lyft said. Lyft also last year decided to sublease portions of its corporate office space in San Francisco, New York City, Nashville and Seattle, Bloomberg reported. It was the second layoff announcement since November, when the company announced a 13% workforce cut amid fears of an upcoming recession.

In a 9-0 ruling written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court's decision against MOAC Mall Holdings LLC, the parent company of the mega-mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota. The lease provided Sears with a three-story, 120,000-square foot (11,000 square meters) location at the mall for a rent of just $10 a year. Mall of America went to court to try to stop the lease transfer during the Sears bankruptcy process. Circuit Court of Appeals found in 2021 that bankruptcy law does not allow for appeals of court-approved bankruptcy sales. While bankruptcy law limits the ability of courts to unwind a sale after appeal, it does not prevent appeals entirely, the Supreme Court ruled.

☆ Office Doom Loop: Landlords Face a Reckoning As Companies Move to Fancy Offices
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The Gas Company Tower in downtown Los Angeles has a sterling pedigree, but even that can't save it from the doom loop facing many older office towers. A huge swath of America's office market is vulnerable to these twin threats of being under-equipped with amenities and underwater financially. This behavioral shift has deeply cut into demand for office space. The amount of sublease space nationally more than doubled from 118.5 million square feet at the end of 2019 to 242.8 million square feet at the end of 2022, Colliers stated. Lenders are often reluctant, he said, to seize office buildings because of the costs and expertise required to operate the properties.

☆ Elon Musk is reportedly trimming some of Twitter's office space in New York City
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Twitter is subleasing 200,000 square feet of office space in Manhattan, Bloomberg reported. This past weekend, Musk laid off hundreds of staffers, including some of his most loyal employees. Now, he's chipping away at the company's office space, too. Twitter is not the only major tech company to cut back on office space in New York. Late last year, Meta also pulled back on office space in Manhattan's Hudson Yards as part of an effort to lower expenses.

☆ Dropbox hit with $175 million real estate loss for 2022 as San Francisco office space sits empty
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Its total real estate impairment for the year was $175.2 million, which is still well below the $400 million hit the company took in late 2020. That reduced the company's need for office space and pushed it to find tenants to sublease significant chunks of its headquarters. "And there's certainly been an increase in supply for real estate for sublease, which has pushed out our anticipated time to lease." Salesforce , Airbnb , Uber and Zendesk are among other companies that have taken real estate impairments in the city. Dropbox executives had expected to sublease the company's San Francisco property in the middle of 2023.

☆ Slowing Warehouse Construction Could Extend Squeeze on Space, Experts Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Construction of new warehouses is slowing as developers grapple with rising interest rates and declining leasing activity, potentially prolonging an ongoing shortfall in logistics space. Developers began building about 137 million square feet of new warehouse space, the lowest amount of new space to start construction in a quarter since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company is planning development starts for the year to range between $2.5 billion and $3 billion, down from $4.7 billion in construction starts last year. Even with construction starts slowing, the pipeline of industrial projects being built remained elevated at 682.6 million square feet as of the fourth quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Developers completed 143.6 million square feet of new space to finish the year, the company said, down from the record-high 148.2 million square feet delivered in the third quarter.

☆ Prologis Says Warehouse Demand Remains Strong in Slowing Economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Paul Berger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Prologis Inc., the world’s largest developer of logistics properties, is bullish about warehouse demand this year despite signs of an economic slowdown. Executives at San Francisco-based Prologis said Wednesday they remain cautious about building new facilities as the economy wavers. But they said vacancy rates remain near record lows and that much of the leasing activity for this year is already secured or underway. Warehouse demand peaked last year, as average national vacancy rates plummeted to near 3% and reached close to 1% in Southern California. Average occupancy in Prologis’s owned and managed portfolio ticked up to 98% in the fourth quarter from 97.7% in the prior quarter.

☆ Warehouse Leasing Tumbled at the End of 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Newsletter Sign-up The Logistics Report Top news and in-depth analysis on the world of logistics, from supply chain to transport and technology. PREVIEWFor the full year, companies leased a net total of 756.8 million square feet of industrial space in 2022, down 18% from the year before. The leasing slowdown raises the potential for a glut of new warehouse space in the coming months, with 682.6 million square feet of new development in the construction pipeline, Ms. Salzer said. Developers are paring back their plans for new projects as financing becomes increasingly difficult to secure, Ms. Salzer said. The amount of new space under construction was down 4.3% compared with the previous quarter, according to the report.

☆ I'm an Airbnb multimillionaire. Here's why I'm optimistic about the platform in 2023, and my best advice for renters to weather the economy.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Dorothy Cucci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Chris Choi, a self-made Airbnb multimillionaire and real-estate investor from California. And class C listings are usually one- to two-bedroom apartments, with nightly rates ranging from $100 to $250. Meanwhile, I've noticed that bookings for my class C and B properties have decreased in recent months. If not, they should focus on targeting business travelers with class B or C properties, which I'll get into a bit later. Instead of choosing your next Airbnb near Disneyland or national parks, I would focus on locations that will accommodate business travel — in other words, metropolitan areas.

☆ 9 tech companies that have ditched San Francisco offices in 2022 are a warning sign for cities to rethink their reliance on big firms
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

San Francisco should be a cautionary tale for cities that rely on tech firms to fill office space. At least nine companies have exited office space in the city, . Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told Bloomberg that San Francisco needed "more diversity" in its economic and tax base, as well as more residential homes and cultural attractions downtown. Meta is planning to leave some of its office space in San Francisco. PayPal left its office in San Francisco this summer.

☆ Hong Kong Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai Gets Another Jail Term After Fraud Conviction
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Austin Ramzy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

HONG KONG— Jimmy Lai , the staunchly pro-democracy Hong Kong media tycoon, was sentenced by a Hong Kong court Saturday to more than five years in prison for fraud over a sublease at the former headquarters of his media company. Mr. Lai, whose widely read publications were some of the most aggressive critics of China’s Communist Party and its locally appointed leaders, has been one of the chief targets of the crackdown that followed mass antigovernment protests that swept the city in 2019.

☆ The Logistics and Supply-Chain Slowdown Has Begun. Here’s How to Take Advantage.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Paul Page | C.H. Robinson Worldwide Ceo Bob Biesterfeld | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

After the pandemic-driven surge in consumer demand that triggered a frenzy of shipping activity and skyrocketing prices, logistics and transportation companies are signaling a fast slowdown. The weekly Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, which measures shipping prices out of China, recently dropped to $1,443.29, about one-third the level it hit in early June. The jaw-dropping declines also measure the spot market prices. Most freight business moves on contract rates, and those long-term prices haven’t fallen nearly as fast as the spot market. Here are some tips for logistics and supply-chain managers to take advantage of a changing market.

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