#realestate

Are we ready to call RTO a failure and change course? Or do we need to see new lows for the year first?

Sell all the real estate and make wall st happy

A CBRE division plans to cut 279 jobs tied to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio after a contract with a client ended, the real estate services firm told the Texas Workforce Commission.

https://www.costar.com/article/1825551707/cbre-division-to-cut-hundreds-of-jobs-in-san-antonio

The properties' owner has pumped the complex with a $80 million renovation.
By Janet Miranda

After pumping $80 million into renovating the former ExxonMobil campus in Greenspoint, a real estate company is auctioning off two vacant office buildings in the complex.

Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co. CityNorth 1 and CityNorth 6 will auction off the properties beginning Feb. 10 to Feb. 12. The first of the buildings, City North, a 12-story 254,000 square-foot building has a $1.85 starting bid while CityNorth 6 has a bid of $2.6 million.

The two buildings were first slated to be auctioned off last month and nearby CityNorth 5 was set to be auctioned last September, reported BisNow. It seems that since then plans have changed with CityNorth 5 no longer on the market with the other properties.

Lincoln Property bought the former Exxon campus in 2019. The developers spent two years pouring money into upgrades to the six-office building campus, per a report by the Dallas Business Journal. Efforts also focused on getting the word out that Greenspoint was safe, despite the area's high crime rate which had earned it a reputation as a dangerous neighborhood.

The new amenities added by the developer include a new fitness center, a 10,000-square-foot conference center and a 6,000-square-foot entertainment facility with a golf simulator.

Despite the push to the auction block, David Carter, a principal director and executive vice president at Colliers and broker for the properties, wasn't too sure the properties would be sold at auction this month, per the same BisNow report.

"We have a lot of people interested in them, just not a lot of people willing to bid on them," he said.

Houston's office market vacancy rate was still high reaching, 25.7 percent, according to the Greater Houston Partnership, per The Real Deal.

https://www.chron.com/news/article/exxon-building-auction-20065694.php

Walgreens plans to exit its space at Chicago’s Old Post Office, though its headquarters remains in Deerfield, the company confirmed Monday — news that comes shortly after the sale of Walgreens to a private equity firm.

Walgreens will leave the massive, riverfront structure in January, as the company aims to “renew our focus on our stores and customer experience,” said spokesperson Fraser Engerman.

“Our commitment to serving communities across the country begins in our pharmacies and retail locations, and this decision reflects our continued prioritization of those investments,” Engerman said.
Engerman declined to say how many employees now work at the Old Post Office. But Walgreens moved many of its digital and IT employees there in early 2020, making it one of the first tenants in the building after it was renovated into an upscale office property.

Houston saw Chevron unload the former Noble Energy headquarters in June 2025 for $18.2 million, a fire-sale compared with a previous valuation near $130 million.

Nobody can seriously believe that. The vast majority of employees, whether in the office or remote, have worked hard and responsibly, and that’s easy to prove. RTO was introduced for real estate utilization, control, and, most of all, as an attrition tactic. There are already studies showing it was designed to make people quit, a free way to reduce headcount. Even some managers and leaders have admitted as much during research. So don’t blame your coworkers, blame the ones making these decisions for the wrong reasons.

Wells Fargo renews major East Bay office lease while downsizing in headquarters city of San Francisco

https://archive.is/uOXND

While Wells Fargo & Co. has significantly scaled back its presence in San Francisco, raising questions about the city's future as its headquarters, the bank is recommitting to office space in the East Bay.
Wells Fargo inked a lease renewal for 257,000 square feet of space across the two-building Concord Tech Center, according to a source familiar with the deal. The lease renewal marks likely the largest office lease deal in the East Bay signed so far this year, as many large companies have shrunk and vacated their back office space in suburban Bay Area markets in recent years.
This news arrives after Wells Fargo reduced its San Francisco office footprint to less than half of its prepandemic scale, and listed its 409,000-square-foot headquarters for sale last December, fueling speculation that the bank might relocate its headquarters out of California to Texas. The bank recently opened its sparkling new $455 million campus in the Dallas suburbs that some have viewed as a future headquarters for the company.
Wells Fargo declined to comment for this article. A Wells Fargo spokesperson told the Business Times last December the bank’s corporate headquarters remains in San Francisco, and that they had “no plans to move it out of the city.”
The Concord Tech Center space is Wells Fargo’s flagship East Bay campus. The company’s total footprint in Concord will be 307,000 square feet, as it occupies an additional 50,000 square feet in a lease set to expire in 2028. The deal that closed Friday was a slight reduction in space, downsizing from 335,000 square feet. The bank will now occupy all of 1755 Grant St. and three floors of 1655 Grant St. in a five-year lease renewal.
Concord’s office market took a big hit in 2023 when Bank of America exited its roughly 300,000-square-foot lease at 2000 Clayton Rd. That building was part of a four-building campus that the bank built in the 1980s, which it later sold to Swift Real Estate Partners in 2011.
Bank of America’s downsizing left Wells Fargo as the city’s largest tenant. Concord’s office market is feeling the challenges of the postpandemic shift and slower leasing activity, with office vacancy in Concord reaching 31.4% in the second quarter, higher than the regional average of 21.3%, data from real estate services firm CBRE shows.
“They are the biggest occupant of office space in all of Concord… for the health of that submarket and I’m sure the Concord job market in general, it’s a really big deal,” JLL's Trent Barmby said. “To have Wells make a recommitment … sends a loud message that they’re committed to the Bay Area and the East Bay.”
Barmby and Kevin Mechelke represented Wells Fargo in the lease deal, Newmark represented the landlord.
This news follows several large office tenants in the suburban East Bay market slashing space or leaving the market altogether. Chevron in July listed its entire 400,000-square-foot office space in Bishop Ranch for sublease, after it announced August 2024 plans to move its headquarters to Houston.
In April, BMO Bank downsized from a 276,000-square-foot lease at Bishop Ranch to 30,000 square feet. Last December, Robert Half shrunk its footprint at Bishop Ranch from 250,000 square feet down to a 73,000-square-foot space.
San Francisco-based Redco is currently under contract to acquire Wells Fargo’s former headquarters at 420 Montgomery St., after a deal to sell the building to a residential developer fell through.

These two buildings, 10 minutes apart. Fashion Square in one of the largest luxury malls in the country, Biltmore in an outdoor shopping center just a short drive across Camelback. The new owners of Biltmore Fashion Park have major plans for the center (think Saks redevelopment…..), lofts on top of the mall and a boutique hotel in front of Cheesecake Factory. Kierland Commons lifestyle center is the plan. Where does Macys fit into this? Time and $ will tell.

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2025/09/17/ups-sells-alpharetta-office-sale-leaseback.html

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/citis-london-office-overhaul-costs-hit-15-billion-2025-09-14

thoughts on JP Morgan's new HQ

Who else strongly feel that company HQ should fix their entrance + parking chaos first before calling more professionals back to office?

The single 2-lane entrance the is crossed by walking construction workers is frustrating/dangerous in the morning.

But leaving is worse. That merge as taking a right past the exit gates into a single 1-lane exit for 50ft is absurd for a F500 HQ campus. No wonder the parking garage gridlocks up to the fourth floor as teams all exit at the same time. Simply install a second exit to the main street.

Remove the big speed bumps that slow the sports cars down to .5mph. Leave the 5 smaller bumps for each set and that will help smooth the flow of traffic in the morning. Mirrors around corners would also help as they have designed pedestrians walking into elevators right by a vehicle blind corner.

This is common-sense improvements before calling back more people RTO.

consolidation happening looks like we will be packed like sardines as 3 buildings are consolidating to one UGH! hope we will still have parking

I was laid off in December without being given the option to move. My former boss, who also lives outside of a hub location, is still working! Are managers exempt from the location strategy?

BREAKING: Sale of former Wells Fargo downtown properties finalized - Business Record https://share.google/mat8WI41aijFJoepJ

Email went out today outlining the company's plans to finally eliminate the 90s cubes on RR5 3rd floor, starting with 3W on August 29.

The good news is that employees will get to WFH during reconstruction.

The bad news is that the desk count on 3W will almost double in the same amount of space.

Does renovations like replacing bad carpet and other neglected parts of the store mean that the store is safe? I only ask this question even though it seems like an obvious answer because I’ve seen and heard reports or closure rumors of stores with these said renovations.

I mean financially it doesn’t make sense to me to put money into a store that you’re going to close anyway…

This is very exciting news. I’ll be able to walk to an evening game after work.

The pictures in the free press are super cool. Corktown neighborhood is going to be a great place to work and live. I’m thinking about buying a condo nearby and just bike to work. My only concern is snow in the winter.