Here is what your fellow Columbia Business School Real Estate Alumni have been doing recently. If you don’t see your news mentioned, please let us know.

Compass CEO Robert Reffkin Calls on Companies to Diversify Boards (video)
Robert Reffkin, CEO of Compass, joins “Squawk on the Street” to discuss providing economic opportunity for the black community and diversifying businesses.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The COVID-19 Pandemic Will Have Widely Varying Effects Across Property Types
The flipside of the challenges in the retail sector is the way physical distancing and store closures have created a boom in demand for e-commerce fulfillment, benefiting the industrial sector. “COVID-19 will likely exacerbate several trends that were already in place prior to the pandemic,” says Nancy Lashine, founder and managing partner of Park Madison Partners. She says the industrial sector should continue to see steadily increasing demand as more consumers shop online — a move that is likely to become permanent.

REFI Radio: Innovations in Real Estate
On this week’s episode REFI Radio's Innovations in Real Estate, host Nancy Lashine sits down with Hines’ CIO of the Americas Alfonso Munk to discuss how the global investment firm are navigating the third month of the coronavirus pandemic.

State Tax Department Takes 100K SF at MetroTech Center in Brooklyn
The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance recently inked a deal for nearly 100,000 square feet of office space at 15 MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn, according to information from CBRE and CoStar Group. The agency inked a ten-year, 98,927-square-foot lease on the second and fourth floors of the Brookfield Properties-owned building in Downtown Brooklyn. CBRE’s Mary Ann Tighe, Howard Fiddle, Evan Fiddle, Evan Haskell and Eric Sears handled the deal, along with Jesse Cooperman and Ross Hoddeson of Brookfield’s in-house leasing team. The agency is scheduled to move into the space on July 1, per CoStar.

Meet the New Yorkers Who Bought Apartments During the Coronavirus Crisis
“This is uncharted territory so the norms for reviewing a package or how to do a board interview or what the move-in procedures are — [it’s] all in flux,” says Allison Chiaramonte, an agent at Warburg Realty. “Things are taking longer, and there are often unexpected steps and costs such as needing additional cleaning or security for move-ins.”

Centerpoint Expands its Eas Bay Last-Mile Portfolio
CenterPoint Properties acquires its sixth property in the prime East Bay industrial market in the last 18 months. The 7.94-acre site, located at 950 Whipple Road, Union City, CA, is less than two miles from I-880 and is proximate to the San Mateo Bridge for easy access to the entire San Francisco Bay area….“The marriage of quality cash flow and the new entitlement has birthed an accretive, long-term asset for our East Bay portfolio,” said Greg Pearson, Vice President of Investments at CenterPoint. CenterPoint has been the most active East Bay logistics investor over the past 24 months.

The Office Apocalypse Is Not Here, Yet
Experts won’t rule out a consolidation of office space, but most tenants are not making drastic decisions about their office leases yet. Only 6% of CFOs plan to have half or more of their workers stay remote after the pandemic, according to a recent Gartner survey of 317 CFOs on March 30. “I believe most if not all companies are going to offer the ability to work remotely. But the jury’s still out as to how much that actually impacts office space and the number of square feet someone has,” said Wasserstrum.

Unprecedented Times Create Extraordinary Demands
Peters…noted that this home-size expansion will look very different from what was seen with the McMansion trend in the 1990s. “While square footage may increase, I think it’s going to go to different places,” she said, noting that massive living spaces such as the great room are solidly out of style in an era of social distancing. “It’ll go to the areas that people have discovered are the most useful.”

Opportunity Zone Deals Suddenly Accelerate as Program Starts To Look More Attractive
“We have a significant amount of dry powder,” PTM Partners' Mike Tillman said. “We’re looking at a handful of projects right now. Given what has taken place in the market, there’s definitely reason to believe we’ll see some more interesting opportunities, coupled with the fact regulations are now complete, so there’s more clarity.”

Real estate firms with existing operating portfolios are now focused on shoring up their cash flows, while newer opportunity zone funds can spend more time pursuing new developments, said PTM Partners Chief Investment Officer Scott Meyer, whose firm’s opportunity zone fund has three projects in development. “A lot of the traditional players are playing defense right now, but because opportunity zones are a relatively new program, those funds are in development they don’t have operating assets,” Meyer said.

What is the Future of New York City? (byline)
Don’t believe all you see in the news: New York City is not disappearing. It has certainly been hard hit. The Big Apple has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. The death toll is high, the anxiety is deep and the images are brutal. But New York is tough. It has seen big crisis before. Actually, in the last 20 years, it has been the setting of three of the biggest world crises: 9/11, the Global Financial Crisis and, now, the coronavirus pandemic.

Times Square's Empty Rooms Signal Reckoning for NYC Hotels
The global hospitality industry is facing the worst downturn in its history, and New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., is poised for a painful recovery. Even when travel resumes, the Manhattan hotel market’s reliance on international travel and large conferences will make it hard for owners to cover debt payments and labor costs. “There’s too many rooms, the hotels are too dependent on group business, and the union negotiated a wonderful contract for itself,” said Jonathan Falik, chief executive officer at JF Capital Advisors. “It’s tough to think how they can all survive.”

Greystone Arranges $65M Refi on LIC Apartments
Greystone provided a $65-million Freddie Mac loan to an affiliate of The Lions Group to refinance One LIC, a 20-story, 110-unit rental apartment complex in Queen’s Long Island City neighborhood. The new 16-year fixed-rate permanent financing through Freddie Mac’s “Lease-Up” program refinanced a Bank Leumi construction loan. Notably, this was one of the last “pre-stabilized” permanent loans to receive Freddie Mac credit approval since the program was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Drew Fletcher, Bryan Grover and Matthew Klauer of Greystone Capital Advisors originated the financing.

Licify Leverages its More Than 5,000 Companies to Generate a Digital Transformation (in Spanish; quote below has been translated)
Fernando Olloqui, CEO and co-founder of Licify, pointed out that the purpose is to radically transform the way construction has operated in Colombia for decades “seeing the current situation as an opportunity to gain ground and help others.” 

Welltower Navigates Uncertain Times with Pandemic
“Since we began to shelter in place, even the most resilient people have experienced challenges with basic social determinants, such as sourcing groceries, medication and isolation and loneliness,” he said. “Residential care concepts like senior housing allow these much-needed activities of daily living to be delivered in consistent, supportive, efficient, and cost-effective ways. This is why we believe in the long-term viability of this business.”

Selling Points: NJ Industrial Portfolio Trades for $43M
New York-based Turnbridge Equities has acquired The Creamery, an 82,000 s/f mixed-use property at 400-410 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, N.C., for $34.7 million. Jason Davis, managing director for Turnbridge Equities, announced the acquisition of the fully leased property, which dates back to the 1920s.