Archives for March 2020

5G Indoor Coverage Poses Problems for Office Buildings and Operators

March 26, 2020 by CARNM

The millimeter waves of 5G have trouble penetrating walls and other structures, which presents significant challenges for carriers as they plan 5G indoor coverage.

Without a doubt, 5G cellular is coming. But mobile operators have been focused mostly on the consumer market. However, 5G will generate some important developments that will affect enterprise technology buyers. Business customers, at this point, should start introducing those developments into their cellular planning process now.
The one 5G feature that everyone seems to acknowledge is higher transmission rates. All mobile users will certainly benefit from higher transmission rates as they become available. However, other issues and decisions could be more important for enterprise managers. In other words, don’t get bogged down in what the carriers say about speeds.
Business 5G still has work to do. Apple, for instance, has not yet introduced a 5G iPhone. As a result, enterprise users — many of whom are iPhone users — won’t be joining the 5G party anytime soon.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project, the body that develops cellular standards — like 5G — has also promised ultra-reliable, low-latency communicationservices and support for denser deployments of IoT devices. But those capabilities have yet to appear.
One big issue for enterprise users that’s not getting enough attention is what it will take to bring 5G indoors.

5G indoor coverage issues

The operators have talked about 5G indoor coverage in their ads, but they’re mostly talking about venues such as stadiums and malls — places with lots of open space and that are under a roof. But, when enterprises address 5G indoor coverage, they’re usually thinking about office space.
Offices can have many walls and solid building cores that can leave plenty of radio dead spots. Wireless LAN (WLAN) experts know about dead spots. And, as builders adopt energy-efficient designs, we’re finding specially coated windowpanes often block radio signals as effectively as heat loss.
So, if users in your building want to talk on their cellphones, you may need a cellular signal source inside your building.

Small cells’ big potential

Traditionally, carriers install a distributed antenna system (DAS) in buildings to improve indoor signal coverage. These systems have a signal source — either an outside donor antenna or a dedicated cell site in the basement. A network of cables, amplifiers and antenna heads distribute the cellular signal throughout the building. Often, the DAS is installed by one carrier, and the others pay for access to it, an arrangement called neutral host.
However, traditional DAS has a big problem with 5G’s multiple input, multiple output transmission technology that is key to high transmission rates, so the industry is proposing an idea called small cells.

The coverage of a small cell is comparable to a Wi-Fi access point and even less if walls are in the way. The operators have already installed thousands of small cells in outdoor applications to provide denser coverage in high-traffic areas. Now, operators are proposing small cells for indoor applications.Carriers may also use new higher frequency millimeter wave — 24 GHz to 36 GHz — for their outdoor small cells. But those frequencies are highly linear, meaning they don’t turn corners. Plus, they can’t penetrate walls easily, so they have to be used in open spaces. For indoor use, you’d need small cells operating at lower frequencies more suitable for indoor applications.

Cellular voice especially problematic

Ultimately, a small cell installation in an office building will look like an enterprise WLAN. However, we haven’t seen neutral host small cell services that support multiple carriers. So, unless something changes on that front, we might have to deploy a separate small cell network for each carrier we use.
Interestingly, this scenario poses a problem primarily for cellular voice. Your data traffic, on the other hand, could be just fine. The reason data is not a problem is we have a WLAN, and virtually all smartphones default to Wi-Fi as their primary choice for sending data traffic. The default choice for voice calls, however, is cellular. Tests have shown that roughly 75% of cellular data traffic is sent over Wi-Fi. So, as long as your WLAN is up to snuff, your data is covered.
Finally, 5G might be an interesting conversation topic for the general public. But, for networking professionals, it’s a critical responsibility. Enterprise IT departments need to get up to speed on 5G issues. They should talk with their mobile operator sales reps and start planning to support 5G within their facilities.
Or you can skip this advice, but then I’ll have to call you on your landline.
By: Michael Finneran (Tech Target)
Click here to view source article

The Cities American Renters Are Migrating To and From in 2020

March 26, 2020 by CARNM

Apartment List’s Renter Migration Report for Q1 2020 says Denver is trending, while Detroit is sliding.

Many species of animals, including birds, fish, and whales, migrate to new locations at various times of the year. While their reasons for moving are likely instinctual and can be credited to temperature, food availability, or mating, humans also migrate in patterns, but likely due to employment, family, or the local housing market.
Every quarter, Apartment List releases a Rentonomics report that provides an in-depth analysis on the migration patterns of America’s renters. Researchers use data—based on recent searches of Apartment List users—to look for which parts of the country are retaining their renter populations, which parts are attracting today’s renters, and which metros renters are fleeing from. Read on to find out which U.S. cities are faring well in the new decade, and which are floundering.

Hot Spots
After calculating the share of inbound searches for each metro, Apartment List identified Denver, Baltimore, San Diego, Tampa, Fla., and San Francisco as the top five areas with the highest interest for the first quarter of 2020. Boston, Seattle, Charlotte, N.C., Houston, and St. Louis followed in the next five spots.
Denver ranked first with 48% of inbound searches. According to the report, Washington, D.C., is the most common source of out-of-metro searches for Denver, with residents accounting for 10.5% compared with San Francisco’s 2.4% and Seattle’s 1.1%.
“With a thriving job market fueled by a years-long tech boom, Denver continues to attract renters from around the country, even as the area’s housing costs continue to increase,” says Chris Salviati, the report’s author. “It may be that as the tech industry bears increased scrutiny, Denver area startups are finding it increasingly important to attract workers with policy backgrounds and connections.”
Baltimore ranked second on the most attractive list with a 47% share of inbound searches. Unlike Denver, which has high renter interest across the country, Baltimore ranked high because of its location close to one of the nation’s most expensive rental markets. Two-thirds of users searching for the city outside of the metro are currently based in D.C. and are looking for an affordable alternative, says the report.

Sliding Cities
Out of the 25 most attractive cities, Detroit ranked last with just 18.2% of inbound searches coming from outside the metro. “Detroit has suffered from a decades-long population loss, and, although this loss has slowed in recent years, the area has yet to cement a full revival,” says Salviati. “In addition to failing to attract renters from elsewhere, our data also shows that many renters currently living in Detroit are looking to get out.”
As for the metros renters are looking to leave, Orlando, Fla., Riverside, Calif., Detroit, Chicago, and Charlotte, N.C., ranked highest in outbound searches. Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Baltimore made up the rest of the top 10.
Orlando, Fla., held the list’s top position, but, unlike Detroit, Orlando also has a relatively high share of inbound searches (34%), indicating that the area is experiencing a changing population rather than a declining one.

Report Highlights
The Apartment List research team chose to highlight Nashville, Tenn., as the decade’s most-changed metro. With the seventh fastest rate of population growth over the last decade, inbound searches for Nashville came in at 51.3%. Plus, over 70% of renters currently living in Nashville want to stay there.
Two California regions boasted interesting results. In Los Angeles, people are searching for less expensive alternatives outside of the state and flocking to areas like Phoenix. Over 18% of renters looking to leave LA are searching in Phoenix, and 12.5% are searching in Las Vegas. On the other hand, the Bay Area’s renters are looking to stay local. People looking to depart San Francisco are searching in nearby San Jose, followed by Sacramento.
On the East Coast, the city of Boston posted similar results to the Bay Area. Two-thirds of Boston apartment hunters want to stay, while the one-third looking to move are interested in Providence, R.I., Hartford, Conn., and Manchester, N.H.
Last, 30.1% of renters currently living in Honolulu are searching outside of the metro, with the majority wanting to depart the island entirely. Those Hawaiians are interested in Las Vegas and account for 11% of outbound searches. In fact, Las Vegas houses the largest population of native Hawaiians outside of Hawaii and has even been referred to as the “Ninth Island,” according to the report.
By: Symone Garvett (MFE)
Click here to view source article

Property Owners’ Legal Responsibilities During the Coronavirus

March 26, 2020 by CARNM

Landlords have some degree of responsibility in the protection of an occupant’s health and safety, this includes taking reasonable steps to protect commercial tenants and their customers.

As the US works contain the spread of COVID-19, what is the responsibility of commercial landlords and property managers? GlobeSt.com recently spoke with James Ferrara, a partner at Shapiro, Blasi, Wasserman & Hermann, P.A. in Boca Raton, FL to find out. Ferrara focuses his practice on a wide range of business and commercial litigation. Prior to joining the firm, he was a Circuit Court Judge in Florida’s 15th Judicial Circuit for Palm Beach County.

What are some of the main questions you are receiving from commercial landlords and property managers during this uncertain time?

I’m receiving numerous calls from property managers and commercial landlords regarding access to their buildings and what obligations they have to protect the health of their tenants. For example, a majority of one of my client’s residents are snowbirds and many were inviting family members, located in the Northeast, to relocate to Florida, as a way to escape that area’s higher concentration of COVID-19 diagnoses. The management company wanted to know if they had an obligation or the right to screen visitors for fever or other symptoms to protect healthy residents. My opinion was that without a governmental edict, they were prohibited from screening the health of visitors and could not interfere with a unit owner’s property rights.
We also received calls from commercial landlords, wanting to know what obligations they had to protect the health of their tenants in today’s environment. Generally, landlords have some degree of responsibility in the protection of an occupant’s health and safety, this includes taking reasonable steps to protect commercial tenants and their customers.

What steps should commercial landlords and property managers take?

The property management agreements and the leases we typically draft and litigate make no reference to global or national pandemics. Currently, there are no directives from the government as to leased premises or multifamily dwellings. Although no one expects either landlords or property managers to be on the front line of preventing the spread of this virus, there are a number of steps that may be perceived as good practices and a sense of heightened responsibility. While owners can’t control what happens in a tenant’s or owner’s unit, the common areas are certainly places where they can take a more proactive role. Closing community parks, pools and community centers is a good place to start.

What should commercial landlords and property managers be telling their residents and tenants?

Communication in these peculiar times is paramount. I suggest providing written communication to tenants and unit owners as to the heightened steps that have been implemented. In addition, in the case of businesses that continue to operate, landlords should request that the tenants adopt and share with them their own internal protocols for health and safety. Finally, periodic emails alerting occupants about the status of governmental closures and how it may impact occupancy will be key to effectual management.

What about their own staff?

Though it is critical for buildings to remain operational, commercial landlords and property managers need to monitor their own on-site staff. In the event someone falls ill or exhibits symptoms they should be removed from the premises immediately. Healthy custodial staff and porters should be given directives to thoroughly clean and disinfect, on an increased basis, those surfaces that come in contact with tenants, unit owners and their guests. Further, ensure that bathrooms are well stocked with soap and touchless paper towel dispensers, and hand sanitizer should be made available in common areas. To increase awareness, posters and other materials, which are readily available from the Centers for Disease Control or local public health agencies regarding the ways individuals can reduce the spread of the virus, should be prominently displayed in all common areas.
As a final word, legally we are in uncharted territory. There are no statutes or cases that provide guidance. This only addresses these important issues in general terms, and the duties and obligations of both commercial landlords and property managers may be either expanded or diminished, based upon the terms of a particular lease or management agreement. Consult with your landlord’s or association’s legal counsel to ensure you are taking the proper steps.
By: Erika Morphy (GlobSt)
Click here to view source article

Some Initial Takeaways on How the $2T Stimulus Helps CRE

March 26, 2020 by CARNM

Industry pros are continuing to unpack what’s in the massive $2 trillion stimulus package, but already some items stand out that should provide relief to the CRE sector.

After days of rancorous negotiations, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a $2 trillion+ economic stimulus bill aimed at helping the American economy navigate an unprecedented shock. The House appeared poised to pass the legislation on Friday and President Trump has promised to sign the bill as soon as it reaches his desk.
It could not come at a more pressing time. On Thursday morning the Department of Labor reported that initial jobless claims soared to a seasonally adjusted 3.28 million in the week ended March 21.

The bill is broken into several parts, with hundreds of billions allocated towards direct cash payments to most Americans and to vastly expanding unemployment benefits to be more generous and cover more classifications of workers. That alone will be beneficial, for example, by helping apartment tenants pay their rents.
And within the bill are specific measures that will provide some benefits to the commercial real estate sector.
Here are some initial takeaways based on early analysis and reaction to the bill.

NAIOP outlined some of the provisions that will help the space. The organization pointed out that the bill “provides a technical correction to the Qualified Improvement Property (QIP) depreciation drafting error from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that resulted in a 39-year depreciation period for QIP, rather than making it eligible for immediate expensing. This correction is a top NAIOP federal priority and its inclusion is a result of our efforts over the last two years.” Previously, this deduction would have been spread over 37 years. So this allow an acceleration of write-offs on expenses for any recent renovations. A New York Times analysis estimated the change in depreciation rules could amount to an $170 billion tax break for real estate investors.
In addition, NAIOP pointed out that the bill allows five-year carryback of net operating losses for non-REIT businesses for 2018, 2019 and 2020. It also increases the limitation on deductible business interest from 30 percent to 50 percent of EBITDA for 2019 and 2020.
Meanwhile, the New York Times pointed out that there is a section of the bill with the title “Business Concerns With More Than 1 Physical Location.” The section changes here apply to companies that fit “a North American Industry Classification System code beginning with 72”—the code that applies to the hotel and restaurant industries.
According to the Times, “The provision says that if a company owns multiple hotels, even if the overall hotel or restaurant chain has more than 500 employees—the limit to qualify for treatment as a small business—it will still be able to take advantage of the small-business benefits offered in the rescue package. The Times reported that “representatives from the American Hotel & Lodging Association reached out to Republicans and Democrats to push them to insert the language, arguing that it would allow the federal assistance to cover an additional 33,000 hotels.”
The bill provides federally guaranteed loans from community banks to small businesses that pledge not to lay off their workers—something that could be a great benefit to many commercial real estate tenants. The loans would be available during an emergency period ending June 30. The loans would be forgiven if the employer continued to pay workers for the duration of the crisis.
The Mortgage Bankers Association lauded the passage of the bill and MBA President and CEO Bob Broeksmit said in a statement, “Importantly, this legislation includes funding that can be leveraged to create a broad, dedicated Federal Reserve liquidity facility. It is critical that the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury swiftly establish a financing program to help some mortgage servicers provide the unprecedented levels of mortgage payment forbearance required under the legislation to help homeowners facing COVID-related hardships.”
Meanwhile, the Associated General Contractors of America (AGCA) put out a statement saying the provisions would help construction firms, but also advocated for additional measures.
“Specifically, Congress must provide financial compensation for losses incurred on federally funded projects because of COVID-19 related delays and cancellations. Congress also needs to increase investments in infrastructure and pass needed multi-year funding measures for surface transportation and waterways. And Congress must act to protect the retirement and health plans of millions of construction workers who participate in multi-employer pension programs.” AGCA President Stephen E. Sandherr said in a statement. “The industry will not be able to truly recover until federal officials pass measures designed to stimulate new demand for construction, make contractors whole for losses incurred because of the coronavirus and protect employee retirement and health plans.”

By: David Bodamer (NREI)
Click here to view source article