Urbanexus Update - Issue #21

TPG and its partners sold 45M shares of Cushman & Wakefield at around $11 a share, equating to about 34% of the firm, retaining a 66% stake. For the 45 million shares already sold that is a profit of $270M to $315 million.

You can check out any time you like, but you may never get clean sheets.

King County (Seattle) officials are debating how to allocate $180 million in future tax revenue. 

Craig Kinzer is a sports booster who helped clear the land for the publicly financed Safeco Field in the 1990s. Now he’s turned into the No. 1 critic of a new lease deal for the stadium that includes $180 million in public money.

Long Beach and Los Angeles top the list of cities with most nice days, which are all on the West Coast.

While the Bay Area still boasts the largest inflows of venture capital in the U.S. by a wide margin, some fledgling companies are steering away to hold down costs. Other, more established Bay Area startups are finding they can hire experienced engineers, not just customer-service or sales representatives, more quickly in less expensive markets like Denver, Salt Lake City and Atlanta.

FHA borrowers can use money from relatives for their down payment. Back in 2011, about one in four FHA loans in California included down payment money from relatives. In 2018, it’s one in three.

The majority of people rent instead of own in 29 of the 50 largest U.S. cities. In 2006, only 16 of the 50 largest cities were majority renter households.

Planners and journalists are often uneasy about suburban development, wondering how people will get to work in the center from more distant locations. But only a small percentage of people work in the center (generally less than 10 percent). Residential and employment dispersion in American metropolitan areas is a major factor in keeping work trip travel times relatively short.

Inside Jeff Bezos’ incentive negotiation process: ‘Constantly hammering’ economic development officials is the norm

Improving street design in Cascadia’s cities ensures complete streets are green streets.

Improving street design in Vancouver’s busy and dense areas ensures the city takes a comprehensive approach to complete streets.

How a decade’s worth of experimentation with complete streets has a created a redrawn paradigm for Portland for today and the future.

Can Seattle move fast enough to implement its best plans for green and complete streets in the face of scorching rates of development?