Realcast: Two years in 100 episodes, a metaverse stay, retail revival, ULI confers
In the spotlight this week:
In the 100th edition of RealCast, we look at the beginning of tourism, travel and hospitality’s comeback, CitizenM’s announcement of more hotels in London’s Victoria area and, a first, development of a new hotel in the metaverse.
Meanwhile, the Built by Nature accerator fund is financing research on engineered timber in Milan putting up €250,000 for the Milan Innovation District – you can read more about use of timber for more sustainable construction in the forthcoming issue number four of Real Asset Impact magazine.
Meanwhile, Ikea franchisee Ingka is allocating €3 billion to physical retail, demonstrating that some retail sectors do remain vibrant; ECE sold a food-anchored shopping centre in Austrian city Linz and Irish firm Greenman tied up its latest food-anchored retail park near Koblenz.
Other big retail-linked stories this week have included: the possible merger of CapCo and Shaftesbury who between them control a large swathe of central London; iconic Oslo department Steen & Strom turns in record trading figures; supermarket group Tesco is to partnering with IWG to open flexible workspace; and LandSec sells a mixed use building in London’s Strand for £195 million while also reducing its retail agency roster from 30 to five agents; Ikea is to open a car-free store in Vienna and a pop-up in Paris just celebrated Ukrainian design expertise.
All that and discussion of this year’s ULI European Conference, just held in Brussels – coincidentally, the last time that event was held – two years ago, was just before covid struck thus just preceding the first of this series of 100 RealCasts.
Click on the video to watch the full discussion or listen to the podcast below.
