Hello Brick Brief readers, 

Thank you for your continued support! Today we’re seeing Google move into home discovery, reshoring accelerate industrial demand, and grocers continue buying the shopping centers they anchor.

🔍 AI Search Reshapes Home Discovery
Google is moving to control the top of the home discovery funnel through native home listings embedded directly inside Search. Zillow shares fell 9% as investors priced in long-term risk to its Premier Agent lead-gen model, although Zillow still relies largely on direct traffic today.

🏭 Reshoring Accelerates Industrial Demand
The reshoring boom has continued as large manufacturers move forward with major U.S. production investments despite ongoing real estate and infrastructure constraints. Korea Zinc announced plans for a $7.4B U.S. metals smelter while Eli Lilly committed $6B to a 250-acre pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Alabama.

🛒 Grocers Buy What They Anchor
Publix recently agreed to acquire the 138K SF Polo Club Shops in Boca Raton, FL for $83M, the grocery-anchored center it operates, bringing its multi-year real estate buying spree to nearly $430M. As investor demand for grocery-anchored retail grows, grocers are buying the centers they anchor to reduce ownership uncertainty and capture upside on assets they know will perform well.

NY Fed President Williams says policy is well positioned after rate cuts with benchmark at 3.5% to 3.75% -- He expects growth to accelerate to ~2.25% in 2026 and inflation to fall below 2.5% next year before reaching the 2% target in 2027 (Bloomberg)

Boston Fed President Collins says December rate cut was a close call as inflation risks eased slightly -- Softer labor data lower inflation expectations and tariff changes shifted the balance of risks, though concerns about inflation persistence remain (Bloomberg)

Fed Governor Miran says inflation data overstates price pressures with underlying inflation near 2% -- He argues lagged shelter measures distort supply-demand signals and keeping policy too tight risks job losses (Reuters)

St. Paul, MN rent control triggered apartment construction collapse while Minneapolis, MN development accelerated -- A 3% rent cap enacted in St. Paul in 2022 coincided with a sharp pullback in new building, while Minneapolis boosted downtown apartment construction by loosening zoning and permitting rules (WSJ)

Steve Cohen, Bally’s, and Genting win final approval for NYC casinos -- Three projects in Queens and the Bronx clear regulators, paving the way for up to $5.5B in annual gaming revenue by 2033 and roughly $7B in state tax revenue through 2036 (Bisnow)

US homebuilder sentiment rises to eight-month high in December with NAHB index up to 39 -- Tariff-driven construction costs, weak affordability, and soft buyer demand keep confidence below breakeven as 67% of builders use incentives and 40% cut prices (Reuters)

Google tests native home listings in Search – Zillow shares fell 8.5% as investors price in long-term risk to its Premier Agent lead-gen model despite limited near-term impact from mostly direct traffic (CNBC)

Zillow recently announced a partnership with OpenAI that lets users search for homes directly on ChatGPT and routes prospective buyers back to Zillow’s platform. Now Google is testing native home listings inside Search, raising the risk that home discovery shifts upstream and weakens Zillow’s control over buyer traffic and lead generation over time.

San Francisco and New York City lead U.S. office recovery – Transwestern reports five straight quarters of improving fundamentals in NYC and renewed leasing momentum in SF as absorption rises, sublet space falls, and return-to-office activity lifts urban demand (ConnectCRE)

Onshoring drives industrial upside as Hines projects $1T in U.S. manufacturing construction through 2030 -- The buildout is expected to generate roughly 430M SF of new warehouse and logistics demand (Bisnow)

U.S. reindustrialization hinges on real estate readiness as manufacturing push collides with land and power shortages -- Zoning delays, grid constraints, and talent gaps are stalling advanced manufacturing projects despite strong policy support and capital availability (CommercialObserver)

Korea Zinc to build $7.4B US metals smelter at government request -- The project will produce zinc, copper, precious metals, and strategic minerals; construction will start in 2027 and operations will ramp through 2029 (Reuters)

Eli Lilly commits $6B to build a 250-acre pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Huntsville, AL – The facility will produce a new oral GLP-1 obesity drug, create 450 permanent jobs and marks the largest private industrial investment in Alabama’s history (ConnectCRE)

Matan Companies owns 700 Progress Way in Gaithersburg, MD and inks a 162K SF lease – Montgomery County Public Schools fully leased the life sciences/industrial campus, bringing the property to full occupancy alongside AstraZeneca and Daikin (CommercialObserver)

Bath & Body Works Candle Day drives 267% traffic surge in December 2025 -- In-store visits jumped 266.8% versus the Jan–Nov daily average, topping 2023 and 2024 gains as strong branding and deep discounts pulled discretionary spending back into stores (Placerai)

Surging data center demand continues to create a power bottleneck that lifts electricity costs, raises blackout risk, and forces AI and cloud growth to compete with manufacturing and households for limited grid capacity.

PJM grid strained by data center growth as power prices spike across 13 states -- Data centers are driving a 166 GW demand surge by 2030, pushing capacity prices up over 1,000% and raising blackout and ratepayer risks (Bisnow)

Data centers capture a growing share of U.S. construction spending -- Large-scale campus builds are reshaping industrial development and boosting domestic semiconductor demand tied to AI and cloud growth (CoStar)

Investors ramp up CDS hedging on Big Tech as AI debt risk grows -- Single-name credit default swap volumes tied to AI-exposed firms have jumped about 90% since September as companies load up on debt to fund data centers and infrastructure (FT)

New York utility large-load queue triples YoY to 10 gigawatts on AI and manufacturing demand - Aging grid infrastructure faces mounting strain as data centers and chipmakers drive higher power costs (Bloomberg)

Nearly 1,900 U.S. power projects totaling 266 GW canceled in 2025 despite data center demand surge -- Clean energy drove 93% of cancellations as grid constraints, local opposition, and interconnection reforms culled project pipelines (Bisnow)

Engineering giant WSP agrees to acquire utility consulting firm TRC from Warburg Pincus for $3.3B – The deal positions WSP as the largest engineering and design firm in the U.S (Bloomberg)

Slate Asset Management and Hamilton Lane acquire majority stake in Cold-Link Logistics -- The deal adds control of a top-tier North American cold storage platform (IREI)

U.S. residential foreclosure filings rise 21% YoY in November – Charlotte, NC posts the sharpest jump among major metros at +125%, while Philadelphia, PA records the highest foreclosure rate at 1 filing per 1,511 homes (TheRealDeal)

Rudin’s 32 Sixth Avenue office tower in New York, NY sees valuation cut 56% to $340M – Morningstar reappraised the former AT&T headquarters as occupancy lingers near 57%; Rudin secured a four-year extension on the $425M CMBS loan and committed $100M to capital improvements (TheRealDeal)