Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real Estate Law Blog
Our mid-year roundup highlights the top-read Gravel2Gavel posts from 2022 so far. Our authors provided deep industry insights and summarized hot topics that addressed various legal implications and disruptions that affected the market, ranging from topics like investing in real estate metaverse to the clean hydrogen transition.
Articles Posted in Real Estate
Kim Jaimez: Commercial Real Estate Taking Notice of ESG Enforcement
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Pillsbury Litigation partner and former federal prosecutor Kimberly Jaimez was featured in the GlobeSt.com article, SEC Ready To Clamp Down On ESG Investment Claims, offering insight on the increased awareness of environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns in commercial real estate. With ESG now being viewed by most CRE investors as a top priority in business operations, a new source of risk has resulted: increased SEC scrutiny over overinflated or otherwise false ESG claims. This could mean CRE investment funds, REITs, and other real estate entities will have to increase compliance vetting on marketing and communications. Jaimez presented the following comments:
Real Estate & Construction News Round-Up (06/01/22)
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Cybersecurity becomes an increasing concern when buying digital land, a significant property tax break in New York is set to expire, climate disclosure mandates in commercial real estate are on the horizon, and more.
Real Estate & Construction News Round-Up (05/25/22)
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U.S. cities begin leveraging infrastructure coordinators, Texas tax appraisers have been put on notice, China’s property market is projected to worsen throughout 2022, and more.
Real Estate & Construction News Round-Up (05/18/22)
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Businesses renovate office spaces at a historic pace, China plans to build a 3D-printed hydropower dam without human workers, the U.S. infrastructure package has thousands of projects underway, and more.
Do Municipal Gas Bans Slow the Clean Hydrogen Transition in Real Estate?
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Clean hydrogen has the potential to play a significant role in the energy transition by serving as a carbon-free form of energy storage and heat production. In real estate, hydrogen could provide heating, replace or supplement natural gas in many applications, or store excess rooftop solar power. The United Kingdom, United States and Japan are all homes to pilot projects attempting to scale out hydrogen for use in communities.
Smart Building and Smarter Protocols: Mitigating IoT Cybersecurity Risks in Commercial Real Estate
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From our homes to our workplaces, the deployment of smart technology is becoming increasingly prevalent. The Wall Street Journal notes that smart-building-related companies raised $2.88 billion in venture capital in 2021. In previous posts, we’ve discussed the increased use of smart technology in commercial real estate, the importance of a thorough and rigorous research and evaluation process, and various factors to consider in contracts for smart technology. These evaluation and contract processes are vital for developing security guardrails to which smart technology suppliers must adhere. A rigorous, security-centric approach to smart home technology can help protect real estate companies from catastrophic PR and financial fallout from a security incident such as the Mirai malware attack in 2016 that targeted insecure Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The average cost of data breach incidents increases with each year and, in 2021, the average cost of a data breach incident was $4.24 million. More than ever, companies must not only be aware of the cybersecurity risks of these technologies but take the necessary steps to address their vulnerabilities.
Real Estate & Construction News Round-Up (05/11/22)
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The supply of homes for sale is on the uptick, the White House releases a plan to improve the permitting process for infrastructure projects, cryptocurrency opens the door to a new class of property owners, and more.
NFT Use Cases in Real Estate
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Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are changing how we think about asset ownership in the real world and in the digital world. NFTs—unique digital tokens stored on a blockchain ledger that represent ownership of an asset, either real or virtual—have gained significant popularity in realms such as art, gaming and entertainment, as a means to establish authenticity and transfer various rights. As a result, entrepreneurs are searching for new industries to disrupt utilizing the advantages offered by NFTs and blockchain more generally. The traditional real estate industry, together with virtual land in the evolving Metaverse, has been on the radar of many.
Real Estate & Construction News Round-Up 05/04/22
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Construction payment apps are on the rise, the European Union proposes to block Russians from buying European real estate, warehouse vacancy rates hit a 27-year low, and more.