Weekly News (September 27, 2017)

1. MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) → New Landmark 

• ‘MoMA Tower’ at 53 West 53^rd St
• Architect, Jean Nouvel (72) designed. 1033 FT / Diagrid Method used.
• 1^st ~5^th FL → Museum / Up 82^nd floor → Condo(1 ~5 Beds, full floor APT, duplex penthouse)
• Will completed in end of 2018 / move-in will be 2^nd half of 2019

2. Cornell University Tech Center opens at Roosevelt Islands in NYC on 9/13/2017 

• At South of the islands : 2 Million SF / Cost: $2 Billion (Began construction in 2011)
• 1400 Solar panels & Geothermal electricity
• The project was approved in Bloomberg era
• 2800 science / Engineering Graduate students and facilities capacity

3. Korea Town (32^nd St) in Manhattan is being changed

• Since 1980’s, 1^st Retail stores are major business district (Foot traffic) for 30 years
• F&B business (Food and Beverage) is looking into 2^nd
• According to PD Properties, 2^nd floor stores are 15 stores on 32^nd St between Broad Way and 5^th Ave. Among them, 7 are F&B stores (1^st / 2^nd floor stores are 22 / 12 stores are F&B)
• 2^nd Floor Retail business → Unique situation in 32^nd St
• 1^st floor rent → $120 ~ $150 / FT (Center location: $250 / SF → Doubled since 7 years ago) If lease premium calculated, $250 ~ $300 / SF
• Gamiok moved to 2^nd Floor in 2015 → Survived
• WooChon(2011), NewYork GomTang(2013), GumKangSan(2015), KangSuhHoiKwang(2017) closed down

4. Korean population: 2.492 Million in US

• As of 12/31/2016, total Korean population → $250 Million
• Citizens: 58.4% / Temp residence: 21.9% / Permanent residence: 16.7% / Foreign Student: 2.9%
• If illegal immigrants included → Total 2.7 Million
• Korean population:b1.1% Up for last 2 years
• NY State: 209,981 / NJ State: 147,646 / PA: 66,354 / CT: 19,104 / Delaware: 4,108
• In NY, Asian increased in Long Islands: 21% Up for last 6 years (Spanish: 16% Up) (White: 84.1% in 1990 → 64.7% in 2016)

5. Housing starts fall for second month

• Home builder slowed their pace of construction by 0.8% in August, the 2^nd straight monthly decline
• Steep drop in multifamily construction ←→ Slight gain in single family
• Builder faces two issues: 1. Lack skilled workers, 2. Rising land cost
• ‘Harvey’ and ‘Irma’ hit the area representing 13% of US home construction → will affect on the coming months
• 8% drop in August for groundbreaking for multifamily (APT) → Builder expect that more people shift out of apartment to single family homes (Millennial generation begins to have children)
• Existing home for sale dropped by 9% to 1.92 Million for last 12 months → Low inventory
• So far this year home construction rose only 2.7% year to date, down from 5.6% gain for all 2016

6. US Middle class had highest average income level

• In 2016, Median Income $59,039 → broke the record in 1999 ($58,655)
• Poverty level: 12.7% (Lowest since 2007)
• People without health insurance for a whole year→ 8.8%: lowest in history
• Income increase between 2014 ~ 2016 is bigger than any 2 years’ increase since 1960 → Obama era’s policy really worked, according to Financial Insight