office buildings

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The Surat Diamond Bourse Is Bigger Than the Pentagon

65K people will work at the office building in India

(Newser) - After 80 years, the Pentagon has lost its crown as the world's largest office building to a diamond center. The Surat Diamond Bourse in India, around 150 miles north of Mumbai, has 7.1 million square feet of floor space, according to its architects, putting it well ahead of...

Amazon Plans a Climbable Office Tower
Amazon Receives
OK for Climbable
Office Tower
updated

Amazon Receives OK for Climbable Office Tower

Building across river from DC will rival Washington Monument on area's skyline

(Newser) - Update: Amazon won local approval Saturday to build a helix-shaped tower to anchor its second headquarters in Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. The vote by the Arlington County Board was unanimous, the AP reports. Board Chair Katie Cristol had said officials sought feedback from residents and worked...

You're Losing Your Office Space

Open offices mean less privacy for the American worker

(Newser) - The American workspace is getting smaller. In 2010, there was an average of 225 square feet of office space per office employee in North America; in 2012, the figure was down to 176 square feet, the New York Times reports based on data from a real estate association. The group...

Have You Seen Senator Udall's Stapler?

Freshman lawmakers get stuck in shabby basement office space

(Newser) - The Senate is one of the most august bodies in the world, and it has the facilities to match. But its mahogany desks aren’t too familiar to 13 new senators, whose offices are temporarily in the basement—with the cockroaches. NPR follows freshman Sen. Tom Udall to his office—...

Credit Freeze Hits High Fliers of Commercial Real Estate

Slowdown plus tough credit slams office market

(Newser) - When the commercial real estate market was hot, the sky seemed to be the limit, and increasingly complicated financing arrangements were common. Now the combination of economic crisis and credit freeze has exposed the market's precarious underpinnings, which resemble the pitfalls that brought the residential real estate sector to its...

Fed Agency Battles Tough Post-9/11 Building Code

New safety rules safety 'too expensive,' officials complain

(Newser) - A federal agency is joining major landlords in fighting tough new building safety standards developed in the wake of 9/11, the New York Times reports. The requirements, added last year after a federal probe into the Twin Towers collapse, call for better fireproofing and extra stairwells. But the General Services...

Ground Zero Excavation Slow, Pricey
Ground Zero Excavation
Slow, Pricey

Ground Zero Excavation Slow, Pricey

NY Port Authority faces millions in penalties on delays

(Newser) - Ground Zero in New York City is a magnet for patriotism, skepticicm and frustration; underground, it continues to be a very costly challenge. Excavation preparatory to rebuilding is moving so woefully slowly that New York's Port Authority has accrued late fees of $300,000 a day since Jan. 1, with...

Commercial Properties Squeezed
Commercial Properties Squeezed

Commercial Properties Squeezed

Owners of malls and office buildings are starting to feel the subprime pinch

(Newser) - Add the once-solid commercial real estate market to the list of sectors felled by the subprime mortgage contagion, as owners of malls, apartment complexes and office buildings have seen financing disappear, prices plunge and the pace of sales dwindle 50%, reports the Wall Street Journal. Lenders, burned by the residential...

You're Right to Feel Abandoned If...

10 indicators the holiday-week fun has passed you by

(Newser) - The office is oddly quiet, your favorite parking spot is always free and your boss isn't lurking in the usual matter. What's going on? Here, the Boston Globe's list of 10 signs that you've been abandoned.
  1. You've rearranged your manager's office furniture and made a chalk outline of a body—
...

Office Rents Soar in US
Office Rents Soar in US

Office Rents Soar in US

Companies are bearing the brunt of a price surge for commercial leases

(Newser) - The price of office space has surged nationwide due to a dwindling store of vacant commercial property and picky landlords increasingly keen on attracting well-heeled tenants. Across the country, leases spiked an average of 3.1% in the second quarter, following an increase of 2.8% in the first.

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