Opportunity zone investors woke up to great news on Wednesday that had nothing to do with a presidential inauguration.
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The IRS has extended several deadlines relating to opportunity zone investments due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the department announced in a public notice posted Tuesday night. Some deadlines had previously been assumed to have passed on Dec. 31 until the reversal, which extended them until March 31.

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(Bloomberg) -- After a year in which people spent months cooped up at home getting very little exercise, New Year’s resolutions have taken on a little more weight in 2021.
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The fitness industry can attest. Despite the coronavirus restricting gym capacity while shuttering some entirely, the traditional January spike in memberships has matched—and in some ways exceeded—those of years past. Part of that can be tied to the predictable explosion of online classes, and a move toward maintaining mental as well as physical health.  

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With land growing scarce in the leading data center markets, expect to see data centers grow taller, denser and more sophisticated. 

2020 was a record year for data center development, and industry players expect the growth to continue even in the event of a prolonged economic recession. According to a recent survey by Turner & Townsend, 85% of data center professionals predict that construction demand in 2021 will be even higher than it was last year, and a majority don’t see a recession slowing down demand.  
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Northern Virginia, the world’s largest data center market, may serve as a bellwether for development trends. 

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Nestled in a 5,593-page federal spending bill approved last month were several provisions that could tighten energy standards for data centers.
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The $2.3 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act, which included $900B in coronavirus relief measures, was signed into law on Dec. 27. As part of a section on energy policy, the sweeping bill establishes a “data center energy practitioner program,” which would certify experts in data center efficiency, among other provisions.

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The previous, tumultuous year concluded with a sense of optimism, especially for the commercial real estate sector. Distribution of coronavirus vaccines, developed and approved in record time, reached a public elated for anything that can help them return to some semblance of a normal routine.
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“People in the real estate industry very badly want people to start coming back to the office, and vaccinations are the single best ways to get there,” Kastle Systems Chairman Mark Ein said. “Hopefully a year from now, virtually everyone is back. The question is how do we manage through the transition until then.”

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(Bloomberg)—Cold-storage specialist Lineage Logistics is branching into rail.

The warehouse owner acquired Cryo-Trans, an owner of refrigerated and insulated railcars, to capture an additional leg of the food and beverage supply chain. The transaction values Reisterstown, Maryland-based Cryo-Trans at more than $500 million.

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RentPath Holdings has terminated its $588M deal to be acquired by CoStar Group after federal officials scrutinized and later sued to block the merger between the real estate data sites.
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The deal, agreed to in February, was held up by the Federal Trade Commission, which asked in April for more details from the companies and then filed a complaint in November to block the move. RentPath, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February, said in a statement Tuesday its traffic has grown in the second half of 2020 and it has the backing of “well-known” asset management firms.

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