Although it’s been operational since mid-March, the newest @properties franchise officially launched today in La Crosse, Wisc. This is first Wisconsin location for Chicago-based @properties, which began offering franchises to independent operators late last year.

The franchise has been purchased by two of the area’s top real estate agents – Bill Favre and Ryan Wessel, formerly of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services North Properties and RE/MAX Results, respectively.

Favre and Wessel will serve the greater La Crosse area out of the building they recently purchased and renovated at 1844 E. Main St. in Onalaska, a city in La Crosse County.

“This is an exciting moment for La Crosse real estate. We have seen our market evolve and become much more sophisticated in recent years, and we have been looking for a solution to meet our clients’ always-increasing expectations,” Wessel said in a press release. “We have found it in @properties.”

Serving as agents at their former brokerages, Favre and Wessel have made the leap to ownership with @properties and have merged their combined 8-person teams into the new company.

“With our team and @properties, homebuyers and sellers are going to experience the best marketing and technology in the local industry, as well as enhanced service throughout the transaction,” Favre said in the press release. “And the community is going to benefit from an organization that is always focused on making a positive impact. It’s real estate the way it should be in 2021.”

Both Favre and Wessel grew up in the La Crosse area, located on the Mississippi River about halfway between Madison and Minneapolis, Minn. the La Crosse metropolitan statistical area has a population of 135,000.

“Bill and Ryan are two local entrepreneurs who came along and set a new standard. But they know they can raise the bar even higher, and we are thrilled to support them in that effort. They are a great fit for @properties, and @properties is going to be a great fit for La Crosse,” said Thad Wong, co-founder and co-CEO of @properties.

The La Crosse area is home to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, as well as a number of corporate headquarters including Organic Valley and Kwik Trik. The Mayo Clinic Health System and Gundersen Health System anchors the region’s large healthcare community.

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The topic of where Chicago banks don’t lend in Chicago has been highlighted in fine reporting, done so clearly by Linda Lutton and others at WBEZ last summer, with the tagline “For every $1 banks loaned in Chicago’s white neighborhoods, they invested just 12 cents in the city’s black neighborhoods and 13 cents in Latino areas.”

In the discussion since that report of what your banks could do, you have circulated many ideas: helping people get more mortgages, providing homebuyer assistance and one bank’s suggestion of bringing a “bank bus” into a community where there is no local branch bank.

Thanks for the gestures, but shame on you for not being there already. These “solutions” overlook a major, gaping hole in bank logic: There is a lack of decent product—that is, affordable homes—for people to buy in our communities. We simply do not have decent, quality housing on a large enough scale to help significant numbers of individuals and families to put your offered “lending products” to use. We need rooftops to do that.

United Power for Action & Justice and its member religious and civic institutions in Chicago have set out to rebuild or reclaim at least 1,000 homes on the West Side and 1,000 homes on the South Side of Chicago. Homes that are affordable and accessible to African Americans, Latinx, young and working-class people, and others who have been frozen out of the Chicago real estate market.

We need owner-occupied homes—not just rentals—that can help families and individuals build wealth and equity through homeownership. We need homes built at a scale that will spark deep renewal in our neighborhoods that have waited for generations to reclaim their communities for themselves—not for gentrifiers, flippers or speculators.

How could your banks help? Now? Today? In 2021? Our proposal is to start by pooling together enough money to establish a zero percent interest, non-recourse, revolving loan fund to finance the construction or reclamation of new, decent, affordable owner-occupied homes at the scale needed to bring about permanent, community-controlled revitalization.

A revolving fund of a mere $25 million of the “$52 billion-with-a-B” your banks promised last year would allow us to start building the first 250 homes in North Lawndale this year (yes, in 2021) and continue to build or reclaim 250 homes a year in the four communities on the West and South sides we have targeted. An additional $10 million could provide no-interest second mortgages with reasonable liens to reduce the initial cost of purchasing these homes, especially for first-time homeowners.

And we will do this in neighborhoods where the indigenous leaders and their institutions have already proven their commitment to organize for and seek improvements in jobs, education, health care, retail outlets and public safety for the long haul. But first we need those rooftops.

We in United Power for Action & Justice and the mayor and housing commissioner of the city of Chicago are ready to build or reclaim these homes. Are you, the six CEOs of the banks whose promises are listed above, ready to make your corporate rhetoric real in Chicago? We’re coming to ask. Will you meet with us, or will you send your PR people to explain that a revolving fund of $25 million in zero percent construction loans is just too much for your bank to risk in helping us reclaim our communities?

From left: Rochelle Foster, North Lawndale Homeowners Association; Kevin Sutton, North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council; and Amy Totsch, lead organizer at United Power for Action & Justice.

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Courtesy of Flower One

A greenhouse operated by Nevada-based Flower One.

The cannabis industry took a step toward becoming a normal business sector Monday when the U.S. House of Representatives approved by a lopsided vote the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act. The proposed law would allow banks and financial institutions to avoid federal sanctions or prosecution if they do business with cannabis providers. The measure, approved by a 321-101 vote, now moves on to the Senate, where a previous version stalled in 2019.

The SAFE Banking Act has become one of the industry’s most cherished goals, a measure that would allow cannabis providers to secure financing for new development, property acquisitions and operations, instead of being forced to scrape by on cash reserves. It could also provide a big boost to retail landlords, especially those with federally insured mortgages, eager to fill vacancies with cannabis brands that attracted crowds throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of cannabis dispensaries and growing operations sprang up across the U.S. in recent years as more states legalized recreational use of the drug, but providers say the stigma scares off many landlords, and even deep-pocketed cannabis firms struggle to secure spaces.

“The real estate industry is drastically impacted, because many real estate owners can’t rent to the fastest-growing industry in the country,” Cresco Labs spokesperson Jason Erkes told Bisnow. “We’re pretty much the only industry right now that is renting space.”

Cresco, one of the nation’s largest cannabis providers, secured 10 licenses for recreational cannabis dispensaries in Illinois after the state became in 2019 the 11th to legalize the product. It opened 10 of its Sunnyside-brand cannabis stores in Illinois, including two in Chicago, and several in the suburbs. But it wasn’t easy, Erkes said, as landlords with institutional financing tend to shy away.

“Sometimes you’re told, ‘We can’t take your money.’”

Recreational cannabis is growing more popular every year. Seventeen states have legalized its sale and use, including New Jersey, Arizona, Montana and South Dakota through voter referendums in November, and New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a legalization measure on March 31.

And providers are raking in money. In Illinois, where legal sales began on Jan. 1, 2020, recreational dispensaries rang up $109M in sales this past March, beating the $89M record set in January 2021 and a 35% increase over February sales.

But even with growth and record-setting sales, the cannabis industry in the future is going to have an even greater need for traditional financing and access to capital. Many states, including Illinois, are now putting together plans to grant recreational cannabis licenses to people from disadvantaged neighborhoods, ones that suffered adverse effects that include high rates of imprisonment from the decades-long prohibition of cannabis. These social equity applicants typically have less capital than corporate giants like Cresco, Curaleaf and Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries.

That’s a big obstacle. The upfront expenses in the industry can be considerable as retail spaces typically need to meet stringent requirements that vary state-by-state, and completing gut renovations can total hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“If enacted into law, the SAFE Banking Act would strengthen efforts to increase the diversity of the cannabis industry by providing resources for those with limited access to capital and increasing the chances of success for state-level social equity initiatives,” Marijuana Policy Project Executive Director Steve Hawkins said Monday in a press release. “Further, it would protect the 321,000 employees directly affected by the cannabis industry’s lack of access to financial services.”

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One year after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the Chicago-area industrial market’s vacancy and rental rates have nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report from Newmark.

Although the industrial sector took a hit in the first few weeks of the crisis, it began climbing back once the shock wore off and tenants saw increased demand from homebound consumers purchasing goods online. Many resumed signing leases, sending vacancy down to 6.2% in Q1 2021, a decade low, and recently have shown a willingness to pay more for space.

Courtesy of Newmark

“This sentiment of only a slight dip in the market as opposed to a full long-term stop is reflected in the rental rates on transactions completed during the pandemic,” according to the Newmark report.

The company analyzed Chicago-area leases completed in 2019 just before the pandemic and found the average net rental rate was $6.19 per SF. Starting in March 2020 and through the summer, rental rates for new deals fell to $5.59. But from Labor Day through Q1 2021, the rates rose to $6.04.

“These rents reveal the uncertainty felt through the summer as the businesses reacted to the state of the world at the time, including second rounds of outbreaks, social unrest and the upcoming election,” according to Newmark. “As far as the industrial market goes, that hesitation seems to have dissipated.”

Courtesy of Cawley Chicago

1640 West Hubbard St.

SALES

Kaufman Jacobs sold its 1640 West Hubbard St. in Chicago’s Kinzie Corridor for an undisclosed price. The 35K SF mixed-use space includes flex, distribution, gallery and creative loft office. Cawley Chicago’s Zach Pruitt, Frank Melchert, Brenten Blakeman and Nicholas Schaefer represented Kaufman Jacobs.

***

Kenall Manufacturing sold 13.7 acres at 10200 55th St. in Kenosha, Wisconsin, about 60 miles north of Chicago, to Panattoni Development Co. Colliers International Chicago’s Ned Frank, Fred Regnery, Jeff Devine, Steve Disse and Jack Rosenberg represented both buyer and seller. Frank, Regnery, Rosenberg and Colliers’ Pat Hake were hired to lease the spec facility.

***

Courtesy of Essex Realty Group

663 West Grace St.

The 663 Grace Condo Association sold in a Section 15 deconversion its 80-unit condominium property at 663 West Grace St. in Chicago’s East Lakeview neighborhood. An Essex Realty Group team of Doug Imber, Kate Varde, Brian Karmowski, Jaimie Steinher and Dan Shepherd represented the association in the $13.8M deal. The buyer was a local investor. The association’s legal counsel was Omar Malik and Kelly Elmore of Kovitz, Shifrin and Nesbit. The buyer’s legal counsel was Scott Weinstein of Field and Goldberg. Financing for the purchase was provided by Red Capital’s Jim Sotos.  

***

Courtesy of NRC Realty & Capital Advisors

Chicago-based NRC Realty & Capital Advisors was hired by Circle K Stores Inc. to coordinate the sale of 269 store sites across 29 states in the U.S. and 37 sites across six provinces in Canada. The average building size is between 2K SF and 3K SF, and the average lot size is 29K SF. The stores are being offered in packages, grouped primarily by geography.

LEASES

Thor Equities Group signed several more leases for its 800 West Fulton Market, a new 19-story mixed-use building it developed with joint venture partner QuadReal. Office furniture and design firm Teknion will occupy 22K SF. In addition, the developers are filling up the tower’s retail space, with Zeppola Bakery agreeing to take more than 1K SF.

***

Sammons Financial Group signed a new lease for 10K SF at The Old Post Office. The renovated building, constructed in 1921, opened its doors to new tenants in November 2019 and is now 83% leased. Other tenants at the 2.5M SF office building include Uber, Walgreens, Ferrara Candy Co. and HomeChef. Telos Group’s Jamey Dix, Matthew Whipple and Daniel Heckman represented ownership in the transaction. Sammons plans to occupy its space in early 2022.

***

Hardinge, Inc. signed a $4.2M lease for 45K SF of industrial manufacturing space at 1755 Britannia Drive in northwest suburban Elgin. Kenneth Franzese and John Cassidy of Lee & Associates’ Illinois office represented Scannell Properties, the owner of the newly constructed, 80K SF building. NAI Hiffman’s Steve Bass represented Hardinge.

***

Lactalis Heritage Dairy, the U.S. subsidiary of Lactalis Group, signed a multiyear, 35K SF headquarters lease at 540 West Madison St. in the West Loop. This will be the company’s first Midwest location. Savills’ Lisa Davidson represented Lactalis.

***

Restricted Article Specialists signed a long-term lease for 17K SF at 501 Eastern Ave., a free-standing building in Bensenville near O’Hare International Airport. Cushman & Wakefield’s Eric Fischer, Marc Samuels and Steve Stone represented building owner Venture One Real Estate.

FINANCING

JLL closed a $55M recapitalization of a 15-building logistics portfolio totaling more than 1M SF of industrial and flex space throughout Chicagoland, part of a new joint venture between Chicago-based real estate investor Clear Height Properties and Harbert U.S. Real Estate, an investment fund sponsored by Harbert Management Corp. Clear Height will continue managing the assets and retain an ownership percentage. The JLL team was led by Kurt Sarbaugh and Christopher Carroll, with assistance from Robin Stolberg.

The new venture will seek to double the size of its portfolio by acquiring additional industrial properties throughout Chicagoland over the next 12 months. 

Courtesy of Draper and Kramer

949 West Dakin St.

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 

Draper and Kramer topped off a 120-unit mixed-use development at 949 West Dakin St. in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood. The project, located across the street from the Sheridan Red Line station and 2.5 blocks north of Wrigley Field, will be named Wrigleyville Lofts. Draper and Kramer plans to begin pre-leasing this summer for fall 2021 move-ins. Designed by Sullivan, Goulette & Wilson Architects, Wrigleyville Lofts will include 14K SF of ground-floor retail. The Chicago regional office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development financed the project, with Gershman Mortgage acting as the HUD lender in the transaction. Leopardo Construction is the general contractor.

***

Pangea completed renovations of 6904 South Creiger Ave., a 26-unit apartment building in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. It is one of 13 properties Pangea acquired from the troubled nonprofit Better Housing Foundation in July. When Pangea acquired the 281-unit BHF portfolio, the buildings had 1,792 code violations. Pangea began renovations on 6904 South Creiger last October, and the first residents have moved into completed units.

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Anne Hardy has been promoted to the position of managing broker of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago‘s Libertyville office, according to a press release from the company. 

Diane Glass, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago, said that as an associate managing broker, Hardy has been a key player in the transformation and growth of the Libertyville office. “I know she will continue to build on our impressive Lake County presence,” Glass said in the press release.

Hardy is a longtime resident of Lake County and highly knowledgeable about the area’s housing market, schools and amenities. She enjoys running and walking in the Lake County Forest Preserves, is an avid reader and volunteers at area food pantries. 

“It’s really my pleasure to work with the best real estate office in Lake County,” said Hardy. “I love helping agents achieve their goals and delight their clients. I will continue to assist them in utilizing our vast company tools and resources toward that end and look forward to celebrating their successes with them.”

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What will the post-pandemic office look like when workers return to downtown Chicago? One only needs to take a walk around their neighborhood to get an idea. At least this is what some top office interior designers and builders are saying as business leaders finally start preparing their strategies for bringing employees back downtown. 

But another key theme that will come about from the tidal wave of the pandemic, and after spending more than a year working from home, will be the idea of control.

Having some semblance of control over the work environment will allow employees to feel safer, and when the workforce feels a deeper sense of security, then we can begin to move forward and get back to focusing on in-person collaboration and fostering company culture, Eric Gannon, a principal at the Chicago office of the global architecture firm Gensler, believes.

“The expectation now is that you’re returning to something different, and you’re returning to something that you have some control over,” says Gannon. “So, I think what that means is how you reserve or how you gauge the intention to what you need, and there’s an expectation that the space is flexible to us as individuals and what we might need to support our work.”

In addition to a flexible, hybrid model of work where employees can choose to work from the office or at home, there’s going to be changes to the office that give employees a similar sense of control that they have at home, Gannon adds. For example, allowing employees to directly adjust lighting at workstations, changing the temperature, or forming a workplace “bubble,” gives more autonomy to choose what feels most comfortable. 

Another view of an open space at LinkedIn’s Chicago office. © Tom Harris, Design by Gensler

This focus on user control and autonomy in the workplace isn’t entirely new, but it’s something that’s being kicked into high gear because of the pandemic. And in many ways, it can also be viewed through the larger lens of the mainstream focus on wellness and fitness in recent years.

And then in terms of the actual layout and programming of any particular office, each company will have different needs, but the industry is moving away from a straight-forward open office environment to one that’s still largely open, but also intentionally planned. 

“The open office was a product of real estate efficiency,” says Gannon. “We were crunching down desk sizes to fit more [people] and I think we believed for a while in the energy that was created in the ability to turn your chair around as a benefit to culture and to the work environment.”

Instead, the antidote to the current workplace conundrum in a post-pandemic world might be the office “neighborhood,” or a layout that looks towards urban planning for inspiration.

“When you think about a workspace from an urban planning construct, you’ve got the main plaza space that’s more communal and you’ve got smaller, more intimate type spaces,” Gannon says of the new way of thinking for office design. “So, I think that the modular approach to the neighborhood is a way to achieve flexibility but also prepare for ongoing change in the short term.”

Beyond the programming, the neighborhood concept is also different in the sense that it’s not a set-it and leave-it approach to office design, Gannon adds. Designers will have to continue periodically checking in with clients about what’s working and what’s not in order to make adjustments and changes to the office to better foster collaboration and productivity. 

Open, common seating areas in Mondelez International’s Fulton Market office built by Skender.

Andy Halik, a VP at Chicago-based Skender also sees a future for the neighborhood layout, or the “address-free office,” as he calls it. And we could start seeing these changes in the office sooner than later.

“Generally speaking, flexibility is more about how a business behaves rather than the space it offers,” Halik says of the oft-discussed theme of workplace flexibility. “The space that companies are offering are still very much driving what they used to be about, if not more so now, which is about culture, collaboration, and succeeding through this together.”

Halik says that there will certainly be a return to the office as companies have learned of some major caveats of having entire teams and staff working from home exclusively, including lower employee satisfaction, retention issues, and a sense of being disconnected or disengaged from colleagues, as well as the company’s mission and culture. 

And regardless of office location, type, or layout, the big question that employers and office designers need to spend more time thinking about is what the office offers that working from home doesn’t. 

“I’ve heard a lot of people forecast that lower density buildings or build-to-suit single occupier situations are going to be the hottest office properties out there, and I do think that demand for those types of buildings will go up,” Halik says. “But the reality has more to do with answering the question: What does the office provide that working from home does not? The buildings and the neighborhoods that answer that the best will be the ones to provide the most opportunities for people to be together, period.” 

Afterall, there is an element to working in an office downtown that’s maybe not as easily defined — the sense of being part of something bigger than oneself. 

Just the simple act of going into the office over the next couple of months may be enough for many workers to feel better about the changing world and workplace.

“I’ve been going downtown more, and every time I do, the anxiety wears off a bit of what it’s going to be like,” says Eric Gannon about heading into Gensler’s office in The Loop. “So I think that there is a very emotional, human piece of just doing it and getting used to it again.”

This article also appears in the April 2021 issue of Chicago Real Estate Journal

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Instead, Amazon developed the Dash smart cart, whose sensors and cameras add up purchases as shoppers cruise the aisles. The carts stop short of a seamless, Go shopping experience. They hold only a couple of bags of food, and shoppers can’t take them outside, forcing them to transfer bags to a low-tech cart or lug their food to the parking lot. 

Tracking dozens of people across a big store is technically challenging, but cost has also slowed the adoption of cashierless technology. Equipping a 2,000-square-foot convenience store with cameras can be done with a few dozen devices. Covering a much larger full-service supermarket, which in the U.S. tend to range from 30,000 square feet to 50,000 or more, can require exponentially more cameras and servers to process and store video. That can quickly chew through the benefits of employing fewer cashiers or luring more people into the store with the promise of a seamless checkout.

Amazon has been working for years to streamline its Just Walk Out system, making the gear more cost effective for its own stores as well as appeal to other companies that might license the technology. Even when Amazon was exclusively opening small convenience stores, the company’s engineers were asked to build a version of the technology that would be viable in stores larger of 30,000 square feet or more, according to one person briefed on the plans.

Last year, the company also introduced Amazon One, which lets shoppers use their palms to pay at its convenience, book and 4-Star stores in the Seattle area. Amazon on Wednesday said thousands of customers had signed up and that it had introduced the service to a Whole Foods Market store in the city and planned to roll it out in other locations.

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The Connecticut store under construction is about 34,000 square feet, including stockrooms, back office space and an ample staging area for online orders. The sales floor—the area that would need to be policed by camera arrays—is about 20,000 square feet.

That’s almost three times the size of the retail floor at the largest stores currently using Just Walk Out technology. Amazon operates two Go Grocery-branded stores in the Seattle area. Both have about 7,000 square feet of retail space.

The Connecticut location also has 320 square feet of space split between two rooms for server racks and other electrical equipment, a feature that doesn’t appear in plans for some other already open Amazon Fresh stores. The plans also show a set of conventional checkout counters.

Amazon isn’t identified by name in the planning documents, but the similarities between the documents and others the company has filed around the country leave little doubt as to its tenant. The strip mall’s owners described the firm behind the grocery store as an “extremely secretive” technology company in a city planning meeting in October, that was reported earlier by the News-Times newspaper of nearby Danbury, Connecticut. The owners said the store operator would have 50 or 60 locations by the time the Brookfield store opened, if permitting was approved on time, which lines up with the Amazon Fresh expansion.

The documents don’t make clear what role, if any, Dash smart carts will have in the Brookfield store. Nor is it clear how quickly Amazon will bring Go technology to other Fresh locations, although former employees of an Amazon grocery store that has yet to open in Virginia recently told the Washington Business Journal that elements of Amazon Go technology would be included in that location.
 

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CHICAGO — City Hall put the call out Thursday for companies wanting to operate a casino in the city, giving them until late summer to submit proposals for a gaming complex with a hotel, restaurants, bars, entertainment venues and meeting space.

The city also laid out the planned timetable, estimating a permanent casino should be ready to open by 2025, although the winner will be permitted to operate a temporary casino for up to two years.

Those interested in applying for the city’s lone casino license have until August 23 to respond to the city’s “request for proposal,” or RFP, and the city wants them to provide public presentations by late September.

The city will then kick off a community outreach process to narrow the field before selecting a winner in “early 2022.” The chosen operator must then be approved by the Illinois Gaming Board and navigate the city’s zoning process, including heading to the Plan Commission, zoning committee and full City Council for approval.

The license will allow the winner to operate the temporary casino, move into a permanent location and have the rights to operate slot machines at Chicago’s two airports.

The city is requiring applicants to include a “casino-resort with 500 hotel rooms or less, meeting space, restaurants, bars, entertainment venues and more.”

Applicants must also meet the city’s goals around inclusion for minority (26 percent) and women (6 percent) owned businesses and job opportunities for city residents, representing 50 percent of the total work hours.

The city is betting a new entertainment district anchored by a casino will improve the city’s struggling finances. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she was “beyond excited” to take the next step towards landing a casino, which would not be expected to open in its permanent location until well into her potential second term.

“We look forward to collaborating with world-class operators to develop a premier entertainment destination that will catalyze growth in our dynamic economy, create sustainable, good-paying jobs for our workforce and bring new financial opportunities to our businesses,” she said in a press release.

The city is hoping potential players will cash in on the area’s role as a “global gateway city with 9.5 million residents” and its pre-pandemic 61.5 million domestic and international visitors in 2019.

The city has yet to identify a location for the casino, but Lightfoot has said she hopes the project will anchor an entertainment district to lure visitors and compete with nearby casinos in Rosemont and northern Indiana.

In December, Crain’s reported the groups interested in bidding on the casino project prefer to build it Downtown.

The interested players, including familiar gambling ventures MGM, Hard Rock, and Wynn, as well as active Chicago real estate developers Related Midwest, and DL3 Realty were responding to a request the city put out surveying what potential operators would look for when building the casino, Crain’s reported.

Eight of nine respondents identified a preference for location in or near Downtown, according to Crain’s.

In conjunction with planning for the casino, the city has launched a web portal to provide additional information.

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a supplemental increase of 22,000 visas on Tuesday for the H-2B Temporary Non-Agricultural Worker program.

This comes in response to American businesses reporting an immediate need for supplemental, temporary guest workers as the economy continues to reopen safely, according to a DHS press release. The additional visas will be made available in upcoming months under a temporary final rule in the Federal Register.

Of these visas, 6,000 will be reserved for nationals of the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

“The H-2B program is designed to help U.S. employers fill temporary seasonal jobs, while safeguarding the livelihoods of American workers,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas said in the press release. “This supplemental increase also demonstrates DHS’s commitment to expanding lawful pathways for opportunity in the United States to individuals from the Northern Triangle.”

Employers seeking H-2B workers must prove in their petitions that there are not enough U.S. workers to meet the demand for temporary workers, that not receiving additional workers will cause them irreparable harm and that employing foreign workers will not negatively impact the wages and working conditions of similar non-foreign workers. Businesses petitioning for H-2B workers must also aid in recruitment efforts for U.S. workers.

As the residential real estate market struggles to meet housing demands from homebuyers, a chronic labor shortage plagues the industry. The supplemental increase of H-2B visas can help mitigate these labor vacancies by allowing builders and developers to hire foreign construction workers and meet housing market demands.

The National Association of Home Builders released a statement applauding the decision: “Given the chronic labor shortages facing the home building industry, NAHB has been urging both Congress and DHS to expand the number of H-2B visas available each year, including restoring an exemption for returning H-2B workers from counting toward the program’s annual statutory cap.”

The temporary final rule will also allow employers to urgently hire H-2B workers who are already present in the U.S. without waiting for approval of the new petition, a safeguard that protects both U.S. and H-2B workers and also provides flexibility to employers.

The DHS also issued 35,000 additional H-2B guest workers visas in March 2020 to meet worker shortages.

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