The Quantum City Show

Ep. 5 | The $2.4 Billion Bridge, Eminent Domain & AI Schools

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In this episode of The Quantum City Initiative, we break down the first net negative quarter for industrial real estate since 2009, why Cushman & Wakefield thinks downtown office should shrink from 70% to 42% (and why that’s probably wrong), and how Silicon Valley giants are scooping up office towers while everyone else is running for the exits.

We look at the ripple effects across culture, policy, and capital—Adam Neumann’s new Flow project in Miami, Cape Cod homeowners losing properties to eminent domain, and Bill Ackman’s AI-driven school experiment that shrinks classroom hours to two a day. Plus, we dig into the “experience gap” in commercial real estate, malls as the original experiential retail (poised for a comeback), and why nostalgia—from hacky sacks to cassette tapes—always finds a way back.

Here’s what we get into:

  • Industrial slowdown: net negative absorption and what’s behind it
  • Cushman’s $120B retrofit thesis—and the flawed 42% office mix
  • Why tech companies are buying real estate (and what it signals for CRE)
  • Adam Neumann’s Flow in Miami and WeWork’s strange comeback
  • Eminent domain on Cape Cod: $2.4B bridges and forced home buyouts
  • The “experience economy” and how to actually bridge the gap in real estate
  • Malls, nostalgia, and the future of retail experiences
  • Bill Ackman’s Alpha School: AI, two-hour school days, and the death of cohorts
  • Beer league championships, hacky sacks, and cassette tape revivals

    • Cities are being reprogrammed—in real estate, in policy, and in culture—and we’re here to track it in real time.

    👉 Don’t miss the conversation—subscribe to The Quantum City Initiative on your favorite podcast platform and tune in to Episode 4 now.

    Timestamps:

    01:20 Industrial Real Estate Pullback
    04:42 Cushman’s 42% Office Mix Debate
    10:15 Tech Giants on an Office Buying Spree
    16:00 Adam Neumann’s Flow in Miami
    18:30 Cape Cod Bridge Project & Eminent Domain
    27:00 The “Experience Gap” in CRE
    34:15 Why the Experience Economy Matters Now
    36:40 Nostalgia: Malls, Cassette Tapes & Culture Cycles
    41:30 Bill Ackman’s AI-Driven Alpha School
    42:45 Beer League Championships & Closing Notes

    #RealEstate #QuantumCity #CommercialRealEstate #Innovation #Miami #AI #ExperienceEconomy #CRE #HQO #TQCI #TheQuantumCityInitiative



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