Quote for Today:

“All of us have bad luck and good luck. The man who persists through the bad luck – who keeps right on going – is the man who is there when the good luck comes – and is ready to receive it.”

– Robert Collier

(Source)

Let’s start out with the good news this Monday morning.

The Transportation Security Administration, much more commonly known (and grumbled about) as the TSA, announced plans to hire 6,000 officers over the next several months. That’s to cover stations at 430 airports across the U.S.

Why?

Because it’s expecting an increase in travel over the summer.

Likewise, Carnival Corp. (CCL) CEO Arnold Donald thinks that “by the end of this year, most, if not all of our fleet… will be in action. I think there’s a really high probability that all of them will be back by early next year if things continue to progress the way they have.”

Naturally, that kind of outlook is good for hotels and their landlords. People who aren’t afraid about or otherwise inhibited from taking vacations need somewhere to stay. And while big-name brands in the hospitality industry are likely looking forward more to the return of business travel and conventions, they’re hardly going to turn up their nose at “little people” wanting to book rooms again.

Of course, Boeing’s (BA) latest “mishap” won’t exactly help in that regard. United Airlines flight 328 from Denver to Honolulu got off the ground just fine on Saturday. But that story changed mere moments after takeoff when an engine caught fire, causing pieces of the plane to rain down on the suburbs below.

Nobody was physically hurt in the incident, but the vacation was without a doubt ruined for all onboard. The plane turned right around and landed back at the airport it had departed from, with everyone onboard potentially scarred for life in an emotional sense.

As a result, both the U.S. and Japan have grounded Boeing’s 777 planes, and the Federal Aviation Administration is looking into the matter.

Another piece of bad news – though for a completely different REIT subsector – is Kroger’s (KR) decision to shut down two of its Seattle, Washington-area grocery stores in late April. That decision has been made to handle the city council’s mandate for frontline grocery workers to get an extra $4 per hour in hazard pay.

The company said in a statement:

“Unfortunately, Seattle City Council didn’t consider that grocery stores – even in a pandemic – operate on razor-thin profit margins in a very competitive landscape. When you factor in the increased costs of operating during Covid-19, coupled with consistent financial losses at these two locations, and this new extra pay mandate, it becomes impossible to operate a financially sustainable business.”

Kroger had previously announced the closures of two Southern California locations for the same reason.

Bottom-line conclusion? Now certainly is a fascinating time to be in retail… and in real estate.

The World According to Commercial Real Estate

Interesting or not though, Wide Moat Research has your back with information from The Daily REITBeat…

• Agree Realty (ADC) announced that Ambassador John Rakolta, Jr. is once again part of its board. It’s also appointed Simon Leopold as CFO, executive vice president, and Secretary after former CFO Clay Thelen resigned to pursue other opportunities.
• S&P lowered Tanger Factory Outlet Center’s (SKT) issuer credit and issue-level ratings from BBB to BBB- with a stable outlook.
• Fitch Ratings says it will withdraw its ratings for Welltower (WELL) on or about March 19 for commercial reasons.

Also, did you see that Power REIT (PW) climbed 21% last week? Talk about huge!

(Source: The Daily REIT Beat)