ATLANTA: Circle 75 Office Park Surges With 65,000 SF in New Leases
SK Commercial Realty announced more than 65,000 square feet of leases signed in November at Circle 75 Office Park, highlighting strong tenant demand for the Class A office campus located next to Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta. The activity reinforces SKCR’s reputation for delivering seamless, full-service leasing, management, and project consulting under one umbrella.
The month’s largest transactions include VentureX (17,664 SF), Simplicity Financial (22,356 SF), and Phoenix Health Care (10,450 SF), representing nearly $14 million in combined lease value. With these deals, the 900 Building is now 91% leased, and the 1100 Building sits at 93% occupancy. SKCR’s in-house Project Consulting division will manage nearly $2 million in tenant improvements for VentureX and Phoenix Health Care.
Circle 75 continues to attract companies seeking visibility and walkability, supported by on-campus amenities and proximity to The Battery. SKCR is also marketing the adjacent 1200 Circle 75, a 250,000-square-foot build-to-suit opportunity, while construction continues on The Henry, a two-tower mixed-use development bringing condos, apartments, hotel rooms, retail, and a pedestrian bridge to the area.
SAN FRANCISCO: Amazon’s Former Rufus Architect Joins Kaya AI to Transform Construction
In a major industry move, Mukesh Jain, the Amazon AI leader behind the Rufus shopping intelligence platform, has joined Kaya AI as Chief Technology Officer. Jain, credited with more than $12 billion in AI-driven commercial impact at Amazon, is now bringing his large-scale predictive AI expertise to one of the world’s least digitized trillion-dollar industries: construction.
Jain will lead development of Amber, Kaya’s domain-trained AI “knowledge worker” designed to interpret drawings, specs, RFIs, submittals, equipment lead times, and logistics. Kaya is also rolling out its Mission-Critical Procurement (MCP) Planner™, a small-language-model-powered engine that links design intent to supplier availability—addressing procurement delays, the most expensive bottleneck in data center and advanced manufacturing projects.
The company is already working with leading national builders including Suffolk, Haskell, and ARCO Murray. Construction executives say Kaya’s end-to-end system—spanning design, procurement, supply chain, and field execution—delivers step-change efficiency improvements. With Jain at the helm, Kaya aims to reshape how mission-critical infrastructure is built in the AI era.
LOS ANGELES: Dwight Kay Releases First Comprehensive Guide to 721 Exchange UPREITs
Kay Properties & Investments Founder and CEO Dwight Kay has released a groundbreaking book, “721 Exchange UPREITs: What Investors Need to Know Before Investing,” now available on Amazon. It is the first published comprehensive guide dedicated solely to understanding the increasingly popular but complex 721 Exchange UPREIT strategy.
Drawing from decades of experience and nearly 10,000 completed 1031, DST, and 721 UPREIT transactions, Kay provides clarity on how DST investors can use a 721 Exchange to defer taxes by converting DST interests into REIT Operating Partnership Units. With DST market volume expanding from $2 billion in 2015 to more than $10 billion in 2023, thousands of investors are approaching critical decision points where 721 UPREIT strategies may be used as exits.
Kay emphasizes both the benefits and the risks, urging investors to understand hidden pitfalls and conduct rigorous due diligence with their advisors. The book provides case studies, real-world examples, and step-by-step breakdowns to help investors make informed decisions in an increasingly complex tax-advantaged landscape.
SOUTH KOREA / CHINA: New Research Maps Urban Shrinkage Across 497 Medium-Sized Cities
Researchers at Jeonbuk National University have released one of the most detailed analyses to date of urban shrinkage among medium-sized Chinese cities, a demographic trend often overshadowed by studies of major metropolitan growth. The study, published in the Journal of Urban Planning and Development, examined population changes across 2000, 2010, and 2020 census periods.
The findings show that 57.5% of medium-sized county-level cities experienced population decline over the two-decade span, with shrinkage intensifying and shifting spatially from northeast to southwest regions. Demographically, the strongest factor driving decline was an exodus of working-age residents, followed by reduced numbers of school-age children and constraints in fiscal expenditure. Industrial factors played a lesser role than expected.
Researchers recommend strategies such as special economic zones, upgraded education and welfare infrastructure, and refined industrial restructuring to stabilize these vulnerable cities. The study offers new insight into the future of regional planning in China, underscoring the need for targeted interventions as medium-sized cities confront demographic and economic headwinds.
