Marketwatch May 8, 2020

Tune in to our North Georgia Intelligence Roundtable Thursday, May 14th at 4:00. We have an excellent panel to discuss CURRENT North Georgia Dynamics, Residential, Commercial and Acreage real estate along with insight on EMERGING TRENDS and an audience fed Q & A.

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You are invited to a Zoom webinar.

When: May 14, 2020 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Topic: North GA Intelligence: Current Market Dynamics

Register in advance for this webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YKUCr2hoTeSRi5hptw3ffw

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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PIVOT 

Norton Native Intelligence™ sees the current Covid-19 grades social engineering experiment in four stages (spoiler alert, we are in phase two…almost three) and we tier them into: 

ONE - SHOCK AND BEWILDERMENT

Unknowing the impact of Covid-19, the veracity of the contagion, we follow government orders to shelter in place…HOME, hording food, drugs and toilet paper. And for the next two or three uncomfortable weeks out of work, working at home or just homebound, we have a difficult time separating fake news from reality of our situation and America’s situation.

TWO - ADAPTATION

Humans adapt, we are a resourceful creation and once we settled in after the first week, we began to calm our lives down and problem solve our newfound existence. We learned to order groceries through Instacart, breakout old cookbooks, took long walks with or without our dogs, mastered Zoom meetings, Zoom book clubs and even Zoom cocktail parties. The new phrase “SOCIAL DISTANCING” became our mantra. We ordered takeout from Two Dog Café, family meals in bulk from Brenau University and the occasional drive through latte from Dunkin Donuts. Businesses continued, shocked yet hobbling through technology productivity but the business heartbeat slowed but it DIDN’T STOP. We found ourselves adapting to a state of slow-motion suspended animation.

THREE - PIVOT

As we see Georgia, the Nation and the World exit their cocoons, we see an emerging “butterfly” aka economy with an awaked sense of purpose, creativity and drive. Warren Buffet wrote in his annual letter last week:

“Nothing can basically STOP America…you CAN BET on America.”

So as America, we pivot and modify the way we live, work, play and worship.

PIVOT NORTH GEORGIA

We sit on top of 6 million people now yearning for less density, less people, more trees and more recreation opportunities. That’s exurban Atlanta but with close accessibility to strong healthcare networks and quick in-and-out of Atlanta (when and if we need it).

PIVOT RESIDENTIAL

Housing will certainly change with fiber high speed, a required utility, multiple study/home office areas and the importance of private outdoor spaces will win out over density, neighborhoods with multiple small pocket parks (distancing play) and walkability.

PIVOT RETAIL

• Watch for an avalanche of Big Box and Department Store closures, most were on the edge before any pandemic. Smaller mom and pops were affected but have pivoted faster with personal shopping, home delivery and customization.
• We will see sanitation and continuous wipe downs in all retail with those centers having easy front door “in and out” commanding strong rental rates.
• For the restaurant sector, delivery and takeout will never retreat.

PIVOT INDUSTRIAL

• With Amazon distribution and its essential supply chain becoming KING MIDAS, we see others following their lead and locating along I-85 North and I-985 (Gainesville South) distributing direct to consumers has made a 10-year timeline leap.
• Just in time, parts suppliers have also been turned on its head as supply chain diversifications across multiple counties and diluting “made in China” will result in a North Georgia Industrial zoom, actually across all of Georgia’s stimulants, a leasing and building boom of 100,00 to 250,000 mid-size warehouse products
• Manufacturing is temporarily, erecting plexiglass workstations/dividers separating the assembly line… “industrial distancing.” Long term assembly lines may lengthen, forcing plant expansion and in some cases, robotic labor replacement.

PIVOT OFFICE

• Norton Native Intelligence™ sees a 5-year office space transformation as leases renew and office users rework floor plans, eliminating bullpens, spreading apart breakrooms and transitioning to more shared private offices with staggered workdays. Visual A & B sales teams that alternate days in home offices and days in the main office.
• We see building owners quickly accessing conventional air conditioning systems mostly recirculating air with 10-20% fresh air and an hour to bring a constant flow of fresh air upping utility cost but eliminating recirculating air potential exposed to contagions.

FOUR - BUILD

Norton Native Intelligence™ stage is BUILD America, North Georgia will move into a build stage…WHAT WE DO BEST! Build back critical supplies of food, drug, personal hygiene, medical and cleaning sanitation. Think abundant stockpiles for the next "WHAT IF?"

We will build the next generation residential office and retail “Live and Work” spaces.  And we will build America based on supply chains, powerful stabilizer for whatever comes our way…. 

YOU CAN BET ON AMERICA.

WE ARE N THIS TOGETHER…

 NORTON NATIVE INTELLIGENCE

For More Information email info@gonorton.com