This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio. Great way to finish out our last half hour double dose of Kent's Swig. He is president at Swig Equities, a real estate development and investment firm focusing on commercial and residential properties here on the East Coast, some on the West Coast. Company, by the way, has purchased in or developed an access of three billion of office properties, so they certainly understand
this market and a lot more. Cant with us back on the phone in New York City. Can't nice to have you here. It really is a nice way to wrap up my Monday. How are you. I'm doing well and it's nice to hear your boys, Carol on the phone. Well, well good, I'm so glad to hear that. Um. You know, we have checked in with you several times during the pandemic and over the past year. How do you feel like things are, because it felt like last week for me, just going in and out of New York City, it
felt like the city was reopening. Yeah. Well it seems like spring has sprung, so things are. Things are a little bit better. Um, I personally feeling better that I've had my raby shots or my vaccine. Um and uh so I've I've traveled, I went. I was in San Francisco this weekend visiting my brother who I haven't seen in fourteen months. And I went for the weekend and came back. And so that's certainly a novel new thing
that I haven't done in a year. Um, So I'm feeling better, well good, I'm so glad to hear that me too. I'm double vaccinated and feeling pretty good about that. Almost out of my two weeks after my second shots, are just waiting for that to wrap up. You know, you and I we've talked about hybrid We've talked about what happens to real estate. Is there anything from we talked about in pandemic how things are going to change a lot? Any of that gonna you think ultimately stick
with us? And I know we've had this conversation before, but I think the further we go along, we get a better idea of whether or not things change, whether or not things stay the same, or whether things maybe change a little bit. Well, it's it's a perfect question and very interesting because there's a little irony and what's going on today. Um, Yes, I believe that that that high some form of hybrid working um will be here
with us for for a long time. You know, if if if somebody has a hundred emails to do one day and they don't want to go in the office and it's more efficient to sit at home, fine, Um, But I'm a big believer in offices and his productivity and all that. The irony is this, Um, all the people in the offices, you know, the companies are saying the reason we could have hybrid working is because of all the technology. You know, there's the Google technology, Zoom technology, Facebook,
et cetera. And yet if you look at the technology companies, Facebook, who took one point seven million square feet in Hudson Yards in and it's being built out not yet occupied, took another hundred thousand square feet in July at the Farley office building right here in New York, UM, which they will not occupy for years. Google hiring ten thousand new workers, all going to be in offices. Amazon bought
the former Lord and Taylor building from we Work. So all the technology companies are are getting more office space for their workers because they know that productivity, efficiency, opportunity, and creativity cannot be achieved from home, but must be achieved in the workplace. And yet it's the office people that are saying, because of technology, we actually could work better from home. So it's a very interesting thing going on. Well,
it's funny. Somebody said to me, you know, you just wait for, like among the financial firms or something, that somebody you know, comes out and got some big deal or some underwriting that they're going to do just because they got on a plane and flew somewhere and got the customer and they got the client, that all of a sudden, everybody's gonna be like, you know what, this hybrid stuff doesn't work, the zoom you know, meeting with clients doesn't work. That everybody will ultimately come back as
a result. Do you see it that way? I happen to Yes, I think zoom will be helpful um for in between meetings. But let me tell you, if you're somebody in your twenties and thirties and maybe even into your forties, how much network in your life do you have? How many people do you know in your life? The idea in your twenties and thirties is you go networking, you meet people in the in the coffee station, in
the elevator, etcetera. If you're in your fifties and sixties and seventies, you have a built in lifetime of network. You can pick up the phone, you can talk to people, you can network these The younger generation doesn't know anybody yet, so their opportunity to meet people, an opportunity and creativity doesn't exist. So their pigeonholed at home and they can't just go out and do things. So it does not work for that generation at all. Hey, just got about
thirty seconds and we'll come back and talk somewhere. Give me a little teaser though. Does the way we use real estate? Will it change? Yes? Hey, so kent, So you're teased so well. Before we went to break, I asked you give me a little teaser about real estate and how it will be used. Will it be different? You said yes? So how will it change? So a couple of ways. Let's take residential and then commercial residential.
Um the idea of a home office. There is something that I think is very intriguing and very wanted by the by, by the purchasing and renting relation. UM. So if you look at some of these downtown major buildings that converted from commercial to residential, they have this dead space or long corridors and they didn't know what to do with them. Now certainly there's a very big need for them because home officing is something that's very important.
Um with that, because I think office space is also the use of it is changing a little bit where we will have some hybrid offices meaning hybrid schedules meaning that you'll work maybe four days a week and maybe one day at home or maybe half a day at home, and therefore you need someplace at home to work. So the residential will be impacted. Also with outdoor space clearly
as needed. Balconies and terraces are very desired. And then secondly in the office space, how does that change, um, spacing around low low partitions probably are not as desirable because high partitions seem to give a little bit both of privacy and air you know, and an air change, etcetera.
Um so uh and also um, you know, having these big communal areas that used to be out there, which are still I think very much desired, may be slightly less or slightly reconfigured to give a little more space, not just because of COVID, but I think that we're more sensitive to things like the flu season um, So I think our whole way of looking at at health
is going to impact ourselves. I think we will get beyond COVID, certainly, but the feeling we have about being concerned about health, taking one's temperature before somebody goes in an office because of flu, not just COVID. I think all those things are going to be are are going to affect us in our both our home life and our business life. You know, it's fun. We have a story out on the Blue Bargain and says more Americans are leaving cities, but don't call it an urban exodus.
And basically they're saying that, you know, maybe you want to call it a little bit of an urban shuffle. You know. We've talked about mass moves to Florida to Texas, and data shows that most people who did move stayed close to where they came from, although I think in the Sunbout regions that were popular even before the pandemic did see some gains. So there's a little bit of that going on. Has anything changed in terms of how you want to invest in real estate. How do you
want to develop real estate? Um? Well, um, I'm still I still love real estate, I still want to invest in real estate, and I still believe in real estate. Um I'm also still a New Yorker. I'm still a New Yorker and I want to stay in New Yorker. So all those people that moved to Florida, you know, okay for them, But come talk to me in July and August. Are you still down there? You're still living out there? I'm not so sure. Um So, Yes, people
do move. People do react in major, major times of crisis, and there's nothing wrong with that. Responses take time and thought. So, in my opinion, the response to covid um is going to make some impacts in here. But is it going to change real estate being used. We're all going to live somewhere, We're all going to work somewhere, and it will not be in the same place. Um So, I think we have to be more thoughtful about how we do things. Um. I will tell you, everybody, as I
said before, is aware of health. Um so the flu that it used to be. You know, I'm a die hard worker. I'm coming to work today in spite of my hundred and two fever, guess what home and do us all a favor? So I mean those those wonderful things aren't going to happen anymore, right, So, so, yes, we are going to change our way of life. But I don't think. Um. I think that the market went up, certainly in residential and a lot of places, you know,
like like Florida and others. And the question is when things settle down and people miss their homes like New York, does that mean that the residential will come back a little bit as as as the economy grows, will actually some places fall a little bit because they won't have that persistent people going in. Possibly? Yes. Hey, just one
last question, I'm just quickly on real estate. I mean, we didn't see I think the you know, barrage of bankruptcies that we thought we were going to Is it just going to happen later or is just not going to happen? Um. There are some some things that are in trouble, and I think that that they're going to happen unfortunate. I think the hospitality industry is one of the most impactful areas, which is real estate and operating company and and I think we're gonna have that is
going to go through a major change. And I don't know that all the hotels are necessarily going to come back and all the same places there were, Um, but the length of time that's occurred, you know, even though we're at the finish line. Maybe in a marathon, people have run twenty two or twenty three miles and people, how how can you not finish? Well, yeah, and you only have three miles left. They just ran a brutal twenty three miles, and I think people forget the painful
process that we've just gone through. So I'm not sure that everything is settled yet. All right, So I gotta get to a story. A got about three minutes left here, uh, and I want to get to it. We ran a story about Devon Pendleton talked about you specifically securing a minimum of six billion dollars in gold reserves to back your new cryptocurrency. First of all, crypto, your son tell me the role that he had and kind of bringing it to your attention. Well, I have a son, two sons,
Oliver and Simon. Oliver U has been involved with cryptocurrency since he was in his early twenties. Even though it's had a teenager in there. But but um so he'd been investing in doing things and he certainly enlightened me to that. Um then he used some of my money to go invest in some crypto, which he did, so I'm certainly I was aware of it, and I went on a board of the business that was involved in crypto. Um So I think it was a tune to it, and I I awakened, which is what it should happen
from a younger generation. Thankfully, the younger Jurortion generation happened to be my son, so even better. So I mean it awakened me to see opportunity. Well, and so tell me about the stable coin that you guys are doing. What why go this direction? Um What do you see as kind of where it goes specifically? And I'm just curious about the interest that you've gotten it you know, are receiving in terms of investors already. Okay, So the
initial thing is I'm a business person. Um I look at things, and I see things, and if I see a flaw or something that's interrupted, um, I like to go fix them, to correct them. Um So that application of a talent God willing I have can go in many different different, many different industries. It happened to fall into crypto. I found an opportunity that existed, so UM, my partner Steve Braverman, and I ended up buying a
company which was a crypto company. One of the things, unfortunately it had, is that the keys to the controls UM or elsewhere, not just with us, So we had to shut down something. Uh, and we're and we're reissuing a new coin. And what what is the attraction? What makes us a little different than just the typto typical crypto is Number one, we're basing United States. We recognized
we're basing United States. UM. The goal that we have backing is in the United States, we are voluntarily going in before the jurisdictional authorities and asking them to please legislate us and look over us UM and so all the things that we're doing is open, transparent, and out there. The other thing that we're doing is we're offering a
dividend to the crypto token holders. So we're treating this very much as a big business, open, transparent, United States based and and trying to apply those kind of things. So it's a little unique in that world. Well, we'll come have you back and talk a little bit more about that as well. Always good to get a gut check on what's going on in the world real estate and other ken Swig thank you so much. Take care of yourself. President Swig Equities on the phone in New
York City for the Bloomberg Business Week team. Have a great evening. I'm Carol Masser.