Elgin Area Chamber Of Commerce: Harley Spins Out Electric Motorcycle, Office Use Declines, Flood Damage Costs Could Rise

Elgin IL

15 December, 2021

2:30 AM

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Press release from the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce: December 14, 2021 By Richard Lawson CoStar News   Harley Spins Out Electric Motorcycle Harley-Davidson Inc., known for its distinct-sounding motorcycles known as "hogs," plans to spin off its electric motorcycle manufacturing in a York, Pennsylvania, factory into a public company. The Milwaukee-based company is merging its LiveWire division with a special-purpose acquisition company that values the electric bike company at nearly $1.8 billion. Harley will own 74% of the shares in the new company. Shareholders in the SPAC created by New York City-based middle-market private equity firm AEA Investors and British firm Bridges Fund Management will own 17%. Kymco, a Taiwanese power sports company, is part of the deal and will own roughly 4% of the shares. Harley said as a separate company, LiveWire will be able to take advantage of the engineering expertise, manufacturing footprint, distribution, supply-chain infrastructure and global logistics capabilities of both Harley and Kymco. LiveWire began production in 2018, and customers took delivery in 2019. Office Use Declines U.S. office use eased off last week after a post-Thanksgiving rebound, an indicator of the difficulty in sustaining increases. Most of the major metropolitan areas tracked by Falls Church, Virginia-based security firm Kastle Systems saw office use dip in the week that ended Dec. 8. Kastle gathers anonymous employee data from workplaces where it provides access-control technology. While it is only a sampling of buildings by one security company, the data gives a peek into how employees and employers are responding to office use during the pandemic. Many of the cities declined by at least 2 percentage points from the previous week. Austin, Texas, which hit nearly 60% in the week after Thanksgiving, fell to 57.3%. The Bridgeport, Connecticut-area near New York City, another area that nearly hit 60% the previous week, fell 2.8 percentage points to 56.7%. The Phoenix metropolitan area had the biggest drop in office use, falling 3.2 percentage points to 40.4%. Flood Damage Costs Could Rise Climate change could mean U.S. commercial real estate owners pay more to repair or replace flood-damaged properties over the next 30 years, according to a new study. First Street Foundation, a research and technology nonprofit group focused on defining climate risk in the United States, found in its study done with global engineering and consulting firm Arup that costs could rise from $13.5 billion next year to $16.9 billion by 2052 because of climate change. "As climate change continues to accelerate, flood risk will pose an economic threat to more commercial and multi-residential properties across the country," said Ibbi Almufti, chair of Arup's global working group on climate risk and resilience, in a statement. Nearly 730,000 retail, office and apartment properties face the risk of flood damage, the study said. Flood damage to those properties could mean 3.1 million days of lost business because of repairs next year and grow to 4 million lost days by 2051. The study found that the financial impact could grow as well. Source: www.CoStar.com This press release was produced by the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author's own.