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Monarch Alternative Capital LP is making deals for office and hospitality assets, betting that changes in where Americans live will accelerate while remote work will ebb, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Investing in distressed corporate debt in the U.S. and Europe is Monarch’s main business, but real estate for office use has taken up more of the firm’s attention — and capital — in recent months. After raising a $3 billion fund in December to invest in all types of pandemic-fueled distress, Monarch has bought six office buildings this year, compared with none in 2020. The firm has also been backing plays for hospitality, retail and senior-housing assets. “In certain asset types there is still fundamental disruption as a result of the pandemic,” said Monarch portfolio manager Adam Sklar. Last month, the firm closed on the 34-story Citigroup Center in downtown Miami, an office building in Plano, Texas, and 10 hotels bought through the bankruptcy of Eagle Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust. Earlier this year Monarch acquired, also through bankruptcy, the Crowne Plaza Orlando Universal Boulevard in Orlando, Fla. So far, people haven’t been returning to their offices the way they’ve been resuming their lives at restaurants, hotels and stores. As of early June, an average of 31% of office workers had returned to the workspaces they occupied before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Kastle Systems, a security company that monitors access-card swipes in more than 2,500 U.S. office buildings.

The stimulus package that President Biden signed into law in March was intended to stabilize state and city finances drained by the coronavirus crisis, providing $350 billion to alleviate the pandemic’s effect, with few restrictions on how the money could be used. Three months after its passage, cash is starting to flow — $194 billion so far, according to the Treasury Department — and officials are devoting funds to a range of efforts, including keeping public service workers on the payroll, helping the fishing industry, improving broadband access and aiding the homeless, the New York Times reported. “It’s not like all places are rushing out to do the most aspirational things, since the first thing they need to do is replace lost revenue,” said Mark Muro, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan Washington think tank. “But there is much more flexibility in this program than in previous stimulus packages, so there is more potential for creativity.” The local decisions are taking on greater national urgency as the Biden administration negotiates with Republicans in Congress over a bipartisan infrastructure package. Some Republican lawmakers want money from previous relief packages to be repurposed to pay for infrastructure, arguing that many states are in far better financial shape than expected and the money should be put to better use. The administration, sensitive to those concerns, has begun bending the program’s rules to allow the money to be spent even more broadly. In May, the Treasury Department told states they could use their funding to pay for lotteries intended to encourage vaccinations. In June, President Biden prodded local governments to consider using the cash to address the recent rise in violent crime, which his aides regard as a serious political hazard heading into the 2022 midterm elections. For the most part, local officials have been focused on undoing the damage of the past year and a half.

The U.S. added 850,000 jobs in June, exceeding expectations as rising demand for a wide range of services disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic fueled the labor market, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department, The Hill reported. The unemployment rate ticked slightly higher to 5.9 percent, according to the report, but the monthly haul far exceeded the projections of economists, who expected the U.S. to gain roughly 700,000 jobs last month. The labor force participation rate stayed roughly even at 61.6 percent, a sign that many Americans are still unable to return to the workforce. There were also 6.4 million Americans who did not seek a job in June — and therefore not counted as unemployed — but want to work, up from 5 million before the pandemic. Even so, strong job gains in sectors hit hard by the pandemic and a sharp drop in the number of Americans working part-time when they'd prefer to work full time pointed toward an accelerating rebound from COVID-19.

BoltBus, the bus service known for offering its passengers Wi-Fi and $1 lottery seats, is shutting down operations indefinitely after months of low ridership during the pandemic, according to Greyhound, its parent company, the New York Times reported. The discount bus operator announced last month that it was transferring most of its routes to Greyhound so it could “undergo renovations.” BoltBus had suspended service earlier during the pandemic, but its parent company said this week that the operator had no plans to put its buses back on the road. Greyhound, which operates the largest intercity bus fleet in North America, teamed up with Peter Pan Bus Lines in 2008 to start BoltBus. The companies wanted to offer an affordable ride to people put off by grubbier alternatives on the market. At least one seat on every BoltBus ride sold for $1 plus a booking fee. Passengers could reserve seats, unlike on Greyhound. BoltBus offered passengers Wi-Fi, individual power outlets and extra legroom, according to its website. The company shuttled riders among cities in the Northeast and in the Pacific Northwest. Greyhound took sole ownership of BoltBus in 2017. In May, Greyhound announced that it was shutting down its remaining Canadian operations.