West side story

MARKETS

• Brexit: After several major votes in three marathon days, Parliament decided to delay the U.K.’s exit from the EU. But it’s a two-way street...the EU will have to grant that extension.
• U.S. markets: The S&P and the Nasdaq snapped those three-day winning streaks we told you about. Parliament should have delayed that.

REAL ESTATE

The Whole Hudson Yards

There are many places to have fun in NYC. But unless you’re a single rodent looking for a good time, the gritty rectangle of rail tracks on the Far West Side of Manhattan isn’t one of them.

Until today. Hudson Yards, the $25 billion development from Related Companies and Oxford Properties, is officially opening just to the east of that rail yard. It’s the biggest private real estate project in U.S. history, a culmination of plans for the area that have been in the works for decades.

Let’s start with the design. If Pi Day was math teachers’ Super Bowl, then today is for architecture critics. Some have characterized the gleaming development as a “gated community” that caters to the top 0.1%.

• “Hudson Yards glorifies a kind of surface spectacle—as if the peak ambitions of city life were consuming luxury goods,” writes the NYT’s Michael Kimmelman.

But for many, that’s a huge draw

• Office tenants include BlackRock, WarnerMedia, and L’Oreal USA. In total, Hudson Yards is expected to welcome more than 55,000 workers.
• Retailers including Neiman Marcus (NYC’s first location), Dior, and Gucci are holding court in a 720,000-square-foot luxury mall.
• Entertainment options range from celebrity chef restaurants to an arts center to a $200 million art installation.
• New apartments (many of the ultra-luxurious, 2,500-bottle wine cellar variety) are filling up, while a smaller chunk (slightly more than 10%) will be subsidized.

Meet the “smart city”

Hudson Yards offers us a glimpse of the metropolis of the future, a concept dubbed the “smart city.” These metros hope to leverage data to create efficiencies and enhance the quality of life in urban areas.

• Who needs garbage trucks when, in a few years, you'll be able to pipe out trash from Hudson Yards apartments at 45 mph?

Looking ahead...it’s hard to imagine, but there’s a second phase of the project (called the Western Yard) slated to open in 2025.

AUTO

Who What When Where Y

Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s (+0.35%) latest vehicle in a primetime event in Hawthorne, CA. You just get the feeling the guy wants to host the Oscars next year.

But let’s talk about the Model Y, Tesla’s all-electric crossover SUV.

• Price: Starts at $39,000
• Range: 300 miles (the long-range version)
• Expected delivery date: Starting fall of 2020

Talk about a no-brainer. The SUV is the fastest-growing auto segment in the U.S. and China, and Musk predicts that Tesla will sell more Ys than its other models (S, X, and 3) combined.

Zoom out: This is the part of every Tesla story where we’re supposed to remind you that an erratic Musk is fighting with the SEC, the company recently laid off workers and announced store closures, and its cash position remains precarious...but you already know all that.

With the Model Y, Tesla hopes to shift the narrative back to its game-changing vehicles.

+ Earmuffs, kids: Four of Tesla’s models, the S, 3, X, and Y, spell out...well, take it away Elon:

TECH

Turn and Face the Strange, Facebook

Facebook’s Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and WhatsApp head Chris Daniels both made Irish exits from the company yesterday, much to the surprise of newsletter writers who thought the global outage was enough drama for one week.

Driving the news: Facebook's (-1.85%) announcement that it’s pivoting to encrypted, private communication. But it seems not everyone was ready to buy in.

• In Cox’s Dear John letter, he wrote, “This will be a big project and we will need leaders who are excited to see the new direction through.”
• We’ll let you read between the lines.

Cox will be missed in Menlo Park. He was one of FB’s first 15 engineers, he oversaw the company’s core suite of apps, and he earned the title “Facebook’s most important executive not named Mark Zuckerberg” from Recode. Sorry, Sheryl.

Looking ahead: Zuck said no one will immediately take over Cox’s office. For now, product leads who once reported to Cox will report to the head honcho himself.

IPO

Smile, You’re on a Stock Exchange!

SmileDirectClub has drafted a roster of bankers led by JPMorgan to manage its upcoming IPO, per Axios. It’s set to file registration docs by the end of June.

SDC’s at-home teeth straightening system cuts out visits to the orthodontist’s office, D2C-ing snaggleteeth everywhere. That’s why, in the traditional orthodontics community, SDC has been like you with headgear—feeling bullied.

• The American Association of Orthodontists said SDC is “illegal and creates medical risks,” and it’s made complaints in 36 states alleging SDC has violated dentistry regulations.

Despite the AAO’s take, business is booming.

• SDC has raised nearly $400 million in private funding, recently snagging a $3.2 billion valuation.
• And it’s expected to do at least $1 billion in revenue this year.

SDC hasn’t shied away from Big Ortho’s challenge. Its top competitor (and one-time 19% shareholder...keep your enemies close) is Align Technologies, maker of Invisalign. SDC successfully sued Align for violating a non-compete agreement, forcing Align to sell back its equity at a below-market rate and close all 12 of its Invisalign stores.

QUIZ

Do Not Quizsturb

More digits than pi. Always wears a helmet when e-scootering. Never suffers an outage, but if it did...you’d know. It’s the Brew’s weekly news quiz.

1. The FAA grounded a Boeing model that was involved in two fatal crashes in less than five months. What’s the plane model?

2. The CEO of Wells Fargo was testifying on Capitol Hill this week to convince lawmakers the bank has righted its wrongs. What’s his name?

• Tom Sloan
• Tim Sloan
• Tim Dolan
• Tom Sloane

3. Fill in the blank: 50 people were charged in an alleged fraud that was the “largest ___________ scam ever charged by the DOJ.”

4. After a soccer player scored a hat trick to lift his team into the quarterfinals of the Champions League, the club’s stock price jumped 17% the next day. Who is the player (1 point) and what is the team (3 points)?

5. In a Reuters report, one French barman described a beer with hoppy notes that gave it a deliberate bitterness. What was the theme of the beer?

Answers: 1) Boeing 737 Max 2) Tim Sloan 3) College admittance 4) Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus 5) Brexit

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• 49 people were killed and at least 20 seriously injured after shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
• General Electric (+2.79%) CEO Larry Culp forecasted another tough year for the conglomerate. Yes, the word “reset” was used.
• Boeing (-1.02%) analysts say the best-case scenario would be for the 737 Max to be grounded for six to eight weeks, per Bloomberg.
• Apple (+1.11%) released a TV spot focused on privacy. It’ll run through the March Madness tournament.
• College admissions scandal update: TPG will allow investors in its second social impact fund to withdraw their commitments after the fund's founder, Bill McGlashan, was charged. McGlashan also resigned. And actress Lori Loughlin was dropped from her roles at Hallmark.

BREAKROOM

Meet Me at the Bard
Today is the Ides of March, the date when Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. We’re betting you read about it in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar.

Let’s use the opportunity to see how well you paid attention in ninth grade English. We’ll give you a Shakespeare quote, and you’ll have to determine which play it’s from.

1. What’s in a name? A rose by any name would smell as sweet.”
2. “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
3. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
4. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
5. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

Breakroom Answers

1) Romeo and Juliet
2) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
3) Hamlet
4) Julius Caesar
5) Twelfth Night