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    Warehouses Transform N.Y.C. Neighborhoods as E-Commerce Booms

    The region is home to the largest concentration of online shoppers in the country. The facilities, key to delivering packages on time, are reshaping neighborhoods.An e-commerce boom turbocharged by the pandemic is turning the New York City region into a national warehouse capital.In just two years, Amazon has acquired more than 50 warehouses across the city and its surrounding suburbs. UPS is building a logistics facility larger than Madison Square Garden on the New Jersey waterfront near Lower Manhattan.In Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, 14 huge warehouses to help facilitate e-commerce operations are rising, including multistory centers previously found only in Asia.Fueled by the soaring growth of e-commerce while so many Americans have been working from home, online retailers, manufacturers and delivery companies are racing to secure warehouses in the country’s most competitive real estate market for them.Every day, more than 2.4 million packages are delivered just in New York City, an online-buying mecca in a region of 20.1 million people.The feverish activity has already transformed the landscape of city neighborhoods and rural towns, transforming Red Hook in Brooklyn into a bustling logistics hub and replacing farmland in southern New Jersey with sprawling warehouses where packages are sorted, packed and delivered, often within hours of being ordered.An Amazon grocery hub in Red Hook, Brooklyn, which has emerged as a nexus of e-commerce warehouses in New York because it offers relatively easy access to Lower Manhattan, Queens and the rest of Brooklyn.Clark Hodgin for The New York TimesJust 1.6 percent of all warehouses in New York City and only 1.3 percent in New Jersey are available for lease, according to the real estate firm JLL; only the Los Angeles area has fewer warehouse vacancies in the United States. Some companies are converting buildings never intended to be warehouses. Amazon turned a shuttered supermarket in Queens into a makeshift package hub.The soaring demand for warehouses, once the ugly duckling of the real estate industry, underscores their pivotal role in a complex global supply chain. Nationwide, developers are pouring billions of dollars into the construction of new facilities, helping lift the commercial real estate sector, which has been battered by the emptying of offices during the pandemic.But the rise of warehouses has also sparked significant opposition. While they provide jobs and can lower residential property taxes by contributing to the local tax base, people across the region say the large hubs will lead to constant flows of semi-trucks and delivery vans that will worsen pollution and traffic congestion.Understand the Supply Chain CrisisThe Origins of the Crisis: The pandemic created worldwide economic turmoil. We broke down how it happened.Explaining the Shortages: Why is this happening? When will it end? Here are some answers to your questions.A New Normal?: The chaos at ports, warehouses and retailers will probably persist through 2022, and perhaps even longer.A Key Factor in Inflation: In the U.S., inflation is hitting its highest level in decades. Supply chain issues play a big role.They have also bemoaned the loss of open land to mega facilities. In recent months, residents in the southern New Jersey township of Pilesgrove, just across the Delaware River from Wilmington, Del., protested plans for a 1.6 million square-foot warehouse — larger than Ellis Island — on former farmland.While Amazon, major retailers and logistics operators such as UPS, FedEx and DHL dominated the initial wave of warehouse deals at the start of the pandemic, interest is now coming from smaller businesses seeking greater control of their supply chain amid a global bottleneck in the movement of goods.“I’ve been doing this for 30-some-odd years, and I’ve never seen it like this,” said Rob Kossar, a vice chairman at JLL who oversees the company’s industrial division in the Northeast. “In order for tenants to secure space, they are having to negotiate leases with multiple landlords on spaces that aren’t even available. It’s insane what they are having to do.”The rising cost to lease facilities has frustrated some small business owners who cannot compete with retail and logistics giants, as well as newcomers like Tesla and Rivian, which have opened showrooms and service centers for their electric vehicles in Brooklyn warehouses. Leasing prices for warehouses in the Bronx, for instance, have jumped 22 percent since the pandemic started.Warehouse jobs are still just a fraction of New York City’s labor force, but companies are on a hiring spree. Since 2019, the number of warehouse jobs doubled to 16,500 positions in late 2021. New hires at Amazon make around $18 an hour and get starting bonuses up to $3,000. But the company has also been fighting workers at some of its warehouses, including on Staten Island, who are trying to unionize to improve working conditions.Prose employs about 150 employees at its facility in Brooklyn from where it ships products across the United States and to Canada.Clark Hodgin for The New York TimesToday, nearly everything — from cars to electronics and groceries to prescription drugs — can be ordered online and arrive in as little as a few hours. In New York City, new companies are offering 15-minute grocery delivery.And though most retail sales nationwide still happen at brick-and-mortar stores, online sales are increasing at breakneck speed, growing by 50 percent over the last five years to reach 13 percent of all retail purchases, according to the census.That surge is pummeling many retailers, especially smaller businesses, that have also had to weather the loss of customers during the pandemic.At the onset of the pandemic shoppers switched to online buying at a rate that had been expected to take a decade to reach, according to analysts.Some large retailers, such as Target and Best Buy, that have a handful of warehouses in the region lean on their stores to fulfill online orders. Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, does not have a store in New York City so it uses a warehouse in Lehigh Valley, Pa., just over the border from New Jersey, and stores in surrounding suburbs to serve city residents.Amazon is taking a different approach. Across New Jersey to the northern New York City suburbs to Long Island, Amazon is cobbling together a sprawling network of fulfillment centers, package-sorting facilities and last-mile hubs. In the city it has set up a handful of facilities in the Red Hook and Sunset Park neighborhoods of Brooklyn.Amazon’s rapid expansion is not unique to the New York area. Last September alone, Amazon said in a recent earnings call, it added another 100 facilities to its delivery network in the United States.Red Hook, a neighborhood of just under a square mile bounded by water on three sides, has become a center for warehouses in the city because it is near major roadways into population centers in other parts of Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan and Queens.The owner of Prose decided to keep all his manufacturing under one roof before the supply chain problems emerged. “It has been a great decision,” he said.Clark Hodgin for The New York TimesAt least three new warehouses have opened in the neighborhood and more could be on the horizon. UPS paid $300 million for a 12-acre property, and two developers of logistics centers spent $123 million in December to buy several industrial sites there.How the Supply Chain Crisis UnfoldedCard 1 of 9The pandemic sparked the problem. More

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    Suburban Home Sales Soar in the New York Region

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySuburban Home Sales Soar in the New York RegionLines of cars at open houses and multiple offers above the asking price, often all cash, have become a regular occurrence.Open houses across the region, including one at this house in Port Washington, N.Y., have drawn crowds as sales inventory has dwindled during the pandemic.Credit…Tara Striano for The New York TimesVivian Marino and March 5, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETHeading into the spring sales season, the housing market in the suburbs of New York has already gone into overdrive, with bidding wars becoming the norm and many homes selling within days of coming on the market.The frenetic sales activity — a second wave after a surge last summer — has been fueled by multiple forces: historically low mortgage rates; pandemic-fatigued city dwellers desperate for more space; and many employers’ willingness to embrace remote work, allowing buyers to look in places beyond what would be considered an easy commute.Another major factor: unusually tight inventory, as people hold onto their homes longer, which over the last few months in some suburbs has led to demand outstripping supply for the first time since the pandemic began.Brokers across the region report long lines at open houses, multiple offers coming in as soon as listings go live, and all-cash deals ruling the day. “This is the strongest market I have seen in two decades,” said Sara Littlefield, an agent in Connecticut with Coldwell Banker.“If there is a silver lining in this devastating pandemic, it’s that it has allowed people the freedom to make lifestyle choices like relocating, or downsizing, or moving up,” Ms. Littlefield added, “and they’re taking that freedom.”At the same time, Manhattan’s housing market has also finally picked up. “Contract activity first broke even back in December with year-ago levels,” said Jonathan J. Miller, a Manhattan-based real estate appraiser who also monitors suburban markets. Then it rose in the first two months of 2021, he said, adding that he expected the strong pace to continue through the spring.In a just-released February report for Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Mr. Miller found that signed contracts for all property types in Manhattan jumped 73.1 percent from a year ago. “It’s a combination of softer pricing, low rates and the distribution of the vaccine — people are feeling more safe about living in the city,” he said.Jeffrey Otteau, the president of the Otteau Valuation Group, based in Matawan, N.J., agreed that once-depressed urban areas would recover. “I don’t think anyone expected people would leave the city,” he said, “and never come back.”For those buyers focused on the suburbs, here’s a glimpse at what’s going on throughout the region.WestchesterBrisk could describe the weather and pace of sales in Westchester this winter, as the single-family sales market builds on its 2020 gains, from Pelham to Scarsdale to Armonk.A shortage of single-family houses explains the heightened competition. Starting last fall, demand began eclipsing supply, according to a new report from Douglas Elliman, and signed contracts have picked up since January: The busiest brackets have been houses priced from $1 million to $2 million, with $600,000 to $800,000 a close second.Among the crop of deals that closed this winter, the time from being listed to going into contract had shrunk to just two months, according to Julia B. Sotheby’s International Realty, though brokers say that spread can be misleading because much of the time is eaten up by overworked bankers and lawyers completing paperwork.In actuality, some houses are finding new owners shortly after hitting “coming soon” websites.“Buyers think they are buying at the peak, but at the same time, they’re still doing it,” said Jennifer Meyer, a Compass agent, who received an offer on a six-bedroom Tudor-style house in Pelham, listed for $1.275 million, on Feb. 26, two days after it went live.Low interest rates and scarce inventory, which are national trends, explain some of the local spike in demand and prices. But other factors are also in play.Troy Benson, left, and Nolan Fitzgerald are relocating from Manhattan to Armonk, N.Y., a suburban hamlet in Westchester County.Credit…Karsten Moran for The New York TimesAfter spending extended time outside of New York to avoid coronavirus, lockdowns and street protests, some buyers warmed to the idea of full-time nonurban life. Troy Benson, 37, who owns a marketing firm, and his husband, Nolan Fitzgerald, 34, who works in fashion, so enjoyed the months spent in their weekend house in Orange County that they decided to stay out of the city for good.After selling the vacation property — in two days, for 15 percent more than its asking price — as well as their condo in the South Street Seaport, the couple are in contract for a midcentury modern house by Edgar Tafel on six woodsy acres in Armonk last listed at $2.475 million.“New York is very high energy,” said Mr. Benson, who will scale down his time in his Manhattan office to just a few days a week. “But I think a lot of people get addicted to the energy and get stuck.”Recent converts to Westchester, brokers say, also include New Yorkers facing expiring leases on the rentals they escaped to last spring and who are now angling for more permanent addresses, further pressuring the market.But it’s not just transplants who are being squeezed. Last year, Marialena Pulice, 39, a school psychologist, and her husband, Chris, 39, who works in finance, made offers on 15 houses, most of which were rejected. “We were outbid, or the seller would go with somebody who had a bigger down payment,” Mr. Pulice said. “Houses were being scooped up left and right.”Late last year, a three-bedroom house in Hawthorne, listed at $589,000, caught the eye of the couple. But their above-ask offer of $595,000 was not enough to seal the deal — at least until the first buyer backed out. The Pulices, who have a young son, have been staying with Ms. Pulice’s parents and will move into their new home this month. “I really can’t wait,” Mr. Pulice said.Homes are selling fast in Montclair, N.J. “The only houses on the market that are sticking around are those that are not so wonderful,” said Roberta Baldwin, an agent with Keller Williams.Credit…Tom Sibley for The New York TimesNew Jersey“The spring market really began in October — that’s how crazy it’s been,” according to Vicki Gaily, a real estate agent based in Saddle River, N.J.As soon as pandemic restrictions eased, Ms. Gaily, the founder of Special Properties, a division of the real estate firm Brook Hollow Group, noticed a burst of pent-up demand, largely from people fleeing urban areas. “I haven’t had a day off since,” she said.Her biggest challenge — and the task facing other harried agents across the state — is finding enough available properties to sell at all price points.As of January, there were nearly 44 percent fewer homes listed for sale in New Jersey from a year ago, according to the New Jersey Realtors trade association. At the same time, closed sales rose during the month by 17 percent and the median sales price surged about 20 percent.“I’ve never seen the inventories as low as they are now,” Ms. Gaily said, noting that in Saddle River, which is in Bergen County, there are “maybe 40 homes” available right now, down from the usual range of 55 to 85 this time of year.Farther south, in Westfield, in Union County, “we have about a third of what we should have in inventory this time of year,” said Frank D. Isoldi, an agent at Coldwell Banker Realty based in Westfield. The result, he said, has been homes being snatched up quickly after multiple bids, and often above asking price.“The only houses on the market that are sticking around are those that are not so wonderful,” said Roberta Baldwin, an agent with Keller Williams Realty who is based in Montclair, in Essex County, where bidding wars are also more common.To help get a leg up on the competition, one of her clients, Brian Herlihy, a 42-year-old financial analyst from Manhattan’s Upper West Side, actually devised a bidding formula last summer, based on the price per square foot of comparable sold properties. “But even then we got outbid,” he said.Emily McDonald and Brian Herlihy recently moved into a fully renovated colonial in Upper Montclair, N.J., but only after the original winning bidder backed out.Credit…Tom Sibley for The New York TimesIn the end, after several unsuccessful bids, Mr. Herlihy and his partner, Emily McDonald, a 38-year-old high school teacher from Brooklyn, managed to move into a fully renovated, four-bedroom colonial in Upper Montclair — but only after the original winning bidder backed out of the deal. Mr. Herlihy paid $1.1 million for the home, which was about $100,000 over his maximum budget.Jaclyn and Zach Plotkin also exceeded what they had hoped to pay when recently buying an Upper Montclair colonial. “We paid a lot over — I don’t want to say how much,” said Ms. Plotkin, 28. “When we started looking, we were less comfortable with bidding over the asking price, but then we came to realize that we had to in order to get a house.”The couple and their infant daughter plan to move from their Midtown East apartment sometime this spring.Tom and Alicia Monforte were filling out paperwork to buy their house in Bellmore, N.Y., just two hours after seeing it.Credit…Adam Macchia for The New York TimesLong IslandBuyers throughout Long Island are likely to face continued competition, too, along with rising prices, in large part because of the shrinking supply of available homes..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-c7gg1r{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:0.875rem;line-height:0.875rem;margin-bottom:15px;color:#121212 !important;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-c7gg1r{font-size:0.9375rem;line-height:0.9375rem;}}.css-rqynmc{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.9375rem;line-height:1.25rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-rqynmc{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-rqynmc strong{font-weight:600;}.css-rqynmc em{font-style:italic;}.css-yoay6m{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-yoay6m{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}.css-16ed7iq{width:100%;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;justify-content:center;padding:10px 0;background-color:white;}.css-pmm6ed{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}.css-pmm6ed > :not(:first-child){margin-left:5px;}.css-5gimkt{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.8125rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.03em;-moz-letter-spacing:0.03em;-ms-letter-spacing:0.03em;letter-spacing:0.03em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#333;}.css-5gimkt:after{content:’Collapse’;}.css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;-webkit-transform:rotate(180deg);-ms-transform:rotate(180deg);transform:rotate(180deg);}.css-eb027h{max-height:5000px;-webkit-transition:max-height 0.5s ease;transition:max-height 0.5s ease;}.css-6mllg9{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;position:relative;opacity:0;}.css-6mllg9:before{content:”;background-image:linear-gradient(180deg,transparent,#ffffff);background-image:-webkit-linear-gradient(270deg,rgba(255,255,255,0),#ffffff);height:80px;width:100%;position:absolute;bottom:0px;pointer-events:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-1pxllx6 header h4{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:500;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.5625rem;margin-bottom:5px;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1pxllx6 header h4{font-size:1.5625rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}.css-1pd7fgo{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1pd7fgo{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-1pd7fgo:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1pd7fgo{border:none;padding:20px 0 0;border-top:1px solid #121212;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-k9atqk{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-k9atqk strong{font-weight:700;}.css-k9atqk em{font-style:italic;}.css-k9atqk a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid #ccd9e3;}.css-k9atqk a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid #ddd;}.css-k9atqk a:hover{border-bottom:none;}The World’s Tallest BuildingsLearn More About N.Y.C. SkyscrapersLuxury developers use a loophole in the city’s zoning laws to build these soaring towers in New York City. This may be one reason why these supertall buildings are facing a range of problemsTake a look at the view from 432 Park Avenue as it was being built.The current high-rise building boom, with more than 20 buildings that are more than 1,000 feet tall built or planned since 2007, has transformed New York City’s skyline in recent years. Its impact will echo for years to come in Manhattan and the boroughs.Tall, skinny buildings tend to sway slightly in the high wind. To keep residents from feeling this movement, developers are placing giant counterweights at the top to slow building motion. Take a step back and take a look with our critic at some supertall N.Y.C. buildings and how the ingenuity of engineers helped build landmarks like Black Rock.“In the last two months we’ve seen such a depletion of new inventory that sales growth has been nominal,” said Mr. Miller, the Manhattan-based appraiser who also follows the Long Island market. He noted in the Douglas Elliman report that signed contracts in February were flat from a year ago, while inventory levels, excluding the Hamptons and the North Fork, fell nearly 37 percent. “That’s a free-fall.”(The Hamptons saw a 72 percent jump in signed contracts in February for single-family homes, according to Mr. Miller, and an almost 38 percent drop in new listings.)On the South Shore of Long Island, there’s about a month’s supply of available homes, or even less, in some areas, agents say. “We would normally have five to six months’ worth at any one time,” said Seth Pitlake, an agent at Douglas Elliman in Merrick. “It’s not that inventory is not increasing,” he said, “it’s just that anything that comes out in the market is being scooped up.”Mr. Pitlake’s clients, Tom and Alicia Monforte, both in their early 30s, witnessed these tight conditions as both seller and buyer. Their Great Neck co-op sold in a week, but when they began searching for a larger property farther east, in Bellmore, they found themselves in a crowded field of purchasers.“We would put in an offer only to find out someone else offered $40,000 over the asking price,” said Ms. Monforte, a clinical social worker, adding that “every free moment was devoted to looking.”The couple recently found a house at the end of a long day of hunting. “It was the last house we looked at out of seven,” Ms. Monforte said. The home — a 2,200-square-foot, five-bedroom high ranch with a $649,000 price tag — had just been re-listed after a previous deal fell through. “After five minutes we knew,” she said, “and in two hours we put in an offer for the full ask that was accepted.”Similar scenarios of stiff competition are playing out on the North Shore. Mr. Pitlake’s Roslyn colleague at Douglas Elliman, Maria Babaev, who specializes in the so-called Gold Coast, recently listed a five-bedroom, split-level in Roslyn Pines that “needs lots of work.”In just one showing, she said, “I had 27 groups of buyers coming in and received eight offers, three above asking.” The winning bid: 10 percent above the $999,000 list price. Ms. Babaev said more expensive homes were selling faster than usual, though she was quick to add that all property types needed to be competitively priced to garner any interest.And what do buyers want? “They want green space,” said James Gavin, an agent with Laffey Real Estate in Manhasset, “and a lot are asking for a home office and then a pool.”Single-family houses have seen a bounce in activity this winter in Westport, Conn.Credit…Jane Beiles for The New York TimesConnecticutIn Fairfield County, towns that struggled with flat sales a year ago have seen major bounces.There are also far fewer houses to go around than at any time since the pandemic began, which is starting to cut into sales volume, according to Douglas Elliman. In February, there were 510 signed contracts, versus 623 in February 2020. Greenwich, though, has posted huge gains in the new year: February saw 108 signed deals as compared with 42 a year ago, according to Elliman.Gains were perhaps expected south of the Merritt Parkway, whose popularity derives in part from regular train service. Indeed, in the past two months, Westport saw 33 sales of single-family homes priced from $1 million to $2.5 million, compared with 19 sales last winter, according to William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty.But points north were strong as well. Ridgefield had 18 similar sales, according to Sotheby’s, up from six, and New Canaan had 55, up from 11; countywide, there is almost no difference between list and closing prices.But as potential sellers cancel plans to downsize because of suddenly back-at-home children or over worries about finding new homes, supply has been crimped, and the steady stream of New Yorkers searching for homes into the county have created cutthroat conditions.“Briefcases full of cash are coming in. It’s been crazy,” said Alex Ramsey, 38, a financial-services worker who for the past year has been trying to relocate his family from their four-bedroom house in Stamford to a five-bedroom in either Westport or New Canaan. One house they liked had 45 showings in two days, Mr. Ramsey said, “and a line of cars with New York plates filling the cul-de-sac.”Six of Mr. Ramsey’s offers have been rebuffed so far, with the most recent in January, when he failed to connect on a Westport house despite offering a 10 percent premium: “There seems to be so much irrational behavior.”A year ago, the Noroton Heights section of Darien had 67 active listings but there are only 17 today, said Sara Littlefield, a Coldwell Banker agent, who canceled an open house for a shingle-sided 1950s five-bedroom, listed $1.595 million, because she got four offers beforehand.Pre-Covid, buyers asked to be 10 minutes from train stations. But now, because they don’t have to be in the office as much, if at all, that requirement is moot. “Working from home is the future,” Ms. Littlefield said, “and a lot of people seem OK with it.”Lori Elkins Ferber (left), a Sotheby’s broker, talks with Susan and Noah Klein in downtown Westport. Since last summer, the Kleins have bid unsuccessfully on three houses in the town.Credit…Jane Beiles for The New York TimesYet even as buyers are acting quickly, speed can lead to problems. Susan Klein, and her husband, Noah, retired residents of White Plains, N.Y., had their hearts set on Westport when they began looking last June. After two failed purchases, they swooped in last month with an all-cash offer for a four-bedroom house, listed for $1.749 million. And it seemed to do the trick; a contract was in the works.But a rushed title search missed problems, and on Feb. 24, the Kleins walked away. (The seller upped the price to $1.849 million a day later.) “This frenetic market forces you to make very quick decisions,” Ms. Klein said, “which you may need to change.”For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @nytrealestate.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More