Leading Voices In Real Estate

Mike Kingsella, President of Up for Growth, explains how basic supply and demand drives the housing crisis in our country, how multiple levels of public policy have exacerbated the situation, and suggestions for how we, as an industry and advocates for housing supply, can turn this around. As we have discussed and explored many times on Leading Voices, the housing crisis in our country is front and center in our national discussion and in the current Presidential race.

Matt Kelly, CEO of JBG Smith and Current Chair of NAREIT, tells the story of his company’s winning Amazon HQ2 for their National Landing site and shares his wisdom on corporate ethos, placemaking, and winning deals. In this second episode of our focus on REITs this month, Matt tells the story behind the Amazon HQ2 deal as well as the history of JBG Smith and its focus in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. In this second episode of our segment exploring the REIT world, Matt tells the story behind JBG Smith’s winning deal that transformed its Crystal City portfolio and land holdings into Amazon’s second headquarters.

Steve Wechsler, President and CEO of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, discusses the history of REITs, the current policy agenda, and the impact of institutional real estate, and REITs specifically, across the global economy. It wouldn’t be far from the truth to say that many months are “REIT month” on this podcast, however, in this two part series, we are focusing on REITs in our September podcasts.

Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research at Energy Impact Partners, breaks down how real estate and climate tech can work towards creating a clean energy future. In part two of our annual climate series, Andy provides valuable insight into how Energy Impact Partners (EIP) approaches its investments in climate tech and energy generation in the real estate business.

Rohit Aggarwala, Chief Climate Officer of New York City, discusses climate change, transportation, city infrastructure, and real estate’s role in building a sustainable future. With the built environment being responsible for 40% of global climate emissions, Leading Voices is now in our fourth year of dedicating both August episodes to the real estate industry’s role in helping build a more sustainable future.

Jackie Brady, Head of Global Debt Solutions for PGIM Alternatives, discusses the state of the commercial real estate debt markets, with challenges, opportunities, and change coming out of the current market. Jackie takes us on a tour across the different sources of CRE debt capital, both thinking about new loan originations as well as how to navigate the challenges in the current book.

David Stanford, Founder of RealFoundations, talks about optimizing real estate business platforms for profitable decisions, smart operations, and value creation at both the property and business entity levels. In this rebroadcast episode, we revisit David’s interview from late 2021.

Kevin Marchetti, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Lineage Logistics and Co-Founder of Bay Grove, shares how he built the world’s largest cold-storage portfolio. In this rebroadcast episode, we revisit Kevin’s interview from early 2023.

Jesse Stein, Global Head of Real Estate at Airbnb, brings us up to date on Airbnb generally and focuses on Airbnb’s partnerships with institutional owners of apartments to facilitate the option for their residents to “Airbnb” their units. On May 20, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jesse at my kitchen table in Sonoma County...

Hamid Moghadam, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Prologis, shares his career wisdom and the business strategy behind the world’s largest REIT. Recorded on May 13 at the Prologis headquarters on Pier One in San Francisco, this conversation with Hamid Moghadam has been on my bucket list since the inception of this podcast.

Sharon Wilson Géno, President of NMHC, and Matt discuss the public policy and public perception challenges around the apartment industry’s role in addressing our nation’s housing shortage. The systemic housing shortage has become one of the top social and political issues impacting our country today.

Alice Carr, CEO of Blackstone’s affordable housing operating company, April Housing, shares her “why,” Blackstone’s commitment to preserving this housing long term, and the benefits of scale in this sector. April Housing is Blackstone’s affordable housing operating platform, sitting alongside other Blackstone operating businesses like LINC, Livcor, EQ Office, and others.

At a Fireside Chat at the Annual ULI Arizona Trends Day, Francis Najafi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pivotal Group, shares with Matt his approach to investing through cycles and why strategy is important, but culture and core values are what build a legendary business platform. Pivotal Group is a private equity and real estate investment firm, known for its innovative role in complex investment projects, both in real estate and in private equity.

Doug Weill, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Hodes Weill, provides insights on the current capital markets and pathways for managers to access institutional capital for real estate. Hodes Weill is one of the real estate industry’s leading capital advisory firms, expanding from its base as a placement agent into broader capital advisory and infrastructure.

Steve Kimmelman, Founder, CEO and Executive Chairman of Redwood Living, shares how “doing one thing really well” brought his unique product vision for build to rent housing to life. Redwood Living is a build to rent owner/operator/developer based in Cleveland, Ohio, hallmarked by its 100+ unit, low density project on essentially the same general acreage as a 300 unit traditional garden style apartment community.

Gary Beasley, CEO and Co-Founder of both Waypoint Homes, the first single family rental housing company to go public, and now Roofstock, discusses business strategy, building one of the first single family rental companies to achieve scale, and how SFR is a part of the strategy around the housing shortage in our country. Gary is one of the true innovators in the single family rental business, one of his earliest leadership endeavors being taking Waypoint Residential public after the GFC.

Brad Inman, founder and prior CEO of Inman, talks about trends, headlines, and the ecosystem of the single family home resale business. Brad is a journalist, thought leader, and unstoppable entrepreneur.

Michael Covarrubias, Chairman and Co-CEO of TMG Partners and Cyrus Sanandaji, Founder and CEO of Presidio Bay Ventures share what is really happening to real estate in downtown San Francisco and drill down into the underlying political backdrop. Michael and Cyrus, two of the most active Bay Area real estate developers and investors, have been leaders in the effort to help restore the city in this new era.

Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody’s Analytics and co-host of the podcast Inside Economics, shares his insider take on the economy and real estate market looking forward into 2024. I closed out last year with an episode featuring Mike Van Konynenburg from Eastdil Secured and Chris Hartung, who forecast the difficult year for real estate investing we had in 2023.

Daniel Radek, President of First Washington Realty, discusses resilience in the retail apocalypse, co-leadership, and culture. Based in the Washington, D.C. area, First Washington Realty is a national necessity retail owner and operator known for its neighborhood shopping centers located in densely populated communities.