Leading Voices In Real Estate

In our Leading Voices in Real Estate season five premiere, Matt is rejoined by Tammy Jones, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Basis Investment Group, a real estate investment manager primarily focused on debt and structured equity strategies. Tammy was a participant on the Black Voices in Real Estate episode released in June, where she shared her experience as a Black woman in the real estate industry and the opportunities for change in racial equity in our business. Now four months later, this episode continues with a discussion on whether the Black Lives Matter moment offers a temporary or permanent path towards inclusion in our business. Tammy also shares her experience building a career as a Black woman in the business and starting Basis Investment Group as one of the few certified Minority and Woman-Owned Businesses in real estate investment management. Tammy tells us her career journey, from becoming the first female in her family to attend college to founding her own business.Now at 80+ episode

In honor of John Stewart’s memory, we are rebroadcasting his Leading Voices interview from December 2018. John passed away last week after a two-year battle with cancer. He was the founder of The John Stewart Company, a developer of low and mixed-income housing and the country’s 6th largest manager of affordable housing. John was a personal friend of Matt’s and an inspiration throughout his career. He views John as one of the Bay Area’s leading voices who was a tireless advocate across the range of social justice issues, particularly around low-income housing and the challenges of our current politics. John was a generous mentor to many with an inimitable voice and perspective; we are pleased to share this episode again. John will be sorely missed and deeply remembered.From original release:John Stewart is the Founder and Chair of the John Stewart Company, a San Francisco-based owner, developer, and manager of affordable and mixed-income housing, founded in 1978 with three employees.From Aerospace to Affordab

In honor of Gerald Hines’ legacy, we are rebroadcasting his interview from the spring of 2018. Mr. Hines passed away last week at the age of 95, having inspired generations of leaders in the real estate industry. He founded Hines in 1957 as a developer of office properties and has built some of the most iconic city landscapes in Houston, London, San Francisco, and other major cities around the globe. Hines is renowned for not only creating the highest quality buildings in the market but for partnering with the world’s best architects. Mr. Hines’ leadership within the company and the greater real estate community will be sorely missed.Gerald Hines | Industry Legend, Developer, and VisionaryGerald Hines founded his business in 1957 as a developer of office properties. His namesake company now has a presence in 201 cities and 24 countries, and manages over $110 billion in property. Hines is renowned for not only creating the highest quality buildings in the market, but for partnering with the world’s best archit

In this episode, Matt discusses the retail sector with Ken Bernstein, President and Chief Executive Officer of Acadia Realty Trust. Ken talks about the fundamental reworking of the sector due to what he terms the “Retail Armageddon,” a trend that was taking place well before Covid. They also discuss the long-term trends of retail and the additional impacts Covid may have on the retail sector. Acadia Realty Trust specializes in the acquisition, redevelopment, and management of retail properties with an ownership interest in over 100 properties totaling approximately $4 billion in value.Ken co-founded Acadia in 1998. Acadia is also the manager of a series of discretionary institutional acquisition funds. Acadia is currently investing on behalf its Fund V, which is capitalized to acquire $1.5 billion dollars of retail properties.Along with his responsibilities at Acadia, Ken is a past Trustee of the Board of Trustees of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and served as the 2017/2018 Chairman. Ke

Conor Dougherty is an Economics and Housing Reporter at The New York Times who recently published Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America. His book explores the housing affordability crisis by weaving stories from the front lines of real estate development, investment, struggling families, government officials, and both NIMBYs and YIMBYs in California. This interview provides the perspective of an outside observer of the real estate industry thinking about the roots of the lack of adequate supply and development, the dynamics of real estate investment, and potential solutions to create more housing. Conor articulates the complexity of the problem, understanding the combination of deep emotions and interests that bring wildly different perspectives around real estate.He has been reporting on business and economics for two decades and previously worked at The Wall Street Journal and San Diego Union-Tribune. Dougherty lives in Oakland with his wife and two children.

Andy Cohen is the Co-CEO of Gensler, the leading global design firm, which includes 6,300+ people networked across 50 offices and serving clients in 120+ countries. He joins Matt for another interview in our series of conversations on leadership in the real estate space amidst the Covid crisis. With his global perspective, Andy shares his thoughts on what the office landscape may look like both in our current constrained return to work and post-vaccine, the future and potential reinvention of cities post-pandemic, and how a senior leader has responded within his company to Covid and issues surrounding equity in the workplace.This episode is the first of Leading Voices in Real Estate that returns to a company as Matt interviewed Art Gensler, Founder of Gensler, in November 2018.

This is a special episode of Leading Voices in Real Estate featuring conversations with six Black real estate leaders, each of whom speaks with Matt about their personal experiences and their thoughts on how our industry can address inequalities and systemic racism in our companies, our work in the built environment, and in the real estate sector broadly.Featured GuestsTammy K. Jones, Co-Founder & CEO | Basis Investment GroupSince 2009, Tammy has served as both Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Basis Investment Group, a multi-strategy commercial real estate investment platform she founded with JEMB Realty Corporation that acquires and originates a variety of senior and subordinated loans, preferred equity and joint venture equity positions on behalf of its investors. Under her leadership, Basis has succeeded in closing nearly $2.7 billion in commercial real estate debt and structured equity-related investments across the United States. Tammy has more than 24 years of experience in the commercial r

Mary Ludgin is one of the best big-picture, strategic minds in the commercial real estate investment business. She is the Head of Global Research at Heitman, a global real estate investment management firm with $45.5 billion in assets under management. The initial interview focused mostly on the effects of COVID on the built environment, with a fascinating discussion on ripples of the COVID crisis post-vaccine, both from a national and global perspective. Recorded a week prior to the George Floyd killing and the resulting national outcry, Matt had a follow-up conversation with Mary on June 3rd to discuss issues relating to social and racial equity in our country, the current unrest, and opportunities for the real estate industry to do better.Mary is Heitman’s Senior Managing Director, Head of Global Research and an equity owner of the firm. She is a member of the firm’s Board of Managers, Global Management Committee, North American Private Equity Valuation Committee, and Private Equity and Debt Investment Com

Amy Rose, President and CEO of Rose Associates, joins Matt for this week’s Leading Voices in Real Estate interview. Rose Associates is one of the largest, most storied apartment owners and managers in New York City with over $15 billion of assets under management and over 17,000 units owned or operated. Amy is a third-generation leader of this company originally founded by her grandfather and great uncle and is Rose Associate’s first female CEO. Most of the podcast is a deep dive into how her firm is dealing on a day-to-day basis with the COVID-19 crisis in the highly impacted New York market. Her insight provides commentary on the importance of civic leadership during Covid, the responsibility of owners and developers to their tenants and community, and the resilience of New York City to bounce back from this crisis. Additionally, the episode concludes with Amy sharing her unique real estate story, including the history of the family company and the importance of female leadership in the industry.Amy is resp

This week’s episode features a real estate legend: Leonard Wood, the Founder and Former CEO of Wood Partners, one of the nation’s leading apartment builders. Since Leonard founded Wood Partners in 1998, the company has developed over 79,000 homes with a combined value of more than $14.1 billion. Additionally, he is the Founder of the Leonard Wood Center for Real Estate Studies as a part of the Kenan-Flagler Business School. In this episode, Leonard talks about leadership lessons learned and important values for the real estate industry. Leonard also addresses potential issues for the next generation of real estate leaders as the industry moves into a post COVID world of urban development.In 2013, Leonard retired and merged GLJ Partners, a southern California apartment development company he founded in 2008, into Trammell Crow Residential. That same year, he joined the Advisory Board of Trammell Crow Residential where he continues to serve today. Before the inception of GLJ Partners, Leonard founded Wood Partn

As we enter the second month of the Covid-19 lockdown, Matt met with longtime industry colleague and friend Doug Bibby, President of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), the leading trade association for the apartment industry. In addition to discussing the implications of the national crisis on the multifamily housing, Matt and Doug unwrap the significant evolution of the apartment industry over the past two decades. The conversation with Doug provides prior context of the multifamily housing industry, shares resources and strategies that the industry is implementing during the crisis including NMHC’s Rent Tracker, and the industry’s continued agenda around affordable housing, fighting NIMBYism, rent control, and overall housing supply.The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) is a national organization of more than 1,400 member firms involved in the nearly $2 trillion multifamily housing industry. Under Doug’s leadership NMHC represents the industry on Capitol Hill and before the regulator

With so much uncertainty in the world due to Covid-19, Matt sat down (virtually) with Spencer Levy, Chairman, Americas Research & Senior Economic Advisor at CBRE, on March 24 to discuss the impact this crisis has across all sectors of commercial real estate. This is a special episode focused on Covid-19, versus our ongoing conversations which are geared towards leadership and the business of our guests. Spencer outlines the potential implications the pandemic has across various sectors including multifamily, retail, industrial, and office and digs into the impacts on a few specialty product types like co-working, seniors housing, data centers, and self-storage. The discussion provides commentary on the immediate response while touching on potential short-term and long-term effects this may have on real estate and the world economy, taking a globalized approach and looking at current government response.In addition to the conversation about Covid-19, Spencer introduces CBRE’s Global Outlook 2030 report and

This week, Matt interviews Maria Hawthorne, President and CEO of PS Business Parks, where has been for over three decades. She started at the ground floor in a temporary position at Public Storage, the company’s parent, and moved up the ranks at PS Business Parks from running the East Coast, to Chief Administrative Officer, then President, and now to her current role as CEO in 2016. PS Business Parks is a REIT that acquires, develops, owns, and operates commercial properties, primarily multi-tenant industrial, flex, and office space. The company owns over 27.5 million rentable square feet concentrated in six states and has recently started the redevelopment of some of its office parks into mixed-use properties, primarily multifamily. Throughout her career, Maria had to carefully create a track record and build relationships to experience her growth within the company.Highlights from the EpisodeMaria carefully built a positive track record starting with her temp role at Public Storage to cultivating relationsh

Recorded in front of an audience at a ULI Young Leaders event in Los Angeles, Matt sat down with Ricardo Pagan, Founder and CEO of Claridge Properties, a 100% minority-owned real estate investment and development firm.Born in the Dominican Republic, Ricardo emigrated to the U.S. when he was nine and is now a self-made entrepreneur in real estate under the age of 40. His path to success is different than other leaders featured on this podcast.Ricardo never attended a four-year college and started buying houses in his late teens and developing properties in his 20s. This eventually led to developing institutional deals, like the historic Westin Book Cadillac Detroit and 4-acre Brooklyn waterfront deal in Greenpoint. He is part of a partnership selected by the Los Angeles City Council to acquire and develop the coveted Angels Landing site, a $1.2 billion project that will eventually be the largest residential tower west of the Mississippi River.Throughout his career, he has completed well over $1 Billion in acqu

This week’s episode of Leading Voices in Real Estate features Alex Mehran Sr., the Chairman of the Board of Sunset Development Company and the immediate past Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Sunset Development was founded in 1951 by Alex’s father who had emigrated from Iran, and today it is in its third generation of leadership, run by Alex’s son. Under Alex’s leadership, the company acquired and developed Bishop Ranch, a 585-acre mixed-use community in the Bay Area with best-in-class offices, retail, and entertainment. The development includes over 9.5 million square feet in workspace for 30,000 employees with 600 tenants including IBM, AT&T, Chevron, and GE Digital. Matt and Alex discuss the constant evolution of suburban office park developments, the successes of a multi-generational family business, and Alex’s civic leadership roles.Alex is a San Francisco Bay Area native. He graduated from Harvard College with honors and continued his higher education at Cambridge University in

Ben Harris, CEO of Link Industrial Properties, Blackstone’s industrial sector operating platform, joins us for this week’s episode of Leading Voices in Real Estate. In this episode, we dive into the drivers of the robust industrial sector, especially how the overall secular changes in retail, logistics, and distribution are driving a re-make of the industrial real estate business. We also discuss Blackstone’s approach to Link and its businesses in other real estate sectors, both from the investment and operating angles, and the extraordinary growth of the Link platform from a start up to a 355-million square foot business in just over a year. And as always, we talk about Ben and his career path into this role.

With almost 40 years under his belt at Wells Fargo, Mark Myers is the bank’s Head of Commercial Real Estate. Under his leadership, Wells Fargo has been the #1 commercial real estate lender for the last 10 years. As a longtime leader in this space along with his upcoming retirement in February 2020, Mark shares his perspective on the vast changes in the real estate capital markets over this period and reflects on his career. He also expands on his outlook of the current markets and what he sees is a stable infrastructure moving forward for the business.

Our first episode in 2020 features Amy Price, Managing Partner and Co-Head of the U.S. business for BentallGreenOak. After the recent merger between Bentall Kennedy and Green Oak, which she helped orchestrate, the company has grown to become a $48B real estate investment manager with a global footprint. Amy is a senior leader in the real estate investment management business. We talk about overall trends and challenges in this sector and how she has navigated and built her career, first at Morgan Stanley and now at BGO.Amy has responsibility for the operating and financial performance of BGO U.S. business and has direct oversight of transactions, asset management, and portfolio management. Amy focuses her time on the Core, Core Plus and Development parts of the business. Amy chairs the U.S. Investment Committee for BGO Diversified and Separate Account Clients, co-chairs the U.S. Management Committee, and is a member of the BGO Global Coordination Committee.Prior to joining BentalGreenOak in 2012, Amy was a Ma

David Brickman was appointed CEO of Freddie Mac in July 2019. He has been with the company for over two decades, previously serving as a longtime leader of its multifamily division. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Freddie’s sister GSE, have both been in government conservatorship for eleven years and there finally seems to be a feasible pathway back to private status. In this interview, David dives deep about his leadership of Freddie’s multifamily group and his rise within the organization based on his innovations, particularly in the area of securitization and housing affordability.A unique aspect of this episode is that most Leading Voices in Real Estate guests are founders or early generation leaders of companies. Due to the nature of the GSEs, there has been a lineage of chief executives before David. Freddie Mac makes housing possible for millions of families and individuals by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Since the creation by Congress in 1970, they’ve made housing more accessible and affordable

As we wrap up Thanksgiving and head into the 2019 holiday season, we wanted to re-release an episode about hope, empowerment, and giving back with Cedric Bobo, Co-Founder of Project Destined. Project Destined is a social impact nonprofit that trains inner-city youth and military families to be active partners in sourcing and financing real estate investments. Students then receive a percentage of the profits from those investments in the form of scholarship funds.Cedric, who grew up in an underserved community in Memphis, became obsessed with business at a young age, inspired by his mother who worked for FedEx. He then received a degree in engineering, attended Harvard Business School, and spent the first part of his career in private equity, culminating in becoming an executive at Carlyle Group. Cedric has an entrepreneurial spirit, and he wanted to combine his two passions of investment and social impact, which drove him to create Project Destined in 2016. Today the program is in 7 cities and has high-profi