Cedric Bobo, Co-Founder and CEO of Project Destined, and Adrian Foley, Managing Partner in Brookfield’s Real Estate Group and President and CEO of Brookfield Properties’ development group, discuss how his training and education nonprofit has transformed lives and businesses through real world experience. Project Destined provides training, mentorship, internships and early career opportunities for young students, particularly students of color and military veterans, entering into the real estate business.

Originally recorded and released in the Fall of 2022, Ross Perot Jr., Chairman of Hillwood and real estate developer, talks about his varied businesses, inside and outside of real estate, including the development of the giant Alliance project in Fort Worth, developing public private partnership projects in the US and abroad, and about his father’s legacy, including a few words about his candidacy in the election for President in 1992. Legacy comes up right away as Ross reminisces about his father taking him to work, being the first to fly a helicopter around the world, and being a business partner with his dad.

Jon Lin, EVP and General Manager of Data Center Services at Equinix, talks through the major trends, drivers, and challenges of the data center business, the hottest sector in commercial real estate. This interview with Jon was recorded live at the Equinix regional office in Ashburn, Virginia, which is actually the data center capital of the world.

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.

Debbie Harmon, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Artemis, and Anar Chudgar, Co-President of Artemis, talk about finding opportunity in today’s market and the “force multiplier” effect of their investing through emerging managers. Artemis Real Estate Partners is a $10 B AUM real estate investment manager focused on middle market real estate investments across the equity and debt risk spectrum.

In September 2023, ZRG hosted a half-day symposium for real estate HR leaders in New York City, consisting of two panels. This is the second of those panels, featuring Amanda Fajak, President of ZRG culture consulting group, Walking the Talk, and Larry Krema, Managing Director in the Real Estate Practice of ZRG. They discuss how to create an actionable strategy for company culture.

Rick Caruso, founder and Executive Chairman of Caruso, owner of three of the top ten retail centers in the US, discusses the evolution of how he created breakthrough properties like The Grove, some of secrets of its success, as well as his civic and philanthropic activities in Los Angeles, including his recent run for Mayor. Rick’s innovative leadership and development thinking has led to the creation of one of the largest and most admired privately held real estate firms in the US, boasting three of the country’s most productive shopping centers, all in Southern California.

Stephanie Biernbaum, Chief People Officer of Hines, and Doug Holte, CEO of EXP by Hines, discuss change, innovation and striving to be a "beloved brand". In 2018, I had the privilege of sitting down with Gerald Hines to hear how he built one of the most respected, legendary names in the real estate business. This follow up conversation with Stephanie and Doug about their leadership in their respective role at Hines, now in its third generation of family leadership, is inspiring and marked with hard-won wisdom.

Scott Rechler, Chairman and CEO of RXR, delves into office space, the current downturn in the market, and value and importance of civic leadership for our industry. This episode with Scott builds upon my last conversation with Colin Connolly of Cousins Properties on the state of the office sector, while going beyond the topic at hand and into the broader realm of the commercial real estate markets.

Colin Connolly, President and CEO of Cousins Properties, details their outperformance in Sun Belt trophy lifestyle offices and the broader office market. Cousins, a fully-integrated REIT, is solely focused on “trophy lifestyle office” properties in the Sun Belt region and has outperformed Class A office properties in its markets.

Caroline Johns, Pembroke’s Director of Sustainability, details their long-term perspective on sustainability investments and resilient real estate assets. Caroline is the second interview in this year’s third annual series on real estate and carbon.

Brad Dockser is the CEO and Co-Founder of GreenGen, a global firm dedicated to helping real estate owners and investors move towards a zero–carbon future. In this week’s interview with Brad, we kick off our third annual month-of-August focus on climate change and the built environment.

Cathy Marcus, Global Chief Operating Officer and Head of U.S. Equity at PGIM Real Estate, discusses the power of playing the long game in real estate. A recurring theme throughout the Leading Voices in Real Estate podcast is just how essential a long-term vision is.

Matt Pestronk, Co-Founder and President of Post Brothers, details how he and his brother Mike became leaders in Philadelphia multifamily and are now taking their expertise in adaptive reuse of office buildings and ground up development to Washington, DC and other markets. When they founded their Philadelphia-based company just before the great financial crisis of 2007-2008, they had no idea what kind of challenges they would face on their entrepreneurial journey...

Constance Freedman, Founder and Managing Partner of Moderne Ventures, talks innovation in technology solutions and its impact on the real estate market. Moderne Ventures is a Chicago-based venture fund focused on technology firms that are disrupting the real estate, mortgage, finance, insurance, hospitality, and home services industries.

Mitchell Silver, now Principal of Urban Planning at McAdams, explores the lasting impact of work-from-home and the recovery of our urban fabric post-pandemic. In this week’s rebroadcast, I brought Mitchell back to revisit our original podcast episode together from two years ago.

In honor of Sam Zell, real estate legend and trailblazer, we revisit our 2016 conversation about how he built his real estate empire. As the son of Jewish immigrants who fled Poland in 1939 as Hitler invaded, Sam’s life path is marked by resilience, controversy, and an insatiable drive to succeed.

In part two of our series on real estate services platforms, Justin Wheeler, CEO of Berkadia, talks about the focus of his firm on multifamily finance and investment sales and how that focus defines their strategy and culture. This conversation is the flip side of the coin from our prior conversation with Brett White, who talked about the strategy and strengths of the global, full service real estate services platforms, Cushman & Wakefield, and CBRE.

Brett White, Executive Chair of Cushman & Wakefield and prior CEO of Discovery Land Company, discusses the evolution of today’s global giant real estate services platforms. As the first of this month’s two part series on the real estate brokerage and services platforms, Brett tells the story of the growth and evolution of the giant real estate services platforms.

Antonio Marquez, Principal and Managing Partner at Comunidad Partners, talks about his firm’s focus on workforce housing and their community oriented, impact investment business model. This is the second of a two part series this month on Leading Voices focusing on the housing crisis in our country.

I’m trading places this week, and I’m the guest! Enjoy this rebroadcast of my interview on Juniper Square’s The Distribution podcast with Brandon Sedloff.

Ismael Guerrero, President and CEO of Mercy Housing, dissects the housing affordability crisis, subsidized housing, and stewardship of public dollars. Founded in 1981, Mercy Housing has grown into the nation’s largest nonprofit owner of affordable housing.

Christopher Hawthorne, Senior Critic at the Yale School of Architecture, discusses why collective spaces deserve intentional design and public support. After over a decade as the architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times, Chris took a position as the first Chief Design Officer of the City of Los Angeles, working under Mayor Eric Garcetti...

Jordan Slone, Chairman and CEO of Harbor Group International, shares the secret sauce behind the company’s $20 billion, diversified, but apartment-sector heavy portfolio. With 58,000 units of apartments, Harbor Group International came in 15th on last year’s NMHC top fifty list of apartment owners.

This week’s podcast guest is Chris Merrill, the co-founder and CEO of Harrison Street, a $55 billion family of real estate funds focused on demographically-driven real estate niche sectors such as student housing, senior housing, life science, self-storage and infrastructure throughout the U.S., Canada and Western Europe. He talks about their strategy as a break out from the four main real estate “food groups” and how their strategy is “de-risked” both by focusing on these multiple niche sectors and through working through multiple operating partners in each business.

This week’s podcast guest is Kevin Marchetti the co-founder of Bay Grove, a real estate private equity firm that has built the world’s largest portfolio of cold-storage warehouses, and its operating company, Lineage Logistics, that runs the business. The company has scaled up by acquiring different businesses and portfolios, and now Lineage employs over 25,000 people globally.

This week’s podcast guest is Wemimo Abbey, a 30-year-old entrepreneur already making waves in the apartment business as Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Esusu. Esusu allows lower income renters to use their rental payments to help build their credit scores to create a pathway to their personal financial health.

As a holiday treat, this rebroadcast episode from January 2021 features Paul Saffo, forecaster and Head of Future Studies at Stanford University. He forecasts the future of city development in light of historic patterns of change, economic shifts, and the role of real estate post pandemic.

MacArthur Foundation Genius Award Winner and internationally recognized leader in the field of homelessness, Rosanne Haggerty, President and CEO of Community Solutions, dives deep into the challenges of the homelessness crisis and talks about how the problem is indeed “Solvable”. Rosanne puts the homelessness crisis in context as a symptom of broader systemic failures rather than as the fault of individuals experiencing homelessness.