Leading Voices in Real Estate

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. It offers a deep set of services to its clients, beyond the four walls of the warehouse, including logistics, transportation, food prep, and information technology. This business moves beyond pure real estate into true partnership and adds value services to the industry client base. Kevin talks about how they built the portfolio through acquisitions of long-standing local cold storage family businesses, raising over $7 billion of capital, and the process of creating the Lineage operating platform. A story about strawberries encapsulates the lifecycle of the work, from picking to freezing, to using it as an energy source in the warehouse, to sending it to the stores for consumers. The discussion also hits on Kevin’s commitment to carbon reduction and the work Lineage is doing to establish the future of renewable energy in the warehouse sectors. He talks about being the fifth largest adopter of solar panels in the United States and signing the Climate Pledge for zero net carbon emissions by 2040.

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. Wemimo and his cofounder only just started the company in 2018, it is now valued at over $1 billion and used by over 50% of the nation's largest owners and operators of apartments. Wemimo credits his journey from Nigeria to Minnesota and his mother’s hard work and focus on his education as pivotal contributions to his entrepreneurial success and desire to support underserved communities.  The story of how Esusu was started leads Wemimo to talk about the win-win-win construct built into the program. This design supports the renters, the landlords, and the credit bureau while also providing solutions for homelessness with relief programs during COVID.  The process of creating a start-up in real estate requires strong relationship-building skills. Wemimo shares how he and his partner built synergy with other companies through relationships that helped catapult Esusu to success. Don’t miss this episode with Wemimo and his timeless advice for creating a meaningful career in real estate.

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.  Paul talks from a perspective outside of the real estate industry, calling those who work and thrive in it “wickedly smart and wickedly practical.” The conversation highlights real estate as ground zero in urban development and future city growth.  He breaks down both macro and micro level ways to look at real estate investments and capital growth. The significance of regional planners is highlighted and Paul encourages visionary approaches to merging global civilization and social cohesion.  By focusing on themes that have stood the test of time throughout centuries of change, Paul believes that we can become good ancestors and build urban developments that will take us more successfully into the future.

MacArthur Foundation Genius Award Winner and internationally recognized leader in the field ofhomelessness, Rosanne Haggerty, President and CEO of Community Solutions, dives deepinto 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 failuresrather than as the fault of individuals experiencing homelessness. Her non-profit CommunitySolutions has created a program called “Built for Zero” which has worked in over 100 cities andcounties across the county to implement its systematic approach, by harnessing data andcollaboration, to bring homelessness to “functional zero”. The goal is to ensure thathomelessness is a rare and brief experience, and never an enduring way of life.Rosanne provides insights into how fragmentation among government and servicesorganizations has prevented real transformation and how necessary disciplined collaborationand a fresh mindset are to lasting change. She talks about the role of the real estate industry ina discussion of the ripple effects on property values and our downtowns and the responsibilityeach community has to find solutions. Her team is using the  MacArthur Grant for $100M tosupport those communities in their network and encourages listeners to start being proactivethrough their businesses and within their communities.Resources“Homelessness is Solvable” – Rosanne’s podcast interview with Malcolm Gladwell (June 2019)Rosanne Haggerty | LinkedInCommunity Solutions | Home

This week’s podcast guests are Michael Van Konynenburg, President of Eastdil Secured, and Chris Hartung, Executive Director of Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics at Berkeley and Co-founder of the Terra Firma REIT investment funds.  Mike and Chris provide their perspectives on how the downturn is affecting both the public and private commercial real estate markets particularly given the near lockdown in the real estate capital markets. Mike breaks down the overall capital markets and transaction slowdown response, while Chris talks about how trading in REIT portfolios has been impacted. The conversation turns to preparing for the next cycle, advice to focus on core strategies, and the interrelated challenges of office and work-from-home transitions and the impact, and need for leadership from the real estate industry, on our CBDs.ResourcesMichael Van Konynenburg | LinkedInChristopher Hartung | LinkedIn

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. 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. They acquired, over time, the land for Alliance in Fort Worth and, of necessity, became a developer of the project themselves during the S&L recession.Ross talks about Hillwood’s work in public private partnerships across the country, including the airport project at Alliance, conversions of military bases, development of the Victory project in Dallas and his company’s work in Poland. He talks about this all coming together in their development of the Air Force Memorial project.Resources:LinkedIn | Ross Perot Jr.Hillwood Development

This week’s podcast guest is Byron Carlock, the U.S. real estate leader with PwC and the primary author of the ULI/PWC annual survey, “Emerging Trends in Real Estate”. The podcast centers on the current market downturn in the real estate transaction market within the context of the longer term, very positive, fundamentals and trends for the real estate business.  Byron predicts a 1-2 year timeline for market stabilization and talks about the next cycle where the longer term trends are generally quite positive for real estate. He discusses the deep, ongoing need for housing affordability, the retooling of the industry about decarbonization, continued challenges in the office market given long-term changes in remote work, and the resilience of great cities as well as opportunities outside of the big core urban environments.  Byron and Matt also talk about the negative image of “landlords” and “real estate developers”. Byron sees work to do on public perception of our business and reframes the industry’s work in the built environment as a “community betterment business”. ResourcesByron Carlock | PWCLinkedIn | Byron CarlockPWC | Emerging Trends in Real Estate MagazineUp For GrowthBeautyTrammell Crow: A Legacy in Real Estate Business InnovationTrammell Crow, Master Builder: The Story of America's Largest Real Estate EmpireChristopher Alexander - Pattern Language

This week’s podcast guest is Tyler Morse, CEO of MCR Hotels, the 3rd largest owner-operator hotel in the U.S, with a large range of hotel options. He discusses several aspects of the hotel and travel business, pointing out the differences in what business versus leisure travelers need and desire. He gives advice on accumulating and using points for reward programs. He especially emphasizes how people can rack up points on business trips and use them for family vacations.He discusses the impact that the COVID pandemic had on the hotel business. He especially focuses on the post-pandemic reaction, where people are traveling more than they did before the pandemic. Business and leisure trips have increased due to people’s desires to experience new things and interact with others. Tyler expects this to last for many years, calling it the “Roaring Twenties,” and comparing it to similar reactions people had in the 1920s after the 1918 pandemic.He describes his experience starting the TWA hotel, right by the JFK airport, which was his first hotel. He admits that it was a risky investment, but it paid off. The hotel draws in a lot of people who pass through JFK, as well as those who work at the airport. He talks about experiential hotels and how they differ from other hotels, especially in the fact that they are meant to draw people and to provide more opportunities and activities than other hotels provide.  ResourcesMCR Hotels Website

This week’s podcast guests are Carl Shannon of Tishman Speyer and Larry Baer of the San Francisco Giants. The pair discuss the opportunities in the land surrounding the Giants’ stadium. Together, Tishman and the Giants are building the Mission Rock mixed-use project, a new neighborhood adjacent to the Giant’s Oracle Park. The space is 28 acres with 1.6 million square feet of office and retail, 1,100 residential units, and eight acres of public open space — all on the waterfront.Larry explains that the baseball kedInMission RockTishman SpeyerBaseball Reference

Matt speaks with Mark Preston, Executive Trustee and CEO of Grosvenor, on this week’s episode. Grosvenor is a 340 year-old family office and commercial property business in the UK, owned by the Grosvenor family. Their young patriarch and Chair, Hugh Grosvenor, is the Duke of Westminster. Matt reflects that this kind of business longevity is nearly unrelatable in the real estate investment business, where the time horizon is so often three, five, or at max, fifteen, year holds.Mark delves into what long-termism means from Grosvenor’s perspective, particularly around the issues and responsibilities surrounding carbon and community benefits for property owners.He emphasizes that while there is growing opportunity to invest in environmentally sound real estate, it is imperative to do so, if investors and developers are going to be responsible citizens. These long-term real estate investments and developments have the potential to make a significant impact socially and environmentally — as well as financially. Mark emphasizes that long-termism is less about planning to buy and own a property for 350 years than it is about building a positive and durable reputation. ResourcesMark Preston | LinkedInGrosvenorAFIRE