The Quantum City Show

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ AI in commercial real estate has moved from “we should probably look at this” to “why don’t we have a plan yet?” That was the feeling coming out of our CAB in Los Angeles. We had owners, operators, and executives from LPC, Hines, LBA, ARE, Piedmont, Swig, MetLife, and Hudson...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ After years on the sidelines, the institutional giants are buying office again. SL Green, BXP, Vornado, and Nardis are back in the market, and Q1 2026 office investment sales hit $20.5 billion, up nearly 40% year over year. So is office finally back? Not exactly. Greg and Cha...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/   China just opened the largest train station on earth. 1.2 million square meters. 7 years to build. LIDAR robots working three times faster than humans. Trains doing 220mph.   Boston took 17 years to extend 4.7 miles of Green Line. New York spent $5 billion on 1.8 miles of s...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ 120 million square feet leased in Q1 2026. Best quarter in a decade. First time since before the pandemic that volume cleared its historical average.   So why does Class B still feel like a completely different market?   AI firms are signing massive leases. Trophy assets are...

  Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ Back in February, the AI panic ripped through CRE stocks and everybody bled. CBRE, JLL, BXP, Newmark — absolutely hammered. The bear case was simple: AI was gonna “destroy” office demand, gut the brokerage business, and that was that. Q1 2026 earnings just came in. It wasn'...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ If you've been watching office vacancy hit record highs while office leasing also hits record highs and wondering what is going on, this one's for you. Episode 28. We're back. And we have a lot to catch up on. The Microsoft-Chevron deal just told you everything you need to kn...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/   We've been talking about what makes a quantum city for a while now. Rob is in the middle of building one. Rob Lair, co-founder of Hula Lakeside Investments, joined us this week and the conversation took on a life of its own.    Eight years ago, Rob and his partner Russ Scul...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: ⁠ ⁠ ⁠https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/⁠ 30% of office buildings in America are functionally obsolete. That's $1.1 trillion of commercial real estate sitting vacant, aging, and bleeding value. The question everyone is asking: what do you do with it? Daniel English has an answer. And he just bet $40 million on...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/   When the AI panic hit Wall Street, the public markets went into an absolute whipsaw. Commercial real estate took one of its sharpest beatings in years - CBRE tumbled, JLL tumbled, and names like Newmark and BXP weren't far behind. The narrative? Investors were terrified tha...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/   In this episode, we sit down with Dominic Endicott, author of "Knowledge Towns" and has been thinking about how secondary cities can win in a world where Silicon Valley takes everything.   One stand out point: real estate has $380 trillion in value but only $3 trillion in m...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ In this episode, we talk with a guest who has shaped our thinking for years: Joe Pine.    Most know him as the author of The Experience Economy, but his newer work on The Transformation Economy is what we really wanted to dig into, especially given the "global AB test" the re...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/   AI isn’t a future concept anymore. It’s the infrastructure the economy is running on, and it’s starting to show up in places that feel very real, very physical, and sometimes very uncomfortable. Cities, energy systems, offices, and the buildings we keep arguing about all se...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/   In this episode, we’re joined by Marwan Aboudib, partner at Tekuma (Tekuma Frenchman Urban Design), to talk through what it really takes to build cities for the future. Drawing from his work across global markets, Marwan shares how city-making actually happens when vision m...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/   In this episode, we’re joined by Steve from the MIT Center for Real Estate, and we get into a real conversation about PropTech, AI, and what’s actually real versus what’s just hype. No sci-fi, no robots delivering buildings, just how this stuff is really showing up in comme...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/   We’re back for the first episode of the year, and instead of pretending we have crystal-clear answers for 2026, we do what we do best: zoom out, look at the data, and call out what actually feels different this time.    2025 was loud, messy, and very AI-heavy, so we start t...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/   Social media bans, AI data centers, and real estate signals—what a week.   Australia’s move to ban social media for teens and why the feed is starting to look like “digital cigarettes,” plus the debate over an age “sweet spot” for social platforms.   We jump to SpaceX’s pot...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ Sam Altman has reportedly called a “code red” as the AI race accelerates—and that momentum is beginning to show up in commercial real estate. In EP17, we look at Boston’s potential budget pressure as commercial values are projected to decline, then dive into JLL’s 2025 Global...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ Michael Burry’s infamous fund has gone dark after placing a massive short bet against Nvidia and AI—mirroring his original Big Short strategy. Is he blowing up the next bubble? This week, we track the ripples across commercial real estate, where the office market recovery is...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ Nvidia just became the first company in history to hit a $5 trillion valuation — bigger than Germany’s economy, 25 Disneys, or 50 Nikes (we did the math… kind of). It’s the clearest sign yet that the AI boom is reshaping everything from Wall Street to warehouse walls — and ma...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/   Blockchain is finally making its way into commercial real estate. Deloitte claims $4 trillion worth of property could be tokenized by 2035 — a bold forecast that has everyone from brokers to blockchain believers talking. Whether it’s a revolution or just another consulting...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ STRATA is in the books — and wow, what a day. Together with our partners at MIT, we packed a room in Cambridge with some of the smartest people we’ve ever met to talk about what’s next for cities, tech, and real estate.   In this episode, we look back at what went down: Travi...

Last day! 🎟️ RSVP for Strata (Oct 16, MIT Kendall Square): https://www.hqo.com/strata-summit-waitlist/ Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/   The AI boom is building the physical world — massive data centers, chip factories, and new energy grids — at a speed that feels unreal. Venture capital keeps pouring fuel...

🎟️ RSVP for Strata (Oct 16, MIT Kendall Square): https://www.hqo.com/strata-summit-waitlist/ Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ AI data centers are the new gold rush, billionaires are measuring towers, and Hollywood just cast its first actress who doesn’t technically exist.    Welcome to the future — it’s weir...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ 🎟️ RSVP for Strata (Oct 16, MIT Kendall Square): https://www.hqo.com/strata-summit-waitlist/   In this episode, we get serious… or at least our version of serious.   We dive into multi-billion-dollar funds, cities panicking because their tax base depends on half-empty office...

Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ 🎟️ RSVP for Strata (Oct 16, MIT Kendall Square): https://www.hqo.com/strata-summit-waitlist/ Fresh off Vegas (yes, wallets lighter, oxygen in casinos still free), we’re back with Episode 9 and it’s a wild one. The Fed’s cutting rates again, Boston wants 700-foot towers in the...