The ACREL Files

Season 4 of the ACREL Files continues with John Santora , CEO of WeWork. With more than 45 million square feet in over 600 locations around the world, WeWork is the leading provider of co-working spaces and flexible work solutions. John became CEO of WeWork in 2024, stepping into the role just as the company entered its next chapter of cost-conscious growth and operational discipline, and is guidi...

Season 4 of the ACREL Files continues with Al Rabil , CEO of Kayne Anderson Real Estate – one of the leading investors in alternative real estate sectors including medical office, high-end seniors housing, off-campus student housing, and self-storage. Al co-founded Kayne Anderson’s real estate private equity platform in 2007. He is responsible for setting strategic direction, overseeing investment...

Join us for Episode #35 of the ACREL Files with our first international guest. Jay Epstien interviews Shobi Khan , the Chief Executive Officer of Canary Wharf Group. Located on 97 acres in East London in an area that served as a shipping hub for almost 200 years, Canary Wharf is now one of the main financial centers in the United Kingdom and the world. It is the ultimate mixed use project containi...

Season 4 of the ACREL Files continues with Abbe Franchot Borok, the Managing Director and Head of US Debt for BGO. With $89.7 Billion of AUM spanning 25 offices in 12 countries, BGO (formerly Bentall Green Oak) is one of the leading investment, lending and property management companies in the world. Join Jay Epstien as Abbe describes her years of experience with core, core-plus and high yield debt...

Join us for the first episode of 2026 of the ACREL Files with Joseph Gyourko , the Martin Bucksbaum Professor of Real Estate, Finance and Business & Public Policy at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to being a past Chair of the Wharton Real Estate Department , Professor Gyourko has served as the Director of the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center at Wharton for more...

Season 4 of the ACREL Files continues with Christopher Merrill , Co-Founder and Global Chief Executive Officer of Harrison Street Asset Management, interviewed by Jay Epstien . Under Chris’s leadership, Harrison Street has grown into one of the world’s largest and most innovative investors in alternative real assets, managing more than $100 billion across real estate, infrastructure, and credit st...

The fourth season of the ACREL Files continues with Ken Himmel , President of Related Ross, hosted by Jay Epstien . Ken is a nationally recognized leader in the development of successful mixed use projects that combine architectural design and urban planning with dynamic shopping, entertainment, residences, offices and world-class restaurants to bring forth the energy and vitality of an urban dest...

Welcome back to Season 4 of The ACREL Files. In our first episode of the season, Jeff DeBoer (CEO) and Ryan McCormick (VP, Tax) from The Real Estate Roundtable join host, Jay Epstien , to unpack The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act and what it means for real estate investors and operators. They discuss Fannie & Freddie , solar tax credits , the future of terrorism risk insurance and opportunity zo...

Season 3 of The ACREL Files closes (before a summer break) with an interview by our host, Jay Epstien , of Anthony E. Malkin , Chairman, President and CEO of Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. The “World’s Most Famous Building” is part of the more than 8.7 million square feet of office and retail space owned by ESRT in New York City. At a time when most observers in the world of commercial office spa...

Season 3 of The ACREL Files continues with an interview with Chad Remis , the Chief Investment Officer of Oxford Properties , a leading global real estate investor, developer and manager. Chad oversees the teams responsible for the company’s worldwide investment, asset management and development activities. With over a decade at Oxford, Chad has played a pivotal role in driving the company’s growt...

The ACREL Files continues with Jay Epstien’s interview of Mark Rose, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Avison Young, a global leader in providing comprehensive real estate solutions to investors, owners and occupiers across the globe. During his 16 years at Avison Young, Mark has transformed the firm into the commercial real estate services company of the future: data-driven, tech enabled and g...

The next installment of The ACREL Files is Jay Epstien’s interview of Mary Ann Tighe, the most prominent member of the “exceedingly small club of women who have managed to move to the top of the brokerage business” as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Crain’s New York Business named Mary Ann the most powerful woman -- across both the public and private sectors -- in New York, and chose her for...

Join us for the 25th episode of The ACREL Files where ACREL Past President Jay Epstien interviews Alex Nyhan, the Chief Executive Officer of First Washington Realty, a fully integrated firm that specializes in the ownership of convenience, necessity and experience-oriented retail real estate. First Washington currently owns interests in nearly 150 shopping centers in 22 states and the District of...

Season Three of The ACREL Files begins 2025 with an interview of Steve Weikal, Industry Chair of the MIT Center for Real Estate’s Technology Hub, which explores innovative new technologies and business models that are reinventing traditional ways of developing, transacting and managing real estate. Steve is also the Managing Partner of MET Fund II, which invests in early-stage startups that have a...

After an extended summer break, The ACREL Files continues with ACREL Past President Jay Epstien interviewing Noelle Perkins, Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary of Cushman & Wakefield (a Silver Sponsor of ACREL). She leads Cushman’s global legal function, providing strategic advice, guidance, oversight and support to C&W’s global business and operations whil...

Before taking a break for the summer, the ACREL Files continues with ACREL Past President Jay Epstien interviewing J. Ronald Terwilliger, among the most iconic leaders of the real estate industry in the past 50 years. Ron is chairman emeritus of Trammell Crow Residential Company, a national residential real estate company and the largest developer of multifamily housing in the U.S. for several dec...

The ACREL Files 2024 continues with ACREL Past President Jay Epstien interviewing Deborah Harmon, an industry leader and entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in real estate. Together with Penny Pritzker, she co-founded Artemis Real Estate Partners in 2009. Prior to Artemis, Debbie spent 17 years establishing and leading the principal investing business at JE Robert Companies. Debbie...

The ACREL Files 2024 continues with ACREL Past President Jay Epstien interviewing Sarah Hawkins, CEO of the East Region for Hines, one of the largest and most respected real estate organizations in the world. In that role, Sarah oversees development, acquisition, asset management, and operations activities across offices in New York City, Boston, Washington, DC and Philadelphia, with $20 billion i...

The ACREL Files 2024 continues with ACREL Past President, Jay Epstien, interviewing Jeff DeBoer, the President & Chief Executive Officer of The Real Estate Roundtable. The Roundtable represents the leadership of the nation’s top 150 privately owned and publicly-held real estate ownership, development, lending and management firms, as well as the elected leaders of the 19 major national real es...

Welcome to The ACREL Files 2024. We begin the year with ACREL Past President, Jay Epstien, interviewing Judy Turchin, a real estate lawyer with an accomplished career that should be of particular interest to ACREL Fellows. Judy’s journey (which is not over yet) started as a real estate associate at Wachtel Lipton before she joined Lehman Brothers as a Senior Vice President and Legal Officer in the...

Join us for the final ACREL Files podcast of 2024 when ACREL Past President Jay Epstien interviews Roy March , the chief executive officer of Eastdil Secured, the leading global real estate investment banking company. Eastdil annually transacts over $200 billion per year and has been involved in over $2.8 trillion in transactions since 2007. With more than 45 years of experience at Eastdil across...

The ACREL Files continues with an interview of Diane Hoskins , the Co-CEO of Gensler, by ACREL Past President Jay Epstien . Gensler is the leading global architecture, design, and planning firm with 53 locations and 6,000+ professionals around the world. For her innovative leadership, Diane ranks on Business Insider’ s elite “Creators” list , a who’s who of the world’s 100 top creative visionaries...

The ACREL Files continues with an interview of David Rubenstein, one of the Co-Founders of Carlyle and currently its Co-Chairman of the Board, by ACREL Past President Jay Epstien. Under David’s leadership, Carlyle became one of the world’s largest and most diversified global investment firms, with $385 billion of assets under management. Carlyle is an active investor in global real estate. Prior t...

As the Summer of 2023 comes to a close, the ACREL Files continues with Past President, Jay Epstien’s, interview of Owen Thomas, the Chairman and CEO of Boston Properties. Owen is a recognized leader in the real estate industry with more than 30 years of executive leadership, strategic planning, management and international experience, as well as substantial experience in financial and capital mark...

ACREL Files continues with Jay Epstien’s interview of Sandeep Mathrani, most recently the Chief Executive Officer of WeWork. Prior to joining WeWork in 2020, Sandeep was a leader in the world of retail real estate during an extraordinary 35+ year career having served as Chief Executive Officer of Brookfield Properties' Retail Group and Vice Chairman of Brookfield Properties; Chief Executive Office...