The Promote Podcast

This week, we talk Chicago – America’s Second City is now becoming top of mind for national multifamily players. We break down 2 significant deals: LaTerra’s monster AIMCO portfolio buy and S2’s debut. We then slip into our jerseys and look at the arcane world of stadium development – and all the freebies and surrounding action that comes with it. Finally, we schlep the streets of Brooklyn, where...

We're technically off this week. BUT, Business Insider dropped a banger of a read on Floyd Mayweather's tangled financial web, and somewhere at the center of that web is a character of great interest to The Promote Cinematic Universe : Jona Rechnitz was a New York real estate developer who was caught up in a massive NYPD corruption scandal before heading to LA and reinventing himself as a diamond...

This week, we talk illiquid death – the Bluerock listing debacle says so much about the mark-to-magic happening in the nontraded REIT market. We then head to Hollywood where showbiz is turning into badbiz for Hackman Capital , HPP and others who went all-in on soundstages. And finally, we head to Charm City to check in on Kevin Plank & Goldman Sachs' Baltimore Peninsula megaproject – MAG is ou...

This week, we’re talking exotic alts – the far-flung corners of CRE that are starting to catch serious institutional interest. Think car washes, aviation hangars and the like. We're joined by Ian Ross , managing partner of SomeraRoad , to talk through the fascinating niche of aviation infrastructure and how it's been supercharged by the Big Beautiful Bill . Then, we walk through Taconic Partners'...

This week, we look back at the skyline-shaping impact of 2 starchitects who’ve just left us – Robert A.M. Stern and Frank Gehry – and then jump into a broader discussion about the pros & cons of name-brand architects. We dive into the industrial deal of the year, EQT’s 9M sf sale to Aum gobbler Artemis . And we have an exclusive tick-tock of a hotel megadeal in San Francisco, Newbond & Con...

In our special mailbag episode, co-host Will Krasne tackles your most unhinged CRE questions: who'd be the dream cast of a CRE version of Million Dollar Listing, the best projects through which to launder funds, and which industry niches are IQ-optional. To advertise: Reach out to partnerships@thepromote.com For feedback: Write us at podcast@thepromote.com And please rate us and write a review on...

This week, we dive deep into the maverick career of Seattle skyscraper titan Martin Selig - a true man in full who at his pomp controlled more than a third of the city's downtown, but is now at risk of losing it all. As of this summer, Selig has lost 19 of his buildings to third-party managers or lenders. He’s been unable to make good on over $850 million in loans. We break down his meteoric rise,...

This week, we explore why more multifamily REITs are offering themselves up at the altar - there just doesn’t seem to be a real path forward for many of these midsize players in this capital-markets environment. We then look at Marriott’s mercy killing of Sonder and the lessons to take away from yet another high-profile proptech implosion. And finally, the Mooch’s OZ fund was kinda like the Mooch’...

This week, we chat about 2 big events in the senior housing space: Blackstone’s fire sale of a $1.8B portfolio and the Sonida-CNL merger. It’s a pretty gnarly business to operate, but there’s lots of room for creative structuring. Next, we look at the behind-the-scenes wrangling at one of Brooklyn’s buzziest projects: Jonathan Landau is attempting to build Brooklyn Heights’ tallest condo, but has...

In a world awash with capital, it’s the same names who are vacuuming up increasing shares of it: We dive into Blackstone alpha cub Chad Pike's take-private megadeal for industrial REIT Plymouth, his most significant deal since being shunted to the BX sidelines. We then discuss how major US players such as Hines and Brookfield are now heading to the Gulf, not just to raise capital for US projects,...

This week, we look at explosive allegations of mortgage fraud that have caught up 2 prominent regional banks. Zions and Western Alliance woes stemming from shenanigans at a California CRE investor once again show how vital regional banks are to the industry’s capital markets – and how distress in that space can ruin the whole party. Next, we look at Walmart’s intriguing new playbook – the retail b...

This week, we have a special episode diving deep into the skyscraper that encapsulates our political and financial age: 666 Fifth Avenue. Now known as 660 Fifth Avenue , this tower brings together a dizzying array of characters – from Jared and Charlie Kushner to the former finance minister of Qatar and an imprisoned Chinese mogul – and elements such as cocky scions, insane appraisals, overheated...

This week, we asked the taboo question about New York office to residential conversions . Do the numbers work? There's been enough distress from some of the OGs, including Nathan Berman , that it warrants that question amid all the private-credit billions flowing into the space. We then look at how a single man, Zara founder Amancio Ortega , can drive pricing across product types and markets – eve...

This week, we discuss an intriguing deal in the data-center space – TeraWulf is raising $3B in debt to build data centers for Google , in an intertwined transaction that's becoming a prototype for getting these massive developments going. We dive into the maverick mogul behind Terawulf, Paul Prager , who's using his heft to turn Maryland's Eastern Shore into the new Hamptons. We then take stock of...

This week, we dive into Brookfield's $10B mega-acquisition of manufactured-home player YES! Communities , and how it's emblematic of the next frontier of institutional CRE investing – we chop it up on the liquid debt markets for affordable housing, putting money to work at scale and Stockbridge's FAT upcoming promote. We then examine RXR's OPM masterclass in Manhattan with Gemini, a $3.5B office v...

This week, we take a closer look at one of the biggest winners from Nvidia's Silicon Valley real estate rampage: The Sobrato Organization amassed a 12M sf portfolio through a combination of guts, vision and HEAVY leverage, and are now reaping the rewards as Nvidia goes shopping. We then look at how some big players, including Toll Brothers , are bowing out of multifamily development , and explore...

Like a lot of older guys, Steve Ross moved to Florida. Unlike them, however, the billionaire real estate developer didn't go there to retire, but instead to take on an even more audacious skyline-shaping challenge: West Palm Beach . This week, we trace Ross' whirlwind of big-ticket dealmaking down south that combines real estate, private equity, education, sport, and glamour – much to take away fo...

This week, it's Tupac vs Biggie, commercial real estate edition: We dive into a deal on each coast that brings together all the things that we think make CRE the greatest show on earth. Rapacious lenders, billion-dollar-dreams, broken capital stacks & creative financing. In New York, we look at the saga of 172 Madison Avenue, Yitzchak Tessler's moonshot condo project that ended in multiple ban...

This week, we’re talking the Mormon real estate playbook – how the LDS church built a serious property portfolio and also run it like serious people. We then discuss syndicator Grant Cardone ’s intricate plan to rescue a distressed Boca rental – with a Bitcoin twist. We also chop it up on how fund managers' courtship of retail money is leading to pushback from big institutional LPs. Want to reach...

We break down the puzzling $2.7B take-private of Soho House – what do Apollo, MCR, Ron Burkle and Ashton Kutcher think they can pull off by revitalizing the famed member's club? The discussion touches on everything from select-service hotels to Tyler Morse's start as "Barry's guy" to the perils of the hospitality business. We then break down the capital stacks on two closely watched Manhattan mega...

We dive into the singular life and multiple dramas of real estate impresario Michael Shvo , the luxury resi broker turned developer who went on one of the most epic commercial real estate buying sprees in the 2020s. Backed by German pension money, Shvo snapped up icons such as the Transamerica Pyramid in SF, Big Red in Chicago, and the sites of boutique ultra-luxury condo projects across gateway m...

This week, we break down the outsized life & career of seminal Atlanta developer Tom Cousins: skyline-shaper, quail hunter, Ted Turner lender, Buffett buddy – an honest-to-goodness Man in Full. We trace his origins from selling tract homes to setting the stage for the modern Atlanta skyline, and examine his broader cultural impact on real estate. We then dive into the zany case of the late CRE...

This week, we dive into how private credit mega-managers such as Blackstone , KKR & Blue Owl have been setting the stage for a potentially huge new pool of capital: 401(k)s . With the Trump administration’s eagerness to push more retirement savings into PE, players have been forming alliances with the biggest 401(k) managers in a move that could mean a far bigger CRE private-credit war chest....

In this special episode of The Promote Podcast, we dive deep into Related Companies' de-risking playbook at its Hudson Yards megaproject. How they're pulling off a $25 billion, 18 million-square-foot undertaking in New York City while continuously taking chips off the table through creative financing structures, global capital sources, equity partners and tax breaks. We look at how Steve Ross spen...

This week, we discuss JPMorgan's age of empires, its play for the Roosevelt Hotel as part of a potentially 7 million square foot campus in the heart of New York. We dive into why 2 multifamily giants, Cortland and Bell Partners, are shopping for suitors and explore the capital landscape for large apartment owners. Finally, we do a quick-and-dirty breakdown of the Starwood-Fundamental $2.2B deal, a...