The Promote Podcast

This week, it’s time to address the unrealized elephant in the room that is the biggest pain point in institutional CRE: Carry , or more precisely the lack of it. Thousands of the smartest guys and girls in the business have spent the last few years preparing for an outcome that never came. Grappling with that reality is shaping everything from talent moves to firm restructurings. Plus, our Punch...

In this bonus episode, we sit down with Presidio Bay’s Cyrus Sanandaji. Cyrus is at the vanguard of the comeback in America’s most important boom-and-bust town – San Francisco . His firm made prescient bets on SF’s recovery as the city began to emerge from the black hole of Covid, while also expanding a national development portfolio that today spans close to 6M square feet and is valued by the fi...

This week, we take stock of the tale of Lurin Capital , a multifamily syndicator that's now in the FBI's crosshairs. Jon Venetos was cut from very different cloth than the rest of the Sunbelt Dreamers, and his rise and fall are arguably even more cinematic. Next, it's a classic Manhattan tale of capstack sniping. With 245 Park ready to be graced by a $2 billion Refi, we look back at SL Green' s Tr...

This week, we visit CRE’s alpha lair, Blackstone HQ , where one of the industry’s top execs, global head of real estate Nadeem Meghji, is set to exit. His perch was among the best risk-adjusted seats in all business, but what does someone in that position do for their next act? And why is there so much churn atop the pyramid at BX? Next, we take stock of the most scrutinized real estate project in...

This week, we dive into 2 operatic stories of ruin on different continents. We begin with the tale of Hui Ka Yan , a Chinese property tycoon who went from being a steelworker to one of the world’s richest men, before his firm Evergrande collapsed and sank the country’s real estate market with it. Hui has just been sentenced to life in prison. Then, we beam into a New York law firm boardroom, where...

This week, we put on our toques and head to the TSX, where Meyer Orbach and Josh Gotlib are on a fascinating multifamily caper with their REIT GO Residential . We then take a back door into a special-servicer war, with Greystone accusing rival CWCapital of stealing its trade secrets to poach its business and talent. Finally, we head to a palatial, soon-to-be-empty office at 125 Park, where we take...

In this bonus episode, we sit down with JDS Development Group boss Michael Stern , one of the builders synonymous with the luxury condo market in New York and more recently in Miami. Stern talks through home runs like Walker Tower in Chelsea, strikeouts (though he disagrees) like the Brooklyn Tower , and 11th-inning odysseys like the skinny Billionaires’ Row supertall 111 West 57th St. Outside of...

The final part of our special trilogy on the Reichmanns traces how the mother of all megaprojects became a siren song for Olympia & York. Everything that had brought them to these heights – the creative financing, the cinematic self-belief, the ability to convince others and themselves they could pull it all off – worked against them at London's Canary Wharf , and we talk through the aftermath...

Pt. II of our special episode on the Reichmanns takes us to the ultimate proving ground of Manhattan. We do a tick-tock of how Olympia & York pulled off the CRE deal of the century, buying 10 million square feet of prime office space for just $33 a square foot and beating up some of the city's blue bloods along the way. Then, they go even bigger: the development of the World Financial Center i...

This special episode dives deep into the story of the Reichmanns , an extraordinary family that probably contributed more to the financialization of CRE than anyone else. It’s a tale of survival, grit, chutzpah, genius (on many fronts), generosity, unchecked ambition, heart-stopping leverage, and eventually, ruin. We follow the family's incredible journey from the Orthodox synagogues of prewar Bel...

This week, it’s time for some California dreamin': We ascend Orange County’s Ziggurat , a stairway to heaven or SoCal’s biggest development clusterfuck, depending on your flavor. The hulking structure and the quest to sell it showcase government incompetence at its most extreme. We then head up to San Francisco , where a whirlwind of fascinating dealmaking has gone down at the city's largest renta...

In our second mailbag episode, co-host Will Krasne tackles your most unhinged CRE questions: self-managing vs. 3rd party, nightmare tenant interactions, his CRE Mt. Rushmore and many more. Sponsors: 1) This episode is supported by Bravo Capital , a leading HUD and bridge lender. See how their precision underwriting means quicker approvals and higher proceeds for sponsors. 2) This episode is suppor...

This week, we ride up a rickety construction elevator to the 21st floor of the Pfizer Building , where a major scare threatens to consume New York’s signature office-resi conversion project. We do a 360-degree analysis, from the bricks n’ sticks to the financials and the all-important narrative, looking at the stakes for developers Nathan Berman & David Werner , lender Madison Realty Capital a...

This week, we wade into the underbelly of big-ticket restructuring, looking at Pimco’s $1.8B lifeline on its disastrous bet on the Columbia Property Trust office portfolio, and how the lenders that stepped in after the default have set themselves up for a massive payday. The whole journey is a valuable lens into the opportunities available deep in the nethers of the capstack. Next, we have to revi...

This week, we take stock of the legacy of Alan Greenspan , the long-serving Fed Chair who has died at the ripe old age of 100. Greenspan’s moves, for better and for worse, shaped the CRE market as we know it today. Next, we visit the rapidly gentrifying swamp that is Gowanus , where Sam Charney is remaking the neighborhood with a little help from his friends. And finally, we dive back into one of...

This week, we load up on chips n' vinegar and take you with us on an extraordinary journey into British caravan country . Embattled mobile-home king Robert Bull's tale brings together gypsies, Norwegian beauty queens and New York financiers – and yes, it is very much a CRE story. Next, we slip into Dolce & Gabbana and ride to the branded-condo epicenter of Miami , where JDS’ Michael Stern is p...

This week, we dive into the high-stakes, high-reward (not for shareholders tho) world of SL Green, the mighty REIT that is New York’s largest commercial landlord . From a deal junkie standpoint, SL Green is king of the hill, but no matter what it does, it can’t seem to get Wall Street to love it. Next, we convert our dollars to lek and head to Albania , where Jared Kushner is trying to create the...

This week, we look at Texas billionaire Tilman Fertitta’s $18B megadeal for the Caesars entertainment empire - this is really an excuse for us to talk Tilman, one of the industries "C"haracters. Next, we dive into CoStar’s $800M acquisition of home-data firm Zonda – part of Andy Florance’s quest to control every piece of data in the real estate universe. And finally, it might be curtains for promi...

This week, we talk fear and loathing in interest rates : The 10Y and 5Y are going haywire and threaten to knock CRE's recovery off-kilter. Next, we discuss nepo babies running the asylum at Newmark: Howie Lutnick’s son Kyle has decided it’s his time to shine. And finally, we have to revisit one of the strangest sagas we’ve discussed on here: Floyd Mayweather is now throwing haymakers at his former...

In this special episode , we dive deep into the story of JMB Realty Corporatio n, one of the most influential firms in the modern history of CRE, with a playbook and an alumni network that continue to shape the industry today. You could argue that if JMB didn’t exist, real estate syndication would look very different today. M&A would look very different today. Hell, even the Heavenly Bed would...

This week, we dive into Sunbelt multifamily kingpin’s Scott Everett's ( S2 Capital ) audacious attempt to save his distressed portfolio via a private REIT – an attempt coming apart in real time. It's an opportunity for us to discuss the Sunbelt ZIRP-fueled boom/bust, the broader syndicator reckoning and how figuring out how to survive is sometimes all you can do. It’s then time to talk fathers and...

This week, we discuss multifamily’s mega-marriage of convenience : After getting no love from the Street for being merely huge, multifamily REITs Equity Residential and AvalonBay are considering a merger. Will overuses the word “tectonic,” but it really does apply here, so we’re going to dive in as deep as we can. We then leave the public markets behind for a telenovela playing out at an old-schoo...

This week, we have the this-is-too-weird-to-be-real tale of Forge Atlanta , a $3.8 billion megaproject with the most bizarro development team and history we’ve ever come across for a project of this scale. We know ground-up is smoke and mirrors even on a good day, but this is NEXT LEVEL. We then slip into linen trousers and head to the embattled sun-kissed shores of hospitality giant Aman , where...

This week, we finally tackle the story of Mark Nussbaum – the real estate attorney who became the nexus of the underground Orthodox CRE dealmaking world, facilitating hundreds of millions of dollars in deals and " show capital " before it all collapsed spectacularly in a wave of lawsuits, criminal fraud allegations, and even the suicide of a close collaborator, Mendy Steiner . Nussbaum's tale is a...

"Property management companies made my spreadsheets lie."  "We're gonna move the pref to a 17. Okay, okay, Tom. You're fucking me right now. You know that, right?" This week, we break protocol to bring you a no-holds-barred interview with the poster child of the Sunbelt syndicator boom/bust , Alan Stalcup of GVA Management . Fueled by OPM, ZIRP, and an insatiable appetite for deals, Stalcup rode t...