CO just dropped the latest installment of the Power 100, its much-anticipated annual rundown of the players dominating the CRE landscape through a 🍸 of capital/creative dealmaking/chutzpah. As we wrote last year, the ranking typically unleashes 3 types of behaviors: “Those high up on the list tout exactly where they’ve landed, those lower down prefer to focus on the fact that they made the cut, and those not on it pretend it doesn’t exist.” 🙈 This year’s ed. features many of the usual suspects, but also some notable wildcards. Let’s take a tour through – think of our rundown as bootleg DVD commentary. 👇

Bravo Capital, a leading national healthcare and multifamily lender, has just released The Silver Wave, a must-read guide to SNFs and the growing investment gap in healthcare infrastructure. Over 10,000 Americans turn 65 every single day. By 2040, more than 80M seniors will need care — yet the national inventory of skilled nursing facility (SNF) beds has barely grown in over a decade. Bravo’s new snapshot is the definitive guide to understanding this demographic shift, what it means for SNF demand, and why this may be one of the most compelling long-term opportunities in real estate today.

• Nadeem Meghji, Blackstone, #1: Now the solo captain of the $300B real estate boat after Kathleen McCarthy’s exit last fall. A safe choice, uncontroversial. Doing big things in data centers ✅ In the mix on SF’s office recovery and scoring Anthropic ✅ Even whipping up a 1031 DST to banish the Sunbelt multi problems ✅
• Gary Barnett & Andrew Chung, Extell, #7: Barnett is a no-brainer – we’d put him even higher TBH – given his extraordinary run of dealmaking over the past year. (See here, here, here, & on the pod here, and that’s not even counting Jerusalem). But Chung getting the nod seems a bit sus – he’s been co-CEO barely a couple months, and we’re yet to see him really in action
• Ben Brown, Brookfield, #10: Again, fair enough, though we wonder about the internal discussions at HQ about who gets to be featured. Is it like, “Ok, Lowell got the Bloomberg splash in the summer, so Ben can have the CO spotlight?”
• Harmon/Spies, Newmark #17, Silverman/Phillips, Eastdil, #18: CO continues its delightful tradition of placing these rival I-sales rainmakers side-by-side.
• Michael Nierenberg, Rithm Capital, #19: During the Paramount Group takeover talks, Crain’s described the firm as “little-known.” Rithm has been on a full-court press press since then.(The sculpture in Nierenberg’s office can be yours for $300K.)
• Roy March, Eastdil Secured, #47: Interesting that March gets the nod here, despite Mike VK’s assumption of the CEO reins post the Savills merger. (BTW, The Promote had the most comprehensive analysis of that mega M&A - here & on the pod here)
• Jonah Sonnenborn, Access Industries, #62: Len Blavatnik’s CRE lieutenant has been behind the scenes on marquee JVs w/ the likes of Naftali 👇 & Witkoff (the partners took over HFZ’s XI and successfully resurrected it as One High Line)
• Zohran Mamdani, NYC & Daniel Lurie, SF, #101: The mayors of our country’s 2 alpha cities got an “Honorable Mention” nod on the list 👏 , though the way they’re perceived by industry players could not be more different. Mamdani is the industry boogeyman responsible for freezing the rent on 1M units, derided as the anti-business socialist, the man who’s put a cloud of uncertainty over the NYC market and is driving its wealthiest away. Lurie, meanwhile, is viewed as a pro-business godsend, a guy who understands how important a healthy CRE market is to the health of a city – Jon Gray’s exuberant message here says it all.

A thought: I’d pay good money to see Traded’s spin on a “power list.” Would be a feast for the eyes & soul. Though we’d all need larger monitors.

This Wednesday, 5/20 at 12pm ET, we’re hosting the 2nd installment of “In Conversation,” our Insiders-only series of unplugged discussions w/ CRE industry leaders (Highlights from our inaugural event w/ David Lichtenstein here). Hiten will be speaking w/ David Hochfelder, the CIO of Naftali Group, among the most active developers of top-shelf product in both New York & Miami. Among things we’ll discuss:

Sign up for Insider here, and we’ll send you a registration link to attend the virtual event.

The data-center world is moving so laughably fast that we’d need a full-time newsletter just to cover its twists & turns. But for now, we’re periodically compiling some interesting happenings/good reads in the space that give you a sense of where it’s all heading.

•Andy Jassy Is Rewriting Amazon’s Playbook for the AI Age: This is a profile of Bezos’ successor at Amazon, 5Y into his tenure. It’s a great lens into just how seriously Jassy is taking AI, and how that seriousness is translating into development activity. The industry spends a lot of time looking at what Blackstone & the rest (now KKR too) are doing; it would do them well to start at the source.

• CIM (early-ish in data centers through its Novva arm) is getting into the power game, and landed a $400M financing commitment from HPS (now a BlackRock joint) for it. Power is the original sin of the asset class, and many major players – notably QTS founder Chad Williams – have launched ventures trying to solve for it.

• With data-center advisory going from a sundries item on brokerage P&Ls to a core cash 🐮, makes sense that the talent decks would be reshuffled in favor of the biggest names. Which means: someone’s getting framemogged 💾

A JV between Miki Naftali’s eponymous development firm & Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries has landed a $374M refi from Barings on Phase I of the Williamsburg Wharf, a 3.75-acre waterfront megaproject. The first phase at 470 Kent Ave. consists of 89 condos, 500+ rentals and 15K sf of retail. The financing, per CO, was arranged by Walker & Dunlop. Barings ( 🧒 of MassMutual) was already snuggled in the capstack, having provided a $75M 🍕 of mezz alongside Bank OZK’s $310M sr. loan in a $385M construction financing package in ‘22.

OZK was initially looking to also finance Phase II of the project, a two-tower, 360-condo development known as 80 Wharf Way. But over the past year and change, the prairie boys have been far less enthusiastic about financing New York new builds, and Naftali & Blavatnik instead turned to JPM/Goldentree - the same lenders on their 800 Fifth Ave. moonshot – to get that $525M debt.

Some of the nation’s biggest homebuilders, incl. Pulte Group, D.R. Horton and Lennar, are grappling with a surge in construction-defects lawsuits from buyers. The allegations, per WSJ, include the use of shoddier materials, unqualified subs, and cutting corners in construction. The homebuilders are putting the blame on the subs, say that litigation only impacts a small 🍕 of their portfolio, and that they are becoming targets of predatory lawyers hungry for a cut of the settlement. 🦈

The Seminole Tribe of Florida claims Lennar built 450+ homes w/ faulty roofs and moldy walls, which caused health problems. 🦠 Louisiana homeowners allege D.R. Horton homes don’t keep out moisture. The increase in activity can be seen in the spike in reserves for legal claims: Lennar’s self-insurance reserve jumped 21% in ‘25 to $337M, while D.R. Horton’s reserves for legal claims jumped 57% from ‘22-’25 to $1.1B, per WSJ. D.R. Horton spent $57M last year to resolve over 400 claims. Plaintiffs’ lawyers have been able to challenge binding-arbitration clauses and get cases heard in state court, where jurors can be more sympathetic to homeowners.