“Bruh.” “WTF.” were some of the first texts we got when the news broke. Gary Barnett, the Philippe Petit of New York real estate, had just tapped Andrew Chung to be co-CEO of Extell, thrusting the Carlyle alum & Innovo Property Group principal into one of the most-watched seats in the game.

"I've had the opportunity to work with Andrew over the years and have long admired what he built at Innovo, as well as his track record at Carlyle,” Barnett said. The move comes as Extell is in the thick of a cycle-defining run of dealmaking – take your pick:
1. Park Ave. assemblage 🧩
2. Madison Ave. ground-up 💄
3. Deer Valley ⛷
4. Jerusalem 🏛️
5. ABBA! 👯‍♀

and it is Barnett’s second shot at getting an outsider to mind the shop so he’s free to do Gary things.

Succession is a fraught issue in New York real estate. Founders want to give up the day-to-day responsibilities, but not the power – they want to reserve the right to invoke Founder Mode and may be loath to carve out a financial structure that makes the CEO seat worthwhile for true outside talent. Family dynamics muddy matters further, and rare is the player that has successfully pulled off a smooth handover. While Chung gets his business cards printed, let’s review the landscape.👇

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.

Vornado Realty Trust: Among the messier ones. Steve Roth had his golden boy in Goldman alum Mike Fascitelli, w/ the two memorably dubbed the “Gangstas of Brick” by 🔫 pistolera Lois Weiss. But after the mustachioed Rhode Islander bailed in ‘13, Roth could never quite land another true successor – his top suit is currently president Michael Franco, but octogenarian Roth is still in charge @ 888, which some on the Street don’t love.

Silverstein Properties: Larry Silverstein brought in Whitehall (GS fund, real player back in the day) & Related alum Marty Burger in ‘10 to help institutionalize the family firm. 🍔 got the co-CEO title in ‘11, and became sole CEO 3Y later. But he is neither a Silverstein (Larry’s daughter Lisa) nor married to one (Lisa’s husband Tal Kerret), and this proved his ceiling: In ‘23, he was terminated (the co. hit him w/ the devastating “great success in his future endeavors”) and Lisa was named CEO. Burger has since been trying to find his feet.

Related Cos: The exception to the rule. Though Steve Ross had longtime trusted lieutenants (Bruce Beal, Kenneth Wong), Jeff Blau was always going to be the guy. Lore has it that Blau parlayed a Ross UMich appearance into a ride back to NYC on Ross’ private 🛫 , and Blau had a job offer by the time they touched down. He became prez way back in ‘00, and CEO in ‘12. The 🐐 officially left Related in ‘24, and has since been marauding around West Palm Beach full-time (We did a v fun pod on this).

SL Green: VNO’s peer REIT has overall done a better job w/ this: Stephen L Green —> Marc Holliday, w/ Harry “Special Sits” Sitomer as the clear #2 now, though it did see the departure of the Big 3 (Andrew Mathias, Isaac Zion, David Schonbraun) stalwarts from ‘20-23

Extell: It’s hard to imagine how an outsider could truly grok the Barnett way of doing things: stealthy & rapid dealmaking combined w/ Iyovian patience & an abnormal risk appetite. Barnett has had a number of lieutenants – Dov Hertz, Raizy Haas – who didn’t make it all the way. In early ‘19, Westbrook alum Sush Torgalkar came in as CEO, but he didn’t last 2Y – Sush is now running Sagehall w/ Starwood fundraising vet Lanhee Yung. Extell’s current sr. crew includes Abba Barnett (nephew to Gary), Marc Kwestel (capital markets) & Eli Kopciel (development). But Gary, pushing 70, remains the driver.

What can Chung do to make his mark? The Carlyle alum positioned Innovo as an early last-mile industrial player in 🗽 . But he took a black eye w/ the botched acquisition of the HSBC tower, relinquishing his $30M+ deposit after failing to close. And it’s worth asking how Chung’s former collab w/ Barnett, a Carlyle-Extell JV for a mega-parcel on Riverside South, ended up doing: Though the partners unloaded some parcels to other developers, sales on the projects they did build were meh; Carlyle hasn’t done much NYC condo since. 🤕

On Thursday, April 23, The Promote will be hosting an in-depth chat w/ Lightstone Group founder David Lichtenstein, a consummate dealmaker x asset classes. We’ll be chatting retail money, development, special sits, & a lot more – David is really in the mix. This virtual event is Insiders-only, so sign up soon if you’d like to attend.

On Wednesday, Promote Insiders heard directly from a sr. exec at a major apt. landlord, who sketched out a blueprint for the institutional multifamily firm of the future. A teaser:

For about fifteen years, you didn't need to be good at multifamily. You just needed to be there. Millennials were aging into the rental market all at once. Supply couldn't keep up. Rent grew 3%, then 5%, then more. Meanwhile, the Fed kept rates nailed to the floor, capital flooded the space, cap rates compressed almost every year, and the spreadsheet got cuter on its own. The strategy, in a nutshell, was: buy apartments, exist, prosper. That game is over.

Cheaper capital and massive operational scale. The whole industry is repositioning around both at the same time. The capital answer is insurance-company balance sheets, retail investors, 401(k) money, and perpetual vehicles that don't need to hit a fund's Y7 return hurdle. The goal isn't just permanent capital for its own sake; it's solving to a 10 on a cheaper cost of equity.

It’s the kind of in-the-trenches perspectives you can’t get anywhere else. Sign up for Insider and read the full thing here. 🔏

Taking down Aimco’s massive Chicagoland portfolio meant LaTerra & Respark had mere months to fill up a half-billion dollar capstack. How did they get it done? The partners announced Tuesday the closing of their $455M acquisition of the 1,495-unit portfolio, armed w/ $104M in pref from 3650 Capital (the artist fka 3650 REIT, led by Jonathan Roth/Toby Cobb/Justin Kennedy & backed by Mubadala/CalSTRS/Temasek.)

Now, that’s a boatload of pref. But there were some quirks to this deal that made it all viable. This part is for Insiders only, so sign up now to check it out. 🔒

Insiders: Read on for the full story at the end of this newsletter 🔒 👇

A thought: Do lawyers ever wonder how Slate, Meager & Flom feel? You go through all this trouble to build the whitest of white-shoe law firms, and no one remembers your name. Same for my guys Harris, Shriver & Jacobson - might as well be seated in the kitchen 😢 💼