Ep18: Mamdani Fear Factor & Hyatt’s Friends with Benefits
Jul 9

We break down CRE's fear & loathing stemming from Zohran Mamdani’s improbable win in the New York City mayoral primary. Players have pulled the plug on deals and are devising a "retreat & resist" strategy. We then dive into the mechanics of a particularly juicy offshore hotel transaction – Hyatt is selling Playa Properties in a $2 billion asset-light megadeal. And finally, we head back to New York: a coveted casino license is up for grabs, and developers are doing whatever they can to score it.

Ep17: Carlyle Takes the Stairs, Drillman’s Great Escape, & the LVMH-Kering War
Jul 2

This week, we dive into Carlyle's attempt to stitch together an empire of Brooklyn walk-ups and how it illustrates the REPE giant's playbook. We then examine mortgage fraudster Barry Drillman's get-out-of-jail-free card, a feat of game theory and cooperation with the feds. We hit the real estate battlefields in the war between luxury leaders LVMH and Kering, looking at their race to snap up the world's most coveted corners (and hotel chains). Finally, we head north to the TSX to riff on Meyer Orbach & Josh Gotlib's attempt to IPO a prime Manhattan residential portfolio.

Ep16: Deconstructing Datacenter Megadeals with DigitalBridge’s Marc Ganzi
Jun 25

This week, data center pioneer and DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi walks Will & Hiten through 2 defining transactions in the space: The $11B take-private of Switch, and the "metaphorical lockbox" financing for cloud-computing player CoreWeave, one of the largest-ever private debt financings. Ganzi gives us an insider look at the numbers, real estate intricacies and capital markets maneuvers that went into both deals – this is "how the sausage gets made" stuff in one of the fastest-growing and least-understood corners of the business.

Ep15: Sixth Street’s AUM Gobbling & SF’s Basis Bets
Jun 18

This week, Will & Hiten dive deep into the movement of the moment: AUM gobbling ™️ We break down the Sixth Street/L+M transaction, and how allocator preferences are driving this wave of M&A in commercial real estate. We then look at restaurateur Greg Flynn’s 🌮 basis bets in the SF CRE market – a man w/ deep pockets ™️ taking advantage of the bargains by the Bay. And finally, we tackle the financialization of the American Dream – i.e. a new lender-assisted .

Ep14: A Syndicator Lending Safari with Benefit Street’s Mike Comparato
Jun 11

This week, Hiten & Will are joined by Benefit Street Partners' Michael Comparato, who gives us an insider's look into the wild world of lending to multifamily syndicators. Comparato provides unvarnished, behind-the-scenes details on the conversations, numbers and battles that define lending in such a high-octane space – it's a level of candor and color that we rarely see from active lenders. He then walks us through BSP's headline-grabbing $425M acquisition of agency lender NewPoint, and the opportunities in that space.

Ep13: A Tale of Two Asset Classes: NYC Rent-Stabilized Carnage & Data Center Mania
Jun 4

This week, we break down two asset classes on extreme ends of the fortune spectrum: The first, NYC rent-stabilized multifamily, which is facing a tidal wave of distress, with name-brand sponsors battling with lenders and very few investors willing to take the plunge. The second, massive data centers, which global investors cannot seem to stop throwing money at. We dive deep into both the carnage and opportunity in both sectors, as well as look at the players at the center of both. We tackle Pinnacle Group placing 5,000 units into bankruptcy protection in New York and Peter Hungerford's contrarian megabet on the rent-stabilized space. We then break down Blue Owl's OpenAI-anchored hyperscaler data center in Abilene, Texas, which was just funded to the tune of $11.6 billion.

Ep12: The Mother of all Tax Loopholes & Zeckendorf Bros. Downtown Funk
May 28

This week, we dive deep into one of the most extraordinary tax loopholes that the CRE market has ever witnessed: the Traveling HFC, a Texas property-tax absolving vehicle that's been adopted en masse by distressed syndicators, agency lenders and a cottage industry of consultants, nonprofits and attorneys. The most punitive version of a bill designed to torpedo it flew through the Texas Senate, and now the industry is grappling with a very rude and abrupt end to a too-good-to-be-true party. We're joined by Texas' own Barrett Linburg to discuss the HFC saga, the gold rush it set off and what the fallout could mean for the long-term health of affordable housing in the state. Hiten and Will then discuss the Zeckendorf Brothers' latest big swing: an ultra-luxury condo at 80 Clarkson Street that has reportedly scored a half-billion dollars in sales without any fanfare – we unpack the players and lenders behind this quiet giant.

Ep11: NYC Developer Ponzinomics & Tides Equities’ Judgement Day
May 21

This week, we break down the sensational allegations made by the feds against former New York golden boy developer Josh Schuster – and why they are emblematic of the market. We dive into a big judgment over Personal Guarantees brought against multifamily mad lads Sean Kia and Ryan Andrade of Tides Equities – the case has important implications for syndicators. And we have a reprieve of sort on the tariffs- will it be enough to restore normalcy to the CRE markets?