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The Promote Podcast
There's a pretty big gap in the market for a fun, fearless weekly pod that does for CRE what The Town does for Hollywood: 2 knowledgeable insiders discuss the biggest trends and deals and occasionally bring in an expert guest to shed light on a specific issue.
The Promote Podcast is your insider guide to the money and mania of the CRE market. It's co-hosted by Hiten and Will Krasne, a GP who hails from institutional CRE. Here's what to expect
- Weekly episodes, 30m or less
- Fun & fearless discussion on CRE’s biggest players & deals (girthy moguls, aura as the lowest cost of capital, corroded capstacks & much more)
- Behind-the-scenes breakdowns of the most important trends and themes
- No fluff, no bloat. Just good banter and entertaining market insights.
Available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever your get your pods. If it’s your jam, please subscribe, review and share. The evangelism in the beginning goes a long way!
Listen to the latest episode
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.
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.
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.
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?
This week, Northwind Group's Ran Eliasaf, one of the most active private lenders in New York real estate, gives us an inside look at the debt game – the returns, the structures and the nuances of funding some of the city's most high-profile projects. He walks us through the capital stack of the supertall condo tower at 125 Greenwich in particular, building on our discussion from last week. Will and Hiten also chop it up on Adam Neumann's latest venture, Flow, a multifamily operator that is bleeding money all over the place, but STILL manages to raise more venture capital. A big thank you to our sponsor for this episode, AirGarage – find out more about their full-service parking management solution at Airgarage.com/Promote
This week, we chat about a fascinating hospitality deal, Newbond swooping in to buy almost 9% of San Francisco's hotel stock in one megadeal. It’s one of the city's biggest hospitality real estate plays in a decade. We look at the aftermath of Carl Icahn's failed big short on malls, and his vendetta against special servicer Rialto. We then dive into a supertall capital stack – 125 Greenwich Street has seen New York's most famous and infamous names pile in. A big thank you to our sponsor for this episode, AirGarage – find out more about their full-service parking management solution at Airgarage.com/Promote.
This week, The Promote dives into the proliferation of preferred-equity deals in the CRE market – why are they suddenly everywhere, and what investors need to think about before doing them. We then dive into Meridian Capital Group being cleared for business by Fannie Mae, ending a year-plus period on the ice with the agency. Where does the brokerage go from here? And finally, we look at the walloping the tariffs have given the formerly exuberant CMBS market.
This week, we discuss the fear & loathing set off in the CRE markets by the Trump tariffs, looking at the impact both on fund managers and on developers – construction costs are "completely a swag" as co-host Will puts it. We then look at Miki Naftali's megabet on a Fifth Avenue condo site where he believes he can set a new high-water mark – $11,000 per square foot – on pricing. We touch upon Floyd Mayweather's shady Upper Manhattan deal, and finally, we chop it up on Starwood's latest land play.
In this special edition of the Promote Podcast, we dive into the singular career of Gary Barnett, the diamond trader who birthed Manhattan's Billionaires' Row and has consistently pulled off the most audacious high-wire acts in the real estate development game. We trace Barnett's origins, from his days as a diamond dealer in Belgium to his early days in New York real estate. We then dive into 2 of his most iconic deals: the creation of One57, the luxury condo that kicked off Billionaires Row; and the Ring portfolio masterclass, the takeover of 1 million square feet of prime Manhattan office space.
This week, we break down CrowdStreet playing the victim card in CRE's biggest-ever crowdfunding scam, perpetrated by Elie Schwartz. We riff on why CMBS is rearing its head in development deals, and how private equity reimagined life insurance as a perpetual source of capital for its private-credit bets. Plus: A Manhattan REIT's nepotism playbook.
This week on The Promote Podcast, we discuss cracks in the property empire of the mighty Chetrit family, the merchant princes of New York real estate. We barrel down Powder Mountain to understand Netflix billionaire Reed Hastings' vision for a private ski haven, and we head to court to understand the mother of all Personal Guarantees in a case pitting scion Charles Cohen against the mighty debt fund Fortress.
In the first episode of The Promote Podcast, we’ve got quite the docket: Bad Boy Guarantees, which are suddenly everywhere in CRE loan disputes with multifamily syndicators. We have a classic Manhattan phallic skyscraper battle, pitting titan against titan at Worldwide Plaza. And we look at the loss of mojo at mighty investment manager PIMCO, which is suddenly finding itself a laggard in the cutthroat world of private credit.Title