Leading Voices in Real Estate

Daniel Radek, President of First Washington Realty, discusses resilience in the retail apocalypse, co-leadership, and culture. Based in the Washington, D.C. area, First Washington Realty is a national necessity retail owner and operator known for its neighborhood shopping centers located in densely populated communities.

Debbie Harmon, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Artemis, and Anar Chudgar, Co-President of Artemis, talk about finding opportunity in today’s market and the “force multiplier” effect of their investing through emerging managers. Artemis Real Estate Partners is a $10 B AUM real estate investment manager focused on middle market real estate investments across the equity and debt risk spectrum.

In September 2023, ZRG hosted a half-day symposium for real estate HR leaders in New York City, consisting of two panels. This is the second of those panels, featuring Amanda Fajak, President of ZRG culture consulting group, Walking the Talk, and Larry Krema, Managing Director in the Real Estate Practice of ZRG. They discuss how to create an actionable strategy for company culture.

Rick Caruso, founder and Executive Chairman of Caruso, owner of three of the top ten retail centers in the US, discusses the evolution of how he created breakthrough properties like The Grove, some of secrets of its success, as well as his civic and philanthropic activities in Los Angeles, including his recent run for Mayor. Rick’s innovative leadership and development thinking has led to the creation of one of the largest and most admired privately held real estate firms in the US, boasting three of the country’s most productive shopping centers, all in Southern California.

Stephanie Biernbaum, Chief People Officer of Hines, and Doug Holte, CEO of EXP by Hines, discuss change, innovation and striving to be a "beloved brand". In 2018, I had the privilege of sitting down with Gerald Hines to hear how he built one of the most respected, legendary names in the real estate business. This follow up conversation with Stephanie and Doug about their leadership in their respective role at Hines, now in its third generation of family leadership, is inspiring and marked with hard-won wisdom.

Scott Rechler, Chairman and CEO of RXR, delves into office space, the current downturn in the market, and value and importance of civic leadership for our industry. This episode with Scott builds upon my last conversation with Colin Connolly of Cousins Properties on the state of the office sector, while going beyond the topic at hand and into the broader realm of the commercial real estate markets.

Colin Connolly, President and CEO of Cousins Properties, details their outperformance in Sun Belt trophy lifestyle offices and the broader office market. Cousins, a fully-integrated REIT, is solely focused on “trophy lifestyle office” properties in the Sun Belt region and has outperformed Class A office properties in its markets.

Caroline Johns, Pembroke’s Director of Sustainability, details their long-term perspective on sustainability investments and resilient real estate assets. Caroline is the second interview in this year’s third annual series on real estate and carbon.

Brad Dockser is the CEO and Co-Founder of GreenGen, a global firm dedicated to helping real estate owners and investors move towards a zero–carbon future. In this week’s interview with Brad, we kick off our third annual month-of-August focus on climate change and the built environment.

Cathy Marcus, Global Chief Operating Officer and Head of U.S. Equity at PGIM Real Estate, discusses the power of playing the long game in real estate. A recurring theme throughout the Leading Voices in Real Estate podcast is just how essential a long-term vision is.

Matt Pestronk, Co-Founder and President of Post Brothers, details how he and his brother Mike became leaders in Philadelphia multifamily and are now taking their expertise in adaptive reuse of office buildings and ground up development to Washington, DC and other markets. When they founded their Philadelphia-based company just before the great financial crisis of 2007-2008, they had no idea what kind of challenges they would face on their entrepreneurial journey...

Constance Freedman, Founder and Managing Partner of Moderne Ventures, talks innovation in technology solutions and its impact on the real estate market. Moderne Ventures is a Chicago-based venture fund focused on technology firms that are disrupting the real estate, mortgage, finance, insurance, hospitality, and home services industries.

Mitchell Silver, now Principal of Urban Planning at McAdams, explores the lasting impact of work-from-home and the recovery of our urban fabric post-pandemic. In this week’s rebroadcast, I brought Mitchell back to revisit our original podcast episode together from two years ago.

In honor of Sam Zell, real estate legend and trailblazer, we revisit our 2016 conversation about how he built his real estate empire. As the son of Jewish immigrants who fled Poland in 1939 as Hitler invaded, Sam’s life path is marked by resilience, controversy, and an insatiable drive to succeed.

In part two of our series on real estate services platforms, Justin Wheeler, CEO of Berkadia, talks about the focus of his firm on multifamily finance and investment sales and how that focus defines their strategy and culture. This conversation is the flip side of the coin from our prior conversation with Brett White, who talked about the strategy and strengths of the global, full service real estate services platforms, Cushman & Wakefield, and CBRE.

Brett White, Executive Chair of Cushman & Wakefield and prior CEO of Discovery Land Company, discusses the evolution of today’s global giant real estate services platforms. As the first of this month’s two part series on the real estate brokerage and services platforms, Brett tells the story of the growth and evolution of the giant real estate services platforms.

Antonio Marquez, Principal and Managing Partner at Comunidad Partners, talks about his firm’s focus on workforce housing and their community oriented, impact investment business model. This is the second of a two part series this month on Leading Voices focusing on the housing crisis in our country.

I’m trading places this week, and I’m the guest! Enjoy this rebroadcast of my interview on Juniper Square’s The Distribution podcast with Brandon Sedloff.

Ismael Guerrero, President and CEO of Mercy Housing, dissects the housing affordability crisis, subsidized housing, and stewardship of public dollars. Founded in 1981, Mercy Housing has grown into the nation’s largest nonprofit owner of affordable housing.

Christopher Hawthorne, Senior Critic at the Yale School of Architecture, discusses why collective spaces deserve intentional design and public support. After over a decade as the architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times, Chris took a position as the first Chief Design Officer of the City of Los Angeles, working under Mayor Eric Garcetti...