CPE Podcasts

The first episode of Commercial Design Lab, a new podcast hosted by CPE Senior Associate Editor Beata Lorincz, explores how AI is beginning to reshape architectural workflows, from early-stage design and zoning analysis to building performance optimization. Sandeep Ahuja, Co-Founder & CEO of AI-powered architecture practice cove, discusses the limitations of traditional processes and the growing role of automation for architects and their practices.

Sandy Sigal was a technology whiz kid long before it was cool. He was just 20 when his precocious skills earned him an invitation to modernize the accounting department for a homebuilding company.

It wasn’t too long before he discovered that that he had a knack for real estate as well as for programming, and by the time he was 21, he was building his first retail center.

Since founding NewMark Merrill in 1997, Sigal has become a prolific investor, developer and manager of retail centers, with holdings that encompass more than 100 properties valued at $3 billion.  

More than 40 years into his real estate career, he still fosters technological innovations in the NewMark Merrill portfolio as well as through a venture that enables retail stakeholders to integrate online and social platforms with brick and mortar.

In this episode, our conversation ranges from the importance of community engagement for retail operators to AI and impact of economic trends that are impacting the sector.

Sigal also takes us inside his commitments to the nonprofits that are closest to heart—among them, the camp for underserved kids that he says changed his life.

Follow, rate and review CPE’s podcasts on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and don’t forget to subscribe to CPE’s recently relaunched YouTube channel!

Industrial real estate is being reshaped by a new set of operational and technological demands. As supply chains evolve and occupiers adopt automation, factors such as proximity, power availability and labor dynamics are becoming central to both facility design and investment strategy.

In the second episode of Inside Industrial, CBRE’s John Morris discusses how these dynamics are influencing the sector and what they mean for the future of industrial assets.

Morris serves as president of Americas Industrial & Logistics at CBRE, overseeing one of the industry’s largest platforms, with more than 800 professionals advising occupiers and investors across supply chain strategy, labor analytics, transaction services and project management.

“It's about proximity to the end user in really every regard,” Morris said, pointing to the growing importance of inventory location as delivery expectations continue to accelerate.

He also highlights how labor constraints are driving automation, how power availability is emerging as a key factor in site selection, and why newer, automation-ready buildings are gaining a competitive edge over older stock.

Take a listen as Commercial Property Executive’s Diana Firtea explores these themes with Morris in the latest episode of Inside Industrial.

At a time when capital markets remain volatile and fundamentals continue to shift, property appraisals are no longer a straightforward exercise. In this episode of FTI Experts’ Hub, Commercial Property Executive Senior Editor Laura Valean sits down with Mark Dunec, co-leader of Real Estate Valuation Services at FTI Consulting, to unpack a common challenge in today’s commercial real estate market: diverging property valuations.  

While differences in appraisals are often most visible in litigation settings, they can also stem from deeper issues, ranging from inconsistent assumptions and flawed methodologies to a fundamental misunderstanding of the valuation problem itself, according to Dunec.

If you’re a CRE professional navigating refinancing, acquisitions or asset management decisions, this episode will offer you a timely and practical look at how valuations are being formed today, and how to avoid costly surprises in an increasingly complex environment.

While gains have been made in areas like pay equity and flexibility, the commercial real estate industry continues to stall where it matters most: advancement. Women now represent roughly 38 percent of the workforce, a figure that has remained largely unchanged for two decades, according to CREW Network’s latest benchmark study. The issue, believes CEO Alison Beddard, is not pipeline, but structure.

In this episode of CREW Up, Commercial Property Executive Senior Editor Laura Valean sits down with Beddard for an open conversation about both progress and persistent gaps for women in commercial real estate.

As the flexible office sector continues to evolve, hospitality, service quality and disciplined growth have become its backbone. That’s exactly the approach Quest Workspaces has been following since 2010, when CEO Laura Kozelouzek founded the company. Now, she operates 14 locations in Florida and New York and has expanded the company’s portfolio to 310,000 square feet of premium space, mostly in Miami.

As we celebrate Women’s History Month, Senior Associate Editor Olivia Bunescu invited Kozelouzek to share her experience in the field. In this episode, she reflects on her early path into the business, the lessons she learned building a company around service and client experience and the realities of growing a flex office brand in a competitive market.

From leadership lessons and common mistakes to company culture and market discipline, the episode offers a closer look at the strategy behind one of the region’s longstanding workspace operators. Kozelouzek also shares how she stayed true to a hospitality-first model, why adaptability remains a must and her outlook for Miami’s flexible office sector.

Here’s what they discussed:

• Laura’s early journey in flexible workspaces and hospitality (01:24)
• Building a company around people and service—not just space (02:35)
• What surprised her about the flex office industry early on (07:00)
• What being a woman-owned company has meant in practice (09:00)
• Balancing charisma with clarity (11:25)
• How she scaled Quest Workspaces—adding process and data without losing hospitality (13:35)
• Why adaptability matters in South Florida coworking (19:15)
• The market challenge she sees most: undisciplined growth (25:15)
• What “premium” means in Miami today (26:30)
• Her outlook for Miami office demand, from Brickell to downtown (31:00)

After the U.S.'s nearly 20-year stretch of little to no electricity load growth, we’re now shifting into an age where new investments are needed to sustain the pace of demand from AI and hyperscale data center users.

Current U.S. data center market trends point to ever-increasing levels of development complexity, with gigawatt-scale campuses now a reality. Tom Traugott, SVP of emerging technologies at EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure joins us on this second episode of Alternative Disruptors to discuss this new paradigm, breaking down what the baseline will be from 2026 onward.

“I think the industry has started to recognize that there's four dimensions that can slow down AI. Those are chips, data, networking throughput and power. Power is the lowest ceiling we’re encountering right now.”

Unlocking new megawatts, or even stranded ones, will take a new approach to capex investment. From regulatory realignment to utilizing on-site generation and flexible loads, the data center sector is getting ready to solve these challenges from all angles possible, or, as Tom puts it, the “all of the above approach".

Here’s a breakdown of the discussion:

• (00:00) Introduction
• (00:50) Meet Tom Traugott
• (01:17) EdgeCore’s strategy shift
• (05:11) The power wall & unlocking gigwatts
• (09:27) Grid flexibility playbook
• (11:32) What energy alternatives are viable?
• (14:03) Nat gas now, nuclear later
• (19:24) Speed economics pressure
• (20:58) New AI scaling laws
• (25:59) Bottlenecks: cooling, supply chains, labor shortage
• (30:56) Community relations
• (33:16) Liquid cooling reality check & heat risks, redundancy
• (39:21) Sustainability offsets & the grid
• (44:27) Three bold bets for 2026
• (50:05) Closing thanks & outro

Welcome back to Sustainability Street, our podcast on the intersection of commercial real estate and the world we live in.

For this episode, I am talking about data centers and sustainability with Suhail Tayeb, an investor, developer and the director of the Center for the Sustainable Built Environment at New York University's Shack's Institute of Real Estate within the School of Professional Studies.

As data centers proliferate across the country, there's been backlash from communities and environmentalists about the speed at which they've consumed land, power and water.Some concerns are valid, Tayeb said, but the reality is much more layered. Well-planned projects digital infrastructure projects have gotten lumped in with poorly sited and poorly communicated ones.  

"Talking to people, letting them know what's going to happen, what are the effects, what are the impacts," he said. "That's what determines whether these projects are responsible or disruptive."

Tayeb explains how data centers differ from traditional real estate, and that, as data centers transition from their speed phase to their strategy phase, how they source their energy and justify their presence locally, will make the difference between success and failure.

Here are the key topics our conversation covered:

• (1:24) Student and teacher of sustainable construction
• (4:23) Why data centers are not really real estate at all
• (9:26) Exit the speed phase; enter the strategy phase
• (10:55) Data centers and power generation
• (14:48) Innovations in sustainable construction
• (18:51) Recommendations for data center developers

Lisa Pendergast leads one of the industry’s most influential organizations and is a top capital markets analyst to boot, but she discovered her professional passion almost by accident. An English major with her eye on law school, she was hired as a writer by a major institutional investor. The opportunity to learn the finance business from brilliant minds proved to be, as she puts it, “the cheapest MBA anybody ever got.”

Fast forward a few decades, and Pendergast serves as president & CEO of Commercial Real Estate Finance Council. Before taking on her current role, she was a member of the organization’s Board of Governors and served as its 2010-2011 president. She’s held senior positions at Jeffries LLC, an affiliate of Leucadia National Corporation, as well as the Royal Bank of Scotland.

In this conversation, she shares takeaways from the organization’s recent national conference in Miami, describing the event’s upbeat mood. She reveals insights from CREFC’s latest national sentiment survey, and discusses why this ellwether indicator is approaching its record high.

Also during this podcast, Pendergast discusses today’s key policy issues and how CREFC is informing regulators about the issues that hamper the industry. As one of the top securitization experts in the business, she gives us her take on the state of CMBS and CLOs.

In this conversation, she shares takeaways from the organization’s recent national conference in Miami, describing the event’s upbeat mood. She reveals insights from CREFC’s latest national sentiment survey, and discusses why this bellwether indicator is approaching its record high.

Also during this podcast, Pendergast discusses today’s key policy issues and how CREFC is informing regulators about the issues that hamper the industry. As one of the top securitization experts in the business, she gives us her take on the state of CMBS and CLOs. Take a listen!

Episode highlights:

• (1:05) Top takeaways from Miami
• (3:27) Asset performance insights
• (5:51) Maturities and the Fed’s next moves
• (8:09) Taking the pulse of CRE finance
• (11:38) Economic indicators to watch
• (13:04) Office-to-resi conversions: NYC and beyond
• (17:17) “The cheapest MBA anybody ever got”
• (22:09) CLOS on the rise
• (24:51) CMBS and federal policy
• (29:45) Navigating regulator relations
• (34:03) New path for the GSEs?
• (36:55) How the GSEs can address affordability
• (38:10) Executive off the clock: the garden and the links

Commercial real estate sentiment is improving globally, but the recovery is far from uniform, according to the results of the latest surveys released by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in London. The Americas, led by the U.S., are seeing clearer signs of momentum, while parts of Europe remain cautious and Asia Pacific presents a mixed picture.

Geopolitical risks, policy shifts and sector-specific headwinds remain very real, so focusing on specific cities and property types where fundamentals genuinely support growth will be key going forward as broad regional bets may no longer work.