Mark Roberts, managing director of research at Crow Holdings, joins the podcast to share his insights – from macroeconomic trends to individual asset classes. He sees current valuation lags in open-end funds as a rare investment opportunity and predicts inflation will fall below 2% by year’s end. Roberts remains optimistic about the economy, citing strong household balance sheets, business investment, and low credit spreads. He highlights opportunities in retail, moderate-sized industrial assets, and select multifamily markets like Chicago and Miami, while advising caution in overbuilt metros like Austin and Phoenix. Emphasizing solid research and current market data over headlines, he concludes that real estate is poised to outperform bonds for the first time in years. Recorded on July 9, 2025.

Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo delivered a candid assessment of the U.S. economy in her keynote remarks at NAIOP’s I.CON East conference in New Jersey last month: strong at its core but held back by what she called “self-inflicted wounds.” On this special episode of Inside CRE, you’ll hear Secretary Raimondo’s conversation with NAIOP President and CEO Marc Selvitelli, where she discussed the future of American industry and how strategic investment can help reshape the nation’s industrial future. Recorded on June 4, 2025.

In this episode, Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi joins us to unpack the extraordinary uncertainty facing today’s economy – on par, he says, with the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from insights shared during his keynote at NAIOP’s National Forums Symposium, Zandi discusses the weakening labor force, volatile economic policy, and growing pressure from tariffs and immigration shifts. He explores how inflation, interest rates, and consumer trends are affecting commercial real estate and why many developers are in a holding pattern. For an industry built on long-term decisions, navigating a short-term, policy-driven fog is a major challenge. Recorded on June 11, 2025.

In this episode, Melinda McLaughlin, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Research at Prologis, discusses the evolving state of global trade and its impact on logistics real estate. She highlights how trade disruptions, starting with tariffs in 2017 and intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, have accelerated supply chain diversification – especially toward non-China Asia and Mexico. Companies are moving away from fragile, hyper-optimized supply chains toward diversified, resilient networks. While some growth decisions are paused due to market ambiguity, long-term strategies emphasize adaptability. McLaughlin stresses the importance of understanding micro-market dynamics and using scenario planning to navigate multiple potential futures in an evolving trade landscape. Recorded on April 28, 2025.

Commercial real estate leaders Amy Curry, Chief Strategy Officer of Dermody; Ed Griffin, CEO, Griffin Partners; and Kevin Hardy, Head of Eastern Canadian Office, Oxford Properties; join us for a special episode to discuss the impacts of tariffs on the industry. In this candid conversation they share how uncertainty is increasing scrutiny, moderating deal velocity and complicating risk assessments. They also address how developers are adjusting construction budgets and managing relationships with lenders and equity partners in uncertain times. While short-term market volatility poses challenges, the group’s long-term investment perspectives remain optimistic. Recorded on May 16, 2025.

Christopher Thornberg, Ph.D., founding partner of Beacon Economics and recent I.CON West keynote, joins the podcast to parse the growing disconnect between economic data and public sentiment. While U.S. households are financially strong and consumer spending drives growth, this prosperity is propped up by an unsustainable government deficit and foreign capital inflows. Thornberg stresses the need for immigration-driven labor growth, explains how current spending is masking deeper fiscal risk, and shares to the data point – not the 10-year Treasury – that we should all be keeping track of. Recorded on April 15, 2025.

Scott Jennings started his political career licking envelopes in a campaign office but went on to work for campaigns at both the local and national level, including four presidential campaigns. The CNN senior conservative political commentator – and keynote speaker at NAIOP’s 2025 Chapter Leadership and Legislative Retreat – joins the podcast to share his views on political strategy, including what it takes today for a candidate to win, the two policy areas he believes drove Donald Trump back into the White House, and how Republicans “completely revolutionized” their ground game in the 2024 presidential election. He discusses the ambitious timeline for Congress to pass a tax bill, the Trump administration’s use of tariffs and other economic levers, whether J.D. Vance gets the nod as the Republican candidate for 2028, and even his opinion on the Democratic Party’s best option for a candidate in 2028. Recorded on March 18, 2025.

As the national director for office analytics, Phil Mobley leads the development of CoStar's house view of the office market. In this episode, he examines the office sector from every angle, highlighting the misconception of a simple “flight to quality,” explaining that both premium and affordable office spaces are thriving while mid-tier buildings face challenges. Mobley shares what he’s watching with the greatest interest over the next 12-24 months, discusses fragmentation in the sector, and how limited new supply is slowing move-outs as occupiers hold onto space longer. Despite ongoing hurdles, he remains optimistic about the long-term role of office as landlords adjust to tenant needs and get a handle on each “micro market.” Recorded on March 13, 2025.

Artist. Architect. Chairman. Philanthropist. Author. Lawrence Armstrong, chairman of leading international design firm Ware Malcomb, joined the firm nearly 40 years ago and served as CEO from 1992 to 2020. In addition to expanding the company from a Southern California firm to a national and international firm with 28 offices across North America, his tenure as CEO is hallmarked by an unprecedented 40x revenue growth. He talks candidly about the importance of succession planning, navigating economic downturns over the years, and how creative leadership can drive double-digit growth. Recorded on Feb. 19, 2025.

Is the era of tariff-free goods on the North American continent coming to an end? Shannon O’Neil, Senior Vice President and Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of “The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter,” joins us for this especially timely episode. Shannon discusses how tariff uncertainty and shifting global trade patterns will impact commercial real estate markets across North America, the potential renegotiation of the USMCA, and Mexico’s growing role in global supply chains. She shares why she believes that regionalization – not globalization – has had the biggest economic impact of the last 40 years and details a counterintuitive strategy for creating more jobs in the U.S. Recorded on Jan. 15, 2025.