Good Dirt: Conversations with Leaders in Real Estate & Beyond

Todd S. Rich is a Co-Founder, Partner and Head of Real Estate at Declaration Partners and oversees Declaration’s real estate investment activity. Todd brings over 20 years of real estate investing and operating experience including acquisitions, dispositions, development, leasing, and management of portfolios involving over $20 billion of institutional quality real estate.

Declaration Partners is a private investment firm that seeks to be a value-added capital partner and strategic resource to founders & entrepreneurs, management teams, and asset owners. Anchored by the family office of private equity veteran and philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, Declaration invests on behalf of family offices and like-minded institutional investors. Declaration’s approach emphasizes partnership born from its family office heritage while seeking to achieve favorable long-term outcomes with strong alignment. Declaration has approximately $2.2 billion in assets under management across its private investment strategies, which include tactical growth equity, real estate, GP solutions, and other opportunistic strategies. The firm was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in New York with an office in the Washington, DC area.

Prior to forming Declaration Partners, Todd was a Partner at The JBG Companies and a member of its Investment and Management Committees, where he was involved in strategic efforts culminating in the creation of JBG SMITH Properties as a public REIT (NYSE: JBGS). Prior to joining The JBG Companies, Todd was a Managing Director at Tishman Speyer where he was responsible for the business activities of the Washington, DC region and worked in Tishman Speyer’s Chicago, London, and New York offices.

Todd holds a Bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Princeton University, and was a US Fulbright Scholar. Todd serves as a board member of the SED Center and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Washington, and is a former board member of the Economic Club of Washington.

We really enjoyed our discussion with Todd, who is as well-liked as he is respected in the national investment market. Todd shared with us how each stop in his journey equipped him to eventually launch Declaration Partners, a unique opportunity to start a new platform with a bona fide legend of the private equity industry, David Rubenstein. Todd’s perspective on the market and his overview of Declaration’s thoughtful approach will be an interesting listen for all in the real estate and investment management arenas.

For more info on Declaration Partners, please visit: https://declarationpartners.com/

Please share with clients, colleagues and friends and thanks for tuning in!

Tom Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

[email protected]

Mike Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1

[email protected]

Jeff Karp is the President and Co-Founder of LAZ Parking LLC, the largest privately held parking operator in the country. Jeff founded LAZ Parking in 1981 and LAZ currently operates over 4,000 locations, in 452 cities and 41 states across the country. With a dedicated and passionate employee base of over 14,000 strong committed to a superior customer service experience, LAZ has been propelled into being a leader in its field. With $2.0 billion in annual revenue, LAZ Parking strives for a best in class culture, focused on conscious capitalism rooted within ESG and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Jeff is also a Founder and Principal Partner in LAZ Parking Reality Investors (LPRI), a vertically integrated real estate platform focused on parking assets nationally. Their mission is to identify, diligence, and acquire parking assets nationwide; finding opportunities to add value through experienced ownership and operation. LPRI’s experience extends over virtually every type of parking asset, from simple surface lots to complex mixed-use garages, and includes assets whose primary demand comes from office, retail, residential, hotels, sporting events and airports.

In addition to his business affiliations, Jeff is an active civic leader and strong supporter and board member of various charitable organizations such as the Special Olympics, Chabad House, Jewish Big Brother Big Sister, Crossroads for Kids, Save the Harbor, National Parking Association, Anti-Defamation League, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Meriting Attention, and the American Cancer Society.

We really enjoyed our discussion with Jeff, and the story behind the LAZ Parking empire did not disappoint. As discussed during the interview, it seems we can't travel a block or two without coming across a LAZ location. Jeff was candid in sharing the many highs and lows of his entrepreneurial journey, which he has been on alongside his two co-founders who happen to be his boyhood best friends. We learned a lot from Jeff about the operational side of parking business, a sector in which our Boston capital markets team has been increasingly active over the past several years and one that intrigues many real estate practitioners.

For more info on LAZ Parking, please visit: www.lazparking.com

Please share with clients, colleagues and friends and thanks for tuning in!

Tom Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

[email protected]

Mike Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1

[email protected]

Frank H. McCourt, Jr. is a civic entrepreneur and the executive chairman and former CEO of McCourt Global, a private family company committed to building a better future through its work across the real estate, sports, technology, media, and capital investment industries, as well as its significant philanthropic activities. Frank is proud to extend his family’s 130-year legacy of merging community and social impact with financial results, an approach that started when the original McCourt Company was launched in Boston in 1893.

He is a passionate supporter of multiple academic, civic, and cultural institutions and initiatives. He is the founder and executive chairman of Project Liberty, a far-reaching, $500 million initiative to transform the internet through a new, equitable technology infrastructure and rebuild social media in a way that enables users to own and control their personal data. The project includes the development of a groundbreaking, open-source internet protocol called the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP), which will be owned by the public to serve as a new web infrastructure. It also includes the creation of Project Liberty’s Institute (formerly The McCourt Institute,) launched with founding partners Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, and Sciences Po in Paris, to advance research, bring together technologists and social scientists, and develop a governance model for the internet’s next era.

Frank has served on Georgetown University’s Board of Directors for many years and, in 2013, made a $100 million founding investment to create Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. He expanded on this in 2021 with a $100 million investment to catalyze an inclusive pipeline of public policy leaders and put the school on a path to becoming tuition-free.

Frank owns the French football club Olympique de Marseille (OM) and formerly owned the Los Angeles Dodgers. With family roots in the construction business dating back to the late 19th century, Frank has built upon this history with initiatives ranging from the development of Boston’s Seaport to large, mixed-use projects in Dallas, London, Miami, New York City, and elsewhere.

Frank graduated from Georgetown University. He is married to Monica McCourt and is the proud father of seven.

His book, OUR BIGGEST FIGHT: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age, was published by Crown on March 12, 2024.

Our conversation with Frank was eye-opening, thought-provoking and inspiring. As a legendary figure in the Boston real estate industry who has truly ‘gone global’, Frank shared with us his story from the very beginnings in America for the McCourt family all the way through to today, where he has taken on the ambitious task of fixing the internet and the role technology is allowed to play in all of our lives.

For more info on McCourt Global and Project Liberty, please visit: https://www.mccourt.com/ and https://www.projectliberty.io/

Please share with clients, colleagues and friends and thanks for tuning in!

Tom Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

[email protected]

Mike Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1

[email protected]

Peter Merrigan is the Chief Executive Officer of Taurus Investment Holdings LLC, a global real estate private equity firm established in 1997 and headquartered in Boston, MA. Taurus focuses on strategic investments into value-add, core-plus, opportunistic and development opportunities. As CEO and a a member of the firms Investment Committee, Peter defines and guides Taurus in developing and executing investment strategies in multifamily, industrial, office , mixed-use and renewable energy sectors across the US and internationally. Peter has overseen the acquisition and development of more than 70 million square feet of commercial space to date with a value in excess of nearly $11 billion.

Peter is an alum of the College of Holy Cross and received a Masters in Real Estate Development (MSRED) from MIT.

Our conversation with Peter starts in the his early days with an internship in the research department of Coldwell Banker, working out of a Wellesley office that was the launching pad for many of the Boston market’s notable figures. Peter then describes the path that gave him his crash course in commercial real estate, starting with renting apartments for the Corcoran family, working for Berkeley Investments, and eventually his connection with the Reibling brothers, leading to a fruitful partnership that spanned several decades.

Peter shares with Taurus’ powerful model of global equity syndication, a ‘machine’ that regularly yields $500m per annum in equity sourced from high net worth family offices from around the world. We also hear about Taurus’ leadership and long history of environmental stewardship, with a thorough explanation of how fusing clean energy, energy efficient technologies, and decarbonization efforts can not only benefit the planet but also create financial returns for Taurus and its investors.

As the leader and owner of a renowned Boston-based firm that has evolved into a leading, forward-thinking global investor, we are thrilled to share Peter’s story and some of the behind-the-scenes anecdotes that brought Taurus to where it stands today.

Please share with clients, colleagues and friends and thanks for tuning in!

For more info on Taurus, please visit: https://www.tiholdings.com/

Tom Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

[email protected]

Mike Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1

[email protected]

John Fish is Chairman & CEO of Suffolk, a national real estate enterprise that builds, innovates and invests. Under John’s vision and leadership, Suffolk has grown into one of the most successful privately held builders in the United States, with $6 billion in revenue, 2,600 employees, and a value proposition, commitment to innovation and corporate culture that is redefining the built world. Suffolk truly is “America’s contractor” and manages some of the most complex, sophisticated projects in the country, serving clients in every major industry sector, including healthcare, life sciences, education, gaming, transportation/aviation, government, mission critical and commercial. With main offices in Boston (headquarters), New York City, Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Estero, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Virginia and Maine, Suffolk is omnipresent in active real estate markets around the country.

John is a fixture on numerous Boards focused on economic stability and real estate industry growth. He is the Chair of the Real Estate Roundtable, a non-partisan organization that represents the largest and most successful real estate developers in the country and is the most influential voice in Washington, D.C. for more equitable policies for economic growth.

John also serves as Chair of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, sits on the Executive Committee of Mass General Brigham, and is the Chair of the Board at Boston College, his second time serving and the first non-alum to ever fulfill that role. In recent years, John has chaired both the Boston Chamber of Commerce and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and he is a founding member and director of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership (MACP).

Our conversation with John begins with an overview of the ever-innovating Suffolk, including a discussion around Suffolk’s platform verticals which support the core mission of the company. We then take a step back, and hear from John about his academic experiences at Tabor Academy and Bowdoin College, tackling and embracing his dyslexia, and his entry into the construction industry, in which the Fish family had deep roots. We then move onto the formation of Suffolk, the early years and the evolution of the company in its early years as a non-union business. John shares with us candid insights into the challenges and struggles of growing the company in a politically-charged construction environment, and the relationship building that served as a catalyst for long-term growth of the company.

We cover a lot of ground outside of Suffolk, and John was generous in sharing his unique perspective on policy, politics, and economic issues at hand today in the US. Finally and maybe most importantly, we discuss John and Cyndy Fish’s extraordinary commitment to caring for their community, and their incredible leadership in countless philanthropic endeavors.

This was one of our most-requested and highly-anticipated guests, and we sincerely appreciate John sharing his time and insights with us and our Good Dirt audience. We look forward to having him back again!

For more information on Suffolk, visit www.suffolk.com

Tom Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

[email protected]

Mike Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1

[email protected]

Rachel Diller serves as Senior Managing Director, Acquisitions and Co-Chief Investment Officer for Bridge Investment Group, a $50bn+ AUM multi product real estate investor, where she oversees the Bridge Workforce & Affordable Housing strategy. Rachel has over 20 years of experience in real estate and finance and has capitalized 120+ real estate projects worth $3.6 billion in 23 states. Rachel joined Bridge from UrbanView Capital, a specialist real estate fund manager dedicated to sustainable and impact investing. Prior to that, she was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs in the firm’s Urban Investment Group (UIG), a principal investing platform that deploys capital to underserved domestic urban markets. Previously, she was a Managing Director in the Commercial Real Estate Group of Centerline Capital Group. 

Rachel began her career as a New York City Urban Fellow, developing transitional housing projects for New York City’s Department of Homeless Services, where she was the Director of Facility, Planning and Development. Rachel serves on the board of Corporation for Supportive Housing and is an Adjunct Professor in Columbia Business School’s Real Estate MBA Program. She earned a BA in Urban Studies from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Our conversation with Rachel starts at Penn and moves into her ‘bleeding heart’ days in the public sector working for the City of New York. We hear about her pivot into the private sector and how her roots in housing affordability have stayed with her throughout her career and into her current role with Bridge. Rachel and Bridge’s novel approach to taking care of the community, not just the bricks and mortar, is not only commendable but is ultimately accretive to Bridges’ investments.

We greatly enjoyed this conversation and working with Rachel and her team on their acquisition of The Suburban Boston Value-Add Portfolio in 2023. 

Tom Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

[email protected]

Mike Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1

[email protected]

Bill Cummings is the founder and past president and chairman of Cummings Properties, one of the New England region’s most prominent private real estate investment firms. Since its founding in 1970, Cummings Properties has amassed a staggering portfolio of over 11 million square feet across 11 cities and towns north of Boston, and has built a reputation as a value-oriented, long-term holder of well-located real estate. While Bill is widely associated with this impressive collection of commercial properties (all owned debt-free), he now focuses most of his time and energy on The Cummings Foundation, the charitable juggernaut he oversees with his wife Joyce. Bill and Joyce made headlines as the first Massachusetts family to sign The Giving Pledge, a campaign started by Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates to encourage billionaires to give away at least half of their fortune to charity. Until then, the Cummings family had been largely flown under the radar, and this news led to many headlines with a “billionaire next door” theme.

Our conversation with Bill starts with his upbringing in Medford and he shares with us anecdotes of the early entrepreneurial bug which never left him. We hear about his career start in sales, his successful journey in the fruit juice business, and his first forays into the real estate investment arena.

He got his start in commercial real estate with just one small building, which he built next door to Old Medford Foods, and then led Cummings Properties' expansion into an 11 million-square-foot portfolio, now managed by more than 350 team members.

In 1986, Bill and his wife, Joyce, established Cummings Foundation, which has grown to be one of the three largest private foundations in New England. The Cummings family today is known widely for their remarkable philanthropy and dedication to improving the communities around them.

Among Bill's many honors are Real Estate Entrepreneur of the Year for New England from Ernst & Young, Edward H. Linde Public Service Award from the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), and Real Estate Visionary of the Year from Boston Business Journal. He and Joyce were also inducted into the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce's Academy of Distinguished Bostonians.

In 2020, Bill released the latest edition of his self-written memoir, Starting Small and Making It Big: An Entrepreneur's Journey to Billion-Dollar Philanthropist, which includes thoughtful reflections on the lessons he has learned about business, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy.

Bill’s incredible generosity is legendary in the Boston area, and we feel privileged to have him join us for an episode of Good Dirt.

Tom Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

[email protected]

Mike Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1/

[email protected]

Peter Palandjian is Chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation, an SEC-registered real estate investment manager with a portfolio of over 36 million square feet across 155 properties, over 15,000 multifamily units and current NAV of $10 billion+ and GAV $14 billion+. Peter oversees the affiliated Intercontinental operating companies, with primary responsibility for strategic planning and direction of all company activities. Intercontinental’s sole strategy it its flagship vehicle, United States Real Estate Investment Fund (“U.S. REIF”), currently the 7th-largest member of the NCREIF ODCE fund index (Open-Ended Diversified Core Equity).

Prior to joining Intercontinental in 1993, Mr. Palandjian worked as the assistant to the CEO of Staples, Inc. and as an Associate Consultant with Bain & Company. Mr. Palandjian holds memberships with the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA); the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP); and the National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers (NAREIM). Mr. Palandjian has also been active on a number of corporate and not-for-profit boards, presently serving as a board member of several institutions including: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, O’Neill & Associates, Leader Bank, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (“LAANE”), Mikva Challenge, Harvard’s Varsity Club, the Taubman Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and the Purple Heart Service Foundation. Mr. Palandjian is also Trustee Emeritus at The Fessenden School and works on behalf of Harvard University as a volunteer undergraduate admissions interviewer.

Peter earned his B.A. from Harvard University and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and was a two-time Harvard tennis Captain and world ranked player on the ATP tour.

Our conversation with Peter begins with a discussion about his family, including his Armenian-Irish heritage and upbringing in Belmont, Mass. The family business, then known as Continental Construction, was started by his father who emigrated from Armenia with an accordion and $500 in his pocket. We pressed Peter on his illustrious tennis career, which he humbly described as a “journeyman” career but from which he took the tenets of resilience and rigorous effort into the real estate industry.

Peter shares with us his time at Bain & Company, Staples Inc. and Harvard Business School, as well his entry into the real estate business alongside his father, who had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. A leadership transition occurred ahead of schedule, as Petros A. Palandjian’s health deteriorated and his cancer became terminal, and Peter was thrust into a tumultuous chapter involving numerous partnerships to unwind in a difficult market.

We then dive into the tremendous growth of Intercontinental, with a focus on the evolution of its core business from fully integrated services and investment partnerships to private equity real estate, structured in fund-based investment management services. In 1999, Intercontinental became an SEC-registered Investment Advisor, clearing the path for a prolific but disciplined rise as a manager of institutional capital. Peter shares with us lessons learned along the way, including the early days of raising institutional money and the firm’s leadership in both private and public pension fund capital management. While Intercontinental is a household name in New England real estate circles, its national prominence is perhaps lesser known to Boston market participants.

Peter was refreshingly candid, speaking openly about a few “bloopers”, life and deal lessons along the way, the importance of culture and teamwork at Intercontinental, and much more. He defers credit to his teammates and more than once references the “family” at Intercontinental. Of course, we also take Peter’s temperature on the market today and his perspective of the opportunity set in a time of market volatility. This conversation was as nostalgic as it was informative, as Peter notes many of the great teachers in his life in addition to giving a tutorial in the world of pension fund investing.

As always, we wrap up with some non-business topics, including Peter and his family’s extensive philanthropic endeavors, his board leadership with a variety of Boston-area non-profits, and A Day for Democracy, Peter’s homegrown non-partisan initiative to increase voter participation in American elections.

This is another interview which reminded us just how fun this “Good Dirt” project has become. We are certain you’ll enjoy our conversation with real estate leader, pro tennis journeyman, accordion player and father of six, Peter Palandjian.

Show Notes:

To learn more about Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation, visit https://www.intercontinental.net/

Get Involved! https://adayfordemocracy.com/

Tom Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

[email protected]

Mike Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1/

[email protected]

Jessica Hughes joined Tishman Speyer in 2018 and is currently responsible for the company’s operations in the Boston region including acquisitions, dispositions, asset management, and development. She joined Tishman Speyer from JLL, where she was a Managing Director in the Boston Capital Markets group and a member of JLL’s International Capital Group. Previously, she was a Senior Vice President at Beacon Capital Partners, responsible for acquisitions and dispositions in major U.S. markets, as well as establishing Beacon’s offshore offices in London and Paris. Jessica has a BA in History from Dartmouth College, where she captained the women’s golf team. Having served as President of NAIOP Massachusetts in 2022, she currently serves as Board Chair for the organization. Jess also serves as a board member at the Boston Center for the Arts and is an active participant in many regional charitable endeavors.

Our conversation with Jess begins in her hometown of Lowell, Mass where she had early exposure to the economic development activities and related real estate development which were pushing the city forward. Excelling as a student and as a golfer, Jess shares with us the circumstances around a serendipitous corporate recruiting visit which introduced her to an executive involved in the historic Grand Central Terminal redevelopment project. Jess secured a job with LaSalle Partners in New York working on the final ‘punch list’ of Grand Central- an iconic project at the time that inspires her (and us) to this day.

From there Jess shifted into an analyst role on the capital markets/ investment sales side of the business, a crash course which gave her the toolkit for a career as a ‘deal person’. Moving back to Boston, we discuss Jess’ time with Colliers and Trammell Crow before being recruited to join Beacon Capital Partners, kicking off a transformative chapter in her career which brought Jess to London and other international markets, and finally back home and back to the brokerage side for a productive stint at JLL. The bulk of our discussion is appropriately centered Jess’ move to Tishman Speyer, where she has done a tremendous job in building the firm’s Boston regional platform with a number of the market’s most exciting projects.

We had a blast catching up with Jess and learned a lot about her path. While every path in this business is unique, Jessica’s journey in CRE has been fascinating and we are excited to see what the next decade holds for Jess and Tishman Speyer.

Tom Greeley

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

Mike Greeley

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1/

Arthur Jemison – City of Boston/Boston Planning & Development Agency 

Arthur Jemison is the City of Boston’s Chief of Planning and the Director of the Boston Planning and Development Agency (‘BPDA’). A nationally respected public-private development leader, Chief Jemison came “back” to the City of Boston with 28 years of planning and affordable housing expertise, working with community members to create equitable places in Detroit, MI, Washington D.C. and Boston, MA. Most recently, Jemison served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he led the Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) and served as the policy lead and HUD partner for American Cities, Counties, States, and other local units of government.

Jemison joined HUD from the City of Detroit, where he was Group Executive for Planning, Housing & Development, leading the City’s efforts toward equitable growth. In early 2014, Jemison was recruited to lead the Housing & Revitalization Department for the City of Detroit, to assist as the City recovered from bankruptcy. In that capacity, Jemison led strategy, deployment and management of municipal housing policy and HUD entitlement funding. 

Before going to Detroit, Jemison held leadership positions at the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) for Massachusetts under Governor Deval Patrick. Prior to that, he held a variety of public and private-sector positions, including service at Massachusetts Port Authority, Boston Housing Authority, the then-Boston Redevelopment Authority, and in private development work at GLC Development Resources, as well as in the District of Columbia.

Jemison has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He also holds a Master of City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Fellow. Jemison is also a 2021 Spirit of Detroit Award winner, a 2016 Michigan Chronicle Men / Women of Excellence awardee, and a member of the team recognized with the 2013 Robert Larson Public Policy Award for Workforce Housing from the Urban Land Institute, on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Our conversation with Chief Jemison starts with his familial roots and upbringing in Detroit, MI and Amherst, MA and his college days at UMass Amherst, where he was first introduced to economics, urban planning and public policy. Through a fellowship opportunity for under-represented students, Arthur blazed his trail to MIT where he earned his Master in City Planning (MCP) degree, and turned his focus to real estate’s private sector, working initially in Miami for Arthur Andersen doing development feasibility consulting before following his calling in the public domain.

Much of our discussion with Chief Jemison, not surprisingly, focuses on the Boston market and his important work as the Director of the BPDA and as the City’s Planning Chief. We enjoyed this candid discussion, in which Arthur stressed the importance of collaboration and cooperation between his team and the development community. We were encouraged by this discussion and hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

For more information on the Boston Planning & Development Agency, please visit http://www.bostonplans.org/

Mentioned in this Episode:

What Arthur’s Reading Right now: Small Mercies (Dennis Lehane)

New Book Alert: Look for Me There (Luke Russert)

Required RE Reading: The Reichmanns: Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & York

Tom Greeley

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

Mike Greeley

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1/