The AFIRE Podcast

(Featuring William J. Ferguson, Chairman, CEO, Ferguson Partners)

Facing fiscal challenges, social unrest, geopolitical conflict, climate change, supply chain disruption, and the ongoing COVID crisis, what should tomorrow’s real estate leaders do today to prepare for the future ahead?

https://www.afire.org/podcast/testuponuscast/

If ever there is a time when steady leadership is required in real estate—this is that time. With the mountain challenges presented by extrinsic circumstances in the world, the real estate industry demands good leadership. But good leaders can be hard to find when our definition of leadership is unclear.

On this episode of the AFIRE Podcast, we explore the next generation of leadership with William J. Ferguson, Chairman and CEO of Ferguson Partners, a leading global talent management firm. Ferguson is also the author of four books, including the recently released The Test is Now Upon Us, which profiles some of the top leaders in global real estate and collects insights on leadership through uncertain times.

Listen now on your favorite podcast service (Apple, Google, Spotify) for the full episode.

(Featuring Frances Mennone, Advisor, Consultant Cross Street Partners, and Bruce Katz, Co-Founder, The New Localism)

When the pandemic first spread across the globe in early 2020, real estate and urban experts collectively began to ask: What will this crisis mean for cities?

https://www.afire.org/podcast/mennonekatzcast/

And now, as the world now deals with the latter stages of the pandemic, with many cities now cautiously entering a recovery phase, what have we learned, and how should CRE investors think about the future of urbanism?

In April 2020, AFIRE’s CEO (and host of the AFIRE Podcast) Gunnar Branson joined Frances Mennone of Cross Street Partners and Bruce Katz of New Localism to ask—early in the COVID crisis—what it will take for cities to reopen and reactivate their economies. (See: “Re-Opening the Economy and the Complexities of Downtowns” at thenewlocalism.com)

At the time, the authors concluded that “the recovery, particularly in the cores of our cities and metropolitan areas, can be faster and more inclusive if communities plan with ambition and act with focus. The future of our cities begins now.”

Today, more than a year since their initial conversation, Mennone and Katz join the AFIRE Podcast to explore what cities have learned, and what they still need to do, in order to build back better—even as the pandemic enters its more muddled “delta phase.”

According to Mennone, “Cities are humming organisms, and when you stop them, you will need shock paddles to get them started again.”

Listen now on your favorite podcast service (Apple, Google, Spotify) for the full episode.

(Featuring Dongsoo Kim, Director of the Sustainability Management Center, Korea Productivity Center)

Because the standards and expectations are different country-by-country, reaching sustainability goals is a complex challenge for global investors.

https://www.afire.org/podcast/sustainingfuturecast/

But with the real estate industry finally learning how to integrate technology, leaders in the space have the unique opportunity to challenge assumptions and work towards a greener future.

So how can (and should) companies use data to understand what’s happening onsite, throughout the real estate supply chain, and in the communities they’re invested?

On this episode of the AFIRE Podcast, Dongsoo Kim, Director of the Sustainability Management Center for the Korea Productivity Center (KPC) discusses how the real estate industry has already adapted to sustainable imperatives, and what else needs to happen for organizations to move forward.

Established in 1957, KPC is a government-supported agency that works to support productivity improvements across the country’s economy. KPC has played a pivotal role in increasing productivity and economic growth in Korea. The organization provides consulting, education, and training services, as well as support for the implementation of quality and environmental management systems. KPC has also developed and continues to publish Korea’s National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI) as well as the country’s National Brand Competitiveness Index (NBCI).

Listen now on your favorite podcast service (Apple, Google, Spotify) for the full episode.

(Featuring Steve Weikal, Head of Industry Relations and CRE Technology, MIT Real Estate Innovation Lab)

In the past two years alone, more than $50 billion has been invested into emerging proptech. As new businesses in proptech continue to expand, what should investors pay attention to?

https://www.afire.org/podcast/mediatingre/

Although some experts suspected that proptech would face a slowdown in 2020, the sector actually grew faster than it did in 2019, consistent with the notion that the pandemic served as an accelerant for changes already underway across the entire CRE value chain. If investors weren't already prioritizing proptech, are they already too late?

Steve Weikal, head of industry relations and CRE technology at the MIT Real Estate Innovation Lab, discusses how investors can rethink the relationship people have with real estate through proptech. Enabled by emerging machine learning, AI, analytics, and other technologies, proptech has proven to generate a convergence of uses in the real estate space. What can investors expect to see moving forward?

(Featuring Chris Happ, Tech Entrepreneur, Investor)

The events of the past year have been the big push needed by the real estate industry to adapt to new technology. And with more than $50 billion in new proptech investments, the pace is quickening. Where can CRE investors find value in this rapidly evolving field?

https://www.afire.org/podcast/unpackingproptech/

A few years ago, proptech was not a term that was used to define the real estate industry. Now, as the investors who have mastered big data emerge to the forefront of the global real estate industry, businesses across the entire CRE spectrum need the capabilities for capturing information, insights, and trends in order to stay at the front of the market.

On this episode of the AFIRE Podcast, tech entrepreneur and investor Chris Happ discusses how investors can navigate the proptech space—especially how to separate the bells and whistles from the inner workings.

Listen now on your favorite podcast service (Apple, Google, Spotify) for the full episode.

(Featuring Elizabeth Stern, Partner, Mayer Brown, and Carl Risch, Partner, Mayer Brown)

Border shutdowns as a result of pandemic policy have been a major sticking point for cross-border investment over the past year. What should investors know about travel into the US right now?

https://www.afire.org/podcast/readytotravel/

As the COVID-19 vaccines are being deployed in the US and other countries, with promising results, borders between countries are gradually reopening. But as the pandemic continues to mutate and affect different populations and regions, the rules for what is required when crossing from one nation to another can be confusing—and may even impact investment opportunities.

Elizabeth Stern and Carl Risch, partners with Mayer Brown and part of the firm's Global Mobility and Migration Practice, discuss recent policy changes (as of June 2021) affecting business travel and global mobility, as well as the outlook for cross-border opportunities in the year ahead.

(Featuring Sabrina Unger, Managing Director, Research and Strategy, American Realty Advisors)

The future of residential investments is all about demographics—and the forces behind them.

https://www.afire.org/podcast/residential-investments/

With more and more time spent at home, capital appetite has grown for all things residential, with new living schemes entering the fray at a rapid pace.

Yet not all living investments are as safe as houses. It is important to consider demographic wave crests and troughs and how these forces will impact prospects for the various components of the residential spectrum going forward.

Sabrina Unger, Managing Director and Head of Research of Strategy for of American Realty Advisors, talks about the future of residential investing and how the COVID-19 crisis influenced the evolution of that particular asset class.

(Featuring Sunil A. Misser, CEO, AccountAbility)

During a time of unprecedented uncertainty and disruption, how should businesses approach the “new metrics of performance?” And what do these metrics mean for the future of ESG in the real estate industry?

https://www.afire.org/podcast/sustainabilitycast02/

We are in a time of unprecedented uncertainty and disruption, as the pandemic, in particular, has posed unique challenges for all businesses for how their employees work, how clients behave, and how supply chains function. Geopolitical, macroeconomic shifts, among other fundamental changes in CRE, will ultimately determine the priorities of institutional investing for the years ahead.

In today’s terms, business performance transcends profits and losses and incorporates a broader focus on “Corporate Purpose.” This shift from shareholder to stakeholder capitalism was asserted through the Business Roundtable’s 2019 statement on the Purpose of a Corporation affirming “the essential role corporations can play in improving our society when CEOs are truly committed to meeting the needs of all stakeholders.” How can businesses use collaboration and connectivity to thrive and adapt in the CRE industry?

Sunil A. Misser, CEO of AccountAbility, talks about the importance of embedding ESG positions into mainstream business strategy, and the need for resilience in a post-COVID industry landscape.

(Featuring Ben Wobschall, Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, Principal Real Estate Investors)

Data center investments have proven resilient in periods of economic volatility—and they’re only going to become more essential and important into the future.

https://www.afire.org/podcast/data-centers/

Once viewed as a niche real estate investment, data centers have risen in popularity as the need for data storage and processing has rocketed in parallel with the amount of data consumed by individuals, businesses, and new technologies.

While pandemic-related social restrictions have accelerated data usage trends, data centers have long been vital to the global economy’s reliance on connectivity. With an attractive risk/return profile and significant barriers to entry, the industry has proven itself resilient in both good and bad economies, making high-quality data centers an increasingly attractive opportunity for real estate investors.

As the world grows increasingly interconnected, the demand for data requires more storage solutions and robust processing power. While in the past the primary purpose of data centers was to simply store data, today computing power and network connectivity have become the most important purpose for these facilities.

Ben Wobschall, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for Principal Real Estate Investors talks about the investment opportunities in this specialized but increasingly critical sector.

(Featuring Sunil A. Misser, CEO, AccountAbility)

During a time of unprecedented uncertainty and disruption, how should businesses approach the “new metrics of performance,” and how will ESG evolve in 2021?

https://www.afire.org/podcast/sustainabilitycast01/

We are in a time of unprecedented uncertainty and disruption, as the pandemic, in particular, is posing unique challenges for all businesses for how their employees work, how clients behave, how supply chains function, and how to confront the “new metrics of performance.” Fundamental changes in CRE will ultimately determine the significance of institutional investing for the years ahead.

Business performance, in today’s terms, transcends profits and losses and incorporates a broader focus on “Corporate Purpose.” This shift from shareholder to stakeholder capitalism was asserted through the Business Roundtable’s 2019 statement on the Purpose of a Corporation affirming “the essential role corporations can play in improving our society when CEOs are truly committed to meeting the needs of all stakeholders.”

On this episode of the AFIRE Podcast—the first of a two-part conversation—Sunil A. Misser, CEO of AccountAbility talks about the importance of embedding ESG positions into mainstream business strategy, and the need for resilience in a post-COVID industry landscape.

Listen now on your favorite podcast service (Apple, Google, Spotify) for the full episode.