The AFIRE Podcast

(Featuring Warren Wachsberger, CEO, AECOM Capital)

https://www.afire.org/podcast/diversifyingdigital202205/

As investors look for sustainable sources of inflation-protected yield, real estate investment is increasingly blurring into a wider range of “digital” real asset investment strategies.

Inclusive of physical broadband networks (fiber or wireless), small cell and distributed antenna system (DAS) networks, and data centers, digital real estate shares many of the same attributes as traditional real estate, and in many cases, it benefits from even greater positive tailwinds.

At its core, the development of digital real estate shares many of the same economic characteristics as traditional real estate development: You are building a physical asset that is monetized by leasing out a finite amount of built capacity, and whose value depends in large part on lease term, tenant credit, and the stability and growth profile of the underlying cash flows. And as with traditional real estate, investors can choose between a range of approaches based on risk tolerance, including core strategies focused on buying assets with stable in-place cash flows, to more opportunistic strategies that aim to create stabilized assets by either building new assets or by fixing existing non-stabilized assets.

In this episode of the AFIRE Podcast, Warren Wachsberger, CEO, AECOM Capital, discusses his recent Summit Journal article about digital real estate options to diversify your portfolio.

(Featuring Tal Peri, Head, US East Coast and Latin America, Union Investment Real Estate.)

https://www.afire.org/podcast/choosingflex202204/

Employees are increasingly demanding flexibility and choice for where (and when) they work. What strategies can landlords implement to adapt?

In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the negative sentiment regarding the prospects of office properties was influenced by lockdowns, empty offices, and a better-than-expected short-term outcome of the work-from-home (WFH) experiment. However, with a prolonged WFH period, the negative aspects of this model as a full-time approach have become evident and have balanced the consensus.

Employees yearn for a higher degree of flexibility and choice when it comes to time spent in the office, compared to working remotely. Because of this, more employers are adapting a hybrid work model in which in-office and remote work is split. While the level of flexibility will vary by industry and company, in aggregate, demand for flexibility from office users is set to rise.

In this episode of the AFIRE Podcast, Tal Peri, Head, US East Coast and Latin America, Union Investment Real Estate, expounds on his recent Summit Journal article focused on the future of flexible work—and what happens next for the office sector.

There’s been a lot of discussion through COVID about work from home and the eventual return to office space. Yet, most predictions are either that everything will return to normal—or nothing will ever be normal again. The reality is likely neither of these two extremes...but what will it be?

In this two-part episode of the AFIRE Podcast, Doug Holte, former President of Irvine Company and current founder and CEO of AgileWorkweekInvestments, explores what "work" has become and how office space will change.

and commercial property platforms to create an efficient and agile workweek. He’s working within the tremendous forces of change in our work to find better, more productive, and more balanced approaches to the office sector.

According to Holte, building the future of the workplace is a complicated task. Among other things, we need to ask better questions around our needs from the workplace. Whatever we create, can we build it without throwing out all that we already have?

There’s been a lot of discussion through COVID about work from home and the eventual return to office space. Yet, most predictions are either that everything will return to normal—or nothing will ever be normal again. The reality is likely neither of these two extremes...but what will it be?

In this two-part episode of the AFIRE Podcast, Doug Holte, former President of Irvine Company and current founder and CEO of AgileWorkweekInvestments, explores what "work" has become and how office space will change.

Holte is actively investing in new property technology and commercial property platforms to create an efficient and agile workweek. He’s working within the tremendous forces of change in our work to find better, more productive, and more balanced approaches to the office sector.

According to Holte, building the future of the workplace is a complicated task. Among other things, we need to ask better questions around our needs from the workplace. Whatever we create, can we build it without throwing out all that we already have?

(Featuring Alicia Glen, Founder and Managing principal of MSquared and former Deputy Mayor of Housing and Economic Development for New York City)

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

Alicia Glen, founder and managing principal of MSquared and former deputy mayor of housing and economic development for New York City, explains how to intelligently and profitably invest in affordable housing at scale. It isn’t easy, especially when using old categories and old business models – and the biases people hold in their heads can often get in the way of seeing real opportunity.

Glen is building her business—a women-owned real estate development and impact investing platform—by looking beyond unchallenged assumptions such as: poor people bring down property values; New York is too expensive; or there aren’t enough talented women in real estate to hire.

In this episode of the AFIRE Podcast with Gunnar Branson, Glen shows how each of these assumptions falls to the side when confronted with thoughtful analyses and forward-thinking investment philosophies that also make profitability possible while providing high-quality affordable housing at the same time.

Through this lens, according to Glen, New York could actually be the affordable housing capital of the world.

(Featuring Dr. Alexis Crow, Lead, Geopolitical Investing Practice, PwC)

www.afire.org/podcast/stewardshipcast/

Whether it’s the impact of income inequality and the lack of affordable housing or the rise of populism and global sea levels, or evolving migration to and from primary cities, the economic and geopolitical challenges of today matter to the institutional real estate investor.

There is more risk, but also more potential to make a meaningful positive impact for investors and the general environment. It is a complicated but navigable landscape for those with eyes wide open.

In this two-part series at the beginning of the AFIRE Podcast’s 2022 season, Dr. Alexis Crow, leader of PwC’s Geopolitical Investing Practice, sat down on November 30, 2021 with AFIRE CEO and podcast host Gunnar Branson to talk about the role real estate stewardship has in the evolving global landscape. Is the industry—and are the people behind it—ready to take on the challenge?

A noted speaker and previous guest at AFIRE executive conferences, Dr. Crow brings a near encyclopedic knowledge of geopolitics and economics home to the real estate space.

(Featuring Dr. Alexis Crow, Lead, Geopolitical Investing Practice, PwC)

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

Whether it’s the impact of income inequality and the lack of affordable housing or the rise of populism and global sea levels, or evolving migration to and from primary cities, the economic and geopolitical challenges of today matter to the institutional real estate investor.

There is more risk, but also more potential to make a meaningful positive impact for investors and the general environment. It is a complicated but navigable landscape for those with eyes wide open.

In this two-part series at the beginning of the AFIRE Podcast’s 2022 season, Dr. Alexis Crow, leader of PwC’s Geopolitical Investing Practice, sat down on November 30, 2021 with AFIRE CEO and podcast host Gunnar Branson to talk about the role real estate stewardship has in the evolving global landscape. Is the industry—and are the people behind it—ready to take on the challenge?

A noted speaker and previous guest at AFIRE executive conferences, Dr. Crow brings a near encyclopedic knowledge of geopolitics and economics home to the real estate space.

(Featuring Gabe Klein, Co-Founder, CityFi)

Cars revolutionized the world when they were invented, but they've also had an oversized role in dictating the shape of urban environments over the past century. But our transportation culture is beginning to change—so what can cities do to adapt?

https://www.afire.org/news/carproblemcast/

Cars are a regular part of our everyday lives. They take us wherever we need to go, whenever we need it. They offer independence and convenience. However, they are also one of the largest pollution sources of our modern world, and cost thousands of lives every year in car accidents. Nowhere are these problems more visible than big cities. The traffic, smog and infrastructure costs of urban centers are heavily influenced by the use of cars by thousands of individuals every day. If we accept cars as the problem, how do we find a solution?

Departments of Transportation, discusses the future of urban transportation in terms of reducing large cities' dependency on cars. From bike lanes to electric vehicles, Klein's ideas can help inform our understanding of urbanism.

(Featuring Nan Whaley, Mayor, Dayton, Ohio)

The discussion on recovery as COVID begins to decline often focuses on larger US cities. So what’s next for the mid-sized markets, and could Dayton, Ohio have some answers?

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

How have mid-size cities with less density responded to the pandemic? Are there advantages or disadvantages to living in smaller urban areas in the COVID times? Most importantly, what opportunities can these areas offer investors?

On this episode of the AFIRE Podcast with Gunnar Branson, Nan Whaley, mayor of Dayton, Ohio, explains the challenges and advantages Dayton has experienced during the last two years. Because of its lower density, Dayton was uniquely situated for social distancing protocols, experiencing growth during the pandemic-related migration out of larger gateway markets.

Combined with a very open attitude toward land development, the local market is bouncing back quickly—though housing availability and labor shortages remain as barriers to more expeditious growth. Mayor Whaley shares her goals for increasing density, fostering growth, and creating more equity in housing—and how these goals could inform the future of real estate in other mid-sized US cities.

After the postponement of the landmark international trade fair Expo Real in 2020, AFIRE was pleased to return to Munich, Germany last month for Expo Real 2021.

Running from October 11 to 13 and held at the Messe München exhibition center, this year’s Expo Real had a diminished attendance compared to previous years—due largely to still-active travel restrictions inhibiting frictionless international travel. But the event still welcomed more than 19,000 visitors from 52 countries, and nearly 2,000 exhibitors, all sharing an optimistic view about the future of the real estate industry within and beyond Europe.

Adjusting for the “new normal” of post-pandemic real estate exhibitions, AFIRE replaced its annual Expo Real brunch gathering for an intimate, members-only dinner on October 12 at Brenner Opengrille, providing a space for members to reconnect in person after more than a year of Zoom calls and social distancing.

AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson also joined members on-site at the exhibition center for a series of candid conversations with several Europe-based AFIRE member leaders sharing their views about asset types, investment trends, and emergent challenges and opportunities for US real estate investing.

This episode (out of five) features Sebastian Vetter, the Global Head of Real Estate and Specialised Lending for DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale. DekaBank is the central provider of asset management and capital market solutions of the German Savings Bank Finance Group. Registered in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, its headquarters is based in Frankfurt. DekaBank was formed in 1999 after the merger of Deutsche Girozentrale Deutsche Kommunalbank and DekaBank GmbH. Together with its subsidiaries it forms the Deka Group, making it one of the largest securities services providers in Germany.