Institutional Real Estate, Inc. Podcast

Tim Fernholz — who covers space for Quartz and is the author of Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the New Space Race — joins the program to discuss the rise of private-sector space exploration, adventure capitalism, the role of NASA, and what the future might hold in humankind ventures into its final frontier. (03/2019)

Sam Schwartz was a New York City cab driver before eventually becoming New York City Traffic Commissioner and chief engineer of the city's Department of Transportation, before founding Sam Schwartz Transportation Consultants, a firm that specializes in transportation planning and engineering. His latest book is titled "No One at the Wheel: Driverless Cars and the Road of the Future." He joins the program to talk about, among other things, the profound infrastructure changes required for the coming driverless car revolution. (03/2019)

Sam Schwartz was a New York City cab driver before eventually becoming New York City Traffic Commissioner and chief engineer of the city's Department of Transportation, before founding Sam Schwartz Transportation Consultants, a firm that specializes in transportation planning and engineering. His latest book is titled "No One at the Wheel: Driverless Cars and the Road of the Future." He joins the program to talk about the pros and cons of the coming driverless car revolution. (03/2019)

Did you know that Google invested $30 billion in infrastructure between 2015 and 2017 to lay 64,000 miles of trans-ocean communication cables? Google is one of several technology companies investing heavily in communications infrastructure. What’s more, digital technologies are being embedded in a host of infrastructure projects. Mathias Burghardt, an executive with Ardian, brings his more than 25 years of experience in the infrastructure and energy sectors, to the program and offers examples of how digital technologies are making their way into infrastructure. (03/2019)

What is low and minimum volatility investing? What is the goal of this type of investment? What are some of the strategies available for creating these types of equities portfolios? Our guest, Dana D’Auria, managing director of Symmetry Partners, explains the process. (03/2019)

What is low and minimum volatility investing? What is the goal of this type of investment? What are some of the strategies available for creating these types of equities portfolios? Our guest, Dana D’Auria, managing director of Symmetry Partners, explains the process. (03/2019)

The Institute for Portfolio Alternatives (IPA) and Robert A. Stanger & Co. have taken first steps in reporting the performance of nonlisted REITs and other investments. The inaugural issue of the IPA/Stanger Monitor, published January 2019, tracks the performance of 56 nonlisted REITs, including seven net-asset-value REITs and 49 Lifecycle REITs. Anthony Chereso, president and CEO of the IPA, and Kevin Gannon, chairman and CEO of Stanger, join the program to explain their collaboration on the new product. (03/2019)

2018 was another record year for M&A activity among wealth advisory firms. Who are the acquirers in the RIA space? What is the typical deal structure? How has the trend affected valuations? Does having fewer and larger RIAs mean portend greater use of alternatives and real assets in client portfolios? In the thick of M&A frenzy is Dan Kreuter, founder and chairman of the Gladstone Group, which provides M&A consulting to wealth advisory firms. He joins the program. (03/2019)

Currently, almost all alternative investments are processed manually — with paper documents mailed or faxed between sponsors, advisers and their investor clients — rather than electronically. That is done at a significant cost to advisers and investors. Why have these processes not been automated? What kind of automation is possible? What would putting automation in the hands of advisers and investors mean to the use of alts and real assets in investment portfolios? Bill Robbins, CEO of WealthForge, explains the issue. (03/2019)

Institutional real estate investors tend to overlook Japan, despite good opportunities in the Land of the Rising Sun. That is the word from Shusaku “Shu” Watanabe, a director at Nuveen Real Estate. Why is Japan routinely overlooked? What opportunities are going unnoticed? Why is Japan’s aging citizenry and shrinking population not a red flag for the housing industry? What are some of the precautions would-be investors should take into account before making financial commitments to Japan’s housing sector? We discuss. (03/2019)

The real estate industry has traditionally been slow to adopt new technologies, but proptech appears to be changing that. Also featured in the February edition of Institutional Real Estate Americas are a pair of stories about the debt markets and the forces driving them. Editor Loretta Clodfelter walks us through those topics. (02/2019)

VIP Europe, the sister event of IREI’s highly acclaimed VIP Americas event, once again attracted some of the institutional real estate industry’s top investment managers, investors and consultants. Marek Handzel, editor of Institutional Real Estate Europe, was there and offers his insights from the gathering. (02/2019)

Chase McWhorter, managing director of the publication, discusses efforts to better track and benchmark nonlisted infrastructure performance, vis-a-vis listed infrastructure, as well as regarding infrastructure as more than simply as defensive hedge in portfolios to protect against economic downturns. (02/2019)

What property types are attracting the most dollars or enthusiasm these days? What property type or types have fallen out of favor with investors? How does various investment strategies — such as core, value-add and opportunistic — stack up? Are tier-one markets still hoovering up the dollars, or is the appeal of secondary markets continued to assert itself? Michael Campbell, CEO of The Carlton Group, joins us to discuss those issues. (02/2019)

What property types are attracting the most dollars or enthusiasm these days? What property type or types have fallen out of favor with investors? How does various investment strategies — such as core, value-add and opportunistic — stack up? Is foreign capital still flowing across U.S. borders with as much enthusiasm as ever, or has that begun to taper? Are tier-one markets still hoovering up the dollars, or is the appeal of secondary markets continued to assert itself? Michael Campbell, CEO of The Carlton Group, joins us to discuss those issues. (02/2019)