Leading Voices in Real Estate

President, CEO, and Founder of Juniper Communities (an owner/operator of seniors housing) Lynne Katzmann joins Matt on this week’s episode of Leading Voices in Real Estate. Lynne founded Juniper Communities over 30 years ago and is the only woman-owned business among the top owners in the assisted living business and has been recognized by various organizations including Crain's New York as one of the top women-owned businesses in the tri-state area. Lynne has been a leader for other seniors housing owners during COVID, providing transparency at the start of the pandemic in her vulnerable communities to requiring staff members to be vaccinated. Additionally, she shares what it means to be a female CEO and company founder in a male-dominated industry, the hospitality model of seniors housing, and how she wants to leave the world a better place through her work.

This week on Leading Voices in Real Estate, Matt is joined by Jeff Berkes, President and Chief Operating Officer of Federal Realty Investment Trust. Founded in 1962, Federal is one of the oldest US REITs and is focused on the ownership, operation, and development of high-quality retail properties—from grocery-anchored shopping centers to large-scale mixed-use neighborhoods. As a non-mall retail owner, Federal has seen continued stability and success, despite the challenges of COVID and the realignments in the retail real estate sector due to the impact of e-commerce. Jeff shares Federal's “secret sauce” of building mixed-use projects with retail, office, and residential to help drive the organization's success and innovations and how Federal has worked with core tenants, including the hard-hit restaurants and retailers, to cope with the challenges of operating during the COVID shutdowns.

This week, Robin Hughes, President and CEO of Abode Communities, speaks with Matt about her experience and leadership in the affordable housing community. Abode Communities is a nonprofit owner, developer, and designer of affordable housing. Based in Los Angeles, the organization is one of the top 50 affordable housing developers nationally and is the premier provider of environmentally sustainable affordable housing in California. The conversation begins with a discussion on how COVID has impacted Abode’s and other affordable owner’s residents, an important dialogue as the pandemic has disproportionally affected low-income communities. Additionally, Robin shares how growing up in public housing as a young child brings a lived experience into her current role where she not only serves as the President and CEO of Abode but also serves on numerous boards and committees in the affordable housing space including as chair of the Housing Partnership Network. Robin also provides advice on how to bring more people of color into more senior roles in the commercial real estate industry.

Vicki Been, Deputy Mayor of Housing and Economic Development for New York City, joins Matt on this week’s episode of Leading Voices in Real Estate. Vicki oversees 25 agencies responsible for both economic development and housing initiatives for the City, a portfolio in which the issues have deepened and accelerated during COVID. Matt and Vicki discuss her work during COVID, positive changes to the urban fabric that will likely persist post-COVID like outdoor dining and closed-off streets as well as her responsibilities for preparing for future health emergencies. As the former head of the city’s housing agencies, we also discuss the ongoing housing affordability crisis. Furthermore, Vicki shares her career story, which includes growing up in a rural Colorado uranium mining town to her clerkship at the Supreme Court (where she also met her husband) to leading the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, and now her roles in city government.

This week, Matt speaks with real estate leader Walt Rakowich, former CEO of Prologis and author of the new book, Transfluence: How to Lead with Transformative Influence in Today’s Climates of Change. In the interview, Walt tells his career story, interspersed with leadership lessons along the way. Walt’s true crucible as a leader came first when he was President and COO of Prologis and he found himself unaligned with the style and decision making of the CEO, leading to Walt’s resignation from the firm…and then rejoining the firm, just months later, to restructure and rebuild the business after a crash that he had essentially foreseen. In our conversation, Walt discusses these lessons in leadership but we certainly recommend that you take a deep dive into his philosophy and practice of servant leadership in Transfluence. Learn more about Walt or order Tranfluence at waltrakowich.com.

John Helm, Managing Director and Founder of RET Ventures, joins Matt for this week’s episode of Leading Voices in Real Estate. RET Ventures is the first industry-backed early-stage venture fund focused on helping build cutting-edge real estate technology companies for the multifamily and single-family rental industries. John is our third guest from the proptech space (we previously featured Clara Brenner from the Urban Innovation Fund and Brad Greiwe from Fifth Wall). RET Ventures’ business model is differentiated in both its focus on the rental space and that all of their investors are owner-operators, creating a virtuous cycle between clients, customers, and investors. In the episode, John and Matt talk about the impact of technology on the rental housing business, the benefits of tenure and deep relationships in a relationship-oriented business, and John’s fascinating career journey.

Today’s conversation is a re-release of the inaugural episode of Leading Voices, a conversation with then Mayor of Tacoma, WA and now, in 2021, a newly elected Congresswoman, Marilyn Strickland (D-WA). In this conversation, from 2017, Matt and then Mayor Strickland discuss the strategies for redevelopment that she used in Takoma, balancing neighborhood economic redevelopment neighborhood with the needs of the existing businesses and residents. We are re-releasing this conversation with Representative Strickland the week after last week’s chaos at the US Capitol, cognizant of the need for constructive leadership from our elected officials. As per the Seattle Times, “business friendly Strickland won…in a closely watched race mirroring a nationwide struggle between progressive and establishment liberals” and is the first African American to represent Washington State and the first Korean-American woman elected to Congress.

In this first episode of 2021, Matt interviews Paul Saffo, Silicon Valley based futurist, about long term trends and their impacts on our cities and workplaces. Paul places COVID-19 in perspective and talks about the trends affecting our global civilization, impacts on the real estate business, and the opportunities for the real estate industry “to become good ancestors” through our work in the built environment. This is a look forward — way forward - with the end of COVID in sight and the beginning of new times following 2020.

For the final episode of 2020, Matt speaks with Nancy Lashine, Managing Partner of Park Madison Partners and host of the podcast series, "Innovations in Real Estate”. Matt and Nancy interview each other about their respective careers, highlights from their podcasts, and current wisdom from their respective businesses. Nancy talks about the current drivers for institutional capital into real estate strategies from her perch as a capital raiser at Park Madison Partners and Matt talks about helping build teams and the need for talent in real estate organizations from his recruiting business at Terra Search Partners. This conversation is being released both on Leading Voices and on Nancy’s podcast, Innovations in Real Estate.

During this episode of Leading Voices in Real Estate, Matt interviews Alan Gold, Executive Chairman of IQHQ, a start-up real estate company serving the life sciences industry. The episode serves as a continued exploration of different niches within the real estate business — serving the biotech/life sciences field requires unique knowledge and relationships and brings a special set of challenges as well as opportunities. Alan is a serial entrepreneur, having been a co-founder of Alexandria Real Estate Equities and then the founder and CEO of BioMed Realty Trust (and its predecessor), which sold to Blackstone in 2016. He is now the Executive Chairman of both IQHQ, started in February of this year, as well as of Innovative Industrial Properties, the only NYSE cannabis REIT. In addition to drilling down on the life sciences real estate business, Matt and Alan talk about the benefits of specialization and of “bringing the band back together” in his companies.

MultiGreen made a big splash in early 2020 at the World Economic Forum's 50th Annual Meeting in Davos, announcing its intention to build 40,000 units of attainable, sustainable, tech-enabled workforce housing apartments over the next ten years. In this episode, Matt talks with MultiGreen Founder and Chairman, Randy Norton, who is leading this new venture towards this audacious and important goal. MultiGreen is backed by 60 of the world’s wealthiest families via its partnership with (i)x investments, an impact investment fund that is bringing long term investment to address major social problems like the housing crisis.

Sheryl Palmer, Chairman and CEO of Taylor Morrison Home Corporation, joins as our second leading voice within the homebuilding industry. Taylor Morrison is one of the nation's top-ranked public homebuilders, following the company’s IPO in 2013, which Sheryl oversaw. She shares how she came into the homebuilding business and how her prior, non-real estate experiences have influenced her consumer-first approach to the business.

Matt interviews David Schless, the President of the American Seniors Housing Association, to discuss the impact of COVID on seniors housing and his thoughts on the future of this business post-pandemic. David discusses the tremendous response of the industry and the future of the seniors housing business, for which the demographic trends continue to suggest significant growth and opportunity.

In our Leading Voices in Real Estate Season Five premiere, Matt is rejoined by Tammy Jones, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Basis Investment Group, a real estate investment manager primarily focused on debt and structured equity strategies. Tammy was a participant on the Black Voices in Real Estate episode released in June, where she shared her experience as a Black woman in the real estate industry and the opportunities for change in racial equity in our business.

In honor of John Stewart’s memory, we are rebroadcasting his Leading Voices interview from December 2018. John passed away last week after a two-year battle with cancer. He was the founder of The John Stewart Company, a developer of low and mixed-income housing and the country’s 6th largest manager of affordable housing. John was a personal friend of Matt’s and an inspiration throughout his career. He views John as one of the Bay Area’s leading voices who was a tireless advocate across the range of social justice issues, particularly around low-income housing and the challenges of our current politics. John was a generous mentor to many with an inimitable voice and perspective; we are pleased to share this episode again. John will be sorely missed and deeply remembered.