Real Estate Capital

Nancy Lashine

Real Estate Capital offers candid, one-on-one conversations with some of the most influential people in commercial real estate. Hosted by Nancy Lashine, Founder of Park Madison Partners, the show focuses on real estate investment and capital formation, with in-depth perspectives from some of the most respected decision makers in the institutional real estate community. You’ll learn about successful transactions, investment philosophies, innovative business strategies, real estate operations and technology, and the personal characteristics and skills that have propelled these individuals in their careers.

  1. 1d ago

    Larissa Herczeg | 1 Seed Partners' Founder and Managing Partner

    Larissa Herczeg breaks down GP stakes, seeding strategy and building durable real estate partnerships. Larissa Herczeg, Founder and Managing Partner of 1 Seed Partners, joins Nancy Lashine to trace her path from corporate law to building one of real estate's leading GP seeding platforms. Larissa walks through how her firm structures deals, preferring revenue participation over full ownership, and explains why patience and discretion matter more than chasing whatever property type is hot. She's direct about why she avoids partnerships with new groups: [17:46] "Partnerships are loveless, sexless marriages where all you do is talk about money and your children. We like a partnership that's been tested for at least ten years, because it's hard." She's equally blunt about the fee math that many founders get wrong: [35:10] "It constantly baffles me that people will turn away capital because the fee's too low. So instead you're going to make one and a half percent on zero. Somehow that's better than making one percent on $200 million." Larissa also shares how she left Oak Street for Blue Owl before founding 1 Seed Partners in 2024. She points out what she looks for in the operators she seeds and why emerging managers and mega funds each bring real advantages to the table. Larissa closes with her take on how the GP stakes space has evolved since 2016, from a niche few understood to one of the hottest corners of real estate capital markets. Links Larissa Herczeg | LinkedIn 1 Seed Partners | Website

  2. Aug 19

    Christopher Merrill | Harrison Street Asset Management's Co-Founder & Global CEO

    Christopher Merrill shares the strategy that scaled Harrison Street to $109 billion in assets under management. Christopher Merrill, co-founder and global CEO of Harrison Street Asset Management, joins Nancy Lashine to discuss building one of the world’s largest alternative asset investment firms.  Since founding Harrison Street in 2005, Chris has helped grow the firm to $109 billion in assets under management (AUM) across real estate, infrastructure and private credit. Chris traces the firm’s strategy back to his early experience investing in central Europe, where he learned the value of pursuing fragmented markets and building strong teams. That experience shaped a principle that continues to guide Harrison Street’s relationships:  [00:06:38] “If you get alignment of interest right, it works.” Chris shares Harrison Street’s early focus on student housing, senior housing, medical office and self-storage, and how local operating partnerships have helped the firm build scale in these sectors.  Chris also explains why deeper relationships with universities and health systems are creating new opportunities across real estate and infrastructure. As more capital enters alternative real estate, experience becomes increasingly important to identifying risk. [00:31:23] “No one likes to talk about their mistakes. I do. I try and bring them up a lot of times with investors and say "We've made mistakes in these sectors, and I think those scars are making us stronger.” Across each stage of Harrison Street’s growth, a truth has emerged: scale creates the most value when it strengthens alignment, creates experts and preserves investment discipline.  Resources Christopher Merrill | LinkedIn Harrison Street | Website

  3. Jul 22

    Michelle Kleger | Kensington Vanguard's Managing Director of Business Development

    Kensington Vanguard’s Michelle Kleger shares how relationships, consistency and follow-through fuel successful careers in real estate. Michelle Kleger is an expert relationship-builder. She joins Nancy Lashine in this episode to share her unconventional path from hospitality into real estate and practical advice on mentorship, follow-up and building a long-term career. Michelle works in business development, where she brings in clients and shepherds their deals through closing. In the title industry, you can’t compete on price because it’s state-regulated. So, Michelle has built a franchise on relationships and trust. She did it by spending years meeting people over breakfast, lunch and drinks with one goal: getting to know them.  [00:07:35] “I was talking about the business probably zero. I was developing relationships with people.” Michelle’s love of people has helped her develop lasting relationships across the industry that continue to drive deals and open doors for her today. The conversation also explores commercial title insurance, business development, networking systems and the habits that keep relationships active over time. Michelle also shares about founding Girl Gang CRE in 2017, a community of more than 3,500 women in commercial real estate. [00:24:18] “The one thing I’ve learned from being at the same company for 10 years is the power of relationships.” Michelle highlights how the strongest competitive advantages in commercial real estate are the relationships you build and the value you create before anyone asks for it. Links Michelle Kleger | LinkedIn Kensington Vanguard National Land Services | Website Girl Gang CRE | Website

  4. Jul 8

    2026 Midyear Outlook | Park Madison Partners Executive Committee

    Park Madison’s executive committee revisits its 2026 predictions and examines the trends shaping real estate for the rest of the year. Park Madison’s executive committee, Rob Kohn, Carrie Coulson, Jack Koch, Brian Di Salvo and John Sweeney, joins Nancy Lashine for a mid-year assessment of the firm's 2026 Outlook. The group examines which themes have played out as expected, where market conditions have shifted and what investors should watch during the second half of 2026. The discussion covers interest rates, fundraising, transaction volumes and the continued importance of distributions as institutional investors gradually return to the market.  [00:12:43, Carrie] “There’s a lot more scrutiny on how managers are actually creating value. . . . not just ‘Here’s my track record, here are my returns.’” That scrutiny extends to different asset classes as well. The team talks about why niche operating strategies continue to attract capital, how data centers are navigating growing pushback and why industrial assets with access to power are becoming increasingly valuable. They also question how immune the real estate industry is to developments in AI, especially given that people will always need a place to live, work and play. [00:17:50, Jack] “I do think just generally as an asset class, there is some protection given that we’re humans and we always physically need those three things.” The conversation reinforces that patient capital and operational expertise continue to separate durable investment strategies from opportunistic ones. Resources Park Madison Partners' website 2026 Outlook report

  5. Jun 17

    Brendan Wallace | Fifth Wall’s Co-Founder, CEO and CIO

    Brendan Wallace discusses how AI is reshaping real estate, venture capital and the future of PropTech. Brendan Wallace joins Nancy Lashine to discuss how generative and agentic AI are fundamentally changing the real estate industry for investors, operators and PropTech companies.  The conversation explores why traditional “point solution” software is no longer enough for real estate firms trying to stay competitive.  Brendan explains that companies now must integrate AI directly into their operations and decision-making infrastructure rather than treating technology as a separate IT support function. [00:14:18] “If you still conceptualize your business that way, as we have leasing and development and reporting and then tech over here, you've fully lost the plot because what matters to truly capture the value of generative agent AI is you can't think of it as technology. You have to think of it as business.” Brendan also discusses how AI is reshaping venture investing itself, compressing competitive advantages and increasing the concentration of returns among a small number of breakout companies.  He argues that firms that are hesitant to adapt will fall behind quickly as the industry undergoes a major transformation. [00:50:30] “Doing nothing around generative and agentic AI, not having a strategy, is an existential mistake at this point.” The episode also covers climate investing, global innovation ecosystems and why Brendan believes the next five years will bring more change to real estate management than the previous two decades combined. Links Brendan Wallace | LinkedIn Fifth Wall’s website

  6. Jun 3

    Brian Feldman | Compass Datacenters’ Vice President of Development

    Brian Feldman, Compass Datacenters’ Vice President of Development, discusses data center development, power procurement, and the future of digital infrastructure. Brian shares how unexpected opportunities early in his career led him to work with data centers. After graduating from Columbia’s business school, he joined Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) long-range planning team. At AWS, Brian was responsible for buying land for data centers and then procuring the power contract to energize it.  He learned that data center location primarily depends on what problem the business is trying to solve. Brian points out that use and sales tax incentives and varying data center governance laws across the U.S. play a key role in site selection, too. [00:15:06] “Data centers like to be next to other data centers [because] . . . [they] are all about interrelational databases and interrelational compute. . . . [T]hat means they can talk to each other almost instantaneously and really almost act like one greater facility.” Brian shares how much data centers permanently boost local economies. They employ thousands of people during construction—people who live, eat and spend money in the community. [00:43:40] “The construction cycle just continues. They're temporary jobs, but what people don't often realize is the level of permanence because these buildings do require constant upgrade and retrofit. And that's one, baked into the economics, and two, based [on] the lease terms.” While the data center boom eventually will slow down, Brian emphasizes that the industry’s fundamental drive is society’s demand for computational power. And things like phone use and the need to interpret data aren’t going anywhere soon. Links Brian Feldman | LinkedIn Compass Datacenters’ website

4.9
out of 5
47 Ratings

About

Real Estate Capital offers candid, one-on-one conversations with some of the most influential people in commercial real estate. Hosted by Nancy Lashine, Founder of Park Madison Partners, the show focuses on real estate investment and capital formation, with in-depth perspectives from some of the most respected decision makers in the institutional real estate community. You’ll learn about successful transactions, investment philosophies, innovative business strategies, real estate operations and technology, and the personal characteristics and skills that have propelled these individuals in their careers.

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