The Memo

Ricardo Chamorro

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Business

The inside memo on how commercial real estate is actually adopting AI. Each week, we talk with the owners, operators, lenders, brokers, developers, and technology leaders turning AI from boardroom discussion into business process. From leasing and asset management to acquisitions, property operations, credit, construction, and investor reporting, we unpack what’s working, what’s changed, and what CRE still won’t trust AI to touch.

Oct 23

How to Buy 100+ Properties a Year with Joshua Zhang

A high-volume net lease buyer treats AI as a tool and keeps the final investment call with people. Joshua Zhang, Head of Investments at FCPT, built the firm's investment team from its first hire after FCPT spun out of Darden Restaurants in 2015, and this summer closed the largest deal in company history: 102 veterinary properties for $268 million. He talks with Ricardo Chamorro about buying more than 100 small assets a year, closing all cash with no mortgage financing, reading a market near 5% on the 10 year, and the data, trust, and privacy tests an AI vendor has to pass at a public company. Chapters: 00:00 Trailer 00:38 Meet Joshua Zhang and FCPT 01:07 From Harvard econ to Detroit's bankruptcy 03:06 Goldman's real estate group to a brand new REIT 05:20 Going granular: 100+ small deals a year 07:29 What debt underwriting teaches a net lease buyer 10:21 Analyst to MD: how the job changes 12:47 Running investments at a public REIT 14:13 Capital chasing deals, or deals chasing capital? 16:22 The 102 property, $268M veterinary portfolio 19:26 Why FCPT was the natural buyer 20:11 Diversification versus a high quality portfolio 22:35 All cash, unsecured, no mortgage debt 24:56 AI in 2026: still a tool, humans decide 26:28 What would change Joshua's mind on AI 28:55 Where AI has and hasn't transformed the work 31:11 Hiring AI-fluent talent out of college 32:47 Adopting AI as a public company 35:59 The real prize: a queryable deal database 38:20 Advice for a net lease shop starting with AI 40:35 Career advice in a post-AI era 45:00 Rapid fire: best pass, parking spaces, Popeyes, NYC You can follow Joshua Zhang here: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-zhang-re?utmsource=sharevia&utmcontent=profile&utmmedium=memberios Learn more about FCPT: Website - https://fcpt.com Follow the host, Ricardo Chamorro here: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardo-chamorro-941021103/
Oct 9

Big Bets Reshaping Chicago Real Estate with Dhruv Bhasu

A credit trained investor is making a $3.8 billion district pencil on 48 acres of Chicago lakefront, and he is doing it inside a 20 person shop that leans on AI harder than most institutions ever will. Dhruv Basu, Director, Investments at Farpoint Development, came to development through fixed income at Goldman Sachs, a stint on Mayor Ben McAdams' housing council in Salt Lake County, and Chicago Booth. He talks with Ricardo Chamorro about opportunity cost, the Michael Reese site, repositioning on the Magnificent Mile, and where he draws the line on what AI touches. Chapters: 00:00 Lean into it before the bear catches you 00:35 What The Memo is 01:09 Meet Dhruv Basu and the Farpoint 48 acre district 01:52 From accounting to Goldman to development 02:40 Salt Lake housing council and buying a shopping center 04:59 What a credit brain sees that developers miss 06:34 The five eggs and opportunity cost 07:24 What Booth taught about the time value of time 08:07 Inside the 48 acre Bronzeville site 09:42 Managing city, community, and equity stakeholders 10:23 How a 20 person team splits the work 12:40 Repositioning on the Magnificent Mile 15:53 What outsiders get wrong about Chicago 17:21 Technology then versus now in development 19:20 Is AI a bigger wave than everything else 21:00 Where AI unlocks hours in a lean shop 23:22 Why lean shops move faster than institutions 25:43 Running alongside the beast, not fighting it 26:53 A foundation settlement example 28:20 Why a beast and not a rocket ship 29:59 Will AI ever replace judgment 31:42 What Dhruv hands over and what he won't 34:10 The risk of the gap getting wider 35:43 Would he take the same path again 37:23 Chicago, no regrets 38:09 Advice for someone starting out in 2026 40:17 The one AI move to make this year 41:58 Rapid fire You can follow Dhruv Basu here: LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/dhruv-basu-48479562 Learn more about Farpoint Development: Website - https://farpointdev.com
Sep 25

Making Housing Affordable with Michael Behot

Affordable housing operators work the expense side of the statement because their income is capped, while market rate teams fight for every tenant on the income side. Michael Behot has run both books. As VP of Asset Management at RPM Development Group in Montclair, New Jersey, he moved from institutional market rate work at Heritage Capital Group and Castle Lanterra into regulated affordable housing, so he can say where AI already earns its keep in accounting and billing, where it fails on compliance, and why the local data that never got built by hand in 2012 is now within reach. Chapters: 00:00 Two sides of the same business 01:00 From DC development to affordable housing in New Jersey 02:44 What an asset manager does all day 04:36 Moving from good to excellent at the job 05:18 Why equilibrium matters more in affordable housing 06:35 What each side gets wrong about the other 08:41 RPM's in-house model and its tradeoffs 10:34 Specialized knowledge of subsidy programs 11:17 Old buildings given a second life 13:20 LIHTC versus Section 8, explained 16:40 What separates a building that runs well from one that doesn't 17:56 Finding and keeping great site staff 18:33 What RPM has tried with AI so far 21:21 The gap between AI ideas and implementation 22:42 Will AI widen the gap between big and small firms 24:00 Why AI usage clusters in leasing and resident communications 26:42 The compliance problem AI has to get perfect 28:34 The data side and building a property income database 34:08 What would actually unlock more affordable housing 36:53 AI, faster approvals, and cutting red tape 40:17 Reaching residents and one-off affordable units 41:00 Rapid fire: strange buildings and career advice You can follow Michael Behot here: LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/michael-behot-6aa28017 Learn more about RPM Development Group: Website - https://rpmdev.com
Sep 11

Smelling the Gunpowder with Mark Conroe

AI can translate a 90 page Spanish contract in three minutes, then tell you to hire a lawyer anyway. Mark Conroe, Managing Partner and Founder of Presidio Development Partners, has spent 40 years developing apartments, hotels, office, and retail across the Bay Area, building Cisco's and Adobe's first campuses and running two national companies before starting his own firm. He tells Ricardo Chamorro where AI gets him fast, where it sends him down dry holes, and why the last mile still runs on wisdom, experience, and knowing how to read a room. Chapters: 00:00 The next lifetime: gratitude and coming back to the start 01:20 Meet Mark Conroe: 40 years of Bay Area development 02:10 From Stanford engineering to real estate, and Silicon Valley before the name 03:44 Why real estate is slow to adopt new technology 04:35 Building Cisco's and Adobe's first campuses 05:51 Comparing development in Boise and San Francisco 06:46 The technology waves that changed the work: calculators, cell phones, email 08:20 Recorded meetings, litigation, and letting AI into everything 09:57 Handwritten spreadsheets and hidden errors 10:43 The Baja land deal: 90 pages of Spanish and the lawyer he still hired 12:19 The last mile problem: getting to 8 out of 10 13:03 Backcasting a dock approval to test how AI thinks 14:54 Average answers versus the exception, and smelling opportunity 16:10 Can the next generation earn wisdom AI can't give them? 17:10 Who gets supercharged and which jobs stay human 18:52 Where Mark finds the most time savings day to day 20:12 The chainsaw joke: integration and implementation 21:52 Going paperless first, and cutting off hundreds of vendors 23:19 San Francisco's boom and bust economy 25:02 Living through the downturns since 1985 28:04 Why the last San Francisco crash was self induced 29:45 Starting Presidio Development Partners and the entrepreneurial itch 33:09 The cultural shift toward entrepreneurship 35:16 What Mark would tell a 25 year old starting today 39:28 Catching the apple before it hits the ground 41:21 Data centers, taking a position, and playing the long game 43:41 A contrarian AI take for firms that want to go paperless again 45:58 Smelling the roses versus smelling the gunpowder 47:22 The balancing act: check the work or fall behind your peers 49:10 The fastest way to get fired: handing off raw AI output 51:44 The next lifetime and what still brings Mark back to the table Learn more about Presidio Development Partners: Website - https://presidiodp.com

4 Episodes

The inside memo on how commercial real estate is actually adopting AI. Each week, we talk with the owners, operators, lenders, brokers, developers, and technology leaders turning AI from boardroom discussion into business process. From leasing and asset management to acquisitions, property operations, credit, construction, and investor reporting, we unpack what’s working, what’s changed, and what CRE still won’t trust AI to touch.

Creator

Ricardo Chamorro
Years Active

2026
Episodes

4
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Examen Inc. 2026
Show Website

The Memo