134 episodes

AFIRE is the association for international real estate investors focused on commercial property in the United States. www.afire.org

The AFIRE Podcast AFIRE

    • Business
    • 4.5 • 8 Ratings

AFIRE is the association for international real estate investors focused on commercial property in the United States. www.afire.org

    What Climate Change Means for Real Estate Investors (Part 2)

    What Climate Change Means for Real Estate Investors (Part 2)

    On the tail end of the hottest year on human record, it’s clear that climate change is already here—and not slowing down. In the years ahead, the effects of climate change will pose real hardships for billions of people around the world.

    The challenge of climate change is clear, especially for real estate, as explained in the first of this special two-part series. Now, in this second and final entry of the latest AFIRE Podcast—inspired by the special climate change section featured in the most recent issue of AFIRE’s award-winning Summit Journal, and sponsored by the global ESG consultancy, AccountAbility—AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson and Summit Journal Editor-in-Chief Benjamin van Loon propose that climate change can also represent opportunity for forward-thinking investors.

    Climate migration will require new housing in resilient geographies, creating demand for fast and efficient construction methods. Extreme weather and other disasters will highlight the need for more robust building techniques. And an historically hotter world also could usher in carbon markets that use Web 3.0 to better reflect the actual cost of assets that contribute to global warming.

    (Watch the video version of this episode on the AFIRE YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Hxizapwf0&ab_channel=AFIRE)

    Featuring interviews with:
    Jacques Gordon, Executive in Residence, MIT Center for Real Estate
    Bob Geiger, Executive Director, Partner Engineering & Science
    Parag Khanna, Founder and CEO, Climate Alpha
    Zhengzhen Tan, Research Scientist, MIT Center for Real Estate

    • 19 min
    What Climate Change Means for Real Estate Investors (Part 1)

    What Climate Change Means for Real Estate Investors (Part 1)

    The year 2023 has been the hottest year in recent record—and it will likely be the coldest year for the rest of our lives.

    In the face of these record-breaking numbers and climate events, 2023 also proved to be a year that real estate investors lead the charge in confronting the constantly evolving challenges of climate change—including insurance rate hikes, migration and population changes, and the irrational implications derived from “the tragedy of the horizon.”

    In this, the first of a special two-part episode—inspired by the special climate change section featured in the most recent issue of AFIRE’s award-winning Summit Journal, and sponsored by the global ESG consultancy, AccountAbility—AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson and Summit Journal Editor-in-Chief Benjamin van Loon take viewers and listeners through a conversation with the industry’s top thought leaders to explore how investors can prepare for the impending intersection of climate change, global investment, and the future of real estate.

    (Watch the video version of this episode on the AFIRE YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWYO08tKnZA&ab_channel=AFIRE)

    Featuring interviews with (in order):
    Bob Geiger, Executive Director, Partner Engineering & Science
    Hans Nordby, Head of Research and Analytics, Lionstone Investments
    Jacques Gordon, Executive in Residence, MIT Center for Real Estate
    Parag Khanna, Founder and CEO, Climate Alpha

    • 20 min
    Office Plans (Anthony Malkin, Empire State Realty Trust)

    Office Plans (Anthony Malkin, Empire State Realty Trust)

    Despite the overwrought headlines and apocalyptic economic forecasts, office buildings still matter. At the same time, the use of office is changing and an increasing need for sustainability requires all office owners and developers to alter their approach.

    https://www.afire.org/podcast/202311cast/

    According to Anthony Malkin of Empire State Realty Trust, the altered approach won’t be easy or business-as-usual, but there is a compelling future.

    Office buildings matter, including the ones that are already built. The use of office is changing dramatically, and office owners are now required to alter their approach to the business. Sustainability and decreasing carbon is now a given. Flexibility for tenants no longer just part of a wish list.

    Anthony Malkin, President, Chairman, and CEO of Empire State Realty Trust, joins the AFIRE Podcast to discuss how, despite the overwrought headlines and challenge of changing existing office buildings to fit the times there is a compelling future, even if it isn’t easy or business-as-usual. As Malkin explains, if you can make it with the century-old Empire State Building, you can make it anywhere.

    • 39 min
    Empty Offices All Around (Edward Glaeser, Harvard University)

    Empty Offices All Around (Edward Glaeser, Harvard University)

    Every headline suggest that our cities are in serious trouble. How will that impact real estate investors, what can be done about it, and what is the future of our cities?

    https://www.afire.org/podcast/202310cast/

    In a recent op-ed for the New York Times, Ed Glaeser—the Fred & Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and Chair of the Department of Economics at Harvard University—wrote of the future of New York following the pandemic, stating: “The economic future of the city that never sleeps depends on embracing this shift from vocation to recreation and ensuring that New Yorkers with a wide range of talents want to spend their nights downtown, even if they are spending their days on Zoom. We are witnessing the dawn of a new kind of urban area: the Playground City.”

    Glaeser, the author of New York Times best-selling books Triumph of the City and Survival of the City, recently down with AFIRE Podcast host Gunnar Branson to discuss how the state of cities in America has changed dramatically and what leaders need to do now to face and overcome the challenges of today.

    • 45 min
    Multiple Futures (Mandi Wedin, Feroce Real Estate Advisors)

    Multiple Futures (Mandi Wedin, Feroce Real Estate Advisors)

    A range of fundamental change is forcing real estate investors to closely examine how, where, and why they are investing. The change is not complete and investors have to learn how to adapt even as they don’t have a clear formula for how it might be done.

    https://www.afire.org/podcast/202309cast/

    On this episode of the AFIRE Podcast, Mandi Wedin, Founder and CEO of Feroce Real Estate Advisors, draws on her experience growing up in Alaska to help investors learn a “frontier mentality” to navigate and thrive in an unpredictable environment.

    She sat down on May 5, 2023 with AFIRE CEO and podcast host Gunnar Branson to explore how leaders in real estate can surf the waves of change coming from ESG, Demographics, AI, and the Metaverse. Not unlike dealing with bears in the wild, preparation, flexibility, and acceptance are crucial to surviving and thriving the challenges to come.

    • 48 min
    What People Want (Hans Nordby, Lionstone Investments)

    What People Want (Hans Nordby, Lionstone Investments)

    Hans Nordby, the Head of Analytics and Research for Lionstone Investments, explains how demographic changes are transforming the construction, location, and value of commercial real estate across the board.

    https://www.afire.org/podcast/202308cast/

    The challenges of inflation, interest rates, and back to the office can be overwhelming, but changing demographic forces may be the biggest story of our time.

    How will downtowns like San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, DC recover from their considerable challenges? What will become of the preponderance of obsolete office buildings? How will people house themselves?

    It’s all changing in real time—and so is what people want.

    According to Nordby, mixed-use will generally outperform—because that’s what people want.

    He sat down on May 4, 2023 with AFIRE CEO and podcast host Gunnar Branson to discuss how real estate will navigate the waves of demographic change in the years ahead.

    • 39 min

Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5
8 Ratings

8 Ratings

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