Author: akaramon

Commercial Real Estate – Moving Towards a Collaborative Ecosystem

On June 8, 2021, in Downtown Los Angeles, Northwestern Capital Partners (NCP) hosted a small conference to discuss the confluence of real estate, technology, and mobility.  This hallmark event was a natural offshoot from NCP’s Real Estate Leadership Group (RELG)—a series of 17 meetings aimed at keeping leaders engaged and connected over the past year. The RELG companies include developers, architects, and designers.  Collectively, these companies manage over $5 trillion in real estate...

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Commercial Real Estate 2.0

Much as the economy may be experiencing a K-shaped rally, commercial real estate may exhibit the same uneven recovery. Our Real Estate Leadership Group (RELG), a diverse group of landlords, developers, architects, and technology firms, has spent considerable time over the past year discussing what Commercial Real Estate 2.0 may look like. In the face of competitive rents, tenants are looking to migrate to technology enabled buildings that provide digital amenities, clean air, transit and mobility,...

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The Shift to Non-Gateway Markets

In this time of unprecedented change caused by COVID-19, the commercial real estate industry has emerged with both “winners” and “losers” as sectors rush to adapt to reactive preference changes. Slow-moving trends and ideas that have long been speculated in the estate industry are suddenly coming to light with the instability of the market. In the months that have followed the spread of this global pandemic, we have experienced detrimental economic disruption – cities once deemed the most successful,...

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Women and Diversity in Real Estate, Mobility, and Technology

On August 8, 2020, we hosted our bi-monthly Real Estate Leadership Group (RELG) conference. We always strive to make the meetings informational and relevant to what is going on in the world of real estate, mobility, and technology, but this particular meeting was a vitally important and unique conversation. We focused on women and diversity in the real estate and technology industries. Our group regularly hosts some of the top women in the aforementioned industries, thus having them share their...

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Commercial Office Space

Commercial office space in New York (and elsewhere) continues to be hurt by people not returning to work, as people get used to working from home and they seek and relish safety. While some see technology as a bane to real estate (e.g. videoconferencing in place of meetings), technology will be an enabler of bringing employees back to the office. Tools such as touchless parking/autonomous valet, healthcare access, tenant monitoring, flexible hours, and fostering individual modes of transit...

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Real Estate Leadership Group 6-26-20

On June 26th, we had another installment of our Real Estate Group, where leading developers, architects, technology companies, and others talk about the future of real estate, architecture, urban planning, and technology. Three top developers and architects – The Related Companies, Gensler, and Perkins&Will, presented ideas and projects that are transforming the meaning of community. They focused on how we can enhance, repurpose, and bring to life to communities and the people who...

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Leadership Group

The future is looking increasingly complicated for landlords, developers, architects, employers, and employees.  We need innovative thought leaders working together to determine what the future of “work” will look like, and that is exactly what Mark Arizmendi of Northwestern Capital Partners, Dylan Jones of Gensler, and Compie Newman of CBRE have set out to do.  Semi-monthly, they convene a group of like-minded and accomplished professionals who are working together to help create what...

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Bond Spreads

Bond spreads are an important indicator of risk assessment.  We typically like to assess the spreads between rated corporate debt and the 10-year rate. With the risk-free rate (the 10-year coupon) already at rock bottom, and the market-risk spreads (the difference between the risk-free rate and the nominal rate of interest on bonds) historically low, this was driving the cost of debt capital to record lows.  When the coronavirus hit, the spreads jumped dramatically, by about 200...

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Coronavirus

The coronavirus is a black swan event but is pointing out several fundamental economic issues. First, even with the recent market selloff, the market is trading at historically high multiples. Second, the Fed is out of weapons – the Federal Funds rate is 1.75, the ten year is 0.52% – rates are rock bottom, and going lower won’t juice the economy. Monetary policy will have to give way to fiscal stimulus. Third, I believe we will see a widening spread between corporate debt...

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The Business Mountain

The journey to success can be long, arduous, and tough, but ultimately rewarding. Business can be like climbing a mountain – the view from the bottom – starting a project or a business – can be daunting. The last leg to the top may be the hardest part, as most of the long climbing is done, but as you get closer to the top, it’s steeper – competition is fierce. But, the view from the summit is always worth the work. The goal of Northwestern Capital is to provide...

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