Fourth Annual Real Estate Private Equity Summit

December 14, 2016

Recently EisnerAmper’s Real Estate group hosted the Fourth Annual Real Estate Private Equity Summit. The event brought developers, investors, owners and operators together at Pier 60 in New York City to discuss what’s happening on the real estate front. In this brief video we get a great cross-section of what the audience thinks about joint ventures, investment capital and the future of the market.

Transcript

Kenneth Weissenberg: This was our fourth annual EisnerAmper Real Estate Summit. We had incredible speakers. We had incredible people in the audience. We bring together people who are both developing properties, investing in properties, lending to properties, servicing properties. I wouldn't be surprised if there were multiple transactions that had their roots in this building today during our conference.

Paul J. Massey: Investments that make the most sense, our value add projects where we can rehab, release re-tenant a property, and that's really where the action is.

Daren Hornig: I think the market's going to start moving more towards stabilized cash flow deals that you can underwrite and get flexible debt that you get some yield, but you may not get the pop you wanted before.

Joseph W. DeMatteo: Tertiary markets are going to maybe have some higher returns, but higher risks and maybe a little bit longer term of view. What's going to impact the market going forward are going to be interest rates and how that's going to interact with valuation and cap rates.

Kathy Anderson: Everybody's trying to get ready for the next wave of where they're going to find their money from.

Paul J. Massey:I think investors are going to put their money in multifamily housing, with such a lack of all kinds of housing.

Daren Hornig: I think without a doubt, the election's going to have some influence. When you really look at financing deals, typically we used to look at 60 to 70 percent leverage. Now it's being pushed back to 50 percent, if you could even get the debt.

Thomas V. Bermingham: Choosing the right partner is the most important thing to a joint venture. You really need to understand the goals and objectives of the partner in the investment you're choosing, as well as the aspirations of the fund managers.

Joseph W. DeMatteo:Ethics, trust, market knowledge, execution capability.

Gary S. Master: Real estate execution is key. The key to successful joint venture is trust.

Daren Hornig:I'd rather compromise for trust and relationship more than anything else.

Paul J. Massey:A key to a successful joint venture is aligning interests of all the parties.

Frederic Leffel:To capital partner, there are obvious things, the term, the duration of the investment, the investment returns.

Amy D. Sole: An understanding and synergy and trust with your partner.

Todd Hankin: There has to be two winners, not a winner and a loser.

Lisa Knee:This is not a New York conference, this is our national conference. You have a lot of foreign capital that needs to park it somewhere.

Conlyn Chan:Foreign buyers, they're still coming in and see US as a major market for putting some of your capital versus other markets.

Sam Natapoff: We’re still feeling and we haven't felt the full brunt of Brexit for the values of a London real estate. London real estate has dropped an estimated 15 to 20 percent in the last three months. International real estate investors, both personal and institutional, are much more interested in New York City as a stable high value market. And with the weak dollar it’s a really interesting place for them to be here. They can speculate both on the real estate side and on the currency side.

About Kenneth Weissenberg

Kenneth Weissenberg CPA, Tax Partner in Real Estate Services, is experienced in tax saving strategies and negotiating sales and acquisitions. He represents owners of some of the most well-known real estate properties in New York City.

About Lisa Knee

Lisa Knee is a Tax Partner and National leader of the firm's Real Estate practice and the National Real Estate Private Equity Group with expertise in the hotel, real estate, financial services, aviation and restaurant sectors and is a member of AICPA, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Bar Association.

Have Questions or Comments?

If you have any questions, we'd like to hear from you.

More in This Series

What are the trends in real estate investing?

Panelists share leading trends in the industry, including the reallocation from stocks and bonds to real estate assets as well as the evolution of foreign investment and the institutional investor's development of risk.

What opportunities are in debt structure products across the capital stack?

With the economy in an active investment phase in debt and restructured products across the capital stack, panelists discuss opportunities they see, including transitional assets, different geographies, and non-traditional banking resources.

What is your outlook on New York City?

Panelists describe their outlook on New York and other gateway cities, looking across geographies, asset classes, and property types, as well as slowing job growth or just continued modest growth in general and retail and residential vacancies.

What do your future investments look like?

EisnerAmper Partner Lisa Knee asks the panel what their investors are looking for, the tools their investors are using to evaluate the market, the balance of supply and demand in real estate, and how they are planning the real estate cycle.

Bringing foreign capital to the US

Panelists discuss the process of bringing in foreign capital, the criteria that foreign investors look to in U.S. properties, and what kind of investments they are looking to make.

Are we in a correction? How long is it going to last?

EisnerAmper Real Estate Private Equity Summit panelists Kenneth Weissenberg, Jonathan Kaufman Iger, Leslie Himmel and Phil Watkins discuss whether the market is in a period of correction, and what’s ahead for vacancies and pricing.

What are the key buying and selling trends?

With a slight decrease in sales volume and a slowdown in the land market, Real Estate Services Partner Lisa Knee asks panelists to share the key buying and selling trends on the horizon, including insights on residential product.

How are Brexit 421A & EB-5 going to impact foreign investment in the US real estate market?

Panelists discuss the impact of Brexit, 421A and EB-5 on foreign investment in the United States, and the effects of that capital on development in gateway cities - there's a strong trend of non-US capital continuing to come and invest in the US.

Where are you getting your capital from? Is it more difficult today?

Real Estate Services Chair Ken Weissenberg speaks with panelists on the topic of where capital is coming from in today’s market, how accessible it is for new projects, and the reality of debt and equity chasing real estate.