April 18th, 2024

Return and Recovery: The Future of Office as an Asset Class

When: April 18th 2024 | 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Where: Georgetown University McDonough School of Business
RSVP: RSVP

The Steers Center for Global Real Estate presents 2024 Real Estate Luminaries

Panel discussion to begin at 5 p.m. ET

Keynote to begin at 6 p.m. ET

Reception to follow at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business

Keynote Conversation:

Return and Recovery: The Future of Office as an Asset Class

with Scott Rechler, CEO and Chairman of RXR

Panel Discussion:

Emerging Opportunities in Commercial Real Estate Private Credit

Scott Rechler is the CEO and chairman of RXR, an innovative investor, developer, and place-maker committed to applying a customer and community-centered approach to all aspects of its business. Before starting RXR, Rechler served as the CEO and chairman of Reckson Associates, which he helped take public in 1995. Since its founding in 2007, RXR has raised over $10 billion of private equity through a series of funds and separate account vehicles and built an over 500-person, fully-integrated team of professionals, managing over 30 million square feet of commercial properties with a gross asset value of $21.2 billion.

Rechler also served on the Board of American Campus Communities (NASDAQ:ACC) after Reckson took a controlling interest in the company in 1998 and later took the company public in 2004, which became the largest student housing company in the United States. He has held numerous leadership positions at various levels of government, including roles on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Board of Commissioners as vice chairman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and on the board of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Rechler has also served on numerous boards and nonprofits, including as chair of the Regional Plan Association, a not-for-profit organization focused on the quality of life and the economic competitiveness of the New York Tri-State metropolitan area, as trustee and vice chair of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, among many other memberships.

Rechler is a graduate of Clark University and the New York University Schack Institute.

Timothy Johnson is the global head of Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies based in New York. Johnson is involved in sourcing, underwriting, negotiating, and structuring debt investments across all asset types and geographies. Before joining Blackstone in 2011, Johnson was a co-founder of BroadPeak Funding, a boutique commercial real estate finance company based in Los Angeles. Prior to founding BroadPeak, Johnson was a vice president in the Lehman Brothers Global Commercial Real Estate Group where he worked from 2002-2008. Johnson received a B.A. in mathematics from the College of the Holy Cross where he graduated cum laude.

Neha Santiago is head of real estate private credit and managing director of Cerberus Capital Management. Prior to joining Cerberus in 2020, Santiago spent eight years at Goldman Sachs, where she was a managing director in the Real Estate Principal Investment Area, investing both in private equity and debt. While at Goldman Sachs, she oversaw the firm’s investment strategy in the Midwest, Texas, and South Florida. Santiago began her real estate investing career in 2003 as a real estate banking analyst at Merrill Lynch and held principal investing positions at Lehman Brothers, Scout Real Estate Capital, and H/2 Capital.

Santiago graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University and received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is on the board of directors at SparkYouth, an organization supporting emerging youth-development programs in New York City, and a member of the Cornell University Dyson Advisory Council.

Peter Smith most recently served as the chief investment officer of TPG Real Estate Finance where he established the debt origination platform that closed more than $17 billion in real estate financings. Smith has more than 30 years of commercial debt financing experience including transitional loans, mezzanine, conduit, recapitalizations, and loan portfolio acquisitions. Previously, Smith has held senior positions at Ladder Capital, UBS, and Credit Suisse/First Boston. Smith graduated from the University of Michigan and briefly worked as a substandard public accountant after graduation.

Return and Recovery: The Future of Office as an Asset Class

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