Conversations with the Best Minds in Real Estate
Best Minds: RCLCO CEOs Review the Trends that Defined 2021
In this special end-of-year edition of Conversations with the Best Minds in Real Estate, Chief Executive Officer of RCLCO Fund Advisors, Taylor Mammen, speaks with Adam Ducker, Chief Executive Officer of RCLCO, about the state of the market, how RCLCO is helping clients respond, and what real estate practitioners can expect for 2022.
The CEOs discuss how real estate organizations with conviction in their strategy are acting decisively to achieve their goals and how global investor appetites, increasing liquidity, and the institutionalization of once “niche” property types will continue to drive demand in both the capital and property markets. They review the emergence of single-family rental as an asset class, growing investor interest in ESG principles, and the other trends that shaped this year.
“Those companies who are able to figure out how to invest time and dollars today to look around the corner and identify the risks to their existing business and the opportunities that exist in close proximity to them are going to be those that survive and thrive throughout this cycle” – Taylor Mammen
“Rental housing meant one thing twenty-five years ago and now we think there are about eight to ten sub-asset types of rental housing.” – Adam Ducker
About Adam Ducker, RCLCO, & Taylor Mammen, RCLCO Fund Advisors
Adam Ducker is Chief Executive Officer of RCLCO and oversees the firm’s real estate economics and management consulting services. Adam joined RCLCO in the mid-1990s as an associate directly after graduate school and learned the trade with the firm. He is a recognized expert in strategic planning for real estate companies, investment analysis, market and financial analysis, and marketing of real estate assets. He has a particular depth of expertise in high-density housing, sports and entertainment districts, and hotel development.
RCLCO is proud to be the “first call” for real estate developers, investors, the public sector, and non-real estate organizations seeking strategic and tactical advice regarding property investment, planning, and development. RCLCO leverages quantitative analytics and a strategic planning framework to provide end-to-end business planning and implementation solutions at an entity, portfolio, or project level.
Taylor Mammen is Chief Executive Officer of RCLCO Fund Advisors (RFA). Taylor helped pioneer this business beginning in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, when several prominent pension funds turned to RFA with the goal to construct better performing and more resilient real estate portfolios, and has grown it to become a highly respected institutional real estate advisor, working with some of the largest and most dynamic institutional investors in the world. In the process, Taylor and RFA have sourced, underwritten, and overseen investments on behalf of clients well in excess of $10 billion. Taylor leads the firm’s institutional investor client relationships and is responsible for the firm’s growth and development, in addition to serving on the boards of clients’ portfolio companies.
Established in 2011 and an SEC Registered Investment Advisor since 2014, RFA (an affiliate business of RCLCO) advises institutional investors on real estate investments through its analytical rigor, highly customized client-centric service, and impassioned search for alignment. RFA’s diverse and experienced team offers a differentiated approach to real estate investing to address the unique challenges faced by institutional investors through its focus on demand-driven investing, real estate operations, and partnership alignment.
Topics in this episode include:
- How COVID infections, vaccines, and policy responses have driven and defined the last 20 months in real estate markets and investment opportunities, including the shift towards working from home and increasing travel volume (3:30)
- How lessons learned from the Great Financial Crisis have changed throughout the COVID era (5:00)
- The performance of the hospitality sector as an example of the lack of widespread opportunities for taking advantage of distressed real estate assets (6:00)
- Demand continues to drive the real estate market, as seen in the industrial sector (8:00)
- How real estate organizations with conviction in their strategy are acting quickly and decisively to achieve their goals and succeed in the market (10:00)
- Increasing interest in development for trending product types and geographies (11:00)
- The limitations being created by supply chain disruptions within markets where demand is already high (12:00)
- Problematizing the real estate cycle framework – does it still work in an era when capital markets fuel demand regardless of property market performance? (14:25)
- Re-evaluating the conventional wisdom that markets will always “revert to the mean” of normalcy (20:06)
- Establishing new analytical frameworks to understand why real estate organizations focus on buying assets while often ignoring the question of selling assets (24:21)
- The trends driving changes in capital flows and how those changes will impact performance in 2022 (26:00)
- How global investor appetites, increasing liquidity, and the institutionalization of once “niche” property types will continue to drive demand in both the capital and property markets (26:59)
- Single-family rental as an emerging asset class (30:10)
- How investor focus on ESG is playing out in the markets (31:15)