Fresh Investment Frontier
Commercial Observer
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Sources of new commercial real estate investment can be difficult to come by in today’s market, awash as it is in uncertainty. One new avenue toward fresh funds? High-net-worth (read: very wealthy) individuals. Read on for an interview with Clarion Partners’ Janet Souk Lee on the untapped potential of this investment source. Also for today: a major shakeup at a major investment sales and financing firm.
— Tom Acitelli, Deputy Editor
Clarion Partners' Janet Souk Lee On High-Net-Worth CRE Investors
Janet (Souk) Lee has a lot of explaining to do. And investors are listening. The managing director at Clarion Partners LLC rtners co-heads the firm’s opportunity zone fund and a non-traded real estate investment trust (REIT). She has flown throughout the country to pitch investment advisers on why their high-net-worth clients should invest in commercial real estate. In those pitches, she’s found herself explaining everything from the benefits of Clarion Partners’ funds to the definition of a mezzanine loan. As investors listen — and, more importantly, as interest rates stand poised to drop in the second half of 2024 — Lee expects high-net-worth investment in real estate to grow, particularly in the multifamily, industrial and life sciences sectors. (Office — that’s another story.)
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Ralph Herzka's Run Ends as Meridian Capital CEO
Ralph Herzka, who has led Meridian Capital Group since co-founding the brokerage firm in 1991, will be succeeded next month by new CEO Brian Brooks, a former acting controller of the currency and general counsel at Fannie Mae, the company announced Tuesday. Brooks, 54, will take the helm of Meridian in mid-April while Herzka, 61, will transition to the role of senior chairman focusing on expanding its lender and broker relationships. Brooks most recently was at law firm O'Melveny & Myers and from 2014 to 2018 was general counsel at Fannie Mae, where he led the overhaul of the government-sponsored enterprise’s corporate governance structure, Meridian said in a statement. "As we look to institutionalize Meridian as a world-class company and further diversify our revenues, there is no better steward of our future than Brian,” Herzka said in a statement.
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