The MBA Real Estate Program at Columbia owes its beginning to Benjamin H. Schore, 85, who died in Hanover, New Hampshire on August 12, 2020. A 1959 graduate of Columbia Business School, Ben worked tirelessly to implement his vision for a graduate program in real estate within the MBA program. From 1977 to 1991, he served as an adjunct professor, creating one of the first-ever graduate courses in international real estate and another in real estate capital markets. He attracted outstanding professionals to bring practical wisdom into the classroom, developed teaching cases, and financially supported his vision of professionalizing the study of commercial real estate. With fellow Columbia MBA grad and business partner, Earle Kazis, he created the Business School’s first chair in Real Estate, initially held by Professor Lynne Sagalyn, whom he attracted to Columbia to build the MBA Real Estate Program, and now held by Professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh.

Schore enjoyed a multi-disciplined career within real estate: He was a mortgage banker, real estate developer, and real estate investor, in addition to being an educator. And he was a philanthropist. Besides his passion for real estate, Ben was deeply engaged with the visual and performing arts, in Boston and in Hanover. He grew up outside of Boston, and knowing that he had to support himself and save for his college education, he formed the Ben Schore Orchestra while still in high school and continued with it while at Brandeis and Columbia. In retirement, Ben made it his mission to award grants to young creative artists and musicians throughout New England

It is with deep sadness that I pass along this notice of Ben’s passing. He was a wonderful and generous person who made a real difference in many spheres of interest.

Lynne B. Sagalyn
Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor Emerita of Real Estate
October 30, 2020

Here is what your fellow Columbia Business School Real Estate Alumni have been doing recently. If you don’t see your news mentioned, please let us know.

Market Opportunities are Here, But We’re in for a Long Winter
Amherst Capital Management is also “sticking to [its] knitting,” Abbe Franchot Borok, head of investment management, CRE & Debt Strategies at Amherst, said. “We’re backing well-capitalized sponsors with the ability to stand behind assets. Then, we’re keeping leverage moderate, our average has always been 65 percent and we’re continuing to approach our lending activity in that way. We’re active in the market, and finding senior transitional loans that make sense—we’re just being careful in our underwriting.”

CIBC Lends $56M on Chicago-Area Industrial Portfolio Acquisition
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) has provided $55.8 million in acquisition debt to a joint venture between Investcorp International Realty and Brennan Investment Group for its purchase of a portfolio of industrial properties located in the Chicago area, Commercial Observer has learned. Cushman & Wakefield’s Jeff Altenau, Gideon Gil and Zach Yarnoff represented the buyers in sourcing and arranging the debt financing.

Life, Camera, Action!: Panelists Discuss the Intricacies of Today’s Hot Investments
The life science sector was important enough to convince Jeff Fastov, the senior managing director of credit strategies at Square Mile Capital Management, to take his first plane ride post-COVID. Amid a global pandemic, Fastov journeyed to Cambridge, Mass., to do a site inspection on one of the life science deals that Square Mile is currently in the middle of. The lender recently originated a $434 million construction loan to finance the second phase of the Cambridge Crossing master-planned development, being created by DivcoWest in East Cambridge.

 Jeffrey Mandel, the co-head of U.S. acquisitions for New York City at Tishman Speyer, pointed to some of the nuances of the [life science] space. “There are all these unique features and expertise sets that go along with [this investment]. There’s the building infrastructure, there’s also the perspective of space users and what their needs are,” Mandel said. “Being on the side of the company and the innovator, and being in a position to work with them and support them in what their ambitions are, and to be a partner to them is critical. We try to do that in all of our business lines, but when you’re talking about experiments and science, there isn’t a notion that you can take a beat and then turn the power back on and it’s just as it was before. There’s blocking and tackling, and the higher level support of creating ecosystems and environments where innovation and science can be their best.”

Anchor Health Acquires Temecula MOB’s
Anchor’s James Schmid says, “We are very pleased to be able to grow our presence as the largest private owner of MOBs in San Diego as we continue to add scale in one of Anchor’s largest focus markets for investment and development in the United States.”

Anchor Health Properties Acquires Desirable Asset Portfolio in Prominent Healthcare Corridor
Anchor’s Chief Investment Officer James Schmid shared, “This is an asset situated for continued success in Western Tennessee—a large growth market for Anchor with our regional operational hub positioned in Nashville. The assets’ proven ownership and reputable tenant mix benefit from close proximity to multiple area hospitals. Driven by the desire to deliver better healthcare through real estate solutions, Anchor’s investment team supports our client’s goal of providing excellent care through patient and physician-centric spaces. In this vein, we are thrilled to commence our long-term relationship with Trumbull Labs and other best in class tenants in a unique property that proudly serves the surrounding community.”

Plymouth Industrial REIT Forms $150 Million Equity Joint Venture with Madison International Realty
Ronald Dickerman, President of Madison International Realty, added, “We continue to be enthusiastic about our growing partnership with Plymouth. This new venture allows us to jointly target attractive industrial opportunities given the very positive supply/demand fundamentals and return potential.”

“Madison is excited to further our holistic support of Plymouth’s business, which began with our convertible preferred investment in 2018 and participation in subsequent common equity follow on offerings,” noted Kyle Torpey of Madison’s US Investments team.

Aloha, Compass: Brokerage Expands to Hawaii
The brokerage said it’s expanding to Hawaii, where it has brought on 14 agents in O’ahu, Maui, Kaua’i and the Big Island. Collectively, the agents and their teams sold $350 million worth of real estate last year, Compass said. The push to expand to the Aloha state came from Compass agents, CEO Robert Reffkin said in a statement. In doing so, the 18,000-agent firm hopes to strengthen its national referral network.

Southeast Denver Industrial Building Fully Leased
“With our recent acquisition of 14800 Grasslands Drive we were hyper focused on converting the strong industrial demand to obtain 100 percent occupancy. Executing one of the largest industrial deals this calendar year is a testament to the hard work, forward thinking, and strategic outlook of the whole team,” said Regina Lubin, CWCapital’s chief investment officer. “We could not be happier in welcoming Zynex, Inc. to Compark Business Campus.”

Fighting Climate Change, One Building at a Time
When Donnel Baird was in his 20s, he had twin passions, and he didn’t want to choose between them. “I vowed that I was going to try to combine my passion for Black civil rights with trying to do something about climate change,” he says. He's doing it now, with a company that he founded called BlocPower. He’s attacking one of the seemingly intractable sources of America’s greenhouse emissions: old residential buildings. And he’s focusing on neighborhoods that don't have a lot of money to invest.

Soma Capital Partners Together with Atlas Real Estate Partners Completes Business Plan on Automation Parkway with Vacant Building Disposition
Arvind Chary, Principal with Atlas, added, “We viewed this as an opportune time to exit given the successful sale of 1704 Automation and risk-return trade-off with the vacant lease-up. 1710 Automation is an excellent piece of real estate, and the industrial sector is a bright spot in a challenging environment.”

Three Factors Impacting Brooklyn’s Future (byline)
The pandemic has accelerated all trends. That applies to Amazon's home deliveries becoming crucial, Zoom'’ services becoming part of everyday life, or work from home making clothing brands like Lululemon evermore popular. This applies to real estate trends as well. Despite a mass exodus from cities to the suburbs all over the nation—which will eventually reverse—some neighborhoods in cities have fared much better than others since Covid-19 hit the United States in March.

Greystone Originates $289M Freddie Mac Refi on BLDG’s Midtown Resi Tower
Greystone Capital Advisors’ Drew Fletcher, Matthew Klauer and Cassandra Connolly helped to facilitate the financing on behalf of BLDG, alongside Greystone’s Jeff Englund, Scott Wallace and Chris Phillips, from the firm’s affordable housing lending group, as well as Freddie Mac production manager Naureen Versi. Greystone was also involved in arranging the construction financing in 2015, Fletcher said.

South Jersey Real Estate Investment Firm Closes on Cash Out Refinance Amidst Pandemic
“The closing of this transaction represents a pivotal point in my company's growth path,” said Adam Cohen, Managing Partner of Darwin Capital Management Group. “This infusion of liquidity allows us to further execute on our business model and expand into new areas, specifically the ground-up development of high-quality housing options in and around South Jersey.”

Naftali Group’s David Hochfelder To Lead Firm’s Lending Arm, Promoted to CIO
Naftali Group’s David Hochfelder, the firm’s former executive vice president and head of acquisitions, is taking over as the firm’s new Chief Investments Officer, Commercial Observer has learned. As CIO, Hochfelder will lead the firm’s lending arm Naftali Credit Partners—a debt fund that invests in mezzanine debt positions mostly on transitional assets—and he will also spearhead acquisitions, recruit new investors and manage investor relations, as per information from Naftali.

WX Experts Talk Return-to-Work Challenges
Organized by Jane Yang, director—investments at Meadow Partners, and Adriana de Alcantara, senior managing director—fund management at Hines, the conversation focused on the innovative and effective strategies that landlords are implementing in response to the pandemic, how major office users and their workforces are navigating in their new work environments and the biggest re-opening related issues for policymakers.

Welltower Appoints Shankh Mitra Chief Executive Officer
Welltower Inc. today announced that Shankh Mitra has been appointed Chief Executive Officer and will join the Board of Directors, effective October 5, 2020. Mr. Mitra, who has been serving as Vice Chair, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Investment Officer, succeeds Thomas J. DeRosa, who is stepping down as Chairman and CEO after leading Welltower for more than six years. Mr. Mitra will retain his CIO title and continue to lead Welltower’s data analytics-driven capital allocation and operator relationships.

Industrial Player Continues Shopping Spree In Hot East Bay
“This building is really the culmination of the last 24 months of work we’ve done in this market,” CenterPoint Vice President of Investments Greg Pearson said.

Plans Call for Overhauling Cary Towne Center with a New Look and a New Name
“It’s really going to be a full redevelopment and a full reimagining,” said Jason Davis, the managing principal of the developer Turnbridge Equities. “It’s mixed-use experience that is walkable, is outdoors and provides different types of spaces for events, meetings, for passive recreation and active recreation.”

MSCI Expands Emerging Market Presence With Brazil Property Index
“We’ve been investing in real estate in Brazil for well over a decade now, and Brazil as a whole for nearly 25 years, but it has been hard to truly assess our performance in the market without consistent and reliable benchmarks. A tool like this will help us evaluate whether or not we actually are generating alpha,” added Adam Gallistel, Managing Director and Head of Americas Real Estate with GIC. “Indexes provide transparency into any given market and that transparency inherently attracts capital. As a long-term investor in Brazil, we were happy to go on this journey with MSCI that we believe will ultimately help attract further investment into the Brazilian ecosystem.”

The Davis Companies Completes Fundraising for Fourth Fund
Quentin Reynolds, Davis Companies CIO, added, “We will be patient in deploying capital but are ready to invest as we identify compelling opportunities. Within our target markets, we remain hyper-focused on investments in life science, industrial, self-storage and multifamily properties. We also see opportunities to take advantage of distress, primarily through debt investments, where we have a long and successful track record.”