MSt in Real Estate 2022–24 visit New York City

Last week, the 2022–24 cohort for the MSt in Real Estate took part in their fifth and final residential, a field trip to New York City. Their action-packed five-day programme included talks, presentations, and site tours delivered by industry leaders with experience and expertise in global real estate, real estate leadership, the New York City real estate market, affordable housing, the future of offices, retail and residential investing in the US, proptech, and private debt.

On Day 1, the group heard presentations from Ed Casal and Russ Bates, Managing Partners at ElmRidge Property Group LLC, Michael Spies, the founder of Fuse Strategies LLC, and Guy Johnston and Dave Eisenberg from Zigg Capital. They finished the day with a drinks reception at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, hosted by Jim Garman (Global Head of Real Estate) and his colleagues.

On Day 2, the group toured Archer Green, an affordable housing construction project in Jamaica, Queens, with Anna Weiss of Omni New York LLC. They met with Nick Bienstock (Co-Chairman and CEO) and his colleagues at Savanna for a presentation on the New York City real estate market and a tour of Savanna’s midtown assets, then attended a talk by Jamie Sholem, Partner in Real Estate at TPG.

On Day 3, the group was joined remotely by academics from CRERC and the Department of Land Economy for students’ dissertation presentations; this was an invaluable opportunity for students to gain feedback about their independent research projects from supervisors and peers. The afternoon and evening were occupied with a tour of Hudson Yards given by Rachel Morrison Montoya, Associate Director of Development at Oxford Properties Group, a talk by Marc Gurell, Partner in Real Estate at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, and drinks with friends, colleagues, and MSt alumni at The Tippler, Chelsea Market.

Day 4 involved another dissertation presentation session, followed by lunch and a site tour at Brooklyn Navy Yard, hosted by Ethan Mulligan (Director of Community and Governmental Affairs) and Sebastian Andersson (Project Manager, Real Estate Development) of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation.

On Day 5, the group met with Eleonora Bershadskaya from investment firm The Vistria Group, toured the Rockefeller Centre with EB Kelly, Kasey Colander, and Tara Nahai of Tishman Speyer, and dug into the details of Nuveen's strategies in New York with Kevin Luiten, Jinay Shah, and James Farrar at Nuveen Real Estate. Many of them rounded off the week with a trip to the Bronx to see the New York Yankees.

We are enormously grateful to all those who made time to speak with our MSt students during the course of the week. This was a stimulating and enriching residential, leaving the group with lots to think about as they head home and prepare to finish off their dissertations.