The connection between infrastructure investment and real estate development cannot be overemphasized. The quality and location of infrastructure systems including utilities, transportation and telecommunications are major factors shaping real estate investment and development decisions in cities in the United States and worldwide.

Institutional real estate investment management is adapting to a new reality. Powerful artificial intelligence (AI) tools are now accessible to everyone and are beginning to transform the way we work. However, adoption rates in real estate are highly uneven. In some areas, AI tools are being used to drive efficiencies, but broader, strategic deployment is limited.

It has been more than three decades since I first began my commercial real estate career leasing, managing and investing in student housing while I attended the University of Texas at Austin, generally considered the birthplace of modern student housing, and I am convinced that during all those years, the industry never saw as much attention as it is seeing today.

Real estate and infrastructure investors seek stable, cash-flowing assets within resilient markets that benefit from secular tailwinds and growth potential. Cold storage investments check many boxes for both investor types.

If the real estate investment industry is engaged in a culture war, then the analysis you are about to read might prove to be unpopular with one side or — more likely, both sides of it.

Despite uncertainties about the economy, net absorption of office space in first quarter 2025 was positive for a fourth consecutive quarter, and demand is projected to continue to grow for the rest of the year, according to the NAIOP Research Foundation’s Office Space Demand Forecast.

Manulife US Real Estate Investment Trust (MUST) has agreed to sell Peachtree, a 28-story class A office building in Atlanta, to an unrelated third-party purchaser for a gross price of $133.8 million.

Oxford Properties Group and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) have closed on a transaction where Oxford will acquire CPP Investments’ 50 percent interest in a portfolio of high-quality office properties in Western Canada for C$730 million ($532 million).

Mapletree Investments has acquired an 18.11-acre site on Vetter Road in Joliet, Ill., where it plans to develop a premier logistics facility spanning 276,000 square feet.

For the first time in 16 quarters, more retail space is being vacated than is being occupied/leased, with negative net absorption of 2.7 million square feet, according to JLL’s first quarter retail outlook.

Cohen & Steers, in partnership with IDR Investment Management, has launched an innovative real estate strategy designed to tactically allocate to both listed real estate securities and core private real estate in a single portfolio.

JLL Capital Markets has arranged $231 million in financing for a 43-property industrial outdoor storage (IOS) portfolio totaling 293 acres across 13 states.

Blue Owl Capital managed funds, Chirisa Technology Parks (CTP) and PowerHouse Data Centers have closed on a $750 million transaction in their development joint venture.

Debt origination in first quarter 2025 outperformed first quarter 2024 across all property types, according to Newmark’s first quarter 2025 State of the U.S. Capital Markets report.

Corebridge Real Estate Investors (CREI) announced the recapitalization of a joint venture with a gross asset value of $670 million.

BlackChamber Real Estate Opportunity Fund II, an opportunistic real estate fund focused on the development of hyperscale data centers in the United States, has held a final close.

The Investment Advisory Council of Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds (CRPTF) has committed $200 million to Artemis Real Estate Partners Healthcare Fund III, a private real estate fund managed by Artemis Real Estate Partners.

The real estate investment management industry represents several trillion dollars in assets under management globally, according to the IRE.IQ Real Estate Managers Guide, released May 29, 2025.