Picture a vast expanse of land, unfurling under open skies. At first glance, it appears to be a humble stretch of earth, but the buzz of transmission towers and substations nearby signify electric promise. To the untrained eye, it may look like mere soil and grass, but to investors, it is a gold mine.

This is the third year of our series featuring interviews with women in the real estate industry. The women highlighted come from diverse roles and represent a wide range of ages, showcasing the variety of opportunities within the industry. These inspiring professionals highlight the nontechnical skills, such as communication, curiosity, adaptability and people awareness, that they view as critical to effectiveness. They describe how leadership matures over time, shifting away from individual execution toward developing people and building stronger organizations. They also reflect on how their definitions of success have evolved, placing greater value on trust, long-term impact and responsible stewardship of capital and people.

Institutional investors must treat technology not as an optional upgrade, but as critical investment infrastructure that enables better decisions and stronger performance. A thoughtful review of in-house technology solutions delivers clear benefits. Technology creates a common source of knowledge across the organization, ensuring teams are not working from conflicting datasets or outdated information. That consistency supports accuracy, particularly when data feeds into multiple workflows such as manager evaluation, due diligence and portfolio reporting. The right systems also improve timeliness. Faster access to information allows teams to respond to opportunities or risks while it still matters. Finally, digital workflows enable scale. Institutions can manage larger, more diverse portfolios with similar staffing levels while maintaining strong governance and attention to detail. These are not perks. They are central to fulfilling fiduciary responsibility.

Companies now pick headquarters (HQs) based on strategic impact rather than square footage and prestige. They ask whether the space will help attract talent, support operations and foster collaboration. Location counts for convenience and proximity to clients, but it is secondary to the value a space brings to business goals. In short, decision makers view HQs as more than a physical asset —they should enhance strategy.

U.S. office vacancy projections remain virtually unchanged in a revised forecast from CoStar.

Commercial real estate is entering the early stages of a new cycle — one defined less by broad-based recovery and more by widening dispersion across sectors and regions.

Brookfield Asset Management and Peakstone Realty Trust, an industrial REIT with a strategic focus on the industrial outdoor storage (IOS) sector, have entered into a definitive agreement under which a Brookfield private real estate fund would acquire all of the outstanding shares of Peakstone for $21 per share in cash. The all-cash transaction represents an implied enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion.

Arselle Investments and Amoroso Cos. have formed a multifamily platform to acquire up to $500 million in multifamily properties across major western U.S. markets during the next two to three years.

Institutional Real Estate, Inc.’s Visions, Insights & Perspectives (VIP) Americas conference in January 2026 opened with a focus on capital discipline, trust and widening market dispersion, as investors and managers gathered for three days of dialogue on the evolving state of global real estate.

Consumer behavior continues to fundamentally reshape retail real estate. In an interview with IREI, Katie Grissom, Nuveen’s global head of retail, describes a structural shift from brand-led retail to behavior-led ecosystems, arguing that habit, not loyalty, has become the dominant driver of performance.

In a sponsored interview published in the March issue of Institutional Real Estate Americas, Kayne Anderson’s Nishant Bakaya, senior managing director, investments, real estate, and Brian Lessans, managing director, investments, real estate, explain the stronger fundamentals and distinctive conditions that set light industrial apart from the broader sector, and reveal how Kayne Anderson is employing their characteristic hands-on investment strategy in the space, actively taking on operational challenges to seize the opportunity for long-term benefits.

In a sponsored Q&A published in the March issue of Institutional Real Estate Americas, Chad Burkhardt, head of strategic capital and managing director at CenterSquare Investment Management, explains the aims and origins of the company’s “Strategic Capital” group, which parlays their 35 years of public and private real estate market expertise into an opportunistic branch of the business focused on non-traditional capital needs in dynamic sectors.