PODCAST: Nadir Settles On Nuveen's Investment Playbook, Diverse Pipeline Of Talent

Bisnow's audio series, Bisnow Reports, examines every facet of the international commercial real estate industry — from the murky future of retail and office to real estate’s reckoning with diversity to the effects of climate change on the built world, and so much more. You can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Music, or scroll down to listen in your browser.

In this episode, Bisnow speaks with Nadir Settles, the managing director and New York regional head at Nuveen.

He sat down with us at his company's office at 730 Third Ave. to talk through the kinds of properties the investment manager is interested in buying, having just closed a $260M fund with Taconic Partners focused on buying in New York City.

“It’s got geographic limitations, but it’s sector-diversified, so we’re looking at the sectors with the tailwinds that make the most sense,” he said. “So we’re looking at industrial, we’re even looking at retail — you’re starting to see people back out — we’re looking at medical office and life science, ground-up development."

“We still like the fundamentals of New York,” he added. “New York still has the talent, employees want to be in New York, it is still the major economy of the U.S. Covid happened, but it didn’t evaporate all of its fundamentals.” 

He also speaks on the podcast about Nuveen's efforts to help generate a new pipeline of diverse talent, most recently by forming a partnership with social impact platform Project Destined. 

“Everybody is recruiting from the college level, and that’s great. But how do you go one level down and recruit at the high school level, and what benefit does that have?” he said. “You are getting them early and training them early.”