In this series, Make Yourself At Home, we are hearing from members of the commercial real estate industry about how they are managing this new reality and gaining insight into their day-to-day approaches. You can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Music.
Wendy Silverstein, a New York City real estate veteran who has worked at Citibank, Vornado and New York REIT, joins us on today's show. From fall 2018 to September 2019, she was the chief investment officer of WeWork’s real estate investment fund.
Last month, she announced a new venture called Silver Eagle Advisors — a company focused on loan restructures and workouts. Ed Adler, a colleague of Silverstein’s at Citibank, is her co-founder.
The firm has a service and fee-sharing agreement with Meridian Capital Group, but it will work with other clients, too. Silverstein is predicting a busy 2021 and 2022.
"There's going to be a lot more pain before this gets better ... in 2021 we're going to see the other shoe start to drop," she said on the podcast.
"Retail is clearly already distressed. There's been very little price discovery to what the 'new value' is of some of these properties," she added. "High street retail rents [in Manhattan] were so ridiculously high, they weren't sustainable, even when the market was good ... The rents have just got to be a fraction of what they are so businesses feel safe to take the risk opening up."
