Fresh from the latest CREFC conference, it’s clear the organization continues to set the gold standard for commercial real estate finance events. With record-breaking attendance estimated at over 5,000 industry participants, CREFC has surpassed even peak MBA CREF conferences—underscoring both the association’s leadership and the remarkable evolution of the CRE finance industry.

On the way home from the fall Urban Land Institute (ULI) conference in San Francisco, I reflect on the real-estate cycle: with rising inflation, floating-rate loans, tightening labor markets and inflationary policy, the headwinds are growing. But opportunities remain for investors who adapt, buy under replacement cost, and thoughtfully underwrite in a world where “hope” isn’t a strategy — realism, acceptance and flexibility are essential.

Evolve or Risk Insanity
In "JackChat: Evolve or Risk Insanity," Jack critiques the commercial real estate industry's reliance on short-term financial strategies, such as floating-rate debt and quick asset turnovers, which have become problematic amid rising interest rates. Drawing from his experience during the high-interest era of the 1980s, Cohen emphasizes the value of long-term investment approaches, including amortizing loans and sustained asset management. He warns that without a shift back to these foundational practices, the industry risks repeating past mistakes and facing significant financial instability.

Inside My Investing Plans for 2025 and Beyond
As the end of the year approached and rolled over to a new year, I took the opportunity to assess the past year in content.

Course-Correcting in 2025 and Beyond
As most of us are in our final stages of planning for 2025, I want to share my views about how we can course-correct our plans based on what was, is, and can be for those who are up for adapting to the times.

Why should I care about all the headlines around Fed Fund Cuts? I don’t borrow from the Fed at Fed Funds Rates, do you?

Hard Questions (and Answers) For This CRE Current Reality - Oh my. What have we gotten ourselves into? IF we only read the headlines when identifying the risks we face, we would be thinking that there is some sort of commercial real estate crash happening or about to happen.

In a few short months, June 1, I will celebrate my 42nd anniversary in the industry! Today, in an internal meeting, one of my younger colleagues challenged me to stroll down memory lane and discuss prior “recessions” (say, industry hiccups for one reason or another) with the context for each of sharing a learning moment.

The commercial real estate world is not coming to an end. It’s back to basics. Fundamentals matter. Really.

Beautiful day in the mountains today and I was moved to write another blog. I hope this finds you making progress on your 2021 plans and initiatives; as you begin to think about strategic planning for 2022, have you considered deflation?

It has been longer than six months since my last blog. I confess, I have been as astounded, shocked, scared, and as surprised as any of us. With no answers, no insight, nothing to offer, I remained silent. In turn, I was impressed with all the new bloggers and podcast/webcast offerings

Without sounding trite or naive; we certainly are living in interesting times. I had an executive coach once who told me, “Jack, all events are neutral...

Some quick bold predictions as we gain traction in 2020. I recently returned from the MBA’s CREF Conference in San Diego, essentially concluding my conference season while chatting literally with several dozen of industry colleagues from across the transactional role spectrum.

Some quick notes as we kick off 2020, as I recently had the privilege of leading an Industry Leaders Roundtable session, AND, a separate Roundtable populated by CRE “Young Professionals” at the January CREFC Conference in South Beach.

I do not believe that 2020 is the year that the market changes for the worse. That said, I believe we all remember that liquidity is in the marketplace until it isn’t.

Innovation: At the January CREFC conference in Miami, I asked Industry Leader Panelists their thinking about “Technology”. Maybe it was a mistake ...

With all this talk about being “late in the cycle”; are you protecting your downside? IF you are protecting your downside, are you also taking measured growth bets in some structured relative sized manner?

Multifamily – Sector affordability is a concern. While rent growth and rising property values have position connotations, these trends are not sustainable.

2018 was a productive year. I hope that your 2018 was a good one; one full of health, happiness and prosperity. My format from October, though brief and written more in the form of “Soundbites” rather than “deep content”, seemed to go over well. As the feedback (thank you) was generally positive (easier and faster to read) I will follow the same format with this update.

Since my last blog in June, the year continues to be robust for most. With the sun and wind at our backs; transactions flourish. Hit ratios suffer given the competition everyone faces to find, capitalized, and recapitalize a deal; but everyone seems to be prospering nonetheless.

The old saying “I would rather be lucky than smart”; how would we ever really know which of the two drove our individual fate professionally?

I just came back from the Spring ULI Council Meeting in Detroit. After Council Dinner I had a conversation with my oldest son about a class he is taking for his MBA. He was talking about “Red Ocean and Blue Ocean” businesses.

I just returned from the MBA CREF conference in San Diego, and one of my colleagues made the observation that "forecasting and making predictions of future movements in the cycle (property, economic, and capital flows) were based upon the past." This really got me thinking.

Fresh from the latest CREFC conference, it’s clear the organization continues to set the gold standard for commercial real estate finance events. With record-breaking attendance estimated at over 5,000 industry participants, CREFC has surpassed even peak MBA CREF conferences—underscoring both the association’s leadership and the remarkable evolution of the CRE finance industry.

On the way home from the fall Urban Land Institute (ULI) conference in San Francisco, I reflect on the real-estate cycle: with rising inflation, floating-rate loans, tightening labor markets and inflationary policy, the headwinds are growing. But opportunities remain for investors who adapt, buy under replacement cost, and thoughtfully underwrite in a world where “hope” isn’t a strategy — realism, acceptance and flexibility are essential.

Evolve or Risk Insanity
In "JackChat: Evolve or Risk Insanity," Jack critiques the commercial real estate industry's reliance on short-term financial strategies, such as floating-rate debt and quick asset turnovers, which have become problematic amid rising interest rates. Drawing from his experience during the high-interest era of the 1980s, Cohen emphasizes the value of long-term investment approaches, including amortizing loans and sustained asset management. He warns that without a shift back to these foundational practices, the industry risks repeating past mistakes and facing significant financial instability.

Inside My Investing Plans for 2025 and Beyond
As the end of the year approached and rolled over to a new year, I took the opportunity to assess the past year in content.

Course-Correcting in 2025 and Beyond
As most of us are in our final stages of planning for 2025, I want to share my views about how we can course-correct our plans based on what was, is, and can be for those who are up for adapting to the times.

Why should I care about all the headlines around Fed Fund Cuts? I don’t borrow from the Fed at Fed Funds Rates, do you?

Hard Questions (and Answers) For This CRE Current Reality - Oh my. What have we gotten ourselves into? IF we only read the headlines when identifying the risks we face, we would be thinking that there is some sort of commercial real estate crash happening or about to happen.

In a few short months, June 1, I will celebrate my 42nd anniversary in the industry! Today, in an internal meeting, one of my younger colleagues challenged me to stroll down memory lane and discuss prior “recessions” (say, industry hiccups for one reason or another) with the context for each of sharing a learning moment.

The commercial real estate world is not coming to an end. It’s back to basics. Fundamentals matter. Really.

Beautiful day in the mountains today and I was moved to write another blog. I hope this finds you making progress on your 2021 plans and initiatives; as you begin to think about strategic planning for 2022, have you considered deflation?

It has been longer than six months since my last blog. I confess, I have been as astounded, shocked, scared, and as surprised as any of us. With no answers, no insight, nothing to offer, I remained silent. In turn, I was impressed with all the new bloggers and podcast/webcast offerings

Without sounding trite or naive; we certainly are living in interesting times. I had an executive coach once who told me, “Jack, all events are neutral...

Some quick bold predictions as we gain traction in 2020. I recently returned from the MBA’s CREF Conference in San Diego, essentially concluding my conference season while chatting literally with several dozen of industry colleagues from across the transactional role spectrum.

Some quick notes as we kick off 2020, as I recently had the privilege of leading an Industry Leaders Roundtable session, AND, a separate Roundtable populated by CRE “Young Professionals” at the January CREFC Conference in South Beach.

I do not believe that 2020 is the year that the market changes for the worse. That said, I believe we all remember that liquidity is in the marketplace until it isn’t.

Innovation: At the January CREFC conference in Miami, I asked Industry Leader Panelists their thinking about “Technology”. Maybe it was a mistake ...

With all this talk about being “late in the cycle”; are you protecting your downside? IF you are protecting your downside, are you also taking measured growth bets in some structured relative sized manner?

Multifamily – Sector affordability is a concern. While rent growth and rising property values have position connotations, these trends are not sustainable.

2018 was a productive year. I hope that your 2018 was a good one; one full of health, happiness and prosperity. My format from October, though brief and written more in the form of “Soundbites” rather than “deep content”, seemed to go over well. As the feedback (thank you) was generally positive (easier and faster to read) I will follow the same format with this update.

Since my last blog in June, the year continues to be robust for most. With the sun and wind at our backs; transactions flourish. Hit ratios suffer given the competition everyone faces to find, capitalized, and recapitalize a deal; but everyone seems to be prospering nonetheless.

The old saying “I would rather be lucky than smart”; how would we ever really know which of the two drove our individual fate professionally?

I just came back from the Spring ULI Council Meeting in Detroit. After Council Dinner I had a conversation with my oldest son about a class he is taking for his MBA. He was talking about “Red Ocean and Blue Ocean” businesses.

I just returned from the MBA CREF conference in San Diego, and one of my colleagues made the observation that "forecasting and making predictions of future movements in the cycle (property, economic, and capital flows) were based upon the past." This really got me thinking.