The Weekly Take from CBRE

Brian Steinwurzel, Co-CEO of GFP Real Estate and lead of the huge 25 Water Street conversion, explains the playbook for turning offices into homes. He describes engineering moves like light wells and added floors. He covers finance, tax incentives, rapid 25-month delivery, amenity strategies for large residential communities, and which buildings make good conversion candidates.

Alan Lazowski, CEO of Laz Parking, a leader in tech-enabled parking operations. Rob Zuritzky, CEO of Parkway Corporation, a third-generation parking and development expert. They discuss parking as essential urban infrastructure. They explore EV charging and autonomous vehicle hubs. They cover tech like camera AI and dynamic pricing. They examine valuation, redevelopment potential and parking as steady cash-flow real estate.

Henry Chin, CBRE’s Global Head of Research, offers macro and real estate research perspective. He explores why 2026 could be a strong vintage for U.S. real estate. Topics include income-driven returns over cap rate moves, value-add industrial and powered land, amenity-rich office outperformers, data centers and rekindled global capital flows.

John Morris, president of CBRE's Industrial & Logistics Advisory Services for the Americas, and Luke Petherbridge, CEO of Link Logistics overseeing vast industrial portfolios, dig into industrial real estate trends. They discuss booming leasing, e-commerce and reindustrialization, land and power competition with data centers, modern warehouse specs, automation and AI, and the long-term impact of driverless trucks.

Portugal has become an unexpected real estate powerhouse in Europe. Arrow Global’s John Calvao and CBRE's Francisco Horta e Costa discuss the revival of Portugal’s economy, surging investment in hospitality, logistics, data centers and student housing, the resilient Lisbon and Porto office markets and ways to address a chronic housing shortage.* Portugal's economic turnaround has fueled robust real estate opportunities.* Hospitality and logistics lead growth, attracting global capital.* Emerging sectors like data centers and student housing are seeing outsized growth.* Multifamily housing faces persistent supply challenges.* The Lisbon and Porto office markets are exhibiting strong performance.

AI’s massive investment surge is reshaping commercial real estate. Chemonics' Victoria Slivkoff and CBRE's Colin Yasukochi discuss AI's influence on tech talent and its role in revitalizing key office markets and driving physical infrastructure needs.* AI drives massive investment into data centers and physical infrastructure.* San Francisco's office market is experiencing an AI-driven turnaround.* The AI revolution is creating specialized talent hubs and increasing demand for sustainable energy.* AI will boost productivity and necessitate workforce adaptation.

Adrienne Cole, CEO of the Greater Raleigh Chamber, driving regional economic development. Brian Fork, CEO of the Carolina Hurricanes, leading the Lenovo Center and arena-driven redevelopment. They discuss the $1B mixed-use arena district built via a complex public-private ground lease. They cover Raleigh’s talent pipeline from top universities, multi-node growth patterns, transit and parking strategies, and how the arena anchors year-round activation.

Food halls are no longer just a trend—they are a high-impact amenity for improving a property’s dwell time, leasing velocity and NOI. Recorded at Central Perk in Times Square, a quartet of experts from Colicchio Consulting and CBRE explain how the best food halls prioritize operations and programming, new beverage and evening strategies, the lowdown on operator selection and deal structures that offer better risk-sharing and returns.- Food halls aren’t food courts: Independent concepts + community + beverage drive performance.- Hybrid work has changed the operating model: Fewer office days demand longer-hour, programming-led models.- Conversions can happen everywhere: Converting buildings to their highest and best use can work for both offices and food halls, especially in suburban markets.- Alignment between operators and landlords: Vendor stall flexibility and percentage-rent leases can benefit operators and investors.- Market snapshot: Colicchio Consulting believes the sweet spot of sizing is around 10,000–15,000 sq. ft. with average buildout costs around $400/sq. ft., depending on the market.

Sandeep Davé, CBRE’s digital leader building data and AI tools for real estate. Alex Sandy Pentland, social physicist and data-driven decision adviser. They discuss AI as a human co-pilot, practical CRE use cases like building ops and lease analytics, tokenization risks and safeguards, the importance of data quality, and how AI broadens market visibility to spot rare signals.

Kelly Carhart, President of CBRE Multifamily Capital Markets, on multifamily supply, gateway vs Sun Belt dynamics and conversion trends. Jessica Lawl, Head of CBRE’s downtown LA office, on LA’s reinvention, event-driven infrastructure and downtown vs countywide shifts. They tour coast-to-coast market themes, industrial and logistics pockets, investor types, and where regional opportunities are emerging.