By: Brendan Keen ‘24

One of the many fun moments that occurs upon leaving the workforce and becoming a born-again student is when you realize that you get another chance (or two) to enjoy spring break. In MBA world, spring break plans happen early, and they happen fast - before I had even taken my first exam in the fall, I committed to helping organize a large spring break trip to a place I had never been before located on the other side of the world. While the opportunity to go somewhere new and learn about an international real estate market was obviously exciting, I did not fully appreciate at the time how impactful and memorable this trip would be.

A far cry from my spring breaks as an undergrad exploring the beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama, the REA’s 2023 trip to Sydney, Australia grew me both professionally and personally and left me full of lifelong memories with amazing people that are going to go on and do much cooler things than I will.

Thank you to my fellow trip planners PJ Carollo (’23), Richard Alty (’23) and Ned Yale (’24) for always making planning this trip fun and easy.

Thank you to Professor Brian Lancaster and Kristin Svenningsen, Managing Director of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate, for your guidance throughout and for being such value adds during our time in Australia.

Thank you to Melissa Spooner and the Chazen Institute for making the trip possible in the first place.

Thank you to all our industry and alumni hosts who supported this very valuable learning opportunity.

Lastly, thank you to the group of 28 CBS students, and now my 28 friends, that made this trip everything that it was!

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

This trip was originally supposed to happen in the Spring of 2020. Professor Brian Lancaster and some students at the time had helped the then Australian Consulate General, Alastair Walton (’87), with a feasibility study for an Australia House in New York (more about that here). In return for their good work, Mr. Walton helped Professor Lancaster plan a real estate study tour to Australia. Unfortunately, COVID happened and the whole thing was put on hold.

Fast forward to Fall of 2022 when my fellow trip planners and I had the benefit of picking up where our counterparts left off. Through months of hard work and planning, we were able to bring to fruition a trip that I think we are all proud of.

In our short seven-day stint in the land down under, we met with eight incredible companies spanning a broad range of perspectives in the real estate, infrastructure, and banking industries. We were greeted by and had the opportunity to network with Australia-based CBS alumni working in a variety of businesses. We climbed a big bridge, visited Blue Mountains, road a roller coaster, met koalas and kangaroos, listened to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, cruised the Sydney Harbour, and spent plenty of time on the beach.

It was a memorable trip to say the least, and one that I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in.

Company Visits

Company Meeting 1 | Dexus

Speaker(s): Andy Collins, Group Head of Transactions & Development

About: Dexus is one of Australia’s leading vertically integrated real assets fund managers, actively managing a real estate and infrastructure portfolio valued at over $60 billion AUD.

Topics of Discussion: Future of office in Australia and Dexus’ movement into the infrastructure space

Company Meeting 2 | CBRE Investment Management

Speaker(s): Sandy Padilla (CBS ’08), APAC Head of Research

Chris Johnston, Managing Director Investments

About: CBRE Investment Management is a leading global real assets investment management firm with $149+ billion AUM and 30 offices worldwide.

Topics of Discussion: General market overview, impacts of inflation and rising rates, and emergence of build-to-rent residential as a product type in Australia

Company Meeting 3 | Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Speaker(s): Michael Thorpe, Head of Future Cities and Networks

About: CBA is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the US, and the United Kingdom. CBA is the largest real estate lender in Australia

Topics of Discussion: CBA’s new ecosystem based corporate structure, urbanization in Australia, green financing in real estate and infrastructure projects, and public vs. private roles in shaping the cities of the future

Company Meeting 4 | Blackstone

Speaker(s): Mark Harrison, Managing Director Real Estate Private Equity

Matt Koskinen, Managing Director Real Estate Private Equity

Paige Muggeridge, Principal Real Estate Private Equity

About: Blackstone is a global real estate investment manager with $326 billion in capital under management and a real estate portfolio valued at $577 billion

Topics of Discussion: Blackstone’s Australian investment strategies and its approach to entering new product types and/or market segments such as build-to-rent residential

Company Meeting 5 | Brookfield

Speaker(s): Scott Mugglestone, Vice President of Investments

Phillip Naylor, Director of Developments

About: Brookfield is a global fund manager with $263 billion real estate portfolio

Topics of Discussion: Case Study of the development of Brookfield Place Sydney

Company Meeting 6 | Aliro Group

Speaker(s): David Southon, Executive Chariman

Daniel Wise, Managing Director & CEO

Oscar Zerbst, Director Asset Management & ESG

Kevin Kuechler, Senior Transaction Manager

About: Aliro is a private, vertically integrated fund manager based in Australia with ~$1.6 billion AUD capital under management

Topics of Discussion: David & Daniel’s experience leaving larger institutions and building a private fund management business, entrepreneurship in real estate, and Aliro’s approach to ESG

Company Meeting 7 | Lendlease

Speaker(s): Neil Arckless, Development Executive

About: Lendlease is a globally integrated leading real estate developer with notable projects across the world.

Topics of Discussion: Case study & walking tour of Darling Square, Barangaroo, and One Sydney Harbour; general focus on placemaking in development

Company Meeting 8 | Macquarie Asset Management

Speaker(s): Brett Robson, Head of Real Estate

James Kemp, Head of Real Estate Asia-Pacific

Kate Herfort, Executive Director Client Solutions Group

David Roberts, Associate Real Estate

Charles Griffith (CBS ’16), Director Real Estate

About: Macquarie Asset Management has a global real estate investment business with $17+ billion AUD in AUM

Topics of Discussion: Macquarie’s thematic sector approach to investing and its focus on growing emerging operating platforms