The Promote Podcast
Your Commercial Real Estate Insider guide. From profiles of the biggest dealmakers to skyline-shaping transactions, we bring you the deals, breakdowns and war stories that move the market — for insiders, by insiders. From bad-boy guarantees to CMBS tranche warfare to syndicator sins, we cover it all.
Each week, The Promote Podcast explores three of the most interesting and consequential stories in CRE, taking you well beyond the headlines and into the heart of the action. Hosted by the award-winning “Bard of CRE,” Hiten Samtani, founder of ten31 media and author of The Promote newsletter, along with no-BS institutional insider Will Krasne. Also check out our 3x/week newsletter for industry insiders at https://www.thepromote.com/
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 29 minutes
- Episodes
- 26
- Years Active
- 2025
Mormon Money & Cardone Waterfalls
This week, we’re talking the Mormon real estate playbook – how the LDS church built a serious property portfolio and also run it like serious people. We then discuss syndicator Grant Cardone’s intric…
Soho House Postgame And Billion-Dollar Capstacks
We break down the puzzling $2.7B take-private of Soho House – what do Apollo, MCR, Ron Burkle and Ashton Kutcher think they can pull off by revitalizing the famed member's club? The discussion touche…
Shvo Business & Multifamily's Antitrust Agita
We dive into the singular life and multiple dramas of real estate impresario Michael Shvo, the luxury resi broker turned developer who went on one of the most epic commercial real estate buying spree…
Talking Tycoons: Tom Cousins & Jacob Chetrit
This week, we break down the outsized life & career of seminal Atlanta developer Tom Cousins: skyline-shaper, quail hunter, Ted Turner lender, Buffett buddy – an honest-to-goodness Man in Full. We tr…
Megafunds Geezer-Chasing & A Miami Kingpin's Epic Aventura
This week, we dive into how private credit mega-managers such as Blackstone, KKR & Blue Owl have been setting the stage for a potentially huge new pool of capital: 401(k)s. With the Trump administrat…
How to De-Risk a Megadeal: Related's Hudson Yards Masterclass
In this special episode of The Promote Podcast, we dive deep into Related Companies' de-risking playbook at its Hudson Yards megaproject. How they're pulling off a $25 billion, 18 million-square-foot…
JPM's Roosevelt Run & Cortland's PE Courtship
This week, we discuss JPMorgan's age of empires, its play for the Roosevelt Hotel as part of a potentially 7 million square foot campus in the heart of New York. We dive into why 2 multifamily giants…
Attack of the Nepo Babies & A Manhattan Skyscraper Heist
This week, we discuss the great changing of the guard at real estate dynasties – the 2nd and 3rd gens are taking the helm of some of the industry's most prominent families and are doing their best to…
Mamdani Fear Factor & Hyatt's Friends with Benefits
We break down CRE's fear & loathing stemming from Zohran Mamdani’s improbable win in the New York City mayoral primary. Players have pulled the plug on deals and are devising a "retreat & resist" str…
Carlyle Takes the Stairs, Drillman's Great Escape & the LVMH-Kering War
This week, we dive into Carlyle's attempt to stitch together an empire of Brooklyn walk-ups and how it illustrates the REPE giant's playbook. We then examine mortgage fraudster Barry Drillman's get-o…
Deconstructing Data Center Megadeals with DigitalBridge's Marc Ganzi
This week, data center pioneer and DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi walks Will & Hiten through 2 defining transactions in the space: The $11B take-private of Switch, and the "metaphorical lockbox" financ…
Sixth Street's AUM Gobbling & SF's Basis Bets
This week, Will & Hiten dive deep into the movement of the moment: AUM gobbling ™️ We break down the Sixth Street/L+M transaction, and how allocator preferences are driving this wave of M&A in commer…
A Syndicator Lending Safari with Benefit Street's Mike Comparato
This week, Hiten & Will are joined by Benefit Street Partners' Michael Comparato, who gives us an insider's look into the wild world of lending to multifamily syndicators. Comparato provides unvarnis…
A Tale of Two Asset Classes: NYC Rent-Stabilized Carnage & Data Center Mania
This week, we break down two asset classes on extreme ends of the fortune spectrum: The first, NYC rent-stabilized multifamily, which is facing a tidal wave of distress, with name-brand sponsors batt…
The Mother of all Tax Loopholes & Zeckendorf Bros. Downtown Funk
This week, we dive deep into one of the most extraordinary tax loopholes that the CRE market has ever witnessed: the Traveling HFC, a Texas property-tax absolving vehicle that's been adopted en masse…
NYC Developer Ponzinomics & Tides Equities' Judgment Day
This week, we break down the sensational allegations made by the feds against former New York golden boy developer Josh Schuster – and why they are emblematic of the market. We dive into a big judgme…
Jona Rechnitz's Uncut Gems & Skyscraper Structural Corruption
This week, we dive into the tangled web of Jona Rechnitz, a New York real estate developer who was caught up in a massive NYPD corruption scandal before heading to LA and reinventing himself as a dia…
Inside the Lending Game with Ran Eliasaf & Adam Neumann's Divine Flow
This week, Northwind Group's Ran Eliasaf, one of the most active private lenders in New York real estate, gives us an inside look at the debt game – the returns, the structures and the nuances of fun…
Inside a Supertall Capital Stack & Newbond's Hotel Flyer
This week, we chat about a fascinating hospitality deal, Newbond swooping in to buy almost 9% of San Francisco's hotel stock in one megadeal. It’s one of the city's biggest hospitality real estate pl…
The Rise of Pref & Meridian Out of Agency Jail
This week, The Promote dives into the proliferation of preferred-equity deals in the CRE market – why are they suddenly everywhere, and what investors need to think about before doing them. We then d…