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Walker Webcast: Barry Sternlicht Returns for an Encore
Starwood Capital Group founder Barry Sternlicht was one of the first guests on what has become a weekly series of webcasts moderated by Walker & Dunlop CEO Willy Walker. Speaking in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic five months ago, Sternlicht made predictions about the course of the nation’s response to the pandemic that have proven to be “extremely accurate,” Walker said Wednesday.
For the 26th Walker Webcast, Sternlicht returned for an encore discussion about the current state of the economy and commercial real estate in view of the ongoing pandemic, where the opportunities can be found and the path ahead.
Much of the course of the next several months depends not only on the eventual availability of a COVID vaccine, but also far more testing, Sternlicht said. That will boost public confidence in returning to the office, to hotels and to shopping centers—all areas where the prolific Sternlicht has made significant investments.
At present, he said, testing protocols are a “disorganized” patchwork of local, county and state responses. Comparing other countries’ responses to the pandemic, Sternlicht said, “There are better things going on than what we’re doing here.”
Speaking Wednesday from an office in Manhattan, Sternlicht laid much of the blame for New York City’s status as an early epicenter of COVID, and the economic damage the pandemic continues to wreak as businesses remain closed, on Mayor Bill de Blasio. He asserted that the mayor was single-handedly responsible for a 20% decline in commercial property values citywide, with some segments and submarkets faring far worse than that.
Although Walker called many of Sternlicht’s April forecasts “prescient,” the Starwood Capital founder said he would never have predicted the extent to which single-family housing has rebounded in the pandemic. “People re-assessed their need to be in cities” and are buying in suburban markets such as Greenwich, CT, where Starwood Capital still has offices.
Asked to rank the current opportunities in residential, Sternlicht said he’d put for-sale single-family housing at the top of the list, followed by single-family rentals and multifamily. However, he pointed out that his top ranking of the for-sale segment would apply only to workforce housing, of which there continues to be a shortage.
Replays of the Sept. 16 webcast are available by clicking here.
For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Paul Bubny
- ◦Economy
