NEW YORK CITY—While Kushner Cos. invests in many sectors of commercial real estate—including office, retail and industrial—it seems particularly prolific in multifamily. In fact, industry research calls it the sixth biggest buyer of apartments in the nation.
GlobeSt.com sat down with Kushner CEO Jared Kushner to find out what the company likes so much about multifamily and to learn its strategy for the sector in this EXCLUSIVE interview.
GlobeSt.com: What do you like about the multifamily business?
Kushner: I grew up in the multifamily business and the thing I love about it, from an investment point of view, is the diversified rent roll. One tenant leaving won't cause an impact to the investment outcome.
From an operations point of view, it gives us the chance to make someone's home a great experience. My father taught me that the units are a tenant's primary residence and we have the power to impact it.
GlobeSt.com: What does your portfolio look like right now?
Kushner: We have 20,000 apartments, including a big garden portfolio in the Mid-Atlantic and some units in the Midwest and Northeast—predominantly in New York and New Jersey.
We just closed our first deal in Queens, in Astoria; we're going vertical on a 50-story tower in Jersey City and there's more coming in that area. These all are urban infill locations that are experiencing growth and they're the places where younger people are heading.
GlobeSt.com: What types of markets are you in?
Kushner: Those that have positive migration trends, such as healthy employment, good safety and job growth. We want to be in markets that have natural growth potential.
GlobeSt.com: You have a concentration here in New York but, as you've mentioned, you're in other markets too. Is a different approach required in different markets?
Kushner: All of the areas are different. We have regional offices and we definitely customize our approach to the market. New York City has a lot more regulation so property management here is much more complicated to operate. In the garden apartments world, we've been running those properties for a long time so we're good at it.
GlobeSt.com: Are there areas of the country that you prefer or do you look for certain characteristics in a market before investing in it?
Kushner: We're highly opportunistic so we look at properties wherever they come to us from. Last year we bought three in Maryland, three in New Jersey and 10-15 in New York City.
GlobeSt.com: Is the size of the asset a factor that you consider?
Kushner: That's not an issue, we have done deals of $4 million to $500 million.
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
