“Repeated joint ventures are important, for the sake of trust,” added Luskin, noting, “The negotiation is 100% different depending on who sourced the deal. If it's the sponsor, [that party] will have additional demands. But the pendulum is shifting toward the middle; I'm curious what the next few years will bring.”

Meanwhile, the capital source for these deals—and return expectations—have changed, asserted Schurer. “We used to count on pension funds but now it's Chinese money that's coming in. Those investors know that they have to pay more for economic certainty. But things have tightened, people aren't looking for returns in the mid-20s anymore on a piece of real estate in NYC.”

Summers is seeing some different trends. “I'm seeing sponsors who are putting up their 10% but they have investors who I'm not sure the equity knows about. You think the sponsor is in the deal with an equity partner, and has put in $10 million, but with their development fee, their asset fee could be $20 million over the next few years, so they're neutral. We have a client who was the company general partner in over 100 deals because the sponsor didn't have the money; I see a lot of that in the marketplace.”

But the biggest challenge at this level of the C-suite is managing the unknown. “We're long-term investors, we try to put on five-to-seven-year debt but there are all of these risks,” says Summers. “What's going to happen in housing market? Is office contraction in the suburbs going to continue? These issues all are a counterpoint to the need to invest but if you stretch to too many deals, there's some franchise risk.”

Adds Maturo, “There's an endless amount of deals coming your way, you have to measure your risk on a deal-by-deal basis without tipping over parameters where the red light goes off.”

“We can't do a deal in one way just because we did it that way yesterday,” noted Luskin. “My goal is to be nimble, quick and get the deal done.”