ONCE AGAIN, REAL ESTATE FORUM IS PROUD to unveil our annual “Best of Commercial Real Estate” issue. As always, we're covering some of the most significant transactions that took place last year, from leasing, investment sales and financing, to development deliveries and mergers and acquisitions.
For the latter, 2018 was a monumental year, as private capital took advantage of market conditions to take down a number of public companies. Notable among them was Brookfield, which accounted for last year's top two REIT buys. Combined with other entity-level acquisitions, the CRE saw just about $100 billion in M&A activity in 2018, up significantly from 2017's aggregate volume.
Mergers weren't the only things to make big news in 2018, as a number of companies made headlines throughout the year. Of course there's the ongoing saga of Amazon's HQ2, but the online behemoth was also behind quite a few other deals last year. So were, not surprisingly, Google and Facebook. What was interesting, however, was the surge in activity by flex office and co-working spaces. A number of these brands took up thousands of square feet worth of space, becoming significant players in major markets across the country. All of these players, and much more, are covered in the Best of 2018 feature, beginning on page 33.
Keeping in line with the industry's growing enthusiasm with all things tech, we took a look at some of the most interesting and enterprising names in proptech and fintech. These thought leaders and brands—many of which were launched within the past five to 10 years—have introduced concepts, platforms, products and services that have revolutionized the industry. Read more about CRE's Top Tech Enterprisers on page 11.
And just in time for our 17th Annual GlobeSt Net Lease event, we have compiled our roster of some of the most notable names in the field. Many of these Net Lease Influencers will be at the conference, to be held April 3-4 in New York City.
Speaking of the best, we at the ALM Real Estate Media team strive to bring our audience the best coverage of the commercial real estate market. Following last year's relaunch of our online platform, GlobeSt.com, in 2019 we brought the RealShare conference group under the GlobeSt banner. GlobeSt.Events has an interesting and strategic approach in covering the is-sues and topics that are most pressing and relevant to today's commercial real estate profes-sionals. Go to GlobeSt.com/events for more details.
The editorial team behind Forum, GlobeSt and the events series make it our mission to be a go-to resource for the industry. But to be the Best in the Business, we need to be ever-cognizant of the needs of the community that we cover. As such, we welcome your thoughts, ideas and comments, so don't hesitate to reach out.
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Sule Aygoren
Aygoren oversees the editorial direction and content for ALM’s Real Estate Media Group, including Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. In her tenure with ALM, she’s held roles of increasing responsibility, including Managing Editor. Aygoren has received several awards for her coverage including Best Trade Magazine Report from the National Association of Real Estate Editors and the James D. Carper Award for Young Journalists. Under her direction, Forum has received four national NAREE awards for Best Commercial Real Estate Trade Magazine.
