Chad Remis (left), Dean Shapiro (top right) and Varnuth "Nu" Suwankosai.
Chad Remis, Dean Shapiro and Varuth ‘Nu’ Suwankosai
Chief investment officer; global head of development; global head of credit at Oxford Properties Group
Last year's rank: 44
Anybody who still had doubts about the return of New York City’s office market need look no further than Hudson Yards.
Right at the buzzer for finishing this list, the Wall Street Journal reported that Deloitte, one of the Big Four accounting firms, agreed to take 800,000 square feet at the 1.1 million-square-foot 70 Hudson Yards, before Related Companies and Oxford Properties have even broken ground on the tower.
“Hudson Yards has come a very long way in the 15 years we’ve been involved in that,” Dean Shapiro said before the news broke. “It’s now an established office district.”
But that’s not all Oxford had up its sleeve. The firm signed nearly 20 million square feet of leases around the world last year, sold a bit over $3 billion worth of real estate, and acquired $2 billion more both on the credit and equity side. Plenty of that disposition and acquisition activity has come from the industrial market, and Oxford has been diving headfirst into the data center market, with its credit business pumping $380 million into that sector so far this year.
“We love these kinds of grid-based property classes where you need access to power, you need access to megawatts,” Nu Suwankosai said. “We’re looking at doing high-quality investments there.”
Of course, Oxford is still a big believer in office — it is gearing up to build the nearly 60-story 70 Hudson Yards, after all — but it is also looking to put some money in the retail space this coming year. “We are meaningfully spending time in office, and we’re meaningfully spending time in parts of retail,” said Chad Remis. “Those are two asset classes we believe relative value can be achieved.”
And there’s also the proposal Oxford is working on with Related and Wynn Resorts to build a casino complex in Hudson Yards. A casino license is not yet in hand, but the project recently got a key approval from the city that would allow its construction.
“It takes us a step closer,” Shapiro said. “[We] seem to be inching closer to a scenario that works better for the community and seems to work better for us.”
