Justin Shanahan, 34

Justin Shanahan literally wouldn’t exist without commercial real estate. His parents, including capital markets legend Bill Shanahan, met in commercial appraisal work 35 years ago while both were working at Cushman & Wakefield.  

“That was always in the back of my mind when thinking about my career,” said Shanahan, who grew up in New York. “I had this idea that I wanted to be in finance, and, in a way, real estate investing was a natural intersection of all these things: It was in my family to some degree, and also in my studies and just from growing up in New York City.” 

Shanahan spent 12 years at CBRE Investment Management, where he achieved success and advanced through several promotions. He made the jump to Invesco Real Estate Management only nine months ago after spending time studying the firm’s vast portfolio of assets. 

“It was really attractive because Invesco is a large global investment management company,” he said. “They have expertise not only in real estate, but in a lot of different asset classes — listed securities, fixed-income, private wealth.” 

Shanahan is the co-lead portfolio manager of Invesco Real Estate’s $13 billion U.S. flagship open-ended core real estate fund. There he oversees the strategic direction of the portfolio’s construction, strategizes risk management, and handles acquisitions, dispositions and partnership structuring.

“Performance of the fund is my top priority and responsibility, but we also do things like work with the transactions team on making new investments, huddle with clients on partnering on their goals, and raise capital for the fund,” said Shanahan. “It’s a combination of top-down strategic priorities and bottom-up execution of investments.” 

While the fund is diversified, senior housing has become a high-conviction sector for Shanahan. This past April, he finished quarterbacking a $2 billion recapitalization with Kayne Anderson of a portfolio of 25 assets spread across the United States.

“Senior housing is one of the top convictions we have in the core space in the U.S. for the next five years,” he said. “We evaluated it in the context of strategy and everything else, and it fit the criteria that we’re looking for.”