Basel Bataineh.
Basel Bataineh, 27
Principal and co-head of acquisitions at SomeraRoad
Attending Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration exposed Basel Bataineh early on to the service side of commercial real estate, giving him knowledge that he utilizes often in his current role driving acquisition activity at SomeraRoad.
“What’s unique about the hotel school is we studied commercial real estate through the lens of hospitality, so I spent a lot of time focusing on service and operations in addition to real estate fundamentals, finance, construction and development,” Bataineh said. “We continue to move toward the idea of real estate as a service or the idea of curating really customized, meaningful experiences within our built environment within the buildings that we either operate or build. I was exposed to that as an undergrad and caught the bug, and have been in the industry since then.”
After graduating with a bachelor’s in hotel administration, Bataineh worked at PGIM Real Estate helping run the firm’s more than $5 billion flagship core fund focused on office and industrial assets in the Northeast. He then joined SomeraRoad, where he now leads the platform’s acquisition and asset management strategies. A member of SomeraRoad’s executive committee, Bataineh also leads its adaptive-reuse and heavy value-add transactions.
Bataineh spends most of his time growing secondary markets, overseeing large mixed-use master-planned micro-neighborhood projects in Indianapolis and Kansas City, Mo. The average size deals he works on are in the $100 million neighborhood, but some of the larger master-planned developments can range anywhere from $200 million up to $600 million.
Outside of the office, Bataineh plays basketball, a sport more challenging to tackle after he and his wife welcomed a baby three months ago. Professionally, his biggest near-term goal is to position SomeraRoad’s platform to succeed in the current market conditions.
“We’re in an environment where the broader market is facing some macro headwinds, and what we want to be doing is keeping our heads down and focusing on project level execution,” he said. “It also means working through design and predevelopment on our future projects in a way that’s thoughtful and intentional so that once the economic climate improves we’re ready to go on those future projects.” —A.C.
