Chad Remis, Dean Shapiro and Varuth ‘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: 34
It’s a bit of a challenge to fit everything Oxford Properties Group got up to last year in the space allotted. But here goes.
Amid a macro-ly sluggish 2023, Oxford executed more than $4 billion in capital market transactions, pumped more than $1 billion into its development pipeline, deployed about $800 million for its credit business, completed more than 25 million square feet of leasing throughout its portfolio, and shook up its leadership team.
“At the top level, we as an organization were relatively comfortable in the higher-
for-longer interest rate environment,” Chad Remis said. “We were recycling our capital from older vintage.”
If that wasn’t enough, there was also the completion of its long-in-the-works St. John’s Terminal project in Manhattan, which it previously sold to tenant Google for $2.1 billion. It opened to house 3,000 Google employees in February 2024.
Oxford has plenty of other developments in the works, including a 39-story office tower in Sydney, a 340,000-square-foot logistics project near London’s Heathrow Airport, and a 164,000-square-foot life sciences development in Carlsbad, Calif.
“The question right now is figuring out what to activate,” Dean Shapiro said about Oxford’s development pipeline. “What we will never do is shut down our development pipeline and allow it to atrophy.”
Part of Oxford’s ability to keep its development projects up and running is its lending arm, which recently named head of global credit Varuth Suwankosai called its “well-kept secret.” Suwankosai targeted all parts of the capital stack for deals and a wide range of assets last year, and expects that to continue in 2024.
“I’m not one to be exclusive,” he said. “Office is not a bad word here. … I’m happy to play wherever somebody needs liquidity.”
Finally, there’s also Oxford’s stake in Hudson Yards, which saw some positive press in The New York Times and elsewhere, along with one of 2023’s biggest investment sales with Wells Fargo’s $550 million purchase of the development’s former Neiman Marcus space.
