While we still find ourselves under the cloud of the pestilence that has depressed so much economic activity (as well as so much else) over the last two-plus years, a lot of real estate owners and investors have been able to keep things in perspective and think long term.

Yes, office attendance remains dismal, but it’s improving. Yes, a lot of tenants might have had second thoughts about shelling out rent for property that they’re indifferent to, but quality product has been achieving top dollar. SL Green’s
One Vanderbilt is one of those unvarnished success stories, for instance: 97 percent leased and commanding rents that would have seemed optimistic in the best of times.

The smart real estate players — those we honor in this year’s Power 100 — are the ones who have been able to pivot and evolve. On the office front, they’re not the ones who sat back during the pandemic and waded through their Netflix queue. Instead, they did the hard, expensive labor of starting to make their buildings carbon neutral.

They’re the ones who saw the long runway for e-commerce, and invested in logistics and industrial space.

They’re the ones who saw the need for life science space and began building accordingly.

They’re the ones who saw an underserved housing market and began putting their money behind multifamily and single-family rental.

They’re the ones who realized that it’s not just a Warner Bros. / Metro Goldwyn Mayer world, but one in which content is big business and is everywhere, and began looking for studio space.

To paraphrase the immortal words of the Bee Gees, they’re the ones who might feel the city breaking and everybody shaking, but they’re staying alive.