Owen Thomas and Douglas Linde

For Owen Thomas and Douglas Linde, being in the Commercial Observer’s Power 100 is no surprise. Their sheer size makes them an impossible-to-ignore force in real estate.

But for the duo, head of the largest mainly office real estate investment trust in America, challenges have never been greater. They need to steer Boston Properties through what might be the most challenging time ever for office buildings, which have been the mainstay of their company since it was born in the early 1970s. Their properties in New York include the General Motors Building, one of the city’s most lucrative office towers, and 601 Lexington Avenue, the skyscraper until recent years known as Citigroup Center. Its New York office leasing plummeted 61 percent in the first quarter compared with the quarter before.

Thomas is marking his 10th year as the REIT’s CEO and Linde 16 years as its president. Linde has been at the firm since 1997, and was its chief financial officer. Thomas was plucked after years as a real estate executive at Morgan Stanley to succeed company co-founder Mortimer Zuckerman. Thomas and Linde have steered the company, well known for taking its time and studying new markets intensely before making very selective and very conservative moves, into the Seattle and Los Angeles markets, joining Boston, Washington and San Francisco as well as New York.

“Though the office sector is clearly facing challenges in the current economic environment, there are two underappreciated trends,” Thomas said on the company’s most recent earnings call on April 25. “First, the deceleration in leasing, which we forecasted last year. We believe (this) is cyclical and will recover with economic conditions. Major tech companies have announced return-to-work expectations. The second underappreciated trend is office users are much more discriminating about building quality.” 

That means that enhancing Boston’s portfolio will pay off in the long run. Thomas added that Boston Properties should succeed even if other companies struggle because it concentrates on high-end buildings. “Ninety-four percent of BXP CBD space is in buildings rated by CBRE as premier workspaces,” he said on the call.

In June of last year, Thomas stood by the company’s mantra, “A-properties in A-locations,” in an interview with Commercial Observer. “It’s more important today than ever,” he declared.