ICF Hosts the Annual Yale Real Estate Conference
Last Friday, October 24th, the International Center for Finance, in partnership with the Yale Alumni Real Estate Association, hosted the 2025 Yale Real Estate Conference at the Yale School of Management. The conference, which began in 2008, had a record number of attendees this year. The program covered topics including housing, valuation, private equity, and energy regulations.
The day began with a keynote panel on housing, led by Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. He was joined by Stuart Miller, CEO of Lennar, the nation’s premier home builder and Bethany McLean, columnist for The Washington Post and former Vanity Fair and Fortune editor who originally broke the Enron story. They discussed the economic, political, technological, and societal implications of the dramatically shifting dynamics of home-building and community development.
Next was "Contrasting Perspectives in Residential Real Estate Residential" with Marshall Boyd (Interstate Equities Corporation), Bryan Kam (University Partners), Todd Nicotra (AvalonBay Communities), Dale Watchowski (REDICO), and moderated by Eric Willet (RCLCO). Real estate has emerged as one of the most resilient and sought-after investment classes, supported by demographic shifts, evolving lifestyle preferences, and persistent demand across the housing spectrum. Yet beneath the broad appeal lie striking contrasts: our panelists bring perspectives from the scale of public multifamily development, the opportunism of value-add investing, and the specialized dynamics of senior and student housing. Together, these vantage points reveal both the durability of residential demand and the diverse factors shaping its future.
The day continued with a keynote fireside chat on real estate, credit, and institutional capital in an evolving market with Michael Arougheti, Co-founder and CEO of Ares Management Corporation, and Francis Lively, Chief Executive Officer and President of The LCP Group, L.P.
Then we heard "Feeling the Drought: Access to Capital amid Tightened Liquidity in Private Equity Real Estate," moderated by Carey Doyle (Pennybacker Capital). Over the past three years, macroeconomic shifts and geopolitical uncertainty have created a challenging capital markets landscape for real estate investors. Rising interest rates and a slowdown in distributions have prompted institutional investors to scale back allocations to alternatives, including real estate. These headwinds are reshaping asset management and fundraising strategies across the private equity real estate sector. This panel brought together leading advisors, fund managers, capital providers, and institutional investors to discuss how the market is adapting—and where opportunities might lie.
The afternoon session began with a talk by Michael O’Malley, Executive Director and Interim Faculty Director of the Notre Dame Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate. Professor O'Malley presented on the "Next Generation of Real Estate Professionals."
Moderator Hara Perkins (Goulston & Storrswas) joined by Stani Iordanova and Peter Rose of Integrated Design Cubed and Peter Rose + Partners Modular for a panel on "Mass Timber – A Case Study from IDCUBED." IDCUBED, an integrated team of highly skilled architects and fabricators that designs everything - the building, the modules, module components, sub-assemblies as well as the supply chain and the entire assembly process – will present a case study of their modular mass timber project recently completed in Montana. IDCUBED’s approach to modular mass timber, (developed in collaboratively with European partners who have completed more than 30 modular mass timber buildings), significantly reduces construction time and costs. IDCUBED initially embarked on developing a modular mass timber program in the United States specifically to address housing and the limitations imposed by conventional methods of construction.
Cherie Santos-Wuest (Celadon Venture Advisors, LLC) moderated the panel "Real Estate Valuation: A Moving Target?" with Jim Costello (MSCI Research), Susan Kolasa (JP Morgan Asset Management), and Will McIntosh (ArcBridge Research Group). For institutional investors, office real estate (RE) valuation post-return-to-office has shifted, from relying on pre-pandemic metrics to a new focus on property quality, location, flexibility, and adaptation to hybrid work. After significant value declines, is the market is beginning to stabilize, attracting capital that bets on strategic repositioning and a "flight to quality"? This panel of executives from global RE investment management firms discussed where the landmines and opportunities still exist in this, as well as other sectors in the RE industry.
Next, Jonathan Flaherty (Tishman Speyer) and Laura Popa (NYC Department of Buildings) sat down with Chris Cayten (CodeGreen) to cover "Building Energy Performance Regulations - NYC's LL97 and National Implications." Cities and States around the country are passing laws to limit energy and emissions from existing buildings. The laws, known as Building Performance Standards (BPS) typically far exceed the performance requirements of construction codes and are catching the industry off-guard with fines reaching millions of dollars annually. The audience learned from NYC regulators what these BPS laws require and from leading real estate firms on how they are preparing to comply.
The conference closed with an exciting fireside chat on Institutional Fund Management with Khaled Kudsi (Sterling Investors). and Cole Weston (Yale Investments Office).
