Ori Batagower

@realEstateTrent @SilvestriJon @kar_nels I’m aware that sales reporting is very common across the board with retail centers But thanks for my education There’s a clear implication from the LL’s original comment above that he’s trying to base market rent as a function of the tenant’s sales Thanks again

@SilvestriJon @kar_nels @OBatagower Hey here’s an education: welcome ❤️

This was just sent to me by another strip mall owner

@realEstateTrent Attorneys?

What kills more real estate deals than anything else?

@realEstateTrent I feel like I want to sing your tweet to the tune of Piano Man That is all for now

It’s 8:48pm on a Friday and I’m tired. Also: Nobody’s ever wanted anything like my wife currently wants chocolate cake. There’s no reasoning with her. Out the door I go. Baby number 3 can’t come soon enough.

@BillAckman @MikeNew19512115 @X Give em hell

I am reaching out to the @X community for advice with the likely risk of sharing TMI. I have been sufficiently upset about the whole matter that I have lost sleep thinking about it and I am hoping that this post will enable me to get this matter off my chest. By way of background, I started a family office called TABLE about 15 years ago and hired a friend who had previously managed a family office, and years earlier, had been my personal accountant. She is someone that I trusted implicitly and consider to be a good person. The office started small, but over the last decade, the number of personnel and the cost of the office grew massively. The growth was entirely on the operational side as the investment team has remained tiny. While my investment portfolio grew substantially, the investments I had made were almost entirely passive and TABLE simply needed to account for them and meet capital calls as they came in. While TABLE purchased additional software and other systems that were supposed to improve productivity, the team kept increasing in size at a rapid rate, and the expenses continued to grow even faster. While I would periodically question the growing expenses and high staff turnover, I stayed uninvolved with the office other than a once-a-year meeting when I briefly reviewed the operations and the financials and determined bonus compensation for the President and the CFO. I spent no time with any of the other employees or the operations. The whole idea behind TABLE was that it would handle everything other than my day job so that I would have more time for my job and my family. Over the last six years, expenses ballooned even further, employee turnover accelerated, and I became concerned that all was not well at TABLE. It was time for me to take a look at what was going on. Nearly four years ago, I recruited my nephew who had recently graduated from Harvard and put him to work at Bremont, a British watchmaker, one of my only active personal investments to figure out the issues at the company and ultimately assist in executing a turnaround. He did a superb job. When he returned from the UK late last year after a few years at Bremont, I asked him to help me figure out what was going on with TABLE. When I explained to TABLE’s president what he would be doing, she became incredibly defensive, which naturally made me more concerned. My nephew went to work by first meeting with each employee to understand their roles at the company and to learn from them what ideas they had on how things could be improved. He got an earful. Our first step in helping to turn around TABLE was a reduction in force including the president and about a third of the team, retaining excellent talent that had been desperate for new leadership. Now here is where I need your advice. All but one of the employees who were terminated acted professionally and were gracious on the way out (excluding the president who had a notice period in her contract, is currently still being paid, and with whom I have not yet had a discussion). The highest compensated terminated employee other than the president, an in-house lawyer (let’s call her Ronda), told us that three months of severance was not enough and demanded two years’ severance despite having worked at the company for only two and one half years. When I learned of Ronda's request for severance, I offered to speak with her to understand what she was thinking, but she refused to do so. A few days ago, we received a threatening letter from a Silicon Valley law firm. In the letter, Ronda’s counsel suggests that her termination is part of longstanding issues of ‘harassment and gender discrimination’ – an interesting claim in light of the fact that Ronda was in charge of workplace compliance – and that her termination was due to: “unlawful, retaliatory, and harmful conduct directed towards her. Both [Ronda] and I [Ronda’s lawyer] have spoken with you about [Ronda’s] view of what a reasonable resolution would include given the circumstances. Thus far, TABLE has refused to provide any substantive response. This letter provides the last opportunity to reach a satisfactory agreement. If we cannot do so, [Ronda] will seek all appropriate relief in a court of competent jurisdiction.” The letter goes on to explain the basis for the “unsafe work environment” claim at TABLE: “In early 2026, Pershing Square’s founder Bill Ackman installed his nephew in an unidentified role at TABLE, Ackman’s family office. [His nephew]—whose only work experience had been for TABLE where he was seconded abroad for the last four years to a UK watch company held by Ackman—began appearing at TABLE’s offices and conducting interviews of employees without a clear explanation of his role or the purposes of these interviews. During this period, he made a series of inappropriate and genderbased [sic] comments to multiple employees that created an unsafe work environment. Among other things, [his nephew] made remarks about female employees’ ages (“Tell me you are nowhere near 40”), physical appearance (“Your body does not look like you have kids”), as well as intrusive questions about family planning and sexual orientation (“Who carried your son? Who will carry your next child?”). These incidents were reported to senior leadership at TABLE and Pershing Square. Rather than being addressed appropriately, the response from senior management reflected, at best, willful blindness to the inappropriateness of [his nephew]’s remarks and, at worst, tacit endorsement.” The above allegations about my nephew had previously been brought to my attention by TABLE’s president when they occurred. When I learned of them, I told the president that I would speak to him directly and encouraged her to arrange for him to get workplace sensitivity training. The president assured me that she would do so. When I spoke to my nephew, he explained what he actually had said and how his actual remarks had been received, not at all as alleged in the legal letter from Ronda’s counsel. I have also spoken to others at the lunch table who confirmed his description of the facts. In any case, he meant no harm, was simply trying to build rapport with other employees, and no one, as far as I understand, was offended. Ironically, Ronda claims in her legal letter that TABLE didn’t take HR compliance seriously, yet Ronda was in charge of HR compliance at TABLE and the person who gave my nephew his workplace sensitivity training after the alleged incidents. In any case, Ronda, as head of compliance, should have kept a record or raised an alarm if indeed there was pervasive harassment or other such problems at the company, and there is no evidence whatsoever that this is true. So why does Ronda believe she can get me to pay her nearly $2 million, i.e., two years of severance, nearly one year of severance for each of her years at the company? Well, here is where some more background would be helpful. Over the last two months, I have been consumed with a major family medical issue – one of my older daughters had a massive brain hemorrhage on February 5th and has since been making progress on her recovery – and I am in the midst of a major transaction for my company which I am executing from a hospital room office next to her . While the latter business matter is publicly known, the details of my daughter’s situation are only known to Ronda because of her role at our family office. Now, let’s get back to the subject at hand. Unfortunately, while New York and many other states have employment-at-will, there has emerged an industry of lawyers who make a living from bringing fake gender, race, LGBTQ and other discrimination employment claims in order to extract larger severance payments for terminated employees, and it needs to stop. The fake claim system succeeds because it costs little to have a lawyer send a threatening letter and nearly all of the lawyers in this field work on contingency so there is no or minimal cash cost to bring a claim. And inevitably, nearly 100% of these claims are settled because the public relations and legal costs of defending them exceed the dollar cost of the settlement. The claims are nearly always settled with a confidentiality agreement where the employee who asserts the fake claims remains anonymous and as a result, there is no reputational cost to bringing false claims. The consequences of this sleazy system (let’s call it ‘the System’) are the increased costs of doing business which is a tax on the economy and society. There are other more serious problems due to the System. Unfortunately, the existence of an industry of plaintiff firms and terminated employees willing to make these claims makes it riskier for companies to hire employees from a protected class, i.e., LGBTQ, seniors, women, people of color etc. because it is that much more reputationally damaging and expensive to be accused of racism, sexism, and/or intolerance for sexual diversity than for firing a white male as juries generally have less sympathy for white males. The System therefore increases the risk of discrimination rather than reducing it, and the people bringing these fake claims are thereby causing enormous harm to the other members of these protected classes. So what happened here? Ronda was vastly overpaid and overqualified for the job that she did at TABLE. She was paid $1.05 million plus benefits last year for her work which was largely comprised of filling out subscription agreements and overseeing an outside law firm on closing passive investments in funds and in private and venture stage companies, some compliance work, and managing the office move from one office to another. She had a very good gig as she was highly paid, only had to go into the office three days a week, and could work from anywhere during the summer. Once my nephew showed up and started to investigate what was going on, she likely concluded that there was a reasonable possibility she would be terminated, as her job was in the too-easy-and-to-good-to-be-true category. The problem was that she was not in a protected class due to her race, age or sexual identity so she had to construct the basis for a claim. While she is female and could in theory bring a gender-based discrimination claim, she reported to the president who is female and to whom she is very close, which makes it difficult for her to bring a harassment claim against her former boss. When my nephew complimented a TABLE employee at lunch about how young she looked – in response to saying she was going to her 40-year-old sister’s birthday party, he said ‘she must be your older sister’ – Ronda immediately reported it to our external HR lawyer. She thereby began building her case. The other problem for Ronda bringing a claim is that she was terminated alongside 30% of other TABLE employees as part of a restructuring so it is very difficult for her to say that she was targeted in her termination or was retaliated against. TABLE is now hiring an external fractional general counsel as that is all the company needs to process the relatively limited amount of legal work we do internally. In short, Ronda was eminently qualified and capable and did her job. She was just too much horsepower for what is largely an administrative legal role so she had to come up with something else to bring a claim. Now Ronda knew I was a good target and it was a good time to bring a claim against me. She also knew that I was under a lot of pressure because on March 4th when Ronda was terminated, my daughter had not yet emerged from consciousness, she was not yet breathing on her own, and my daughter and we were fighting for her life. I was and remain deeply engaged in her recovery while at the same time I was working on finishing the closing for the private placement round for my upcoming IPO. Ronda also knew that publicity about supposed gender discrimination and a “hostile and unsafe work environment” are not things that a CEO of a company about to go public wants to have released into the media. And she may have thought that the nearly $2 million she was asking for would be considered small in the context of the reputational damage a lawsuit could cause, regardless of the fact that two years of severance was an absurd amount for an employee who had only worked at TABLE for 30 months. She also likely considered that I wouldn’t want to embarrass my nephew by dragging him into the klieg lights when her claims emerged publicly. So, in summary, game theory would say that I would certainly settle this case, for why would I risk negative publicity at a time when I was preparing our company to go public and also risk embarrassing my nephew. Notably, she hired a Silicon Valley law firm, rather than a typical NY employment firm. This struck me as interesting as her husband works for one of the most prominent Silicon Valley venture firms whose CEO, I am sure, has no tolerance for these kinds of fake claims that sadly many venture-backed companies also have to deal with. I mention this as I suspect her husband likely has been working with her on the strategy for squeezing me as, in addition to being a computer scientist, he is a game theorist. My only advice for him is to understand more about your opponent before you launch your first move. All of the above said, gender, race, LGBTQ and other such discrimination is a real thing. Many people have been harmed and deserve compensation for this discrimination, and these companies and individuals should be punished for engaging in such behavior. Which brings me to the advice I am seeking from the X community. I am not planning to follow the typical path and settle this ‘claim.’ Rather, I am going to fight this nonsense to the end of the earth in the hope that it inspires other CEOs to do the same so we shut down this despicable behavior that is a large tax on society, employment, and the economy and contributes to workplace discrimination rather than reducing it. Do you agree or disagree that this is the right approach?

@realEstateTrent Sounds like Resimercial representation I understand the reticence but just tell them you’re StripMallGuy

Conversation we’ve had multiple times: Seller: Please show me proof of funds. Us: We are a real estate fund, and funds provide sellers with more surety of close than syndications or private capital. We have done 45 deals, many of which are easily searchable online. Here are a few. We buy each deal all-cash, and can close in 45 days. Seller: I need proof of funds. Us: Some of the biggest institutions in the US have sold us deals because we do what we say - here are links to articles. Seller: Proof of funds. Us: Funds don’t hold tens or hundreds of millions in a checking account. They have committed capital from investors, and the money is called per deal.

@realEstateTrent Who the hell is Don Tepman? “This is StripMallGuy” would get my attention! Reach out if you can Let me know what you all are looking for and it would be a privilege to work on a deal

That’s it. People have stopped answering their phones. So now what? It’s all-hands-on deck to find deals right now for our team, and I’ve joined them to cold-call brokers. Out of 10 calls I made yesterday - zero picked up. So I leave a voicemail: “Good Morning. My name is Don Tepman, I’m a principal, and we buy strip centers. I know that’s your focus - we’ve bought 45 of them, and we buy them all cash. Would love to find a way to work together. Please give me a call when you have a moment. Thanks so much.” 2 out of 10 called me back. If you try to reach people via cold-email, many of those go to a spam or promotions folder. People are staring at their phone all day but they’re not using it to actually be on the phone. So it begs the honest question, how exactly do you build new relationships in this new environment? How do you grow your business when the telephone and email are no longer tools you can count on? How do you get people’s attention at scale? I guess since people are scrolling social media every day - I guess that’s the only place you can really reach them and relay your message with any type of scale. In many ways, the cold-call might be dead.

@leekern13 Hang in there. Give em hell

If you operate an Iranian missile launcher you are going to die I hope it’s worth causing me ten minutes inconvenience having to go into a shelter and chill and have a drink with my neighbours

@GadSaad Does she take CIGNA?

Thoughts?

@realEstateTrent 30 🤣

Recently turned 46, and can honestly say I wasn’t looking forward to it. At what age do you stop being excited for your next birthday?

@VividProwess Give em hell

Long night ahead of us. Are you with us? 🇮🇱

How do you think Khamenei will meet his end? 1) U.S. bombs. 2) Israeli bombs. 3) Mossad.

@shaig Win: AOC Place: Tucker Show: Columbia You’re welcome

@Zeus1889 @shanaka86

@shanaka86 Iran already Downing multiple Israeli Fighter Jets. If they start using their hypersonics then its Game over

The first 24 hours were Israel. The next 24 hours are America. Here is the force architecture that is now activating and what it is designed to do in sequence. Phase one already happened. Eleven F-22 Raptors from Ovda entered Iranian airspace invisible to whatever air defenses survived June 2025. Their mission was not to bomb. Their mission was to map every radar emission, destroy every surface-to-air battery that powered up, and create corridors of absolute silence through which everything that follows can pass undetected. This is what F-22s did to Russian S-300s in Venezuela. No interceptor fired. The entire network went dark. Iran’s rebuilt air defenses likely suffered the same fate in the opening minutes. Phase two is now. The USS Gerald R. Ford sits off Haifa with a full carrier air wing. Its position is not offensive. It is a tripwire. Any Iranian missile that crosses Israeli airspace passes through the Ford’s Aegis radar envelope. An attack on Israel is now automatically an attack in the vicinity of an American carrier strike group. That is not an accident. That is the legal and operational trigger for full American engagement under self-defense. The USS Abraham Lincoln holds station in the Gulf of Oman, 850 kilometers from Iran’s southern coast, with a second full air wing and escort destroyers carrying 300 plus Tomahawk cruise missiles between them. Phase three comes overnight. Six F-16CM Block 50s confirmed at Diego Garcia. These are Wild Weasel variants, built specifically to hunt and kill radar systems. They extend the suppression campaign that the F-22s began. Behind them at Diego Garcia sit the assets that end this: B-2 Spirit stealth bombers carrying GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, the 30,000 pound bombs designed for one purpose on earth, punching through the reinforced concrete and mountain rock protecting Fordow. 113 additional fighters sit at European bases ready for deployment. F-35As, F-15E Strike Eagles, and more F-16s. Fifty fifth-generation stealth aircraft have been added to the theater in the last 72 hours alone. Fourteen tankers at Ben Gurion keep everything airborne. The logistics tail from 270 C-17 transport flights is now feeding a machine that can sustain high-intensity operations for weeks. Iran’s retaliation hit one civilian in Abu Dhabi with debris. America’s next phase will hit Fordow with penetrators that were designed during the Obama administration for exactly this moment. The UK denied Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford for strike operations. It does not matter. The B-2 can fly from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, refuel over the Atlantic, deliver its payload over Isfahan, and return without landing. It has done this before. It needs no permission from any country between takeoff and impact. The first day was the scalpel. The next day is the hammer. And the hammer does not need a runway in anyone else’s country to swing. open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

@NiohBerg It’s for Purim, not Ramadan

He's inside Iran and speaks the truth.

@ronsterd89 1978

Based on the entirety of this photograph, what is your best estimation of the year it was taken?

@TristenPalori Oh damn

Junior Broker: I'm telling you, the whole industry is about to change. AI prospecting tools, automated comp analysis, predictive analytics for tenant behavior. The brokers who don't adapt are going to get left behind. It's all about leveraging technology to scale your deal flow. Senior Broker: Of course that's your contention. You're a first year broker. You just got finished listening to some proptech podcast — probably that CBRE Future of Work series. You're gonna be convinced of that 'til next month when you hear about some new AI-powered CRM, and then you're gonna be talking about how "machine learning is revolutionizing tenant targeting." That's gonna last until next quarter, then you're gonna be in here regurgitating some CoStar webinar, talking about, you know, "predictive pipeline analytics" and the "data-driven future of brokerage." Junior Broker: Well, as a matter of fact, I won't, because CoStar drastically underestimates the impact of — Senior Broker: "—drastically underestimates the impact of relationship-driven deal flow, especially in tight-knit markets." You got that from that Cushman & Wakefield white paper, page 14, right? Yeah, I read that too. Were you gonna plagiarize the whole thing for us? Do you have any thoughts of your own on this business? Or is that your thing? You come into a broker happy hour, you cite some obscure proptech trend and then pretend? You pawn it off as your own insight just to impress some new agents and embarrass guys who've actually closed deals? See the sad thing about a guy like you is in 50 years you're gonna start doing some thinking on your own and you're gonna come up with the fact that there are two certainties in this business. One: don't do that. And two: You dropped ten grand on CoStar licenses and CRM subscriptions when you coulda learned this business by picking up the phone and building actual relationships. Junior Broker: Yeah, but I will have a tech-enabled platform. And you'll be leaving voicemails that nobody returns while I'm scaling my outreach on Crexi. Senior Broker: Yeah, maybe. But at least I won't be unoriginal. And my clients will actually pick up when I call. By the way if you have a problem with that, I mean, we could just step outside and compare our actual closed transactions.

@OsheaJacksonJr The best ever

In 40 years, it had never rained during the Super Bowl. On the day of 41st the heavens opened up and poured down hard. Because everything on the stage were live instruments and the stage floor was slick with water for he and his dancers, they asked Prince what did he want to do about the performance. Prince replied, “can you make it rain harder?” Long live Prince. The greatest halftime performance in Super Bowl history.

@StandUpForElonn @RealJamesWoods 👍

@RealJamesWoods @mikeroweworks We love you, James There are actors, and then there’s James Woods

Hey, all. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this time with @mikeroweworks. I swear, it was like sitting in a café with a cup of coffee, talking to your best friend. Enjoy! youtu.be/d7M7SyckDfE?si…