Brian Ker - Snowball Developments

@Snowball_Dev sold 325 Midland in Garfield NJ last week. Exiting an asset is bittersweet, especially when it was the 1st deal that kick-started Snowball as a business. Fortunately, we are midway thru a major renovation for the user-buyer, so withdrawal will be slow. #retwit 👇

This position offers the flexibility to be hybrid in-person or fully remote. If you believe you are uniquely qualified, you are invited to apply with your resume & a customized cover letter. If you know a superstar potential candidate, please forward their name.

They want their compensation to reflect their personal output and the team's collective long-term success. This means real ownership & profit participation - not discretionary or formulaic annual bonuses.

Snowball continues to expand its portfolio. With each new asset, the team is strained, leading to lower priority items being shuffled, strategic planning pushed back & delayed communications. We are addressing this challenge via the search for a Chief of Staff & Director of IR.

The most brutal rejection ever that sounds like its own manager's epitaph: "Institutional ownership and capital flows are what we are focused on here – not the inventory or the merits of the market."

@robbiehendricks And I thought rate locking 5 weeks ago was bad

“Should we lower rates, sir?” “No, don’t do it. He’s going to rate lock. I feel it.” “But sir, unemployment is rising. People are scared.” “I said wait, dammit…just wait for him to rate lock.” Congrats guys, we’re locked! “Okay, now slowly lower rates by 200 bps. Great job everyone.”

« The real value chain is moving from data, to knowledge, to insight, and the highest value layer remains deeply human. » 👊

Just wrapped my last @ULINewYork RE Tech & Innovation Council session of 2025-2026. In the year marked by significant AI advances & disruption, our Council agreed upon the following collective statement: 👎

@FCNightingale There is a reason that Place Dupuis is for sale in MTL.

Foreign lenders take $120M haircut at Brooklyn office tower. La Caisse took a $55 million write-down on a $235 million construction loan issued in 2018. EB-5 investors absorbed approximately $65 million in losses on nearly $100 million of mezzanine debt. The recapitalization helped secure a five-year, $125 million mortgage from Deutsche Bank. Cost more than $450 million to build and is now appraised at $190 million. 1 Willoughby Square Brooklyn, New York City. -TheRealDeal #commercialrealestate

@Jeffdthompson JT they barely survived and their stock price is still in the toilet with a div yield of 5%. So there is a leasing snapback off the bottom. Maybe now is the time to buy back into retail, but Riocan’s 10 yr performance is nothing to celebrate. Surprised John Gitlin stuck around.

One of the largest owners of retail real estate in Canada, RioCan, just reported Q1 2026 earnings and the numbers tell a story every retail landlord in Canada should be paying attention to. Retail occupancy sitting at 99%. Renewal rents up 20.1% in the quarter. New tenant rents up 58.5% over prior rates. That last number is not a typo. But the most interesting part of the story isn’t the headline rent growth. It’s what RioCan is embedding into their new leases annual rent escalations of 2% to 4% on almost every deal they sign. This is something landlords have been pushing for in leases for a long time but it looks like RioCan is using its strength in the market to successfully execute on the strategy. This will pay dividends for both cash flow and long-term value. Here’s why. A flat lease and an escalating lease might look similar in year one. By year five they are very different assets. Embedded rent growth compounds. It builds value quietly and consistently in the background whether the market is hot or cold. The reason RioCan can do this is simple. High construction costs, lack of land, and zoning constraints mean new retail supply is essentially off the table. As RioCan’s CEO Jonathan Gitlin put it, if RioCan can’t find viable land to build new sites, it’s likely others face the same challenges. No new supply. 99% occupancy. Tenants competing for space. That’s the formula for pricing power. And pricing power is exactly what RioCan is using to reshape their lease structures for the next decade. With 1.7 million square feet of lease maturities still remaining in 2026, the mark-to-market opportunity is far from over. The Canadian retail market was written off a decade ago. The landlords who held their assets and stayed patient are now collecting.

@AdamB1438 @ethanard @CondensedI The GP is talent and the LP is capital. Talent goes to where it can make the highest return on effort and that is larger deals with backend liquidity.

This is the big question, right? I've decided that when there's a "quality" aspect to it, I'll go ahead and do those. Otherwise, might not be much more effort to do a bigger deal (if I can find them), so why not give the market what it's asking me for? Let's catch up some time and I'll show you the kinds of stuff I'm talking about.

As a GP I would rather put together deals that are $3m and up. As an LP, nothing compares to the stuff you can do at $1m and less. Make of this what you will...

@tierrapartners Warehousing

@Snowball_Dev Is this stuff for warehouse or manufacturing?

Another 200k sf of industrial leasing absorption confirmed in North Hartford today along with 225k under negotiation. Tight conditions getting tighter.

What are the most essential but hopefully least disrespectful DD questions to ask institutional allocators when a GP has options?

@KeithPowersNYC Thanks Keith for your tireless public service, ever complainers like Steve can move to car heaven Alabama.

The Park Avenue redesign idea originated from the *property owners* who wanted to lift up Park Avenue and give the area a refresh. It also comes at a time when we need to repair the crumbling train shed underneath.

Which is Vornado’s shareholders largest nemesis especially coming off COVID where the NYC office / commercial market recovery is now in full swing. “Tax the rich” is a slogan, but it’s not offensive to anyone but those who depend on a thriving economy. Bad judgement IMO. 👊

To clarify the record, Vornado does not pay property taxes. Its tenants do, Vornado just is the middleman. However if building spaces sit vacant & no Tenant pays the tax on that space, then Vornado makes up the difference. So Roth’s comments speak to his worry about vacancy. 👇

So many folks to thank that made this deal happen: - @Sentry_Comm for bringing the off market deal to us - @DavidEyzenberg for arranging our financing - @Emerald_Creek for providing the acq loan - @fidelitytitle for title work - @USIIns & @Lockton for risk mgmt

We closed our 19th industrial acquisition yesterday up in East Hartford. The leasing opportunities being generated in that submarket feels like Northern Jersey in 2018 as NNN rents double from $4-5 psf to an $8-9 range. Buying these assets at a compelling basis feels so durable.