🤖 NYC Is "Sleepwalking Into the Age of AI"
🛍️ Luxury Brands Drop $9B to Become Their Own Landlords
🌽 The Midwest Flips the Script on Out-Migration
🔧 Upcoming Workshops:  AI in AEC, Selling into CRE

Data Viz of the Week: AI Fixed Investment Surges

US tech fixed investment has risen from $430B in 2007 to over $2T in 2026, with the steepest acceleration in the last 18 months. Meanwhile, every other category of US private fixed investment (factories, equipment, apartments, you name it) peaked in 2024 and is now rolling over. The two lines are about to cross for the first time in modern history.

This represents capital reallocation at a scale we haven't seen since the railroads. Data centers are an increasingly dominant part of the investment economy and America's economic backbone.

Upcoming Thesis Driven Workshops

• 📣 Last Call - June 3: AI in AEC (💻 Online): ​​​​​A one-day interactive workshop for owners, operators, developers, architects, and builders exploring how AI is reshaping the AEC stack—from design to delivery. - $299

• 📣 Last Call - June 4: Selling into the Real Estate Industry (💻 Online): ​​​​​A one-day interactive workshop for owners, operators, developers, architects, and builders exploring how AI is reshaping the AEC stack—from design to delivery. - $499

• June 11: Building the Zero-Employee Property Manager (💻 Online): ​​​​​A live interactive workshop for owners, operators, and asset managers exploring how close we really are to running multifamily properties with little—or no—full-time staff. - $299

• June 18: Raising Capital from Family Offices & RIAs (💻 Online): ​​​​​A two-hour interactive workshop designed for real estate sponsors, entrepreneurs, and capital raisers looking to raise capital from family offices and registered investment advisers. - $299

Three Articles We Loved from Last Week

It’s not easy keeping up with everything. Here are three articles we loved from the past week that you may have missed:

1. (CoStar) New York Is 'Sleepwalking Into the Age of AI,' City Comptroller Warns NYC Comptroller Mark Levine released a report outlining five scenarios for AI's impact on the city's economy and fiscal health — and the takeaway is decidedly mixed. AI firms leased 1 million square feet in Manhattan in 2025, a 152% increase from 2024, and are seeking an additional 1.4 million square feet in 2026, making them among the heaviest in-office users in the market. But the comptroller warns that the same technology driving leasing demand could displace jobs across finance, legal, and professional services, recommending the city boost its rainy day fund to 16% of tax revenue as a fiscal shock absorber.

2. (The Wall Street Journal) Luxury Brands Are Racing to Buy Their Flagship Stores Europe's luxury houses have spent more than $9 billion buying boutiques on the world's top shopping streets since 2023 — and Fifth Avenue is ground zero. Kering paid $963 million for 711-715 Fifth Avenue, Prada scooped up its longtime flagship and the building next door for a combined $835 million, and LVMH acquired roughly $2.66 billion in real estate globally last year. The logic is defensive as much as strategic: brands fear that if they don't buy the building, a rival will — and send them packing.

3. (GlobeSt) Midwest Sees First Net Migration Gain in Years The Midwest posted a net gain of about 16,000 domestic migrants in the year ending June 2025, a sharp reversal from 2022 when the region lost more than 175,000 residents. Metro areas long associated with stagnation — including Cleveland and Akron — are now posting population gains, driven by affordability, remote work flexibility, and an industrial renaissance tied to EV and microchip manufacturing. Six of the 10 hottest neighborhoods in the U.S. for 2026 are in the Midwest, per Redfin, and housing transaction timelines in the region are among the fastest in the country.

Developer of the Week: Mori

Tokyo-based Mori Building Co. acquired a stake in SL Green's 346 Madison Avenue trophy office project, marking the firm's first development investment in New York City. The deal values the asset at $175M, with SL Green acting as development and leasing manager.

This signals a notable trend of Japanese capital deepening its U.S. real estate development exposure beyond passive ownership, at a moment when Midtown Manhattan office leasing is showing real recovery momentum.

You can read more about Mori on the Thesis Driven GP database here.

Investor of the Week: Metrolina

Metrolina Capital is a Mooresville, NC-based family office and private lending platform with roots in the Carolinas construction industry — specifically, the Tsumas family's ready-mix concrete business, which grew from a single plant to 19 concrete plants, 3 block plants, and a sand operation across North and South Carolina before being sold. Partner Harry Tsumas pivoted into real estate development in 1996, and Managing Partner Joe Jackson — an MAI, CCIM, and MRICS with 30+ years in commercial valuations, analytics, and lending — now leads the firm's investment and debt origination efforts. Together, the team has served as principals in 86+ real estate transactions over the last decade, deploying family capital alongside a private REIT vehicle for outside investors.

Metrolina's equity portfolio spans industrial, self-storage, net lease, and specialty assets across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, with national reach for single-tenant deals. Holdings include the Lake Norman, South East, and East Iredell Industrial Parks in the Charlotte MSA; a 103,000+ square-foot, 600+ unit climate-controlled self-storage facility in Myrtle Beach; a 1.28 million-square-foot Sherwin-Williams distribution center in Effingham, IL; and a growing Goodwill Industries portfolio spanning multiple chapters nationally. The firm also underwrites private debt and structured equity — providing bridge loans, preferred equity, and creative capital structures alongside its principal investments — giving operators a single counterparty for both the check and the capital stack.

Get more details on Metrolina, including team contacts, deal activity, and investment preferences, inside the CapitalStack database.

—Brad and Paul