🏢 EQR and AvalonBay explore $50B mega-merger
🤖 Anthropic locks down entire Hudson Square tower
🛢️ Iran war squeezing rents and construction costs
🔧 Upcoming Workshops:  Raising Capital from Family Offices, Building & Funding Student Housing

Data Viz of the Week: Fatherhood, Now and Then

How do fathers today spend their time versus fifty years ago? In short, they spend less time working and commuting and more time with their kids. Notably, fathers also get less personal time than they once did... other than sleep.

Designers and developers should take note. While apartment and home design has swiftly adapted to the rise in WFH, more active fathers may also drive demand for more family-oriented living arrangements and amenities.

Upcoming Thesis Driven Workshops

• 📣 Last Call - May 6: Raising Capital from Family Offices (💻 Online): ​​A 2-hour interactive workshop designed for real estate sponsors, entrepreneurs, and capital raisers looking to raise capital from family offices. - $299

• May 12: Building & Funding Student Housing (💻 Online): ​​A two-hour interactive workshop designed for real estate investors, developers, and capital allocators who want to understand—and invest in—the purpose-built student housing (PBSH) asset class. - $299

• May 14: Placemaking: Unlocking the Value of Rural Land (💻 Online): ​​​A 2-hour interactive workshop for developers who want to find, evaluate, and unlock the hidden potential of rural parcels using modern tools and proven placemaking frameworks.- $299

• May 18: C-PACE: Redefining Commercial Real Estate Capital Stacks (💻 Online): ​​​An interactive workshop for developers, lenders, investors, and advisors seeking a clear, working understanding of C-PACE and its role in today’s financing environment. - $299

• May 20: AI in Underwriting (💻 Online): ​​​An interactive workshop for owners, operators, developers, acquisitions teams, and asset managers exploring how AI is reshaping underwriting—from deal screening to investment committee. - $299

• May 21: Structuring an OpCo/PropCo Business (💻 Online): ​​​​A one-day interactive workshop designed for real estate operators, entrepreneurs, and investors looking to structure or invest in OpCo/PropCo platforms. - $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. (Bloomberg) U.S. Apartment Giants AvalonBay and Equity Residential Explore $50 Billion Merger The two largest publicly traded apartment REITs — AvalonBay Communities and Equity Residential — are in early talks to combine in what would be a roughly $50B mega-merger and one of the largest real estate transactions in history. AvalonBay controls roughly 98,300 units across 300+ properties in 11 states; EQR owns approximately 85,200 units across 300+ properties in six. Combined, the entity would control more than 180,000 apartments coast to coast. Both stocks have struggled as slow rent growth weighed on the sector, and consolidation could unlock operating efficiencies and capital markets scale. But any deal would face significant antitrust scrutiny — and neither company has confirmed the discussions publicly.

2. (Commercial Observer) AI Giant Anthropic Near Deal to Lease All of 330 Hudson Street Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, is closing in on a deal to lease the entire 466K SF at 330 Hudson Street in Manhattan's Hudson Square — a 16-story building owned by AEW Capital Management. The lease would be a massive jump from Anthropic's current 15K SF footprint at 155 Sixth Avenue, which expires this year. Because several existing tenants have leases running through 2028, Anthropic would likely take occupancy one or two floors at a time. The deal adds to a Q1 that saw AI firms lease 415K SF in Manhattan at double the pace of 2025 — and further cements New York as AI's East Coast headquarters.

3. (The Real Deal) Iran War Squeezes Consumers, and Real Estate Is Feeling It The economic fallout from the Iran conflict is now hitting real estate on multiple fronts. Oil prices have remained above $100/barrel since late February, pushing diesel costs up roughly 45% and compounding already-elevated construction material prices — cement, asphalt, plastics, roofing, and steel are all under pressure. Landlords are beginning to pass through rising utility, insurance, and maintenance costs via rent increases, squeezing tenants already dealing with broader inflation. Mortgage rates have climbed back above 6.4%, and an emerging aluminum shortage (Gulf exports account for ~21% of U.S. primary aluminum imports) is threatening supply chains across construction, automotive, and consumer goods. The longer the conflict drags on, the more the industry's margin and demand assumptions get tested.

Developer of the Week: Lndmrk Development

Miami-based Lndmrk Development, led by founder Alex Karakhanian, just closed a $126M construction loan with longtime partner PMG for Twenty Sixth & 2nd Wynwood Residences—a 233-unit, Airbnb-friendly condo where every unit comes with its own deeded office suite. 

The eight-story Wynwood project is already 73% presold at $500K-$1M, with construction wrapping in 2028. It's Lndmrk's second short-term-rental swing with PMG this year; the duo launched a 244-unit Frida Kahlo-branded condo nearby back in January.

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

Investor of the Week: Safanad

Safanad is a global holding company dual-headquartered in Dubai and New York, founded in 2009 by Ihsan Jawad with a purpose-built mandate to channel Gulf family and HNWI capital into global private markets.

The firm manages north of $2B in AUM on behalf of Gulf-based families and institutional investors, and its team of approximately 50 professionals has completed more than 40 transactions totaling $10B across real estate, private equity, healthcare, education, and digital infrastructure. Safanad runs a professional IC structure — not a passive family office — but Jawad remains the face and driving force behind capital allocation.

Within real estate, Safanad focuses on equity investments in multifamily and hospitality across major U.S. markets, with an opportunistic and value-add bias that favors complexity and repositioning upside over core yield. The firm has been building platform-level operator relationships, most notably a strategic partnership with MAG Partners in New York that has produced multiple deals — including a 480-unit multifamily development at 241 West 28th Street (Safanad's first NYC multifamily investment) and a $200M joint venture with Global Holdings to develop a 194-unit luxury mixed-use tower at 300 East 50th Street in Turtle Bay. On the hospitality side, Safanad partnered with The LCP Group on a $33.3M senior mortgage loan for the refinancing of the 178-key Dream Hollywood. The firm's deployment strategy is structured around separate accounts and co-investments.

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

—Brad and Paul