🏗️ Brookfield tees up $10B infra fund
🏘️ City of LA doubles down on affordable housing push
☔️ US regional banks weather CRE storm, office loans continue lag
📚 Workshops & courses: Real Estate Finance 101; AI for Real Estate; & Data Centers

Data Viz of the Week: Where are the Kids?

Want to know which markets are vibrant and which stagnate?  Just look for the kids.

The population of children under 5 is an exaggerated indicator of a market's vitality, growth, and affordability. The biggest gainers of kids since 2005 - almost all Sunbelt metros - also saw significant job and population growth. 

On the flip side, markets with expensive housing, most of them coastal cities with strict zoning laws, saw an exodus of families and kids.

Upcoming Thesis Driven Courses & Classes

• December 9-10: Workshop: AI in Real Estate (💻 Online): ​​A two-day interactive workshop for owners, operators, and developers exploring how to use AI in the real estate sector - Sign up 

• December 11-12: Workshop: How to Build & Fund Data Centers (with Danny English) (💻 Online): A two-day interactive workshop designed for real estate investors, developers, and capital allocators who want to understand—and invest in—the data center asset class. - Sign up 

• December 16-17: Workshop: Real Estate Finance 101 (💻 Online): ​​A two-day interactive workshop designed for founders, operators, and professionals who want to finally understand how real estate finance actually works—and learn to speak the language of developers, investors, and property owners. - Sign up 

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. (WSJ) Brookfield Tees Up $10B AI Infrastructure Fund

   Brookfield is launching a $10 billion equity fund to build and acquire AI-infrastructure assets—ranging from hyperscale data centers and dedicated power plants to chip manufacturing sites. Backers like Nvidia and the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) have already committed half the target. Combined with co-investments and debt, the firm plans to deploy up to $100 billion in this thematic build-out.

2. (WSJ) Los Angeles Doubles Down on Affordable Housing Push

   The City of Los Angeles is advancing a major initiative to build tens of thousands of new affordable housing units by 2030. The plan calls for unlocking city-owned land, speeding up permitting, and offering zoning bonuses for developers taking on housing at income-restricted levels. Challenges remain—including labor shortages, rising construction costs, and local opposition to dense development—but city officials believe the urgency of the housing crisis gives them political and regulatory momentum.

3. US regional banks weather CRE storm, office loans continue lag

   The commercial real estate loan portfolios of U.S. regional banks remain surprisingly resilient, but the office sector portion continues to underperform. While many CRE loan books showed year-over-year improvement in non-performing loans, roughly one-fifth of upcoming maturities are tied to office properties—which face elevated vacancy and refinancing risks.

Developer of the Week: Grid Group

Condo development marches on in Chelsea, Manhattan.

NYC-based Grid Group released a new rendering and teaser site for The Myles, its condominium project at 142 West 21st Street in Chelsea. The 13-story BKSK-designed building will include 22 units, mostly four- and five-bedrooms, with prices starting at $2.995 million and penthouses listed at $12.5 million. 

Planned features include home offices, laundry rooms, butler’s pantries, and outdoor space for most units, along with parking for 16 vehicles. Amenities include a fitness terrace and a rooftop deck with lounge, dining, and grilling areas. The exterior combines brick, terracotta, and metal panels over a stone base, aiming to reference Chelsea’s historic character.

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

Know about a developer doing something cool? Reach out to [email protected] with the tip!

Investor of the Week: Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC)

Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC) is one of the Middle East’s most globally active institutional real estate investors, managing a diversified portfolio built through fund commitments, co-investments, joint ventures, and listed securities across international markets. Led by Dan Teper, the Council deploys capital across every major real estate sector—from residential and industrial to hospitality, senior housing, and student housing—consistently partnering with best-in-class operators who offer deep local expertise.

ADIC structures its real estate activity through a mix of specified asset partnerships, programmatic partnerships, and company-level ownership of REOCs (real estate operating companies). This gives the institution flexibility to scale investments, gain operational influence, and deepen long-term relationships with operating partners across multiple assets and geographies.

The Council prioritizes value-add and opportunistic strategies, with a particular focus on industrial/logistics, multifamily and residential, hotel, and retail for its REOC partnership investments. On the alternative side, ADIC is actively exploring data centers, self-storage, and healthcare-linked real estate such as senior housing and medical office, signaling a growing appetite for structurally supported, demographically driven segments.

Get more details on ADIC, including executive contacts, deal activity, and investment preferences, on the CapitalStack database.

—Brad and Paul