💎 Flatiron Building goes luxe, unveiling $11mm+ units
📉 Distress retreats.. CMBS cracks heal slightly
🔬 Zillow & Redfin under the microscope
📚 Workshops & courses: AI, Selling into RE Owners & retail capital raising (new)

Data Viz of the Week: Modern Multifamily Tops Fire Safety Study

A new Pew study shows that modern multifamily buildings are the safest type of structure when it comes to fire, with a far lower fire death rate than either single-family homes or older multifamily buildings.

If we want to lower fire death rates, making it easier to build new multifamily structures - with sprinklers, alarms, and fire-rated materials - is the best policy.

Upcoming Thesis Driven Courses & Classes

• 📣 LAST CALL October 6: Selling into Real Estate Owners (💻 Online): A bootcamp for people selling technology and products into the real estate industry - Sign up

• October 7-8: Workshop: AI in Real Estate (💻 Online): A two-day interactive workshop for real estate owners, operators, and developers exploring how to use AI in the sector - Sign up 

• October 14-15: Workshop: Raising Retail Capital at Scale (💻 Online): A two-day interactive workshop for real estate sponsors, entrepreneurs, and fund managers raising capital from individual investors at scale. - 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. (The Real Deal) Developers Behind Flatiron Building Conversion Unveil Pricing

   The team converting NYC’s Flatiron Building released the initial pricing for 18 of 38 luxury residences: units start just under $11M, with the highest asking prices at $48M–$50M. Total sellout is estimated at ~$375M (including lockers and wine cellars).

2. (CRE Daily) CMBS Distress Trends Improve in Q3 2025 as Market Stabilizes

   In Q3 2025, CMBS delinquency dipped to 8.59%, and special servicing dropped to 10.63%. Improvement is largely driven by industrial and retail sectors, while office assets continue to drag on overall performance metrics. Issuance of private CMBS and CRE CLOs is also rising.

3. (WSJ) FTC Sues Zillow, Redfin Over Pact to Suppress Rental Advertising Competition

   The Federal Trade Commission filed an antitrust lawsuit against Zillow and Redfin, alleging the firms conspired to limit competition in the online rental listings market. The agency claims the companies’ data-sharing agreement gave them an unfair advantage by locking out rivals like Apartments.com, potentially inflating advertising costs for property owners. Both firms deny wrongdoing, but the case could reshape digital real-estate marketing.

Developer of the Week: Holland Partner Group

More transit-oriented housing has come to Silicon Valley.

Holland Partner Group has completed Orlo and Alba, two mixed-use apartment communities totaling 725 units at Santa Clara’s Gateway Crossings development near the Caltrain station. Designed by MVE + Partners, the projects feature ground-floor retail space alongside a two-acre central green that anchors the community. 

Orlo, the first to deliver, offers 318 apartments in a seven-story brick-clad building that nods to Santa Clara’s industrial heritage, while Alba adds 407 units with a more contemporary design and over 11,000 square feet of retail. 

While these are big deliveries, Santa Clara County still has a long way to go to hit its legal (RHNA) goal of 130,000 new units by 2031.

You can read more about Holland 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: Town Lane

Town Lane is a newly formed real estate investment firm founded in 2023 by Tyler Henritze, former Head of Acquisitions for Blackstone Real Estate Americas, and Parker Morse, previously with Sycamore Partners.

Headquartered in New York and Atlanta, the firm has already raised $1.25 billion for its debut fund—in less than nine months—and is pursuing a thematic, opportunistic strategy across U.S. property sectors. Its early investments include a 2.7M SF shallow-bay industrial portfolio in Raleigh-Durham and two senior living communities in Florida, marking an entry into both industrial and senior housing platforms.

Town Lane’s approach blends institutional execution with an entrepreneurial mandate, focusing on growth sectors like digital infrastructure, logistics, senior housing, and office repositioning. The firm exemplifies a new generation of GP platforms emerging from top-tier private equity pedigrees, backed by deep capital and nimble strategy.

Get more details on Town Lane, including access to executive contacts, on the CapitalStack database here.

—Brad and Paul