May 2025 Newsletter

Happy May. Wonderful, no mow May when bees and blossoms abound!

Thank you for reading and if you have any questions or comments, reach out.

You Can’t Go Around It. CRE Leadership in Times of Disruption.

In the beloved children’s book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, a family sets off on an expedition, full of optimism, only to encounter unexpected and unavoidable obstacles: tall grass, deep rivers, thick mud, dense forests, and swirling snowstorms. With each new challenge, they arrive at the same conclusion:

"We can’t go over it.
We can’t go under it.
Oh no! We’ve got to go through it."

This is where we find ourselves in commercial real estate today.

We are on a hunt for the way forward …

The CRE world is grappling with multiple headwinds:

• Disrupted capital markets means that equity and debt are more expensive, less available, and deals are taking longer to close, or are not closing at all.
• Demand patterns have shifted as tenants, investors, and consumers are making decisions based on new priorities like flexibility, sustainability, and resilience.
• Delays in decision making have become endemic, as stakeholders await clearer signals on interest rate, geopolitical, and regulation risks.
• New regulations require increased transparency and accountability. From local decarbonization mandates to global disclosure rules to supply chain visibility, the regulatory burden is rising and can no longer be ignored.

All of this can feel like a quagmire that we would rather avoid. But we know how this story goes … We can’t go around it. We’ve got to go through it.

Leadership Means Wading In

Now is the moment for CRE leaders to guide their teams, partners, and investors steadily through the uncertainty, not by pretending it is business as usual, but by facing the complexity head-on.

• Regulatory disruption? Build a reporting infrastructure that does more than comply, use it to uncover, prioritize, and address opportunities and risks.
• Capital constraints? Shift focus to operational excellence and value-add execution. Redeploy capital into resilient assets or repositioning strategies.
• Delayed decisions? Become the source of clarity. Provide scenario planning, highlight tradeoffs, and empower stakeholders with insight, not just data.

Through the Muck, Not Around It

The family in We’re Going on a Bear Hunt does not take a shortcut, they push through and make it home, wiser and stronger for the journey. The firms that come out ahead in this CRE cycle will be the ones that put one foot in front of the other and go through it.

• Those who update their building to meet energy efficiency standards (and tenant quality expectations) instead of waiting for fines.
• Those who lean into repurposing vacant space to meet the market demand rather than letting it sit fallow.
• Those who understand that regulatory risk is exit risk and lead with that understanding.

Final Thought

In CRE, we know this terrain: it is cyclical, it is messy, and it is full of opportunity, for those willing to go through it and come out the other side.

What We Are sharing

⭐ Stalking Cargo Ships on MarineTraffic ⭐

Join me in geeking out with the MarineTraffic: Global Ship Tracking Intelligence map.🌍

It is a stunning visual to track the impacts of tariffs on the global supply chain through the lens of cargo ship traffic.

Cargo ships ⚓ are the green arrows or circles (you can use the filter feature to select which vessel type to track).

When a cargo ship is sailing, it is a green arrow. When it is stopped, it is a green circle.

When trade is flowing efficiently, there are green arrows at sea and green circles in port.

With the tariffs, we have seen many more green circles located in the middle of the ocean because sailings were cancelled and cargo ships parked offshore to wait ⏲️.

This map is useful to check in on periodically. While the trade deals with US partners are being negotiated, we can look for if and/or where we see a concentration of green circles idling offshore.

⭐ Highlights from The Agora Initiative’s DC Spring
2025 Venture Showcase ⭐

Last week, I had the privilege of attending The Agora Initiative DC's Spring 2025 Venture Showcase with Jessica Miller as guests of Katherine D'Zmura Friedman of Thumbprint Furniture. Thanks, Katherine!

The event highlighted the vibrant entrepreneurial spirit in the DMV area, including the inspiring and enlightening work of the three finalist companies: LymeAlert, Ampere, and Frontline Gig.

Being in a room filled with passionate founders, investors, and ecosystem builders was fantastic. The energy was palpable ⚡ and the shared commitment to driving change was motivating. Join me at the next one!

⭐ Empowering Teams to Embrace AI ⭐

Integrating AI into our workflows is not just about adopting new tools, it is about fostering an environment where our teams can thrive 👉 alongside 👈 technology.

Right now there is a lot of flailing, flogging, and foundering🐟 when it comes to incorporating AI tools into our CRE workflows.

Consider how these three management principle strategies can support our teams to move past the hype and drama surrounding AI so that they become engaged participants in finding a better way:

🔦 Set Clear Expectations: Define what success looks like with AI integration to provide direction and purpose. Communicate, check for understanding, and listen.

🔬 Offer Targeted Training: Equip teams with the specific skills and knowledge that they need to utilize AI tools effectively. Meet them where they are so that they can move up the learning curve.

🪧 Remove Obstacles: Identify and eliminate barriers that prevent seamless AI adoption, recognizing that obstacles may be technical, procedural, or cultural. Treat feedback like gold so that your team shares updates in real time and you can adjust quickly.

By implementing these strategies, we create teams that are not only prepared for the future but are active participants in shaping it.

​Alex Hormozi’s insights offer a no-nonsense lens for cutting through AI chaos​

⭐ No Mow May: Power to the Pollinators! ⭐

This May, we can put our lawnmowers on pause and let nature take the lead. 🌿

By participating in No Mow May, we are not just skipping a chore, we are creating a haven for pollinators like bees and butterflies. Allowing our lawns to grow wild for a month provides essential nectar sources for these vital creatures, especially when other food sources are scarce.

🌸 Why Join the Movement?

• Support Biodiversity: Letting wildflowers like dandelions and clover bloom offers a feast for pollinators.
• Promote Sustainability: Reducing mowing decreases carbon emissions and conserves water.
• Enhance Soil Health: Longer grass roots improve soil structure and resilience.

Even if you cannot commit to the entire month, consider designating a portion of your yard as a "wild zone." In our house, we call it the meadow. 🐞

Together, we can make a difference—one unmowed lawn at a time. 🌼 🦋

⭐ Energy Efficiency: Still the Key for Commercial Real Estate ⭐

The recent NYU Schack Sustainable Real Estate Conference reinforced a continuing trend: Energy efficiency remains critical to CRE performance.

Buildings are facing increasing scrutiny, from regulators, investors, and tenants to meet higher standards for energy use and emissions.

It is not just about compliance; it is about risk management, operational costs, and future-proofing assets.

The sessions showed that buildings with strong energy performance are already realizing tangible benefits: reducing energy usage even as costs and demand continue to rise.

As the market evolves, energy management is no longer optional.

It is a foundation for operational excellence and a key driver of long-term asset value and resilience.

What We Are Reading

✨ Nexus, A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI; Yuval Noah Harari – a great read to understand the history of human networks, how information has been used (for good and for evil), and what we can learn from that for the onset of the AI age.

✨ We Can Do Hard Things, Answers to Life’s 20 Questions; Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle – enjoyed attending a live conversation that elicited laughter, tears, and certitude from the packed house.

✨ Building Optimism, Why Our World Looks the Way it Does, and How to Make it Better; Coby Lefkowitz – a colleague’s hopeful look at how we can learn from the past and use the tools available to us in urban planning, finance, and development to create a future that better serves everyone.

✨ Women Speak CRE. A platform dedicated to amplifying the voices of women in commercial real estate – powerful tool for identifying speakers who deliver robust and valuable content.

✨ Tools for Safe Conference Attendance. “Attending conferences, special events, & traveling for work were the 3 places I felt the most vulnerable during my time in the corporate world” - resources and action items for yourself and your team to use when attending conferences and travelling for business.

Where We Can Catch Up

✨ Inspiration @ Intersection of Real Estate + Tech May Dinner

✨ ULI Washington Transforming Forrestal and Catalyzing a New Southwest District, DC

✨ MCPS Boundary Study Presentations

✨ Girl Scouts Nation's Capital Women’s Advisory Board Gold Award Reception, 4 June

✨ CRE Diversity Equity Inclusion Advisory Board speaker: Tama Huang, Cherre, 12 June

✨ ULI Washington Local Product Council Summit, The Square DC, 24 June

✨ Feroce AMA: President to President Chat part 2, June

✨ CREW Network: Unlock the Power of Negotiation hosted by Stantec, 17 June

✨ Alexander Creek, Alaska, 22-25 July

✨ Hesketh Island, Alaska, 1-4 Aug

✨ NexusCon 2025, Denver, 6-8 Oct

About Feroce Real Estate Advisors

Feroce Real Estate Advisors works with forward-thinking real estate companies to leverage change and build value at the intersection of real estate investment, sustainability, and technology. We guide clients through complex challenges, positioning their real estate and teams for success in a rapidly changing world.

​

Our work usually falls into one of these categories:

​

• Fractional executive roles serving as head of asset management or portfolio management for growing real estate investment management companies.
• Provide high value strategic advisory services with a focus on delivering investment performance measured by risk-adjusted returns and organizational priorities.
• Advisory board roles with proptech organizations focused on high ROI solutions in renewables, decarbonization, cleantech, and operational improvement.

​

Please reach out to connect:

• Book a discovery call with us.
• ​Invite us to speak at your event.
• ​Email us to share your strategy or execution need.

​

Thank you for reading! If this newsletter was shared with you, please click here to join our community. Please share your feedback to help us make it better.

​

All the best,

Mandi