#335 - Barry Sternlicht - Chairman & CEO @ Starwood Capital Group

Barry Sternlicht is Chairman & CEO of Starwood Capital Group, the private alternative investment firm he formed in 1991 that is focused on global real estate. He also serves as Chairman & CEO of Starwood Property Trust (NYSE: STWD), a leading diversified finance company. For the past 32 years, Barry has structured investments with an asset value of $240B+. Starwood Capital’s investment vehicles have invested in approximately 290,000 residential units, 4,000 hotels, 103M SF of office properties, 75M SF of industrial, 56M SF of retail and 70,000 lots of land in residential subdivisions.  On this episode, Chris and Barry discuss: - Stories of scaling the business to 120k employees in 6 years - The value of “A Shared Pair” REIT - How to take a company from $1B in AUM to $10B - Selling Caesars Palace - Thoughts on the 2024 market Links: Starwood Capital Support our Sponsors Better Pitch: https://bit.ly/42d9L0I RE Cost Seg: https://bit.ly/3oC7JcY CRE Daily: https://bit.ly/4bteOQw Fort Capital: https://bit.ly/FortCapital Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/ Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:02:07) - AI & Hotels (00:08:48) - The Midas touch (00:10:46) - Scaling to 120k employees in 6 years (00:15:48) - Shared Pair REITs (00:28:41) - Thoughts on Blackstone (00:36:26) - How to buy a REIT (00:40:39) - Taking a company from $1B in AUM to $10B (00:49:57) - How did you keep Starwood Capital moving while you stepped away? (00:58:42) - Selling Caesars Palace (01:08:01) - Thoughts on the market in 2024 Chris on Social Media: X: https://bit.ly/3BYIjcH LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd   Watch The Fort on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNX Visit our website: https://bit.ly/43SOvys Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO  The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts