The national #CancelRent movement today unveiled a
#MakeThemPay report and national day of action planned for May 22 targeting
corporate landlords.
The group is demanding Congress make corporate landlords pay
for the cancellation of rent, mortgages, and utilities for the duration of the
COVID-19 pandemic, along with financial relief to smaller property owners who
may soon face foreclosure.
Backed by the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE), the advocacy groups say the nation’s wealthiest corporations that dominate the real-estate industry are sitting on an estimated $470 billion and cite well-known entities such as Kushner Companies, Blackstone, Related, Equity Residential, Starwood Capital and Mosser Capital.
The Blackstone Group, which owns the massive Stuy Town apartment complex on Manhattan’s east side, Brookfield Asset Management and Starwood Capital Group are sitting on billions of dollars in cash and capital commitments they have raised from pensions, sovereign wealth funds and other big institutions as the real estate investment sector eyes hotels, retail properties, mortgage backed securities, and defaulting borrowers for a post COVID-19 buying spree.
On a 2020 Q1 Earnings call, Starwood Capital CEO Barry Stenlicht
said, “When it’s really ugly, it’s a good time to invest.”
Blackstone raised the largest commercial real estate fund
ever in September with $20.5 billion, and as of December 2019 Brookfield held
$15 billion. The Kushner family also recently announced they are putting
together a fund through Cadre, their real estate investment vehicle, to take
advantage of “opportunities” during the pandemic.
In their report, ACRE said, “While Jared Kushner himself formally divested from the fund in February of 2020, it’s clear that a prominent corporate landlord with very close ties to the White House is gearing up to profit from the crisis and its effect on the real estate market.”
The national #CancelRent movement today unveiled a
#MakeThemPay report and national day of action planned for May 22 targeting
corporate landlords.
The group is demanding Congress make corporate landlords pay
for the cancellation of rent, mortgages, and utilities for the duration of the
COVID-19 pandemic, along with financial relief to smaller property owners who
may soon face foreclosure.
Backed by the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE),
the advocacy groups say the nation’s wealthiest corporations that dominate the
real-estate industry are sitting on an estimated $470 billion and cite well-known
entities such as Kushner Companies, Blackstone, Related, Equity Residential,
Essex, Starwood Capital, CBRE, Irvine Company, and Mosser Capital.
The Blackstone Group, Inc., Brookfield Asset Management and
Starwood Capital Group are sitting on billions of dollars in cash and capital commitments
they have raised from pensions, sovereign wealth funds and other big
institutions as the real estate investment sector eyes hotels, retail
properties, mortgage backed securities, and defaulting borrowers for a post COVID-19
buying spree.
On a 2020 Q1 Earnings call, Starwood Capital CEO Barry Stenlicht
said, “When it’s really ugly, it’s a good time to invest.”
Blackstone raised the largest commercial real estate fund
ever in September with $20.5 billion, and as of December 2019 Brookfield held
$15 billion. The Kushner family also recently announced they are putting
together a fund through Cadre, their real estate investment vehicle, to take
advantage of “opportunities” during the pandemic.
In their report, ACRE said, “While Jared Kushner himself formally
divested from the fund in February of 2020, it’s clear that a prominent
corporate landlord with very close ties to the White House is gearing up to
profit from the crisis and its effect on the real estate market.
“The U.S. real estate industry is led by some of the
richest, most powerful people in the world. They have profited handsomely from
the last foreclosure crisis, the commodification of housing, and decades of
racist housing policy, while actively lobbying to avoid paying their fair share
in taxes for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified what we already knew:
Corporate landlords’ bill is long past due.”
