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

The Fort - An Entrepreneurship Podcast

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

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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

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