Diane Rusignola

Yeah, I'm Diane Rusignola with Nareit and in conjunction with Nareit REITwise. I'm here today with Jason Krentler, Managing Director at Stout. Jason, how are you today?

Jason Krentler

I'm good. How are you?

Diane Rusignola

Stout has more than 30 years of experience in corporate finance, valuation, financial disputes and investigations. Can you talk about how you serve clients in the REIT and commercial real estate industry?

Jason Krentler

Yes, I've been a part of stout for almost 20 years at this point and really focused on the REIT space for the past 15 years or so. So, I've had the opportunity to watch my group grow from 10 people to almost 40, and our client base now encompasses some of the largest REITs in the world. So, the work that we're doing for those clients includes a variety of valuation and advisory services, including financial reporting, net asset value work, and then invest a reporting requirement for valuations. From a financial reporting perspective, we're typically working on purchase price allocations, impairment studies, fresh start accounting, but beyond the specific reasons that we're doing work for our clients, were also incredibly focused on client service and how we're getting that work done. So, we have a very specific mindset around responsiveness with the goal of making every job for our clients as efficient and painless as possible.

Diane Rusignola

2020 marked the 60th anniversary for the REIT industry. How does the pandemic stack up in terms of the biggest challenges REITs have faced over the years?

Jason Krentler

I would say in my 20 years, this is probably the biggest challenge that I've seen. Beyond the financial crisis in 2008, which I don't need to discount, but I think we saw massive hits overnight to most sectors and everyone sort of shared the pain then. But right now, in certain sectors, certain instances, retail, hospitality, even office, I think we're seeing recovery periods that could take several years. Um, so I really do think it's going to be fascinating to see how quickly human behaviors rebound for the sectors that are impacted like retail and hospitality.

Diane Rusignola

How do you see the pandemic impacting MNA in the year ahead in the REIT sector?

Jason Krentler

I would say we are quite bullish in general. Um, it definitely is, depending across various sectors. I think, in industrial, multi-family manufactured housing, we're seeing the markets probably as hot as I've seen them. A larger growth, big demand, incorporates that are really quite aggressive still on the institutional assets. Um, for the sectors that you would expect to be challenged, again, office, retail, hospitality, we are still expecting some time on those recoveries. Although, I am seeing deal activity picking up just at a tempered purchase price, that kind of reflecting these short-term issues. We’re also trying to gauge the same sentiment with our clients, and I think most are seeing the same trends. So, with everything that has happened the past 12 months, I do still think there's a lot of pent up demand that we're going to see in the reeds sector for the quality, institutional assets.

Diane Rusignola

Jason, thank you so much for your time today.

Jason Krentler

Thank you.

Diane Rusignola

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