Mary Ludgin is senior managing director and director of global investment research at Heitman, overseeing a team of 20 individuals across three continents. Her team tracks trends related to demographics, economics, and capital markets as they affect the operations of and pricing for commercial real estate. It identifies investable trends, formulates portfolio construction recommendations to maximize the returns for the institutional investors who form their client base, and works with the public and private investment teams at Heitman to make smart investment decisions. Ludgin is board chair of ULI’s Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate and has held various positions over her two decades of involvement in ULI, including global trustee and chair of ULI Chicago. She holds an AB from Vassar College and an MA and Ph.D. from Northwestern University.  

Jed Gates, partner, and managing director at Berkshire Residential Investments is responsible for capital raising and investor relations in Asia, Australia, Canada, and the western United States for all of Berkshire’s varied U.S. multifamily investment vehicles. In his time at Berkshire, Gates has been instrumental in helping grow the company’s assets under management from $7 billion to $21 billion, including the capitalization of the three largest funds in the company’s 60-year history. Gates is a ULI global trustee and co-chairs the Leadership Steering Committee for NEXT Americas. He previously was deeply involved with the Young Leaders Group, having founded the San Francisco YLG and co-chairing the American YLG Leadership Committee. He holds a BA from the University of Georgia. Outside work he enjoys traveling, hiking, Friday sushi and Netflix date nights with his wife, coaching his son’s flag football and basketball teams, all things BBQ, collecting (and enjoying) fine tequila and bourbon, and obsessing over college football. 

So many of us in real estate fall into the industry and hence commercial real estate [CRE] professional organizations. How did you get involved with ULI?  

Ludgin: My first exposure came while I was an urban planner for the city of Chicago. I helped ULI staff create tours for a Fall Meeting in Chicago. A few years later, I was invited to speak at a Fall Meeting in L.A. I finally became a member at the insistence of a former ULI chair, the late Susan Hudson-Wilson. “You must join. It’s essential.” She was right.  

Gates: I had been attending a number of industry conferences (NAIOP, ICSC, PREA, ULI) and looking for a group whose mission resonated with me. If I was going to volunteer meaningful time, I wanted to feel confident the experience could be professionally and personally enriching and afford me the chance to give back in a way that would be impactful. I was fortunate to get involved in ULI’s San Francisco district council in 2003. Diane Filippi was the ULI San Francisco chair at the time and fast became a valued mentor and friend to me. At Diane’s encouragement in 2003, I helped launch and co-chair YLG for the San Francisco district council. That in turn led to assisting in creating a YLG National Leadership Committee, where I met so many fantastic YLG leaders from across the country who I remain good friends with to this day. 

What is the most interesting project you’ve worked on over your career in real estate?  

Ludgin: It’s one that’s ongoing right now. I was invited to chair a technical assistance panel [TAP] involving the creation of a vision for the future of LaSalle Street, the heart of [Chicago’s] historical financial district. The city of Chicago and a nonprofit called the Loop Alliance invited ULI to form the TAP and charged us with figuring out land use solutions for an area that has seen an outmigration of office and retail tenants over the past decade, a trend that accelerated during COVID. LaSalle Street is rich with resources—in the center of the downtown, transit served by every type of conveyance, and grand architecture (eight of the buildings along the corridor are on the National Register of Historic Places). But backfilling record-high office and retail vacancy will require creativity, including unlocking TIF [tax increment financing] and working with the city to streamline regulations to help trigger adaptive reuse to bring more residents to the street, and reworking of the streetscape to inject green space and other amenities to encourage people to come and stay on this grand street.  

Gates: Tough question. It really is hard to pick just one. Each one challenges you in different ways, and sometimes the wins take so long they feel anti-climactic, and the losses hit you so hard they are hard to forget. I suppose all served a purpose, and the best lessons have often been the hardest learned from misfires and unexpected failures. If I had to select an accomplishment, I am particularly proud of, it would be helping identify, nurture, and scale the strategic partnerships we have been able to cultivate in the Asia Pacific region. Lots of long trips and years invested in establishing those relationships, but they have become our largest source of capital inflows. I jokingly refer to it as my seven-year overnight success story, but it has certainly reinforced the power of patience, positivity, perseverance, and stewardship. 

What are you most excited about in regard to the future of the industry?  

Ludgin: The creativity ULI and its members bring to solving problems like access to housing for all and to decarbonizing our industry as part of our commitment to reducing climate change.  

Gates: A number of trend lines fascinate me: the emergence of new technology (fundamentally changing the way we go about our business); the growing influence of ESG [environmental, social, and governance factors] in our business – particularly how social considerations such as the affordability conundrum may influence future residential investment activities; and how emerging risks from global warming climate considerations will impact migration patterns and ultimately begin to materially influence development and CRE values in the coming decades. 

What are you currently reading/watching?  

Ludgin: A blog about climate migration and Alan Cumming’s latest autobiography, Baggage. I’m doing it as an audio book—he’s reading his book to me! 

Gates: Just watched the last episode of Ozark—one of our favorites, which my wife and I were sad to see the end. Counting down the days until the new season premiers for Peaky Blinders and Succession. My guiltiest pleasure has probably been the excitement I have had watching Cobra Kai with our son. It brings back lots of good memories of watching the original movies when I was his age. Reading: it seems like there is a never-ending pile of industry reports I feel compelled to prioritize reading. My wife would love to see me get rid of the stacks of industry articles and reports around our house. I’ve had a few books (The Emerald Mile, Killers of the Flower Moon, Undaunted Courage) sitting neglected on my bedside table for a while, so hopefully, this reminder will get me to pick one of them up this summer.