Is AI Saving Commercial Real Estate? | Ep 29

  Powered by HqO - Learn more and join the Quantum City Initiative here: https://www.hqo.com/the-future-of-cities-begins-now/ Back in February, the AI panic ripped through CRE stocks and everybody bled. CBRE, JLL, BXP, Newmark — absolutely hammered. The bear case was simple: AI was gonna “destroy” office demand, gut the brokerage business, and that was that. Q1 2026 earnings just came in. It wasn't even close.   Owen Thomas got on the BXP earnings call and said the exact opposite. AI and tech leasing in San Francisco went from 50% of demand to nearly 80% in a single year. SL Green posted a record quarter. CBRE printed $10.5 billion against a $9.5 billion expectation. Their data center business alone did $950 million in Q1, a number that was literally zero five years ago. The bull case for commercial real estate isn't a thesis anymore. It's paying the rent.   We break down why AI isn't a vertical, it's a horizontal, why innovation always clusters in cities, and why the next wave of business process automation has barely started. The CapEx flowing into compute and energy is showing up directly on brokerage income statements and the Q1 numbers suggest the runway is longer than most people think.   In this episode: BXP, SL Green, CBRE, JLL Q1 2026 earnings breakdown and what they mean for office real estate Why AI demand is driving record office leasing in San Francisco and New York The Anthropic compute bottleneck and where we are in the AI adoption cycle CBRE's $800M Industrious acquisition and the Building Operations and Experience bet paying off Data centers, power infrastructure, and why local incentive structures end NIMBY pushback Federal Reserve holds rates, Powell refuses to leave, Warsh clears Senate Banking Committee Fidelity mandates five days in office, AvalonBay and Equity Residential merger talks at $50B How young commercial real estate brokers should be using AI to advance their careers The JP Morgan Lev Fin story that broke the internet on May 1st   Drop a comment if you have a city for the Quantum City Index scorecard or a guest we should have on the show.   Sponsored by HqO - the leading tenant experience platform for commercial real estate.   TIMESTAMPS:  00:00 Intro: F29 And April Numbers Up And To The Right  01:33 Owen Thomas And BXP On AI Driving Leasing Activity  02:49 Why Innovation Still Clusters In Cities  08:03 Are We Still Early On AI Adoption  11:03 Is The CapEx Ahead Of Real Demand  14:27 Q1 Earnings: BXP, SL Green And The AI Tenant Surge  20:13 CBRE And JLL Smash Estimates: $950M In Data Centers Alone  23:44 Big Tech CapEx And Where The Money Is Going  24:56 Jamie Hodari, Industrious And The $800M Move  28:16 BOE: CBRE Unifies Operations And Experience  31:15 What's Happening With Yardi And WeWork  32:13 Power Is Still The Bottleneck. Follow The Permitting Map  34:05 The Politics Of AI Growth  36:34 Why Citizens Push Back On Data Centers  40:43 The Fed Holds And Powell Refuses To Leave  42:53 Fidelity Goes Back Five Days A Week  45:01 Equity Residential And AvalonBay In Merger Talks  46:19 Career Advice: How To Use AI To Win In Brokerage  49:45 The Wall Street Story That Went Viral  52:16 Wrap: AI Is Paying The Rent