28. Betting Big On Retail Real Estate w/ Philip Block And Robert Levy
Though headlines touting the apocalypse of retail real estate have been frequent over the past few years, our guests today take a contrarian view. With the long-term impact of e-commerce changing consumers' buying preferences, to the more recent impact COVID had on brick and mortar retailers, this area of real estate has been particularly challenging to navigate. Philip Block and Robert Levy of LBX Investments discuss the trends occurring in the retail real estate landscape, and where they are finding opportunities. Our guests cover the surprising, positive influences of the lockdown’s effect on retail real estate, what the best retailers are doing to thrive, and even why brick-and-mortar real estate isn’t going anywhere in the digital world. Lastly, they dive into inflation’s impact on retail real estate and their investment strategies moving forward.
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Philip Block
Founding Partner
Philip Block is one of the Founders and Managing Partners of LBX Investments. Along with his Co-Founder
and Co-Managing Partner, Rob Levy, Phil guides overall corporate strategy and is responsible for the
growth of the platform, acquisitions and execution of the firm's strategy. Through his leadership, LBX
has built a premier portfolio of shopping centers throughout the country with a concentration in the
Southeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Since 2016, Phil and Rob have led over $400 million in
acquisitions.
He has over 15 years of real estate investment experience. Prior to launching LBX in February 2018,
He was partnered with a family office focused on Southeastern U.S. shopping centers where he was
responsible for acquisitions, asset management, and capital raising. Formerly, Phil was a Senior Managing
Director at RealtyMogul.com, where he created the commercial lending business and led institutional
capital markets efforts. Prior, he was VP of Corporate Finance and Capital Markets at Centerline Capital
Group, an NYC-based multifamily finance and asset management company with $13B in AUM. Prior, he
helped launch Dominion Capital Advisors, a commercial real estate advisory firm with an affiliated
mezzanine / private equity lender. Phil began his real estate career as an investment banker at Cantor
Fitzgerald in NYC.
Philip has a BBA, cum laude from George Washington University and graduated from the General Course
at the London School of Economics with a degree in Finance. He grew up in Subur…
Read More
Robert Levy
Founding Partner
Robert Levy is one of the Founders and Managing Partners of LBX Investments. Along with his Co-Founder
and Co-Managing Partner, Phil Block, Rob guides overall corporate strategy and is responsible for the
growth of the platform, acquisitions and execution of the firm's strategy. Through his leadership, LBX
has built a premier portfolio of shopping centers throughout the country with a concentration in the
Southeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Since 2016, Rob and Phil have led over $400 million in
acquisitions.
He has more than 30 years of real estate experience. Prior to launching LBX in February 2018, Robert
co-founded BVC, an investment vehicle focused on acquiring Southeastern U.S. shopping centers. While
at BVC he oversaw and underwrote the partnership's 11 Southeastern U.S. shopping center acquisitions
and managed all capital raising (both debt and equity) and asset management efforts. Prior to BVC, Rob
was the Chief Operating Officer of the Real Estate Group at Benefit Street Partners, a multi-strategy
credit manager with over $11.0 billion in assets under management. Prior to Benefit Street, Robert held
various positions at Centerline Capital Group, including Chief Executive Officer, President, Chief Operating
Officer and Chief Financial Officer and was a member of the Board of Trustees of Centerline's parent
company, Centerline Holding Company.
Centerline was a publicly traded multifamily finance and asset management company with a national
scope mortgage banking platform and over $1…
Read More
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