Family Office Real Estate Blog

Working for a Single Family Office, I have the fortunate opportunity to speak with and look at many deals with other Single Family Offices. The issue that many Single Family Offices have is the ability (or inability in many cases) to do the due diligence that is needed. Why? It primarily has to do with the lack of expertise in the area that they are reviewing. Now, this is understandable for several reasons. Maybe they made their money in steel or fashion, or chemicals and sold out after building that business over the last 40 years for a few hundred of millions of dollars. I am pretty sure that if you were to ask the Patriarch about a deal that you were looking at in their area of expertise, he could size up the opportunity in a matter of just 5 minutes. Lets be honest, these Patriarchs / Matriarchs are very very smart intelligent successful people. But to be able to get into the nuts and bolts of investing into a hedge fund, a private equity deal or a real estate transaction...

In a recent article by R. Byron Carlock Jr. from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Byron discusses how philanthropy has an impact with economic development.  With many family offices being involved in various philanthropic endeavors,  I thought it would be good to share this article so that they may gain a greater understanding of the impact they make above and beyond the financial commitment from themselves or their foundation. This year there has been a lot of talk about the 125th anniversary of the opening of New York’s Carnegie Hall. Bequeathed to the city by famed industrialist Andrew Carnegie, it’s the most famous example of real estate philanthropy by the great industrialist, in a portfolio that included the creation of some 3,000 public libraries and the founding and support of several colleges. While Carnegie’s philanthropy helped transform infrastructure (not to mention culture) in numerous cities, more modern exam...