On Fun
A thing of beauty is a joy forever - John Keats
Happy November! I hope you are taking this entire week off. Maybe traveling to visit family or better, cooking for them every day. I’m going to make this note a little shorter on real estate and longer on food content because, well, Thanksgiving is clearly the best holiday around: get together with friends and family, be grateful, eat, drink, repeat.
Autumn is the time for conferences. I’ve just finished three in four weeks: Automatic in Atlanta, ULI in San Francisco, and the UVa Real Estate Conference in Charlottesville. All were well attended and time well spent.
I talked to a lot of people at each. The refrains were the same. Architects said they couldn’t get past SDs. Contractors said they couldn’t win bids. Industrial folk missed 2% caps. Retailers couldn’t sleep because of tariffs. Investors asked why make 15% CRE returns when they can make 30% AI ones. Easily the largest crowds were at the data center panels, which drew rooms full of envious onlookers (we do not kink shame at Revel). One friend said he was giving it all up to go make furniture in his garage. At least the apartment developers were out playing golf.
If I had to summarize what everyone told me, it would be: “We aren’t having any fun.”
This is supposed to be a fun business: I believe this so fundamentally it’s written in our pitch decks. We real estate people have the opportunity to make great places that enrich people’s lives. We get to support budding entrepreneurs, try new restaurants, go to concerts, and travel around the country. If we build right we make a mark on the landscape that our grandchildren can point to. Not a lot of professions get to say that. But when it becomes too hard, when the municipalities write too many rules, when the credit guys argue about the lack of credit, when your partners want boutique retail at market rents. . . yeah it can suck all the fun out of it.
I thought about calling this a Note on Ennui or a Note on Malaise, but instead thought it better to talk about what has brought me real estate joy recently, as well as some future development schemes that keep my right brain going. Capitalism always finds a way.
Malaise be damned: Make Cardigans Great Again. We miss you, Jimmy.
For years I’ve wanted to build a hipster cafeteria. I got talking about this just yesterday with a great operator. Gah, who doesn’t want a 21st century LuAnn Platter?
Some developer friends and I are talking about building something that is entirely artist focused. It’s actually sort of hard to describe. Stealing a page or two from the Goat Farm and Wynwood and FAT Village. Trust me I’ll tell you if we pull it off.
Have we reached peak members club? Hard to say. For a while I’ve been trying to find a small empty suburban office building to do a light members club / spec suite thing. That would fly and be a ton of fun to build.
A couple of groups are trying to bring that insider vibe to the alumni game day experience. This has all the potential in the world if you can get the execution right.
I’m bullish on college towns in general. Not building for students but for the adults that inevitably congregate there.
There are some companies reinventing STRs and time shares that Thad Sheely turned me on to, like August Collections and Equity Estates. I dig this business model.
The lines are blurring and hospitality is coming to everything. I written about this once or twice and will again in 2026. The Thesis Driven substack always brings me joy and a recent good one on the Everything Place is along those same lines.
My love of New Orleans is well documented. As a retail guy I think Magazine Street is under-developed.
In Nashville on another of my favorite retail streets, the crew at Open built this infill two-story retail building. I really, really dig this model. The first new retail in years I’ve been taken with. They’re doing it again in Knox / Henderson.
Across town what Jim Irwin did at Neuhoff is incredible. He says they’ve even had Neuhoff family reunions there (FYI that’s a great sign you’re doing something right).
My wife and I were crushed when Redbird in Atlanta closed but have filled that hole in our hearts with Southern National. It’s located on Georgia Avenue, which is one of the best redevelopment jobs in recent memory.
I don’t brag on my people enough but I am as proud of what they pulled off at Uptown Atlanta as I am of anything we’ve done. We probably missed the market timing, and it was hard, but it was fun and we turned nothing into something. I hope you visit (the inferno chicken at Madre Selva was the best thing I ate in 2025).
Thanksgiving Tips and Tricks:
First off, think of Thanksgiving as a week of food. A week to pull out old favorites, try new things, get gourmet one meal, burgers the next.
You’ll be drinking while cooking so keep it low abv. Listen to Katie Button and try vermouth.
The wine: gamay. Lambrusco is underrated.
Lean into dishes that improve overnight: coq au vin is near the top of that list.
So is a terrine. They’re easier than you think and last for a week. La Buvette’s is A+.
It will literally take you three days but man oh man a giant cassoulet is a comfort in a pot.
I grew up in Dallas. The night before Thanksgiving we’d go out for Tex Mex. Around here I’ll make enchiladas —either red chili gravy or sour cream.
Your crew will need brunch Thursday morning to get through the day: local baked goods + crab cakes + bloody marys + dog show
For Thanksgiving proper the best thing I make is Buttermilk Pie
The second-best thing I make is cranberries. It isn’t even a recipe. Cook with lots of sugar, vanilla, and — key bit here — dijon and orange juice.
The next best is either Matt & Ted Lee’s oyster dressing or maybe confit turkey legs
If you can’t bring yourself to make a turkey, I think you’ve still got enough time to get a smoked one from Greenberg’s.
Don’t forget the music.
Thanks for reading! I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving. If you’ve enjoyed this, please forward to a friend. If you’re getting it for the first time, you can subscribe via the button below.
For those new here, I run a retail development and consulting shop in Atlanta and I write semi-regularly about commercial real estate. If you have a retail project that could use a little retail creative thinking, we would love to hear from you.
-Geo