Harvard University and ArborCrowd Partner to Host Panel That Examines the Future of Commercial Real Estate Investing

On Tuesday, November 20, Harvard University’s Real Estate Development Club together with ArborCrowd (the “Company”), the first crowdfunding platform launched by a real estate institution, hosted a panel of experts at Harvard University to discuss the future of commercial real estate investing. The panel was attended by graduate students interested in pursuing a career in commercial real estate.

ArborCrowd Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Adam Kaufman was joined on stage by a diverse group of professionals, including David T. Locke, Senior Vice President Wealth Advisor and Family Wealth Director at Morgan Stanley; Stephen King, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Imbrex; and Boris Vallee, Associate Professor at Harvard Business School. The engaging discussion, which covered the methods in which technology, regulatory changes and the growth of alternative investments are impacting the industry, was moderated by Cathy Cunningham, Deputy Editor – Finance at Commercial Observer, a leading media outlet covering commercial real estate.

“Our goal with this panel was to provide Harvard graduate students with a variety of viewpoints from multiple areas of commercial real estate investment,” said Mr. Kaufman. “The sector has undergone a tremendous evolution over the past seven years. To provide attendees with a comprehensive snapshot of where the industry is today and where it’s headed in the future, we felt it would be best to present perspectives from the worlds of crowdfunding, tech, finance and academia.”

The panel navigated various factors influencing significant changes in commercial real estate investing, including:

• How regulation has facilitated greater access to a wider universe of real estate investments
• Individual investors’ increased investment options
• How technology is fueling increased access to deals and information
• The proliferation of real estate crowdfunding
• How tokenization is making real estate transactions more efficient
• Investment and capital-flow trends, including the impact institutions have on the investment habits of individuals

Mr. Kaufman has previously spoken at various prestigious academic institutions including The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, and Columbia Business School. This commitment to education aligns with ArborCrowd’s ongoing efforts to drive awareness of the challenges, opportunities and potential of the real estate crowdfunding industry, as well as the safeguards needed to protect investors and ensure the industry’s long-term viability.

Click here to learn more about ArborCrowd and view its investments.

About ArborCrowd

ArborCrowd is the first real estate crowdfunding platform launched by a real estate institution, opening up an exclusive network to a new class of investors. As part of The Arbor Family of Companies, which includes

Arbor Realty Trust (NYSE: ABR), a leading publicly traded commercial mortgage real estate investment trust, ArborCrowd is backed by more than 30 years of leadership experience. ArborCrowd reviews more than 500 deals a year from its proprietary network and only chooses the ones that survive its rigorous underwriting process. ArborCrowd prefunds capital to a deal prior to launching the offering to investors. This ensures the deal closes and allows ArborCrowd to offer investors accurate and detailed information about the property. Additionally, ArborCrowd chooses to present one deal at a time, so there is no guessing what property investors will actually own.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191204005226/en/