How do you actually build the future of a region when the biggest projects require decades of planning, political alignment, and infrastructure that cannot be improvised? In today’s environment, that is the real question facing economic development.

Bo Kemp is one of the leaders working at that intersection. As CEO of the Southland Development Authority, he focuses on positioning Chicago’s Southland for large-scale investment by aligning municipalities, capital, and the long-term infrastructure needed to compete for major projects.

In this conversation, Kemp explains why demand is accelerating for next-generation industrial uses like data centers, and why the limiting factor is powered land with the utilities, infrastructure, and workforce needed to operate at scale.

He also outlines the Southland’s advantage through access to two electrical grids, including PJM, and why that matters as power becomes a deciding factor in where development can happen.

In this episode of The Matthews™ Podcast, host Matthew Wallace continues the publication takeover series with Part 3 of the National Shopping Center Overview, breaking down the Mid-Atlantic with Matthews™ Senior Vice President Jeff Enck.

With 25+ years in retail investment sales and hundreds of transactions closed across the Southeast, Enck explains why strip centers have become one of the most competitive pockets of retail today—and how his Strip Center Roundtable is bringing together many of the nation’s largest owners to compare notes on strategy, leasing, and the outlook for the sector.

Wallace and Enck dive into what’s driving Southeast momentum, from population and job growth across major metros to rising interest in select secondary markets as buyers search for yield. They also unpack the “essential service retail” tenant mix that’s powering strip performance, along with why today’s biggest challenge isn’t demand, but simply finding enough product to buy.

In this episode of The Matthews™ Podcast, host Matthew Wallace sits down with Amy Rubenstein, CEO of Clear Investment Group, to break down what it really takes to remedy and revitalize distressed workforce housing—the kind of multifamily most groups won’t touch because of operational chaos, stakeholder complexity, and heavy lift-to-stabilization execution.

Drawing on more than two decades in commercial real estate, Amy explains Clear’s “value restoration” approach to market-rate workforce housing, targeting underperforming properties in strong, stable markets and rebuilding them into safe, working communities. She also shares how Clear leans on data and AI to tighten underwriting, improve due diligence, and improve day-to-day performance, including operational policy changes informed by delinquency trends and resident payment behavior.

In this episode of The Matthews™ Podcast, host Matthew Wallace continues the publication takeover series with Part 2 of the National Shopping Center Overview, breaking down the Mid-Atlantic with Matthews™ Executive Vice President Ed Laycox.

With more than two decades in retail investment sales and 200+ transactions closed, Laycox unpacks what’s driving activity in the Mid-Atlantic today, including where capital is flowing, how suburban growth is reshaping buyer profiles, and why grocery-anchored centers remain a leading investment thesis.

Wallace and Laycox also dig into evolving consumer and tenant trends, from necessity-based retail to higher-rent experiential users, and how navigating “bumpy” capital markets is increasing the importance of creative deal structure and execution.

In this episode of The Matthews™ Podcast, host Matthew Wallace welcomes Will Mitchell, CEO and co-founder of Rabbet, to unpack how construction finance is being modernized and how lenders and developers are moving beyond spreadsheets, PDFs, and email chains into a more connected, data-driven workflow.”

Drawing on his background as a developer and entrepreneur, Will shares hard-earned lessons on building tech that actually gets adopted in a traditionally slow-moving industry, where disciplined execution, customer trust, and smart automation (including AI) can make the difference between friction and real scale.

In this episode of The Matthews™ Podcast, host Matthew Wallace kicks off the publication takeover series with the National Shopping Center Report, breaking down the West Coast market with Matthews™ Senior Vice President Matt LoPiccolo.

With deep experience across West Coast retail investment sales, LoPiccolo explains what is driving deals today, from cost of capital and cap rate movement to how leasing costs, execution risk, and tighter financing conditions are reshaping the value-add playbook.

Wallace and LoPiccolo also examine pressures influencing underwriting across the region, including rising operating expenses, tax reassessment impacts, rent resets, and post-COVID build-to-suit rent levels ,and what those trends signal for the next phase of retail on the West Coast.

Retail is changing fast. Get the inside edge from Jeff Enck’s annual Strip Center Roundtable, a high-energy discussion on market shifts, demand drivers, and opportunities ahead.

0:00:00 Introduction by Jeff Enck

0:01:32 Panel Introduction

0:06:54 Discussion

1:27:32 Outro

In this episode of The Matthews Podcast, host Matthew Wallace sits down with Keven Rowe, shareholder at Buckhalter PC and one of the nation’s leading commercial real estate attorneys.

With over two decades of advising on billions of dollars in transactions, Keven unpacks the evolving world of sports-anchored mixed-use districts, from Salt Lake City’s new entertainment hub to national projects redefining how teams and cities grow together.

Through stories of collaboration between developers, governments, and communities, Keven reveals how smart policy, disciplined financing, and shared vision turn stadiums into catalysts for long-term urban vitality.