Elyssa Marcus

Elyssa Marcus joined Rubenstein Partners in 2023 as vice president of asset management and acquisitions for the New York City Metro area and is based out of the firm’s Manhattan office. Before joining Rubenstein Partners, Marcus worked for eight years with Jamestown, gaining significant real estate experience across a variety of projects and functions. Marcus was also instrumental in launching Jamestown’s first public securities offering.

She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Goizueta Business School at Emory University with concentrations in finance, strategy and management consulting and real estate, and serves as co-chair of the Emory Goizueta Real Estate Steering Committee.

How long have you been in the industry?

I’ve been working in the industry for eight years now. In college, I participated in three real estate-focused summer internships.

What brought you into the business?

I became enthralled with the world of real estate at a very young age. My father is an accomplished property tax attorney. When I was a kid, I’d point to interesting buildings that stood out to me in the Manhattan skyline and he would regale me with stories of each building’s history, which often included my dad’s personal involvement in a landmark case. At age 16 and in response to an open-ended writing assignment about any topic of interest in high school, I drafted a 33-page business plan on “How to increase RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room) at LaGuardia Airport’s Crowne Plaza Hotel,” which I hand-delivered to the owner, my maternal grandfather.

How is the market doing post-pandemic?

Office buildings in particular are facing the strongest headwinds as the shift to remote or hybrid work has directed companies to reevaluate their physical footprint, especially in major markets including New York, San Francisco, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles where work from home is most prevalent. In Manhattan alone, 25% of total office stock was currently sitting vacant as of the end of Q1 2023.

To draw the workforce back to the office, employers must provide a working environment that is inspiring and all-encompassing, a destination where employees can both work and play that features touchless and modern amenities and ideally is situated within a neighborhood that will alleviate the commute for as much of its workforce as possible.

The extremely tenant-friendly market we’re seeing in New York, which now often includes substantial concession packages offered by landlords, is making the decision to flock toward new Class A spaces easier, [compelling] older assets to upgrade or pivot their function.

How is Rubenstein adjusting its plans?

We are increasingly looking at non-traditional uses for our properties with three main goals in mind: 1) to supplement cash flow and meet debt service obligations; 2) to bolster visibility, engagement and create a dynamic sense of place that drives leasing activity and 3) to create opportunities for a diverse set of companies, artisans and community groups to occupy or utilize our spaces in imaginative ways.

We believe there will be interesting opportunities to acquire underperforming real estate and execute the adaptive reuse and repositioning of those properties. We are also focused on opportunities to provide alternative financing solutions to other operators.

What worries keep you up at night?

The upheaval in the capital markets and limited availability of debt financing for commercial real estate, especially office. Office as an entire asset class is becoming a “bad word,” which is a dangerous generalization that disregards asset-specific and market-specific factors. It’s not “one size fits all” and it never will be; in actuality, many office buildings are well-positioned to weather this storm.