About Sonny Kalsi

Sonny Kalsi is an accomplished real estate investor with more than 20 years of experience that spans a range of areas, including: investment management, real estate financing and hedge funds. Since 2010, Sonny Kalsi has worked as a partner-owner of GreenOak Real Estate, the independent real estate merchant banking platform where he is also a founder. Sonny's professional career also includes almost two decades of experience at Morgan Stanley, where he served as Managing Director and Global Head of Real Estate Investing in parts of Asia and in New York City. In an effort to share this wealth of knowledge and experience, Sonny Kalsi teaches at Columbia University as an adjunct professor in the university's Real Estate Development program. Connect with Sonny on Twitter at @SonnyKalsi_

Real Estate Lessons from…Monopoly

Developed at the height of the Great Depression by a committed socialist, Monopoly is an unlikely success--and perhaps not at all what its creator intended. Nonetheless, Monopoly has become one of the most successful board games in history: as of 2010, the game sold some 247 million sets across 114 countries, and was produced in [...]

By |2021-02-19T15:38:34+00:00August 15th, 2017|Real Estate|Comments Off on Real Estate Lessons from…Monopoly

Real Estate in Emerging Markets

Since the Great Recession, emerging markets have become an attractive investment strategy for intrepid, independent-minded and savvy investors. In many emerging economies, real estate has surged and continues to attract investors who’re willing to take the leap. Investors looking to put their money in these emerging markets need to be particularly interested in the real [...]

By |2017-08-11T17:32:05+00:00August 11th, 2017|Gateway markets|Comments Off on Real Estate in Emerging Markets

Keep and Attract the Best and Brightest

Drawing in the best employees is critical to the success of any business. Though we offer competitive salaries and packages, we at GreenOak Real Estate aren’t necessarily the industry leaders in compensation. So how do we have highly productive and happy teams in cities like Tokyo, London, Los Angeles and New York? In a nutshell, [...]

By |2021-08-03T13:40:19+00:00August 7th, 2017|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Keep and Attract the Best and Brightest

One Business Across Many Time Zones

What does someone need to successfully start a real estate business across many locations? In other cities? In overseas markets? These are questions I often get, and there are no easy answers. Breaking into the real estate business is difficult even in the best of times, when investment opportunities (and the openings to seize such [...]

By |2021-08-03T13:46:50+00:00July 25th, 2017|Going abroad|Comments Off on One Business Across Many Time Zones

On being a Finalist for the EY New York Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Last week, we were selected as a finalist for Ernst and Young’s New York Entrepreneur of the Year Award. As you may or may not know, this award focuses on high-growth companies that are at the leading edge of their industries, which range from male clothing (Tommy John) to revolutionary office management for the digital age [...]

By |2021-08-03T13:28:18+00:00June 9th, 2017|Blog|Comments Off on On being a Finalist for the EY New York Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Why Creative, Flexible Spaces are the Future of Financial Firms (and All Companies)

There’s something about concrete floors, unfinished ceilings, and unfurnished office spaces that excites millennials. My guess is that moving into these blank slates gives tenants the option to personalize and design their offices on their own terms. After all, necessity is the mother of invention. Creativity begins from the moment they move into their new [...]

By |2021-02-19T15:34:26+00:00May 30th, 2017|Blog, Real Estate|Comments Off on Why Creative, Flexible Spaces are the Future of Financial Firms (and All Companies)

To Improve Soft Skills, Work Abroad

“I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything,” writes Bill Bryson in Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe. “You can’t read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can’t even [...]

By |2021-02-19T15:33:03+00:00May 11th, 2017|Going abroad|Comments Off on To Improve Soft Skills, Work Abroad

The Changing Face of the 10-Year Commercial Lease

To hear investors and landlords alike, it appears that the ten year commercial lease is done with–the latest victim of our disruptive digital age. Today, the argument goes, the ten year commercial lease has been killed by recent trends in the marketplace–specifically by startups and tech companies seeking shorter, more transient lease terms. But that’s [...]

By |2023-01-26T20:09:25+00:00May 1st, 2017|Real Estate|Comments Off on The Changing Face of the 10-Year Commercial Lease

The Case for Gateway Markets

To paraphrase Bob Dylan, the times are changing, and fast. In light of economic disruption, such as the Great Recession of 2008 and the rapid growth of startups in unlikely places, it’s easy to think that the economic center of gravity has shifted from the coastal metropolises of the United States to inland cities. It’s [...]

By |2021-08-03T13:36:15+00:00April 24th, 2017|Gateway markets, Real Estate|Comments Off on The Case for Gateway Markets

Thoughts on the Hirshhorn Museum

If there is one quality that’s universal to human cultures, it’s art. From the cave paintings of Indonesia to the prehistoric art of Lascaux, France, this cultural expression is something that transcends time and distance. After all, the art at Lascaux and Sulawesi are separated by nearly 15,400 years and many thousands of miles--and yet, [...]

By |2017-06-19T15:34:24+00:00April 4th, 2017|Philanthropy|Comments Off on Thoughts on the Hirshhorn Museum