Roundtable Weekly
Inflation, National Policy Agenda, and CRE Market Conditions Focus of Roundtable Annual Meeting
June 18, 2022
2022 Real Estate Roundtable Annual Meeting Audience The Roundtable’s 2022 Annual Meeting in Washington, DC this week focused on key policy issues affecting the commercial real estate industry—including inflation and interest rates; prospects for a scaled-back Build Back Better (BBB) Act; proposed climate risk disclosure rules; and a new industry Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiative. Policy Focus DeBoer and Manchin at 2022 Roundtable Annual Meeting
  • Roundtable President and CEO Jeffrey D. DeBoer, left, launched the June 16 business meeting with an overview of The Roundtable’s Policy Agenda and newly released 2022 Annual Report, Building a More Resilient and Dynamic Future. Annual Meeting guests included:
    • Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) Sen. Manchin, above right, discussed the benefits of a bipartisan approach to legislation and the role of inflation in considering any additional spending bills this year.
    • Sen. John Thune (R-SD) Sen. Thune spoke about supply chain issues, aid for Ukraine, the Fed and monetary policy, and the upcoming elections.
    • Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) Rep. Spanberger addressed efforts to produce common-sense gun policy, lower inflationary costs for families and policymaking in the House during the upcoming lame duck session.
    • Jim VandeHeiAxios and Politico co-founder and CEO discussed the current political environment, potential challengers to President Biden, the upcoming congressional elections, and the advantages of delivering news and analysis about today’s policy landscape in an efficient, “smart brevity” style.
    • Jonathan KarlABC New’s Chief Washington Correspondent spoke about the current political environment and the midterm elections.
Supplier Diversity & CRE Rock Irvin, Chief Commercial Officer, SupplierGATEWAY (left) and Adenuga Solaru Chief Executive Officer (right)
  • The Annual Meeting also included an initiative of The Roundtable’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) Committee, chaired by Jeff T. Blau (Chief Executive Officer and a partner of Related Companies).
  • A proposed two-year pilot program was discussed with SupplierGATEWAY—a firm that assists companies interested in hiring Minority- and Women-Business Enterprises (MWBEs) as contractors, service providers, JV partners, and other “vendors” in their “supply chains.” (Photo: SupplierGATEWAY's Rock Irvin, left, Chief Commercial Officer, with Adenuga Solaru, Chief Executive Officer)
  • The proposed online SupplierGATEWAY portal would support CRE firms interested in accessing a broad and centralized MWBE vendor database, posting hiring opportunities for those contractors, and utilizing tools to assist with corporate ESG reports.
  • SupplierGATEWAY's executives demonstrated a CRE-specific “prototype” of their MWBE management portal that could be available by the fall for companies who may subscribe to the service. 
  • For more information regarding The Roundtable’s supplier diversity initiative, contact Roundtable Senior Vice President and Counsel, Duane Desiderio (ddesiderio@rer.org).
CRE Markets & Policy Advisory Committees TPAC Meeting at Annual 2022 Meeting
  • The Roundtable’s Policy Advisory Committee leadership discussed their policy issue activities during the business meeting and referred to a Policy Issues Toolkit for background information on how key issues impact commercial real estate (see Executive Summary). Each committee met in conjunction with the Annual Meeting to address the following:  
    • The Sustainability Policy Advisory Committee (SPAC) focused on a recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed rule that would require registered companies to report on climate-related financial risks. The Roundtable submitted a comment letter to the SEC last week on the proposed rules. (Roundtable Weekly, June 10 and Roundtable comments | SPAC Agenda).  
    • The Research and Real Estate Capital Policy Advisory Committees (RECPAC) met jointly with Rep. Rep. French Hill (R-AR) to discuss the congressional legislative agenda and capital markets from his perspective as a member of the House Financial Services Committee and Ranking Member of its Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance. (Joint RECPAC-Research Agenda)
    • The Tax Policy Advisory Committee (TPAC) drilled down on a Senate proposal to tax unrealized gains associated with appreciated assets, partnership tax rules, like-kind exchanges, Opportunity Zone incentives, and energy-efficiency tax provisions. (TPAC Agenda)
    • The Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) and Risk Management Working Group (RMWG) met jointly to discuss current threat issues, with presentations by Kevin Vorndran, Deputy Assistant Director, Counterterrorism Division, FBI and Nitin Natarajan, Deputy Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). (Joint HSTF-RMWG Agenda)
Next on The Roundtable’s calendar is the Sept. 20-21 Fall Meeting (Roundtable-level members only). #  #  #