Sam Zell
American businessman and philanthropistWikipedia
32
MENTIONS
21
EPISODES
19
PODCASTS
Search complete. 32 mentions across 21 episodes found for "Sam Zell".
Sep 11, 2026
Cameron ReillyHOST
off to a private equity firm called Equity Group Investments.
Cameron ReillyHOST
This was run by a guy called Sam Zell.
Cameron ReillyHOST
You ever heard of Sam Zell? I
Tony KynastonHOST
have.
Tony KynastonHOST
I'm just trying to recall.
Spencer LevyGUEST
We had Silverstein on the show recently.
Spencer LevyGUEST
We had Sam Zell.
Spencer LevyGUEST
And so I would tell you that they were great because they were not just because they were famous.
Spencer LevyGUEST
I mean, these people are truly great people.
Jay RosenthalHOST
you know,
Marc HauserPANELIST
when I worked for, um, Sam Zell, the investor for 15 years, um, you know, that was one of the key things that I always learned from him is, you know, a cash is King, but B, uh, you know, optionality is, is, is, is what you work for.
Jay RosenthalHOST
All right, it's now time for our favorite segment of the show, winners and losers.
Jay RosenthalHOST
Ben, you got a winner or a loser or a winner and a loser? Who you got?
Jay RosenthalHOST
you know,
Marc HauserGUEST
when I worked for Sam Zell, the investor for 15 years, you know, that was one of the key things that I always learned from him is, you know, A, cash is king, but B, you know, optionality is, is, is, is what you work for.
Jay RosenthalHOST
All right, it's now time for our favorite segment of the show, winners and losers.
Jay RosenthalHOST
Ben, you got a winner or a loser or a winner and a loser? Who you got?
Chris LarsenGUEST
It's on the internet.
Chris LarsenGUEST
You can go into, you can create an agent on chat GPT or Claude and say, Hey, you know, I've got a virtual board that's, you know, made up of, you know, people like Warren Buffett and Ray Dalio and Tony Robbins and Sam Zell and, you know, some of the, you know, some of the people that I admire in the business and financial world.
Chris LarsenGUEST
And I can learn from them.
Chris LarsenGUEST
We can all learn from people like that today, people that have done things.
Jeff HenningsenHOST
But Peter's path into private equity was anything but conventional.
Jeff HenningsenHOST
After starting his career at Dakota Capital Partners, which operated inside Sam Zell's family office, Peter left private equity and started a professional car racing team.
Jeff HenningsenHOST
Over six years, he built it into the winningest team in its league, while learning firsthand what it meant to generate revenue, make payroll, manage people, and operate a business.
Jeff HenningsenHOST
In 2005, Peter returned to investing and co-founded Granite Creek, where the original thesis remains largely intact today.
Jeff HenningsenHOST
In our conversation, we talk about Granite Creek's flexible approach to equity and private credit.
Jeff HenningsenHOST
why Peter describes their role as being a CEO's greatest wingman, and what a true partnership looks like when things don't go according to plan.
Jeff HenningsenHOST
We also discuss some of the lessons Peter took from being around Sam Zell, the importance of being a professional opportunist, why the second best answer is a quick no, and how AI may actually make curiosity, communication, and critical thinking more valuable for the next generation.
Jeff HenningsenHOST
Now we'll get kicked off with Peter Lehman.
Drew McKnightGUEST
Yeah.
Drew McKnightGUEST
And he bought the – if you remember, Blackstone bought those from Sam Zell and then they went and sold kind of all the different kind of trophy assets in different cities at these trophy prices.
Drew McKnightGUEST
Harry bought the New York City assets and he was – and this was when I'm going to – I think it traded at like a four and a half cap or something like that, five cap.
Drew McKnightGUEST
I mean very, very – the whole EOP and then Blackstone said, okay, we're going to go – we're going to pay four and a half or five for the whole – all the assets, but then we're going to flip the trophies at even tighter caps.
Mark RadzikGUEST
I worked on senior deals in the lower middle market and then had some great clients.
Mark RadzikGUEST
And then one of my great clients happened to be Sam Zell's family office.
Mark RadzikGUEST
And they were after working there.
Mark RadzikGUEST
on a number of their projects for five or six years, had the opportunity then to join that.
Alex RawlingsHOST
Okay.
Alex RawlingsHOST
Interesting.
Alex RawlingsHOST
So lots of questions to come from the base of that, but we'll kick off with the usual and then we'll dive into Sam Zell and everything else.
Alex RawlingsHOST
What's one mistake that you see private equity firms or portfolio companies making and what would you suggest to correct them?
Carl MuhlsteinGUEST
I tend to land in a neighborhood like Hollywood, start off selling 6430 Sunset for Maringoff, and then from there we'll do 10, 15 transactions over 10 years.
Carl MuhlsteinGUEST
or landing in Burbank and representing Sam Zell's group at the time to sell the Pinnacle site to Jeff Worth.
Carl MuhlsteinGUEST
And from there, jumped into probably another 10, 20 transactions.
Carl MuhlsteinGUEST
So I liked moving around.
Jody ChapnickGUEST
And we grew our REAP in the 90s.
Jody ChapnickGUEST
So we had individual properties and we just created a platform, rolled them all together, I traded on the American Stock Exchange, sold out in 2002 to Sam Zell Equity Residential.
Jody ChapnickGUEST
You really don't want to be on the other side of a trade of Sam Zell, but I lucked out and we sold our company for about $500 million back in 2002, which is a lot of money.
Jody ChapnickGUEST
We did an IPO for 30 million, we did a secondary for 70 million, and things worked out, so we sold it off.
Jody ChapnickGUEST
Very intensive management business, and we got out of apartments, and I did every other asset class of real estate, pretty much everything but self-storage.
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