Good morning. It's Sunday, June 14, and in this week's edition, we're covering the GSA building occupancy dispute and what it means for federal real estate sales, what Kevin Warsh's first FOMC meeting signals for CRE borrowing costs with inflation running at 4%-plus, and a guest Deep Dive from my partner Rafik Moore on why your results are a precise reflection of the story you tell yourself. First time reading? Sign up here.
And, as always, send us feedback at [email protected].
Federal News Network reports that none of the 9,700 federal buildings in GSA's governmentwide database meet the 60% minimum occupancy threshold required by the USE IT Act - but GSA is now pushing back on its own numbers. The agency's acting Public Buildings Service commissioner told a House committee the data is not an apples-to-apples comparison, because it counts auditoriums, conference rooms, and libraries in the square footage total. CBRE's Tim Hutchens put a number on it: roughly 65% of a typical federal building is actual office space, making the 60% threshold essentially impossible to hit as currently measured. The Trump administration isn't waiting for the data dispute to resolve - it has already announced plans to sell USDA, HUD, DOE, and Education Department headquarters and is moving multiple agencies into consolidated space.
"Meditation As A Tool For Business | Nikita Zhitov | TEDxAirlie": My friend Nikita Zhitov - CRE investor and developer based in Raleigh, NC - makes the case that a quiet mind is a competitive edge in high-stakes real estate decisions. He walks through the neuroscience behind it and the exact practice he uses to cut through noise and make clearer calls when deal pressure is at its highest. Watch here.
"Blackstone's Jon Gray Addresses 700+ Clients | May 2026": Blackstone's President Jon Gray tells 700+ LPs that logistics is his favorite CRE asset class right now - Link Logistics just posted its best leasing volume ever, up 38% year-on-year - and frames commercial real estate broadly as "one of the least bubbly parts of the economy," with new supply down sharply and debt costs falling. A useful window into where the largest real estate firm on earth is placing its conviction. Watch here.
The Washington Post reports Kevin Warsh heads into his first FOMC meeting next week with inflation running at 4%-plus (a three-year high) and a jobs market that won't crack - conditions that may eventually force him to raise rates rather than cut them. The Fed is almost certain to hold at next week's meeting, but futures markets are increasingly pricing in hikes before year-end. Cleveland Fed president Beth Hammack has already signaled she is ready to act, and KPMG's Diane Swonk projects two hikes in 2026. Warsh is also expected to strip the cut-bias language from the Fed's post-meeting statement - a subtle but meaningful shift for bond markets parsing every word.
CRE Impact: Anyone underwriting a 2026 refi off a rate-cut assumption is working with the wrong model. Two potential hikes push debt costs higher at the worst possible time for the maturity wall. If Warsh moves, cap rate compression stalls and refinancing math gets harder, not easier.
This week's Deep Dive belongs to Rafik Moore - close friend, partner, and someone whose thinking I trust. Here's Rafik.
Everyone wants financial freedom, a sense of meaning, and a life that feels aligned with who they know they could become. Yet your bank account, your results, and the quality of your relationships aren't random. They're precise reflections of the story you tell yourself - what you believe is possible for someone like you.
The higher the bar you set, the more impossible it feels. So you do what most people do: you get "realistic." You shrink the dream until it fits inside your existing identity.
Standing at Point A, it's nearly impossible to imagine reaching Point F, Point M, Point Z. The distance feels too great. So your mind does what it's designed to do - it protects you. It convinces you that Point B is all that's possible.
But here's what most people never realize: what you see at Point A is not all that exists. It's only what your current level of awareness allows you to perceive. When you take a step forward, your perspective expands. New terrain appears. What once felt impossible suddenly feels obvious.
This is why dreaming small is such a costly mistake. You either design your vision consciously - or you drift into one shaped by fear, habit, and limitation. There is no "no vision" option.
I still remember the first time I saw a vision board in my friend Danny's office - a mansion, a sports car, exotic travel, a chiseled physique. My immediate reaction: I cringed. My subconscious rejected it instantly.
"I'm not materialistic like that." "I'm fine where I am."
That wasn't humility. It was fear disguised as virtue.
Still, something inside me stirred. I went home and ordered my own board. Filled it with images of the life I secretly desired and hung it in my bedroom - out of sight, where no one could judge me. Growth doesn't begin with certainty. It begins with permission.
From that moment, something subtle shifted. I began filtering reality through a new lens - noticing people, opportunities, and pathways that had always existed but were previously invisible to me.
As your vision clarifies, become intentional about who you allow into your world. Seek out people on a similar mission - people who expand you rather than shrink you, who see your vision and recognize themselves in it. I found them in masterminds, in rooms where growth was assumed rather than questioned. We didn't just do business - we built trust, friendship, and shared momentum.
You only have room for about 150 meaningful relationships in your life. When that tribe aligns around a shared vision, energy compounds, momentum builds, and what once seemed impossible quietly becomes real.
This is Superposition. Your inner and outer worlds begin to mirror each other. You stop forcing outcomes and start attracting them. To those watching from the outside, it looks like luck.
But as Paulo Coelho wrote: "When you really want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."
You were never meant to see the entire path at once. You were meant to grow into the person who could walk it.
- Rafik Moore
What's the vision you've been too afraid to write down?
Hit reply. I read every email.
LET ME HEAR IT
Until next Sunday.
Be well,
Saul
P.S. Missed my podcast with Kathy Fettke? Here is the full episode.
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