So I wrote an article titled “From Cassandra, With Love” and it ran in the March 1988 Real Estate Issues. Cassandra was a character in Greek legend c… - Sam Zell

I’m drawn to emerging markets because of their built-in demand. I’ve always believed in buying into in-place demand rather than trying to create it.

I knew what the Equity Office portfolio was worth. And I knew we were undervalued by Wall Street. Every quarter, the management team would do an in-depth analysis of every asset in the portfolio to develop a real-time valuation. The most reliable measure of our buildings’ value remained — and had always been, in my opinion — replacement cost. Replacement cost mattered more to me than rents or comparable prices or vacancies or economic growth or stock price. This was because replacement cost determined the price of future competition.

In emerging markets, a big clue to national stability is whether a country is on the verge of investment-grade rating. Early on, I came to the conclusion there’s no other time in the life of any country when it’s more disciplined and more transparent than when it’s a year or two away from reaching investment-grade status.