Ashford, Digital Realty among experts’ top real estate investment picks

Things aren’t as bad in commercial real estate as recent press reports have made them seem, according to Jay Leupp, senior portfolio manager with Grubb & Ellis’ Realty Income Fund. Leupp, along with Paul Curbo, a portfolio manager at Invesco AIM Global Real Estate Fund, talked to CNBC yesterday about where they believe investors stand to make the most handsome profits in real estate today. Leupp’s pick: Ashford Hospitality, the Marriott and Embassy Suites parent company, which owns 120 hotels nationwide. Curbo said he’d go with Digital Realty Trust, which owns data center spaces and has seen growth even as the rest of the commercial real estate industry has faltered.