Marc Zahr

Co-President, Global Head of Real Assets, Blue Owl Capital

Zahr founded Oak Street Real Estate Capital in Chicago in 2009, building it into a major net-lease and sale-leaseback investment firm before Blue Owl acquired it 12 years later for $950 million, folding its approximately $12.4 billion in assets under management into Blue Owl’s property business.

Zahr became a senior executive at the new, combined firm, overseeing real estate acquisitions across net-lease, sale-leaseback and strategic capital investments. Even under tight development markets, Zahr has been able to bring in cash on some of Blue Owl’s major real estate assets. Look no further than the high-profile quantum computing development site on the South Side, where Blue Owl struck a $58 million ground lease agreement with developers Related Midwest and CRG. 

Blue Owl has grown substantially under Zahr, but net-lease investing has faced headwinds as higher interest rates compress spreads and test valuations. The capital is out there, but Zahr now operates in a market with thinner margins, where tenants’ credit matters more than ever.

Zahr said Blue Owl’s aversion to floating rate debt has helped steady the firm amidst wavering markets. “As interest rates went up, because we had fixed rate financing on the deals that we had, our cash flow was uninterrupted because we didn’t use floating rate debt,” he said.