Episode 18

full
Published on:

20th Aug 2024

Edward B. Pitoniak – VICI Properties

Ed Pitoniak is Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of VICI Properties Inc., an S&P 500® experiential real estate investment trust that owns one of the largest portfolios of market-leading gaming, hospitality and entertainment destinations, including Caesars Palace Las Vegas, MGM Grand and the Venetian Resort Las Vegas, three of the most iconic entertainment facilities on the Las Vegas Strip. VICI Properties owns 93 experiential assets across a geographically diverse portfolio consisting of 54 gaming properties and 39 other experiential properties across the United States and Canada. The portfolio is comprised of approximately 127 million square feet and features approximately 60,300 hotel rooms and approximately 500 restaurants, bars, nightclubs and sportsbooks. Its properties are occupied by industry-leading gaming, leisure and hospitality operators under long-term, triple-net lease agreements. VICI Properties has a growing array of real estate and financing partnerships with leading non-gaming experiential operators, including Bowlero, Cabot, Canyon Ranch, Chelsea Piers, Great Wolf Resorts, and Kalahari Resorts and Conventions. VICI Properties also owns four championship golf courses and 33 acres of undeveloped and underdeveloped land adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip. VICI Properties’ goal is to create the highest quality and most productive experiential real estate portfolio through a strategy of partnering with the highest quality experiential place makers and operators.

Previously, Mr. Pitoniak served as Vice Chairman of Realterm, a private equity real estate manager. From 2006 to 2019 Mr. Pitoniak served as an independent director at Ritchie Brothers (NYSE: RBA), the world’s largest auctioneers of construction equipment. In April 2014, Mr. Pitoniak became Managing Director of InnVest, a publicly listed REIT, responsible for recapitalizing the REIT and transitioning its management function from an external, third-party management model, to an internal management model. He then served as Chairman from June 2015 to August 2016, when the REIT was sold and taken private. He also served as a director of Regal Lifestyle Communities (TSE: RLC), a Canadian seniors housing real estate owner and operator, from 2012 until its sale in 2015. Mr. Pitoniak retired in 2009 from the position of President and Chief Executive Officer and Director of bcIMC Hospitality Group, a hotel property and brand ownership entity (formerly a public income trust called Canadian Hotel Income Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (“CHIP”)), where he was employed from 2004 to 2009. As Chief Executive Officer of CHIP, he led the company to four consecutive years of total return leadership among Canadian hotel REITs, and then to a sale in 2007. Mr. Pitoniak was also a member of CHIP’s Board of Trustees before it went private. Prior to joining CHIP, Mr. Pitoniak was a Senior Vice-President at Intrawest Corporation, a ski and golf resort operator and developer, for nearly eight years. Before Intrawest, Mr. Pitoniak spent nine years with Times Mirror Magazines, where he served as editor-in-chief and associate publisher with Ski Magazine. Mr. Pitoniak has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College.


This was a fascinating discussion for us, and Ed shares with our listeners a highlight real of business and real estate anecdotes picked up throughout his illustrious career. We appreciate Ed spending time with us and are very excited to share this with our Good Dirt community. We look forward to following VICI’s continued growth and enjoying their many amazing properties!


For more information on VICI Properties and its growing portfolio of experiential real estate, visit: www.viciproperties.com


As referenced: In Memoriam, Jack Connors

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/23/metro/jack-connors-advertising-titan-legendary-philanthropist-power-broker-dies-82/?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_i2_PzKQtju0LX-0JOKqlDsWAhQ63iE-RLi-CVqzoELF8JmJPhPxdr65JSb30TCCiTZQ7u

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/23/opinion/jack-connors-boston-legend-hill-holiday/

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2024/07/30/jack-connors-dead-at-82-sharon-mcnally

https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/sites/bc-news/articles/2024/summer/in-memoriam-jack-connors.html


Please share with clients, colleagues and friends and thanks for tuning in!


Tom Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

tom.greeley@nmrk.com

Mike Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1

Michael.greeley@nmrk.com

Show artwork for Good Dirt: Conversations with Leaders in Real Estate & Beyond

About the Podcast

Good Dirt: Conversations with Leaders in Real Estate & Beyond
Interviewing Leaders in Real Estate and Beyond
Welcome to Good Dirt: Conversations with Leaders in Real Estate & Beyond - interviews with some of the most interesting and respected players in the commercial real estate industry, with a focus on investors, developers, and equity allocators that are shaping the built world around us. Hosted by Mike Greeley and Tom Greeley, brothers and teammates within the Newmark capital markets platform.

Because the real estate industry is hyper-connected to all sectors of commerce, we will also regularly be hosting friends from “beyond the business”, including luminaries from the private equity and venture capital arenas all the way to restauranteurs, consumer retail entrepreneurs, tech founders and a few politicians.

We look forward to bringing you discussions that profile our guests’ career journeys, investment strategies, building and growing of their businesses and thoughts on current market opportunities, and we’ll also delve into human interest topics, non-work pursuits, daily routines, and (perhaps most importantly) giving back. Join us as we learn from the industry’s best and brightest and have a few laughs along the way!

We hope these discussions will be noteworthy for plenty of people beyond our reach, so please share with friends, colleagues, and clients if an episode is especially topical. We also hope you’ll consider sharing this podcast with aspiring commercial real estate professionals, as each episode will be a case study on its own and in the aggregate, a crash course in this dynamic industry.

Mike Greeley
Michael.greeley@nmrk.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1/

Tom Greeley
Tom.greeley@nmrk.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

About your host

Profile picture for Thomas Greeley

Thomas Greeley