Net Lease Leaders: Ed Pitoniak

The fourth conversation of the Net Lease Leaders series is now live. Check out the link at the bottom of the page!

Net Lease Leaders shares impactful long-form conversations with executives across the single tenant net lease ecosystem and is presented by the Net Lease Observer.

Ed Pitoniak is CEO of VICI Properties (NYSE: VICI).

VICI Properties is an owner and acquirer of experiential real estate assets across leading gaming, hospitality, wellness, entertainment and leisure destinations. Its geographically diverse portfolio currently consists of 93 experiential assets consisting of 54 gaming properties and 39 other experiential properties across the United States and Canada. Check out their website:
VICI Properties | Invest in the Experience

VICI’s one-of-a-kind portfolio includes 10 Las Vegas Strip assets like The Venetian Resort, Caesar’s Palace, MGM Grand, and Harrah’s as well as properties outside Vegas like Chelsea Piers (New York), Borgata (Atlantic City), Harrah’s (Lake Tahoe), and Jack Cleveland Casino (Cleveland). The REIT also owns 38 bowling alleys tenanted by Lucky Strike Entertainment (NYSE: LUCK; formerly known as Bowlero) and has offered loans to experiential businesses like Great Wolf Lodge, Canyon Ranch, and Cabot.

The insightful conversation with Ed started with his formative years and time at Ski Magazine, tracing his journey to operations, real estate, development, and net lease all while providing countless insights and lessons. Topics include:
-Ed’s early years
-Ski Magazine and the glory days of the magazine publishing business
-Moving to Whistler to join a ski resort operations business roll-up
-Recruitment to run Vancouver-based hotel REIT
-Liberal arts background: learning and synthesizing lots of information quickly
-Receiving a recruiter call on behalf of the credit committee for Caesars/Harrah’s real estate
-Family dynamics of moving internationally and shifting careers
-Broad and deep understanding of the customer
-Leaning into snowboarding before it was the norm
-Importance of the customer, experience, and trends
-VICI is not a conventional net lease REIT - focus on how the customer feels inside the real estate
-Intro to gaming and first impression of VICI seed portfolio/situation
-Learning how to communicate with stakeholders about the most amazing real estate in the world
-Acquiring Harrah’s Las Vegas real estate in 2 months
-Scaling through large deals at attractive cap rates
-The Venetian’s $2 billion revenue property and how Amazon is the most important customer
-The Las Vegas experience
-Non-gaming and other experiential assets
-Internal growth through same store sales and lease structure
-Investment outlook, volatility, need to be creative
-Focusing on and communicating long-term growth expectations

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