Money Flows To Harris, But Some Of Biden's CRE Backers Are Skeptical

President Joe Biden’s historic withdrawal from the presidential race Sunday came after many of his big-money donors — in real estate and beyond — had pulled their support from his campaign and called for him to step down. 

Now that he has exited the race, the money is flowing into the coffers of Vice President Kamala Harris, who received Biden’s endorsement on Sunday and has since received the support of many prominent Democrats. 

Two real estate executives who previously backed Biden told Bisnow on Monday they plan to continue supporting Harris with their checkbooks. But some industry leaders stopped short of throwing their support behind the California Democrat, saying they favor an open convention and a candidate with more centrist views.

Harris’ campaign said Monday afternoon it had raised $81M since Biden’s announcement, touting it as the largest 24-hour haul in presidential election history. Small-dollar Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue said it was its biggest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle. And Biden-leaning super PAC Future Forward received $150M in new donations in the 24 hours after the president stepped aside, Politico reported. 

Richard Oller, executive chairman of Philadelphia-based real estate firm GoldOller and a Biden donor, told Bisnow Monday morning that Harris is seeing the “floodgates reopen” in part because Democratic business executives are “pragmatists,” and they now believe their party has a chance to win. 

“If the odds of winning are not favorable, then it’s concerning, and it certainly goes into the consideration of how much you contribute,” he said. “I think those odds have just gone up significantly, and I think it’ll be reflected in increased contributions.”

Harris has also received an influx of endorsements, including from several rising Democratic leaders who had been eyed as potential challengers for the nomination, such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

She also got the backing of longtime party leaders like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

In addition to the new donations that have flowed in over the last 24 hours, Harris is receiving the money previously raised for Biden, including from many commercial real estate executives. The political action committee previously listed in Federal Election Commission records as the Biden Victory Fund has been renamed the Harris Victory Fund, and it now has control of millions in donations previously given to the former. 

Los Angeles developer and former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso is one of those big donors. He gave $160K to the Biden Victory fund in December and May combined, FEC filings show. Caruso had called on Biden to step down following his performance in the June 27 debate, and on Sunday, he said the Democratic National Convention should hold an open nominating process to pick Biden’s replacement. 

“Vice-President Harris may emerge as the best choice, but allowing an open process is consistent with the fundamental strength of our democracy and ensures a brighter future for all Americans,” Caruso said in a post on social media platform X. 

Walker & Dunlop CEO Willy Walker, who has supported Democrats in the past but doesn’t appear to have made donations this campaign cycle, said he had called for Biden to step down but doesn’t like how quickly the party has coalesced around Harris.  

“I am very disappointed that the Democratic Party has rushed to coronate Kamala Harris rather than run a process,” Walker wrote in an email to Bisnow Monday. “The Democrats have the real opportunity to nominate a more centrist candidate who could attract disenfranchised real Republicans (smaller government, free trade, collaborative foreign policy) and they have decided not to.”  

Several business leaders outside of the real estate industry have voiced similar misgivings.

Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla posted on X Sunday that he wants an open convention and “not a coronation.” Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, a Democratic donor who had called on Biden to step down, posted Sunday that “Dem delegates need to pick a swing state winner.” Florida attorney and Biden donor John Morgan told ABC News he wouldn’t fundraise for Harris and he thinks she would be Trump supporters' preferred opponent. 

Jeff Berkowitz, a Miami-based retail developer who has given $67K to Biden’s reelection effort and another $91K to other Democratic groups this election cycle, is one of the donors who had pulled his spending for Biden after the debate. 

He told Bisnow on Friday, before Biden stepped down, that he was withholding any more financial support until Biden drops out of the race. He said he would support whoever becomes the Democratic nominee. 

“If [Harris] is the nominee, I will contribute to her effort because I think Donald Trump is a complete disaster,” Berkowitz said. “I consider character and integrity to be important, and I fear for my children and my grandchildren should Trump become president again.”

Berkowitz said his support for the Democratic ticket is driven by his personal political views, not his business interests. Trump, the nation's first developer-turned-president, cut the corporate tax rate and created new development tax incentives during his four years in office.

“I don’t think there’s any question that, if I were to vote my pocketbook, that I would probably vote Republican and Donald Trump,” he said. 

Oller hasn’t wavered in his support for the Democratic ticket, a decision he said he believes is the right move for his multifamily real estate business. He gave $75K to the Biden Victory Fund in September and December and has given more than $40K to the Democratic National Committee.

He also said he made a “big” contribution this month that hasn’t been reflected in election filings yet, a move that came after Biden’s debate performance had spooked away many other donors. 

“I think the party agenda is better for the economy and better for real estate,” Oller said of Democrats, adding that their policies support a strong middle class, which bolsters demand for the apartment industry. 

As for what policies Harris will push, Oller said he doesn’t expect her agenda will differ much from Biden’s, as they have seemed fully aligned over the past four years.

“I believe that the Biden policies have been very measured. All of the legislation has been bipartisan. I think that will continue,” he said. “I hope [Harris] has as much finesse as Joe did in bringing bipartisan coalitions together. I believe she’s been well trained.”

Roger Altman, another major Biden donor and founder of investment banking firm Evercore, also said Monday that he expects Harris to pursue the same agenda as Biden would have. 

“I’m not aware of much or any daylight between what we’ll call the Biden-Harris policies and her own,” he said on CNBC. “What do they stand for? Rebuilding the country: infrastructure, green energy, semiconductor production, universal broadband and the like. And that’s a strong agenda.”

The series of massive spending bills Biden passed during his first two years in office — the $1.9T American Rescue Plan Act, the $550B Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the $280B Chips and Science Act and the $2T Inflation Reduction Act — helped spur big new real estate projects. But critics say they also contributed to inflation reaching a 40-year-high and led the Federal Reserve to launch an aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes that has slowed real estate activity. 

Peebles Corp. CEO Don Peebles, a longtime Democrat who hasn’t contributed to either side in this year’s presidential election, said he is considering backing Trump because of how the Biden administration’s economic policies have affected the real estate industry. And he sees other executives doing the same. 

“There’s going to be significant support for Trump because of these Biden policies putting developers out of business, putting properties into receivership,” Peebles said. “People want relief, and this has been going on for a while.”

Peebles had said last week that he thought Biden should step down, and he said in a follow-up interview Monday that he thinks Harris is the only choice Democrats have at this point in the campaign. But he wishes Biden had decided last year not to run for reelection so the Democrats could have had a competitive primary season, and he may have supported other Democrats like Michigan’s Whitmer or Virginia Sen. Mark Warner.

But for now, Peebles is waiting to hear what Harris has to say on economic policy before making up his mind. 

“I don’t know how much her policies are going to differ from President Biden’s because it’s their administration,” he said. “So I think that I’m going to wait and see. I know where former President Trump’s economic policies are. Many of them are policies I support and embrace.”

One Biden proposal has garnered widespread opposition from the real estate industry: the plan released last week to cap rent increases nationwide at 5% at existing buildings owned by those with portfolios of more than 50 units. 

Oller said that despite his support for Biden and Harris, he thinks the rent control plan is a “bad idea,” adding that he and others in the industry will advise the Harris campaign against it. 

The National Apartment Association was vociferous in its opposition to the rent control proposal in a statement provided to Bisnow Monday. 

“President Biden’s decision to not seek reelection does not eliminate the threat of bad housing policy nor the harm such policies would have on communities and the rental housing industry,” NAA President and CEO Bob Pinnegar said in the statement. “NAA and our members will continue to make our voices heard in opposition to the Administration's national rent control proposal. It must be crystal clear to every member of Congress and whomever leads the Democrat ticket for President that such proposals are bad policy and bad politics.”