Investment Matters: Frank Talk About Opportunity

September 8, 2026

A candid conversation between Lucern Capital Partners' Frank Forte and CPE's Paul Rosta about industrial investment strategy, the hard but rewarding lessons of building a business and much more.

Frank Forte was the kind of kid who was already fascinated by Wall Street by the time he was about 15. He was a whiz at math, and rather precociously, he also loved reading about options, derivatives and the market. But even back then commercial real estate was on his radar, too. After a few well-timed twists and turns early in his career, he made his path into real estate investment.

On left, graphic of a chart superimposed on an image of a city skyline; on the right, two photos in circular frames. At the top right, a photo of Lucern Capital Partners' Frank Forte. At the bottom right, photo of CPE's Paul Rosta — In this episode of “Investment Matters,” Lucern Capital Partners’ Frank Forte discusses his investment strategy with CPE’s Paul Rosta.

Ten years ago, he co-founded a private equity investment firm that he named Lucern Capital Partners, which he runs with David Hansel, the firm’s co-founder and managing partner. Since then, he’s been involved in transactions valued at more than $380 million across a wide swath of the East Coast.

Lately he’s been finding attractive opportunities in the burgeoning small-bay industrial market at a time when he believes the larger industrial sector has become overbuilt. Forte discusses the economic climate that’s impacting the decision-making of his customers and prospects. He talks about the bid-ask gap and his strategy for underwriting potential deals.

In our conversation, my guest addresses what it takes to build a successful commercial real estate investment business and offers caveats about the traps that new participants can fall into. He emphasizes the importance of taking a clear-eyed view of market opportunities.

And he cautions against buying into the myth that commercial real estate is some kind of get-rich-quick scheme. He told me that “what people don’t see is (that) to really generate the value, you need to roll up your sleeves, and you need to be a good operator.”

Yet for all the hard work that success demands, Forte doesn’t think of it as being a grind. As he puts it: “I feel like I never work a day in my life, so I’m very lucky.” Take a listen.

Episode highlights: