National Real Estate Advisors Promotes Ben Kanne to Managing Director, Investments

National Real Estate Advisors has promoted Ben Kanne to Managing Director, Investments, the firm announced Sept. 30, expanding his leadership responsibilities across a platform that spans multifamily, data centers, healthcare-related properties, and mixed-use facilities.

In the new role, Kanne will help shape and execute the firm's investment strategy and lead the sourcing, screening, underwriting, structuring, and closing of new investment opportunities across National's platform. He will also oversee the firm's investment team and continue to lead the development and presentation of investment recommendations to the Investment Committee.

A Promotion Timed to Leadership Transition

The appointment comes at a significant inflection point for National Real Estate Advisors. The firm has announced that founder Jeffrey Kanne will retire and that Kevin Verdi, currently executive vice president and chief investment officer, will become president and chief executive officer in January 2027. Promoting Ben Kanne strengthens the investment leadership bench ahead of that transition and supports continuity in underwriting, portfolio strategy, and investment-committee recommendations.

"Ben has played a central role in many of our most important investment decisions and has consistently demonstrated the judgment, discipline, and leadership that define National's investment approach," Verdi said in a statement. "His promotion reflects both the strength of our internal talent and our commitment to developing leaders from within. As Managing Director, Investments, Ben will help guide the continued execution of our investment strategy while ensuring we remain focused on delivering strong, risk-adjusted outcomes for our investors."

Working closely with Portfolio Management and senior leadership, Kanne will help guide material investment decisions and ensure the firm's investment activity remains aligned with client objectives.

Ben Kanne's Role in Building National's Data Center Platform

Since joining National Real Estate Advisors in 2020, Ben Kanne has been instrumental in two of the firm's most active investment areas: data centers and medical office properties.

Kanne helped launch the National Data Center Fund in 2021 and has been a central figure in growing the firm's partnership with Sabey Data Center Properties into one of its largest platforms. That partnership now encompasses more than 3.5 million square feet of operating data-center space across six campuses, approximately 1,400 acres of development land, and roughly 251 megawatts of operating capacity across six energized campuses.

In July 2026, Ares Management's Secondaries funds made a minority equity investment in Sabey Data Center Properties, bringing new institutional capital to the platform as demand for powered data-center capacity continues to accelerate. New data-center supply remains constrained by power availability, transmission capacity, permitting, and long interconnection timelines, making established operating platforms with development land particularly valuable.

Healthcare Real Estate Adds a Second Growth Pillar

Alongside the data-center work, Ben Kanne helped build National's medical office investment program. The firm's medical real estate portfolio now exceeds 2 million square feet nationwide. National has continued adding healthcare properties, including two facilities in Great Falls, Montana, and Winter Garden, Florida, announced in June 2026.

The healthcare strategy is tied to outpatient care, health-system expansion, and the migration of medical services away from higher-cost hospital settings — a demand profile that differs substantially from the technology-infrastructure drivers behind the data-center platform. Kanne's expanded responsibilities therefore span sectors with distinct but complementary demand characteristics.

National's Platform and Market Position

National Real Estate Advisors manages an operating portfolio of more than 18 million square feet with approximately $4.5 billion in assets under management and a construction pipeline of approximately $4.9 billion. The firm's INDURE Build-to-Core Fund comprises 94 properties totaling approximately 14 million square feet, with a gross asset value of approximately $6 billion and a net asset value of approximately $2.7 billion.

The firm applies a development-led, build-to-core strategy and manages separate accounts and commingled investment vehicles on behalf of investors. National is an independently operated subsidiary of the National Electrical Benefit Fund, a pension trust whose assets National manages on a discretionary basis.

Prior to joining National, Ben Kanne served as an investment banking vice president in the Real Estate, Gaming & Lodging Group at BofA Merrill Lynch in New York, where he advised public and private real estate companies on strategic transactions and capital markets initiatives. His experience spans acquisitions, debt and equity investing, portfolio strategy, and transaction execution. He holds an MBA in Corporate Finance and Real Estate from the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and English from Elon University.

Higher financing costs, elevated construction expenses, and power constraints for data centers make investment selectivity and disciplined underwriting increasingly important — areas that National's announcement places at the center of Kanne's mandate.

Sources

National Real Estate Advisors — PR Newswire, Sept. 30, 2026