Chad Tredway charted a fast path into upper management at JPMorgan Chase, rising from an associate during the Financial Crisis to a senior position overseeing the bank’s $20 billion lending business with some of the largest commercial real estate landlords and developers. Business Insider featured Tredway in its first Rising Stars of Wall Street list in 2017.
Then in 2021, he left to launch his own real state company, called Trio Investment Group. The company focused on sale-leaseback transactions where it purchased property assets from owners who occupied their spaces — such as manufacturers — and then leased it back to them.
JPMorgan brought him back by buying Tredway’s firm in early 2024 for an undisclosed price and named him head of real estate investment in the Americas for JPMorgan Asset Management, an investment arm of the bank that owns about $79 billion of commercial property.
In May 2025, Tredway, 42, was promoted to global leader of that real estate investment business. In the new position, he regularly travels to meet with both existing and prospective clients, including some of the world’s largest investors.
Business Insider caught up with Tredway on his career changes and the opportunities he sees in the real estate market amid a changing economy. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
You spent 13 years at JPMorgan Chase and had risen to a leadership position. Why did you leave?
I left with the firm’s blessing, and JP Morgan actually invested alongside me, but there is a major opportunity in the sale-leaseback industry. You could get 10-13% returns without taking inordinate amounts of risk. We had over 50 deals in 22 states.
What brought you back?
All the advantages the firm has. Being able to call literally the leading industry experts on everything from M&A to corporate real estate to lending is an advantage you can’t get when you’re on your own.
JPMorgan purchased your company. How did that deal come about?
The conversation was more: we think there’s an amazing opportunity in real estate. We believe we’re coming off of cyclical lows. We believe we can be much more entrepreneurial. George Gatch, who leads asset and wealth management, is absolutely phenomenal. I spent a lot of time understanding his vision for growth of the business.
You were a lender, and now you’re on the investment side. What was that switch like for you?
Being a lender first really gives you a perspective on risk. Starting my own company gave me a great fundamental understanding of how you add value to clients on the investment side.
What are the themes that you hear from investors?
In the last 50 years, real estate values have only declined by more than 10% three times. We’ve now had, I think five or six positive quarters of real estate values increasing. I was in a meeting with an investor overseas. They said, look, I’m going to pair my gains in equities. And I’m going to shift into real estate. I’m hearing that conversation more and more.
What kind of an investor was that?
A pension plan. We also hear it from our wealth clients.
What are the big themes for your strategy?
We’re focused on industrial outdoor storage. These are where the trucks go at the end of the night. The Amazon trucks, the UPS trucks, the FedEx trucks. Because we have information on half of the US population, for us to be able to see where goods are going, how clients need them, how they’re thinking through their spend is something that only we have.
When I was a lender, the anchor of our portfolio was housing. We’re doing the same thing here around the world. We have over 80,000 units of housing and we focus on non-luxury housing.
The third theme that we’re really seeing is truly the power of manufacturing, whether it’s advanced manufacturing or otherwise.
The other place we’re finding value, which is also not unlike what I did as a lender, is we’re finding more value in middle market real estate today.
This story is part of a series catching up with finance pros we once spotlighted as Rising Stars of Wall Street to see where their careers have taken them. See our 2025 list here.
What qualifies as a middle market?
What we used to see large firms doing was buying billion-dollar transactions. If you look at where we’re playing today, our average transaction is between $50 million and $100 million.
Interest rates have come down only slightly, the economic outlook is uncertain, and inflation is stubborn. How do you invest at a time like this?
There are some things that always stay the same. People will always need a place to live. You are always going to want goods from your phone to your doorstep as fast as you possibly can.
What do you think of the booming data center market?
Technology risk is real. It’s really difficult to predict what will actually happen with technology. When I look at overall size and just concentration risk, again, it’s something that we’re aware of.
Our focus today has been more on buying high quality real estate in great locations where we have an edge. We have not been focused in the data center space at this time because of that.
When do you move into JPMorgan’s new offices at 270 Park Avenue?
I don’t control the seating plans for 270. We have multiple buildings, as you know.
As a real estate nerd, one of my favorite things to do is walk through 270. It embodies New York; it embodies the strength of the largest bank in the United States. Clients have even commented on the detail and the focus and what it does.
