Alex Jessett, CEO of Camden Property Trust (NYSE:CPT), sat down for a video interview at Nareit’s REITweek: 2026 Investor Conference in New York, June 1-4.
Jessett, who recently took over as CEO, discussed some of his immediate and longer-term priorities. He noted that the REIT’s culture and strategy will remain in place. On the capital side, Camden needs to finish its exit out of California and take $1 billion of those proceeds and reinvest them in faster-growing, newer Sun Belt communities.
“We're going to make sure that we keep allocating all of our capital into those fast-growing markets, and that's going to be our strategy for the long term,” Jessett said.
At the same time, Camden needs to build its development pipeline back up, Jessett said. “Development is a core competency of Camden. We have created billions of dollars of value for our shareholders through development, so we need to build that pipeline back up,” he noted.
Camden also needs to enhance its asset management focus to ensure it has “the most preeminent multifamily portfolio in the space.” Meanwhile, Jessett said the REIT will keep focusing on AI. “It is something that is a core competency of ours, a huge focus from the top all the way down to the bottom. And it's a way that we really are going to create alpha for our shareholders.”
As to what the market is currently misunderstanding about Camden's outlook or value proposition, Jessett stressed that the Sun Belt will outperform. “We're going to have reduced supply, increased demand, and all of that is going to create wonderful opportunities for investors and generalist investors to come in and create significant alpha as soon as new leases turn positive, because that will be the catalyst that will cause our stock price to appreciate pretty dramatically,” he said.