CHICAGO—At Marcus & Millichap’s CRE Forum in Chicago last week, held at the University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center, a cross-section of experts got together for a midday panel on what we can expect this year from the region’s retail sector.

Moderator Bill Rose from M&M began by asking about Walgreens’ recent decision to shutter 76 of its stores. He wondered if this was a dark cloud on the horizon.

But Todd Frank, who represented Walgreens on the panel, gave an emphatic “no,” and explained that since this was a national, not local, closure, it was “a drop in the bucket.” The ubiquitous retailer has more than 8,000 stores nationwide, including over 400 in the Chicagoland area, and its officials consider this move a necessary and relatively minor adjustment from the days when they were building outlets at a frenetic pace.

“We got some sanity and came back to the real world,” Frank explained. The targeted locations are not really profitable and the company still plans to expand, but in more favorable sites.

And overall, the panel’s members regard the future with measured optimism.

“We’re seeing a lot of movement in the economy,” said Nick Wibbenmeyer, vice president and regional officer for Regency Centers. He oversees leasing, development, property operations and asset management in the upper Midwest. “We’re back to 95% leased across the country.”

“That’s a testament to what’s happening in our industry,” said Rose. The spaces left empty during the recession now have tenants, and this seems to have bolstered confidence and perhaps set the stage for new development, he added.

But even though J. Scot Pepper, the executive vice president at Pepper Construction, did not disagree, he said new activity has remained modest. “We’re actually seeing some work come in, which is better than what we were seeing five years ago.” However, a lot of it is the refreshment of centers and the reconfiguring of outlet stores, instead of all-new construction.

“I’m a little more negative on the market,” added Andrew Hochberg, chief executive officer, managing principal and broker of Next Realty, in response to a question from Rose about the possibility of rent growth. “Our occupancy has stayed high but that’s because we’re in good locations.” But he remains worried about how much Internet retail will impact the sales per-square-foot of brick-and-mortar stores. Over the long-run, he does not expect rents to increase much because online retail will undermine sales.

But Graham Palmer, the director of development for Centrum Partners LLC, said that there are several hot retailers, such as Mariano’s, driving the market. “All the retailers out there want to be next to a Mariano’s.”

Wibbenmeyer agreed, and pointed out that eight years ago, the metro area’s grocery space was dominated by Jewel-Osco, Dominick’s and a plethora of smaller stores. Today, however, after a pricing war that the big players lost to Aldi and other low-cost outfits, the space has attracted a variety of innovative retailers like Mariano’s more dedicated to improving service than cutting prices. He knows of at least 12 different grocers that are currently signing deals. For those in this retail sector, “there has never been a more exciting time.”