"Our investment strategy hasn't changed in many, many years," said Douglas Shorenstein, chairman and CEO of the San Francisco-based Shorenstein Co., when he spoke with Jonathan A. Schein, president/CEO of Real Estate Media and GlobeSt.com. Shorenstein keyed in on the importance of timing in making a deal. "If you don't sell when you have the opportunity … if you wait, the asset is worth zero."

Shorenstein Co., which focuses on office properties, looked at purchasing the Roosevelt Hotel, where the conference was held. "We don't know enough about hotels," Shorenstein offered, "but it's an incredible location and could be redeveloped into an office." In the current market, he feels, "real estate is a platform for debt." The company got out the third-party management market a few years back to concentrate on the investment."Quite frankly, I didn't like it (property management). It requires a lot of internal investment. I have a lot more fun on the investment side on buildings we control."

Shorenstein noted that he finds a lot of sameness in market cycles. "I've heard, 'It's different this time around,' four times in my career, but at the end of the day, it's not different."

"For every buyer, there's a seller," noted Michael D. Fascitelli, Vornado Realty Trust president, adding that it's a seller's market right now. He spoke along with other industry heavy hitters during a town hall session moderated by John Salustri, GlobeSt.com's national online editor. Jones Lang LaSalle's president, New York Region, Peter G. Riguardi, said, "There's a lot of money out there" when speaking about the 140 Broadway property Jones handled. "We had 100 prospective buyers."

And Josh Kuriloff, executive vice president, Cushman and Wakefield of New York, said during the same session, "There are very positive signs in the real estate climate. There's a complete sense of confidence in the market."

Using Liberty Bond funding for properties outside of Lower Manhattan was also brought up. Brookfield chairman and COO US Dennis Friedrich said that "resources should be exhausted Downtown first" before funding speculative office space in Midtown.

In a sit-down with CB Richard Ellis's CEO, New York Metro Region, Mary Ann Tighe, Real Estate Media editor-in-chief Michael G. Desiato posed numerous questions to the "super broker" about her careers in real estate, media and government service. Tighe came into the real estate arena after working at the White House and for ABC Television when founding the A&E network. She noted it was her "well-developed negotiating skills" she has found to be a key to her success in each endeavor. She said it took her 15 months to make her first real estate deal and that when she first came to the real estate field, "it felt like home."