In his keynote address, Jones Lang LaSalle chief executive officer for the Americas Peter Roberts saw the proverbial glass as half-full, even though he rates the chances of a Cubs-White Sox World Series better than a robust local recovery. "I think we're right where we should be in the economic cycle," he says. "We're starting to see investment and job creation."

While the local economy improves in the second half of 2004, there may be two increases in the federal funds rate before the election, suggests Grubb & Ellis Co. regional managing director Michael O'Hanlon. "If job growth continues, it will help the Republicans and help the industry," O'Hanlon says. "Long-term, it's all about job growth. Whoever's the best at getting the best job growth is the best candidate."

Gov. Rod Blagojevich may have been ahead of the curve, Roberts says, by exploring sales of state property, including the Illinois Department of Transportation's headquarters in Downers Grove as well as the 1-million-sf James Thompson Center in the Central Loop. As pressure increases to balance a federal budget now running at a deficit, state and local governments may be forced to sell assets this year and in 2005, Roberts says.

While job growth would be the elixir for the hard-hit Downtown and suburban office markets, the consumer has buoyed the retail sector as well as national economy, notes LaSalle Bank senior vice president David Patchin. "We will see, everything across the board, coming back," Patchin says. For now, though, he says, "Retail is the name of the game."

Besides suggesting bubbles could start popping in the Downtown multifamily market, Steven Good says his auction company is seeing large suburban development parcels coming to market "You're seeing a lot of raw ground coming into the system," says Good, chairman and chief executive officer of Sheldon Good & Co.

Northern Realty Group president Bruce Kaplan predicts a quarter-point rise in interest rates, which should not prevent the economy from humming in late October. Like other panelists at the "town hall" meeting, Kaplan is takes a neutral political stance.

"It's all about the Fed, and Alan Greenspan. It's six of one, a half-dozen of the other," Kaplan says. "I don't think George Bush has done an exemplary job, I don't think John Kerry will do an exemplary job, and I'm not voting for Ralph Nader. Alan Greenspan isn't going anywhere, though."

CenterPoint Properties Trust co-chairman and chief executive officer John Gates suggests land use policies could be affected by a change in administrations. Land uses have been loosened under Bush, but could tighten under a Kerry administration, limiting supply of property as well as what can be built.

Gates also is chairman of Metropolis 2020, which attempts to guide regional planning. Its success hinges on suburbs working together, which some grudgingly have begun, he notes, pointing to Antioch, Old Mill Creek, Wadsworth and Zion at the northern end of Lake County.

"A very interesting asset class over the next nine to 18 months will be the hotel sector," Roberts says. "Hotels were all but red-lined after Sept. 11."