The day began with the panel addressing retail and entertainmentopportunities in Newark. Moderator Richard Johnson, SVP and partnerwith Matrix Development Group, led the discussion with Ron Beit,founding partner and CEO of RBH Group; Cubie Dawson, SVP of JonesLang LaSalle; Leon Kafele, president of ICP Group; Joe Ritchie, CEOof Brick City Development Corporation; and Michael Saltzman,principal with Newwork LLC.

By and large, the panelists had high hopes for the City ofNewark, which has been experiencing a resurgence lately with theopening of the Prudential Center and NJ PAC, venues that bringthousands of people into Newark's Downtown to attend events.Developing Downtown retail, according to Ritchie, will partlydepend on encouraging those event attendees to stay in the citylonger, instead of simply arriving to attend the event and thenleaving immediately after.

Although Newark has good infrastructure features to bring peopleinto the city--many important roads and a major rail station, thepanelists agreed that housing Downtown was lacking, a need thatmust be addressed. "We need more residential Downtown so we cansell a 24-hour market," Ritchie said. Saltzman suggested marketingthe retail to the surrounding suburban areas until residential realestate in Downtown Newark becomes more widely available.