CHICAGO-More than 250 of the city’s highest profile owners, investors, developers, lenders and brokers are expected to attend the RealShare CHICAGO event at the Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel on the morning of June 15. So far in the past month, a number of new names have been added to the list of local experts expected to speak at the event.
Many have joined the planned state-of-the-market Town Hall Meeting. New speakers at this session include Sue Blumberg, managing director of NorthMarq Capital's Chicago office; Anthony Manos, COO of BentleyForbes; and Christopher Connelly, senior managing director with CB Richard Ellis.
Blumberg has closed loans on more than 300 properties during her career, primarily in the Midwest region, and currently she is serving on the Freddie Mac Production Advisory Council for the second time in the last 10 years. BentleyForbes is the privately held investment firm that owns the 2.2 million-square-foot Prudential Plaza office complex. Connelly leads CBRE's Downtown office and is responsible for the firm's Occupier Practice Group, which includes downtown and suburban tenant representation.
The three will join panelists David Bercu of Colliers B&K and Michael Reschke of The Prime Group Inc., as well as moderator Shawn Mobley with Grubb & Ellis, for a frank and in-depth discussion of office and multifamily growth downtown and in the suburbs, Chicago’s economy, job growth and retention, the influx and exodus of major tenants, investor interest and price structuring, and more.
Also, Mark Stern, who runs the acquisitions group in Chicago for Waterton Residential, joins the multifamily panel. Since joining Waterton in 2001, Stern has sourced more than $1.25 billion of acquisitions in markets around the Midwest, West Coast and Southwest regions. He joins panelists Aaron Abelson with Alliant Capital LLC, Joel Kaplan with Walker & Dunlop and moderator George Klenovich with Reznick Group PC in a discussion that will focus on multifamily sector leasing, lending and investment in the year ahead.
Bruce Duncan, CEO of First Industrial Realty Trust; Thomas D'Arcy, president, CEO and director of Grubb & Ellis; Rick Sinkuler, global markets leader of Ernst & Young; and moderator Louis Cohen with Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP will lead off the event with an Industry Leaders panel discussion on the local and global trends that will affect Chicago's economy and real estate industry.
Other panels include and office focus and a distressed assets discussion. For office, panelists include Matt Carolan, managing director with Jones Lang LaSalle; and Matt Haley, managing director with Transwestern Investment Co. LLC.
The final panel will hold a discussion about a topic that everyone thought would be much more prevalent in 2010-11: “Opportunities in Distressed Assets and Debt.” Special servicers, lenders and workout specialists will discuss distressed assets and debt, how to navigate tricky workouts, dealing with extensions, what types of assets are rebounding faster than others and where to pinpoint opportunity. Panelists include Steven Chaben, SVP and managing director with Marcus & Millichap; Mitchell Kahn, principal with Frontline Real Estate Partners; Robert O’Brien, partner and vice chairman with Deloitte & Touche LLP and William Serritella Jr., a partner with Aronberg, Goldgehn Davis & Garmisa.
For attendees, RealShareCONNECT is now open. The year-round professional networking service is designed to help maximize time spent at RealShare CHICAGO 2011 while organizing marketing efforts before and after the live event. CONNECT does this by giving all the information (audio, video, slides) from the event and unlimited access to all of the attendees in one easy-to-use interface. The service, free to attendees, is accessible from a desktop or any mobile device.
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