CHICAGO—Although the city of Las Vegas has just been drenched by a rare spring rainstorm, Chicagoans there at this week's International Council of Shopping Centers' annual RECon conference feel “sunny and optimistic,” Andrew Hochberg, chief executive officer of Northbrook, IL-based Next Realty, LLC, tells GlobeSt.com. “The convention is very upbeat and positive. I think people have largely worked through the problems they had due to the recession.”

Most in the massive crowds seem interested in acquisitions, he adds, so much so that it reminds Hochberg of the aggressive buying seen in 2007. Still, “lenders are a little more careful and new development is not as intensive.”

He also suspects that some buyers may be a bit too eager and should remember to consider what could happen ten years down the road when interest rates are up and they need to refinance. “I don't think most people think about that. I'm very optimistic about the industry right now, but you do need to be careful.”  

Next Realty tries to steer a middle course. “We are buying aggressively, but we're also selling aggressively.” If the company has changed at all in recent years, it's that it puts less emphasis on acquiring value-add properties.  “A lot of the problems that affected properties in 2008, 2009 and 2010 have been fixed, and many of those left on the market are in bad shape,” with little hope that a repositioning will return them to health.

As a result, the company has sought out more robust, income-producing properties. For example, as reported in GlobeSt.com, it recently bought The Shops at Flint Creek, a 59,324 square-foot center located at 500 North Hough St. in Barrington, IL, a suburb of Chicago. The property, developed in 2006, is 100% leased with Heinen's Fine Foods as the anchor tenant.

“I've been coming here 25 years, and have seen better years and worse ones,” Hochberg concludes. “I'd put this one as above average. And until there is a real change in the interest rate environment I think this activity will continue.”