The Latin American Real Estate Investment Conference and the Distressed Residential Real Estate Conference were held at the Trump International Resort from March 17-19, with some 250 registered participants at the former and a whopping 750 at the latter. Both conferences were first-time events produced by New York-based Information Management Network.
The first conference was totally upbeat, with lots of good energy and optimism epitomizing all good things to being in real estate. Things are booming throughout Latin America, as developers and investors described a large volume of projects from residential through commercial and especially in hotels and mixed-use hospitality.
The winning categories also included high- and middle-income housing, retail malls and strip centers, and urban hotels and destination resorts. Hot countries identified were the Central American countries of Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico, as well as up-and-coming Honduras.
As for South America, Brazil (big in condo hotels) took most of the praise in that continent, followed by Argentina (hotels), Chile (shopping centers and retail), Colombia, Uruguay and Peru. Little was said about Venezuela due to the political instability and the leftist regime of its president, Hugo Chavez.
On the flip side, the Distressed Residential Real Estate Conference was markedly somber, with the crash of Bear Stearns over the previous weekend shaking a large New York contingent of institutional bankers and investors in attendance.
Also in search of answers was a large assembly of Florida residential developers trying to find answers for their condominium and planned urban development (PUD) projects. Alternatives included hotels, condo-hotels, timeshares, fractional vacation clubs and private residence clubs, most of which are still flourishing this year after booming in 2006-07.
While this was good news for the developers in the overflow audience, the biggest questions were raised by holders of mortgages and commercial paper. There weren't yet any answers as the real estate market continues to unwind. Maybe they will begin to emerge at the next scheduled conference in Las Vegas in July.
The views expressed here are those of the author and not of Real Estate Media or its publications.
David J. Schwartz is managing principal of The Management Consortium Inc., a hospitality advisory services firm based in Hollywood, FL, and was a presenter at both these conferences. He can be reached at hotelguyfla@yahoo.com.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.