CBRE Takes In-Depth Look at Retail

Buono explains that the symposium, the second such event that CBRE has conducted, is an outgrowth of a strategy that the Los Angeles-based firm has been pursuing in recent years to increase its dominance in the world of retail services and to refine the CBRE retail services model. He says CBRE's clients have been telling the firm that although large gatherings like the ICSC conference in Las Vegas are important, the clients would like to spend more time examining the retail world in-depth without the time limitations of a large, heavily attended conference.

The program for tomorrow's symposium will feature a keynote presentation by founder Ron Pompeii of New York City-based Pompei A.D., a presentation by Torto Wheaton Research economist Abby Marks, an overview of CBRE retail services, an occupier and developer panel and a capital markets panel. "The idea here is to offer a symposium where our clients can spend time with some of the best thought leaders in the industry, along with some of our CBRE professionals, and come out of the symposium with information as well as actual deals that can materialize," Buono says.

CBRE tested the format for the event in January in Hawaii with its first symposium. It has decided to roll it out across the country, with the second symposium here in Southern California and with others tentatively planned for Florida, Dallas and the New York Tri-State area later this year and next year. There is also the thought of such an event in Canada, possibly in Toronto.

"We're going to do them in places where our professionals want to fully support them," Buono says. Markets like Southern California, Hawaii and others where CBRE has a dominant market share make the most sense for the first events, he says.

The CBRE symposiums are client-driven, designed to answer questions that the firm's retail industry clients--including tenants, shopping center developers and owners, capital sources and others--are asking about the economy, development, capital markets and other factors that drive retail development, financing and leasing. Buono says that about 60% of CBRE's retail clients are landlords and about 40% are occupiers, a change from the time when up to 80% of the firm's clients were landlords. He estimates that the split will be 50-50 between occupiers and landlords within the next year or so as CBRE continues to focus on achieving that balance in its retail business.