Industry Leaders Target 2010 Opportunities

[IMGCAP(2)]This year's annual RealShare conference will feature "some of the nation's brightest minds in commercial real estate," including an afternoon panel of industry leaders who will outline their companies' approach to today's market, according to Daniel Ceniceros, vice president of strategic development for ALM's Real Estate Media Group, which produces the RealShare Conference Series. Ceniceros tells GlobeSt.com that the lineup of top real estate minds and the strong pre-registration for the conference, "show that no one has remained untouched by this economy and that everyone is out there looking for opportunities," both large and small.

[IMGCAP(3)]"Last year at this time, the strategies were less clearly outlined, but now people are saying, 'How are we going to work through this? What is our next step?' rather than just making the overview statement that times are bad," Ceniceros points out. Instead, industry leaders today are "drilling down to the deal level" to evaluate each opportunity individually to draw conclusions on a case-by-case basis, he says.

[IMGCAP(4)]Following opening remarks at 8:00 a.m. by Michael Desiato, vice president and group publisher for ALM's Real Estate Media Group, the RealShare conference sessions will begin at 8:05 a.m. with a Market & Economic Update panel that will explore "A Realistic Look at 2010." Moderator Jay Leupp, a managing principal at Grubb & Ellis-Alesco Global Advisors, will lead a discussion with panelists Stephen Cauley, director of research at the Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA; Sam Chandan, global chief economist and EVP at Real Capital Analytics; Hessam Nadji, managing director of research services at Marcus & Millichap; and Wayne Yamano, senior manager at John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

[IMGCAP(5)]Next will be an economic debate between principal Chris Thornberg of Beacon Economics and executive managing director Ethan Penner of CBRE Investors. The debate, titled "Two Sides of the Story," will be moderated by Scott Farb, managing principal of the Reznick Group. After a networking break at 9:35 a.m., the sessions will pick up again at 9:55 a.m. with a special presentation on asset services by John Strockis, executive managing director of Voit Real Estate Services.

Following Strockis' presentation, some of the industry's top brokers will provide "A Look at the Investment Sales Crystal Ball" that will be moderated by partner Tony Natsis of the law firm of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis. Panelists will be David Doupe, international director at Jones Lang LaSalle; Scott Heaton, SVP at Colliers International; Richard Plummer, EVP at Grubb & Ellis and Kevin Shannon, vice chairman at CBRE. Their panel will be followed by a networking break, after which two concurrent sessions will run from 11:10 a.m. until noon.

A concurrent session on the national office market, moderated by senior managing director Whitley Collins of JLL, will feature principal Nelson Algaze of Shlemmer + Algaze + Associates; market managing director Frank Campbell of Equity Office; SVP Bert Dezzutti of Brookfield Properties and SVP Colin Shepherd of Hines. The other concurrent session will be a multifamily market forecast moderated by Laurie Lustig-Bower, EVP at CBRE. Panelists will be founder and chairman Steve Fifield of Fifield Cos., VP Heidi Green of Fannie Mae, SVP Craig Rooney of Riverstone Residential Group and president Michael Rovner of Rovner Construction.

Following a noon networking lunch, Howard Levine will present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Harvey Green, Encino-based president and CEO of Marcus & Millichap. The award will be presented by Howard Levine, who founded Calabasas-based ARCS Commercial Mortgage and built it into one of the country's leading multifamily lending specialists before it was acquired by Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc. in 2007.

Next up will be a session titled "A Re-Balancing Act: The New Investment Market." It will be moderated by executive managing director Marc Renard of Cushman & Wakefield, with panelists Tim Ballard, co-founder and president of Buchanan Street Partners; Christopher Chee, managing director of Blackstone; William Lindsay, managing director of JP Morgan Asset Management and Joseph Russell Jr., president and CEO of PS Business Parks.

The following session, "Workouts and Restructuring 101," will be moderated by partner Jess Bressi of Luce Forward. Panelists will be founding principal Taylor Grant of California Real Estate Receiverships, president Young Hong of Strategic Property Associates, partner Ryan Iwasaka of law firm Greenberg Glusker, SVP Roger Lundeen of US Bank and president Richard Walter of Faris Lee Investments.

The last two panels of the day will be "Industry Leaders-Onward and Upward" at 3:15 p.m. and "Capital Markets-Sigs of Life" at 4 p.m. The first will be moderated by partner Lew Feldman of the law firm Goodwin Procter, with panelists Jeff DeBoer, president and CEO of the Real Estate Roundtable; Christopher Peatross, president and CEO of Equity Office; John Pelusi, CEO of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler and Michael Van Konynenburg, president of Eastdil Secured. The second will be moderated by partner Andrew Kirsh of Raines Law Group, with panelists Val Achtemeier, EVP at CBRE; Patrick Crandall, managing director of CIBC World Markets; Mark Doris, national business development officer at Wells Fargo Commercial Mortgage and Guy Johnson, president of Johnson Capital.

Following the ast sessions, the RealShare cocktail reception and networking hour will begin at 4:50 p.m. Real Estate 2010 is part of a year-long series of events produced by ALM's Real Estate Media Group, which is the publisher of Real Estate Forum, GlobeSt.com, and the Distressed Assets Investor newsletter.