Experts Talk Hope, Financial Fears, Retail Reality

Those were some of the take-aways at two noon sessions Monday at RECon, the annual ICSC spring conference here at the Las Vegas Convention Center. At a capital markets and occupier discussion, hosted by CB Richard Ellis and attended by more than 300 retailers and CBRE professionals, real estate VP Valerie Richardson of the Container Store and Ethan Penner, executive managing director of CB Richard Ellis Investors/president of CBRE Capital Partners, presented sometimes contrasting views on which way retailing and the economy may be headed. At the other session, Nordstrom was a featured speaker who described how the Seattle-based department store chain has adjusted to the new economic reality and invested more in multichannel marketing