Fundamentals Catch Up to Chicago Resurgence

CHICAGO-Chicago may be the largest market in the Midest, but it’s only been the past six months or so that it’s felt like the lights were coming back on with local office, retail and industrial markets, as professional jobs surged, and transactions doubled and tripled for office, retail and industrial. On June 15 at the Ninth Annual RealShare Chicago event at the Renaissance Downtown Chicago Hotel, panels of top local real estate leaders will discuss the return of these markets in the Chicago area, and how commercial experts can prepare for the new wave of transactions and leases by companies that have been holding back on expansion.

Daniel Ceniceros, VP of strategic development with ALM Real Estate Media Group, says that this year’s conference content will bring opportunities to penetrate and thrive in today’s Chicago market. “Chicago has always been a dynamic market and continues to provide through a trying economy. We are committed to the market with our RealShare conference and daily with GlobeSt.com. With this year’s high level speakers, we expect the momentum to build and this year’s conference to be a success,” he says.

The event’s morning keynote panel will focus on “The View from the Top,” and will be moderated by Louis Cohen, national chairman of real estate, financing and banking for Locke, Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP. Panelists will include Thomas D’Arcy, president, CEO and director of Grubb & Ellis; Bruce Duncan, president and CEO of First Industrial Realty Trust and Rick Sinkuler, a global markets expert with Ernst & Young.

The event will also feature a Town Hall meeting, a frank and in-depth discussion of office and multifamily growth downtown and in the suburbs, Chicago’s economy, job growth and retention, the influx and exodus of major tenants, investor interest and price structuring and more. Panelists for this meeting currently include Shawn Mobley, president of brokerage services for Grubb & Ellis and Michael Reschke, chairman and CEO with the Prime Group Inc.

Two separate panels will tackle multifamily and office issues, two topics that have, until recently, been a tale of the haves and the have-nots. Both panels will focus on current market conditions and what to look for in the year ahead. For office, panelists include Matt Carolan, managing director with Jones Lang LaSalle; and Matt Haley, managing director with Transwestern Investment Co. LLC. On the multifamily side, panelists include George Klenovich, office managing principal with the Reznick Group PC and Aaron Abelson, SVP of the upper Midwest for Alliant Capital LLC.

The final panel will hold a discussion about a topic that everyone thought would be much more prevalent in 2010-11: “Opportunities in Distressed Assets and Debt.” Special servicers, lenders and workout specialists will discuss distressed assets and debt, how to navigate tricky workouts, dealing with extensions, what types of assets are rebounding faster than others and where to pinpoint opportunity. Panelists include Steven Chaben, SVP and managing director with Marcus & Millichap; Mitchell Kahn, principal with Frontline Real Estate Partners; Robert O’Brien, partner and vice chairman with Deloitte & Touche LLP and William Serritella Jr., a partner with Aronberg, Goldgehn Davis & Garmisa.