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WEST COAST EXECUTIVES TO PONDER BUBBLE AT CONFERENCE

By Molly Knight

California’s real estate bubble will be the hot topic at this year’s Western Division Conference & Deal Making, to be held Oct. 3-5 in Palm Springs. This is ICSC’s largest conference on the West Coast this year.

“We’re going to look at the California market and really debate when we think this bubble will burst,” said Marvin Morrison, ICSC’s senior vice president of programs and services. “But first we need to figure out if it really even exists.”

The focus will be on preparing for any downturn, Morrison says. “People in retail real estate have got to start thinking about how they’re going to protect themselves should the market take a turn for the worse, as expected,” he said. “It’s important to think ahead.”

Morrison is anticipating several thousand people in attendance at this conference, which he calls one of ICSC’s most popular. The industry is concerned with shopping center development trends on the West Coast, he says, specifically with lifestyle, open-air and mixed-use centers. “We will look at what’s happening in various areas and try to identify what’s working and what’s not,” he said. “Retailers, brokers and lenders all need to know how to get returns on their investments, which makes studying and understanding the market especially vital.”

For guidance, conferees will examine the deals forged at the New York City capital markets conference, taking place later this month, Morrison says. “The availability of capital and the different types of financing that [will happen] there will certainly be factored in,” said Morrison. “These conferences are all about networking, so it’s important to know what went on in New York to get a sense of the entire market as a whole. People want to make good deals.”

Mixed-use development will remain a buzz-worthy topic as developers continue to brainstorm ways to blend retail with other uses, says Morrison.

The meeting planners say much time will be devoted to analyzing major shopping center trends, including the anticipation of what regional, lifestyle, community, neighborhood and convenience centers will look like five years and 10 years along. Retail real estate players need to be both longsighted and shortsighted, says Morrison. “We need to be vigilant about short-term trends while also keeping long-term impact in mind,” he said.

MSNBC anchor Forrest Sawyer will be keynote speaker. ICSC has scheduled golf and tennis tournaments and day hikes for those attending the meeting.