There have already been a lot of articles written about this year’s ICSC Recon 2012. Here is my opinion after wearing down the shoe leather with 35,000 fellow ICSC brethren.
First, it goes without saying that attendance was significantly better than the past few years. Last year was well below 30,000 attendees and the last count I heard was that this year there was over 35,000. The halls were definitely more crowded.
Overall, everyone was upbeat and optimistic. There was discussions taking place of new development projects coming out of the ground and that credit was slowly loosening. The development was for tenants that were expanding…something that has been very sparse for the past few years.
The concern is still out there about the properties purchased at peak prices (2005-2007) and the debt that is coming due over the next 4 years.
In talking to some of my CCIM colleagues, it was agreed that the big deluge of properties that has been anticipated for the past few years has never materialized. Some markets have hit a bottom and rebounded. Some are at the bottom and starting to gain traction. I did not hear of a single market that was in free fall anymore or fear of a further falling.
Here was another article I just read that was a good summary, Attendees Expect 2012 RECon to Be the Best One Since 2007.
How did the show go for you? I always like meeting up with colleagues from around the country to learn about what is going on in their market and give them the update on Phoenix.
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