From national real estate trends to discussions on the industrial and multi-family markets as well as the challenges of working with troubled assets, the eighth annual Integra Real Estate Conference at the Kansas City Convention Center this week hit all the hot topics.
More than 400 professionals attended the “Real Estate Trends & Investment Criteria Forecast 2010″ conference that was presented by Integra Realty Resources in partnership with the Lewis White Real Estate Center at the Bloch School of Business, UMKC. Panelists included Ken Block (above), Managing Principal of Block Real Estate LLC, who spoke on the Office panel and is shown here with Mark Halter, Senior Principal with IRR Corporate & Public Finance.
Guest Speaker Bob White with Real Capital Analytics kicked off the morning session, and this year’s conference was dedicated to the memory of Kevin K. Nunnink, Integra’s co-founder and chairman who passed away in August. The traditional “Leadership Award,” presented to a long-standing professional with crowning achievements in real estate, was re-dedicated the Kevin K. Nunnink Leadership Award and bestowed to Lee Derrough, former president and CEO of Hunt Midwest Enterprises. (below with Integra Realty Resources President JoAnn Nunnink.)
In the afternoon, Esther George, First Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, gave the keynote presentation on the outlook of the economy and the current position of the Federal Reserve with regard to monetary policy and how it relates to the real estate industry. The rest of the conference included presentations and panel discussions on local retail, office, economic development initiatives as well as the impact of the capital markets on real estate development and finance.
“I was really impressed by the discussions of Sprint Center (being in the leasing market,)” said Frank Sciara of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital (above), who attended the event and its after-conference happy hour with Eric Enloe of Integra and Tom Turner, also of Grandbridge. They also thought discussions on the industrial market by Michael Block of Block Real Estate Services, Olen Monsees of Karbank Real Estate Company, and Dick Ringer from Hunt Midwest were helpful as they focused on growing supply and flat effective rents as well as discussing significant transactions over the past year and changing demand components.
Larry Baughman with Great Western Bank and Doug Miller with Miller, Haviland, Ketter (above) also spent the day listening to experts. One of the more popular discussions was the Troubled Assets panel that was made up of several attorneys who gave insights on how work outs of troubled loans are handled from both the borrower and lender perspective. And talking about the office market were Kenneth Jaggers, Managing Director of Integra, Ken Block, Tom Blunk, principal, Quadrangle, LLC, and Jon Copaken with Copaken, White & Blitt. Finally, the cheerful Integra staff (below are Shanna Vance (event coordinator), Brenda Rinehart, Joanna Ripley and Tonya Caffery) was always present throughout the day, keeping the conference running smoothly from beginning to end.
