ICSC ReCon Convention in Las Vegas - Status of the Retail Market

My partners and I attended the ICSC conference in Las Vegas. The expectation was one of potential "doom & gloom" because of the credit market mess.

To say the least, it appears that this was not the case. The meetings I had with owners and developers were definitely more positive then expected. Most people understand that commercial property is a long term investment. Sales and leasing activity has slowed, but it when you try to compare it to one of the busiest years ever, everything is going to seem slow. On the macro scale, there are signs of softening across the board. However, every person I spoke to that was out of state were still commenting on wanting to get into the Phoenix Market.

I overheard some comments about how people felt that it didn't seem as busy this year compared to last year. What most people were forgetting is that they actually expanded the amount of floor area for the convention! Final numbers haven't come in yet, but at the convention they were estimating over 45,000 people. That is a lot considering the whole focus of this convention was on retail properties.