9:00-9:30A

Opening Keynote: Welcome to Chicago!

Welcome Address

Joseph Nahas, Jr., CRE, 2018 Chair of the CRE Board of Directors

Welcome to Chicago!

Introduction:  Michael MaRous, CRE, President, MaRous & Company

Speaker:  David Reifman, Commissioner, Department of Planning and Development, the City of Chicago

A native Chicagoan, Commissioner David Reifman leads the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development, while fostering community improvement projects and initiatives throughout Chicago. He welcomes attendees to the 2018 Midyear Meetings, sharing insights about the city’s ambitious goals for neighborhood growth.

9:30A-10:45A

General Session #1

TOPIC: The Exponential Future of Everything

Speaker: Geoffrey Kasselman, SIOR, LEED AP, Executive Managing Director, Newmark Knight Frank, and Founder/CEO, Op2mize Energy

Moderator: KC Conway, CRE, Director of Research & Corporate Engagement, Culverhouse College of Commerce – Alabama Center for Real Estate

We all know the world – its technology, business models, and lifestyles – are changing faster than ever before, transforming how we live, work, and play.  How are these changes affecting demand for commercial real estate?  Where are the future opportunities?  What are the insights and business prospects that will come with these changes?   And…most importantly…are you, your business, and clients, ready to embrace these new norms.

Join futurist Geoff Kasselman, and CRE’s very own KC Conway, in a highly charged interactive discussion of what we can expect in 3 years, 10 years, 20 years…and beyond.  What happens when these disruptive changes converge over time?

11:00A-12:15P

General Session #2

TOPIC: A Regional Market Review – The Live-Work-Play Neighborhoods

Speakers: James Postweiler, Managing Director, JLL; and Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Research, NAR

Moderator: Joseph Neverauskas, CRE, Senior Vice President, Equus Capital Partners, LTD. 

Suburban Living versus Urban Living.  Are the millennials moving out of the city, as the baby boomers move in?  What’s important to today’s investors and do businesses still favor urban space?  Why are contrarians looking at suburbia?  While demographics are shifting, connectivity remains important to the well designed live-work-play community, no matter where it is located.

We are virtually swimming in statistics these days.  Jim Postweiler and Lawrence Yun share their highly informed, personal interpretation of the data.

2:00P-3:30P

General Session #3

TOPIC: 2018/2019 Top Ten Real Estate Issues

Speakers: Deborah Cloutier, CRE, President, RE Tech Advisors, Inc.; William Kinn, CRE, Partner, Kinn Real Estate Counselors, LLC; Andrew Warren, CRE, Director, Real Estate Research, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Moderator: Hugh Kelly, Ph.D., CRE, Special Advisor, Fordham University Real Estate Institute at Lincoln Center

Disruptions in the world…lead to disruptions in real estate…lead to a new CRE Top Ten Issues List for 2018/2019.  CRE’s External Affairs Committee, with your help, will identify the issues predicted to have the greatest impact on real property over the next year – and beyond.  This interactive session, with Live Voting, promises to elicit spirited debate, discussion, and disagreement.

What do YOU foresee to be the driving forces which are affecting real estate, society and the world at large – and why?  This lively debate will elicit cheers, jeers, laugher, and maybe even a squabble or two.  Suffice to say it won’t be dull!  Weigh in with YOUR opinion, and see if you agree with your colleagues.

 3:45P-5:00P

General Session #4 (A and B)

Choose from 2 concurrent General Sessions:

TOPIC A: Intermodal Issues Affecting Real Estate

Speaker: James Martell, CEO, Logistics Property Company; Others TBD

Moderator: Michael MaRous, CRE, President, MaRous & Company

Fast, Reliable, Easy to Use, Affordable, and Secure.  Fundamental “must achieves” for today’s highly competitive transportation service firms.  This is what you need your transportation services to provide.  How does the service provider incentivize the customer to utilize its company? What is “Driving” the transportation industry? Systems must be nimble and quick while taking into consideration costs, traffic, and timing.

Distribution and logistics have gone through tremendous transformation over the past 30 years.  To succeed, a service provider must improve supply chain infrastructure, locally and globally, to appeal to retailers, manufacturers, third-party logistics companies, and a host of other customers.  How are these companies achieving it and what does it mean to you.

TOPIC B: Data Disruption: It’s All Data, It’s just Data

BIG & Little Data: A look at where we are and where we might be…

Speakers: Susanne Cannon, Ph.D., CRE, Managing Principal, Cannon-Affiliates; and Karl Heitman, CEO, Founder & President, Heitman Architects

The DATA Age is disrupting daily life, and is having profound effects on reshaping our cities. Join in the conversation how digital connectivity, data collection from the IoT (Internet of Things), AI (Artificial Intelligence), and Predictive Analytics will impact commercial real estate and the urban environment. Topics to be explored include:

• The Definition of Work: data driven workforce design and management
• Transaction Management: from site selection through lease up
• The Supply Chain
• Design / Construction / Operations / Facility Management
• Integrated and Standardized Data and Outcomes

8:00A-9:30A

Business Issues Breakfast Forums

Choose from one of these three Forums:

CECL: Current Expected Credit Loss

Discussion Leader: Thomas Fink, CRE, Senior Vice President, Managing Director, Trepp, LLC

The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s newly finalized Current Expected Credit Loss Accounting standard, also known as CECL, represents the biggest change to bank accounting ever.  CECL is scheduled for implementation in December 2019 and dealmakers will face financial and valuation impacts that should be considered anytime a new investment is under consideration.

Banks and bank holding companies are beginning to assess their ability to comply with the impending CECL accounting standards. CECL will change the way banks calculate reserves on some of their assets, such as financial instruments kept at amortized cost like loans, leases, and held-to-maturity debt securities. To benchmark and fine-tune loss methodologies for CECL, the key for banks will be a four-letter word: data.

Be ahead of the curve. Be prepared.  Join this discussion.

Impact of the New Tax Act: Commercial Real Estate Issues

Discussion Leader: Terri Johnson, CRE, Managing Partner, Capstan Tax Strategies

Is the new Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) a boom to commercial real estate professionals?  Some experts believe that real estate fared well under these new provisions. Others disagree.  While others believe the most significant benefit of the new legislation is in retention of certain special advantages, traditionally awarded property owners and investors.

Terri Johnson, CRE, takes you through the ups and downs, highs and lows of what is in store for real estate now and going forward.

Using Technology in the Court Room or Board Room: Part II

Discussion Leaders: Anthony DellaPelle, Esq., CRE, Shareholder/Partner, McKirdy, Riskin, Olson & DellaPelle, P.C.; Michael MaRous, CRE, President, MaRous & Company; Michael Ryan, Esq., CRE, Ryan and Ryan

Old School versus High Tech – which is most effective?  Back by popular demand, this interactive session shows how technology and demonstrative evidence can help Counselors understand and solve real property issues.  Whether used in litigation or in meetings or board rooms, effective presentations can persuade your audience to agree with the points you are trying to enforce. Examples will include visual presentations concerning current and recent real estate projects in the Chicago area from our Discussion Leaders.

10:00A-12:15P

Development Tours

Choose from 2 Development Tours

Sterling Bay-Fulton Market-Google Offices

Tour Guides:  John Gavin, Principle, Sterling Bay; Joseph Neverauskas, CRE, Senior Vice President, Equus Capital Partners, LTD. 

Based in Chicago, Sterling Bay is the next generation of real estate — developers, investors, builders, innovators.  It reinvents buildings and helps companies enhance their brands.   Recently, it has added another piece to the land puzzle it’s putting together along the North Branch of the Chicago River, in another step toward realizing its vision of a 70-acre mixed-use campus along the river.  Sterling spearheads renovation of Fulton Market, Chicago’s hottest neighborhood and the newest live-work–play area.  It is also home to Google’s newest offices.

On this Tour, participants will be transported to the Fulton Market area and get a behind-the-scenes look at the development of this area, including the Google Offices.

Behind the Scenes at The LondonHouse and Apple

Tour Guides: John Rutledge, Founder, President & CEO, Oxford Capital Group, LLC; Zeller Realty Group

Tour participants will enjoy a behind the scenes look at the development of both the LondonHouse Hotel, as we’ll as the new Apple Store.  A hotel-real estate entrepreneur and private equity investor, John Rutledge, will discuss Oxford’s Magnificent Mile developments.   You will get a behind-the-scenes look at how this historic building underwent a comprehensive redevelopment to become an architecturally stunning, 452 room high-design, luxury lifestyle hotel.

Next…representatives of the Zeller Realty Group, the developer and owner of the new Apple Store, will provide a historic overview of the site and sharing the story of its development – thrillingly transparent, elegantly understated and a boon to the city’s riverfront.   After the presentation, or at your leisure, we encourage you to take a moment to stroll through this dramatic shopping mecca.