January 17, 2018
WHA’s Laura Operti joined other industry experts as a Downtown & Suburban Office panelist at REJournals’ 16th annual Commercial Real Estate Forecast Conference in Chicago. With over 900 attendees, it has become the largest, longest-running commercial real estate forecast event in Chicago, the Midwest and perhaps the U.S. Each year, this event brings together the brightest minds and the best deal-makers in the Commercial Real Estate to benchmark the industry and set the tone for the upcoming year.
Laura was joined by panelists Randy Waites (Avison Young), Elizabeth L. Gracie (O’Keefe Law), David Burden (Colliers), Nooshin Felsenthal (JLL) and Regina Stilp (Farpoint Development) to discuss the Downtown and Suburban Office scene.
Among several discussion points, they addressed migration of tenants from suburbs to downtown, repurposing of obsolete buildings, the state of the acquisition market, advantages to suburban locations for certain users, and redevelopment of corporate campuses. Additional breakout sessions highlighted industrial, retail, investment, multi-family and property management topics.