The third annual Small Business Times Commercial Real Estate Conference will take place Thursday, Nov. 10, at the Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. The theme for this year’s conference will be "Capturing the National Dollar."
The conference will focus on strategies for the southeastern Wisconsin commercial real estate market to become more prevalent on the national development radar screen.
A panel of experts will discuss their areas of expertise. The panel for the conference will include: Mark O. Decker Sr., managing director of Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc.’s Real Estate Investment Banking Team; Michael Mullen, chief executive officer of CenterPoint Properties Trust, an Oak Brook, Ill.-based, publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns several large industrial properties in southeastern Wisconsin; William Hankowsky, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Liberty Property Trust, a Malvern, Penn.-based, REIT that owns more than 750 properties, including 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space and 40 acres of future office space in southeastern Wisconsin; and Yaromir Steiner, chief executive officer of Steiner + Associates Inc., a Columbus, Ohio-based "newer urban" master-plan retail development company that owns the Bayshore Town Center in Glendale.
Decker is the former president and CEO of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT), the national trade organization for the REIT industry. Decker has managed more than $600 million in REIT transactions and has co-managed $1.9 billion in REIT and specialty finance transactions since 2000. Decker will discuss how he puts together multi-million financial deals across the United States for Baird. He also will shed light on the latest REIT investment trends.
Mullen oversees CenterPoint, which is the largest industrial property owner in the Chicago market. CenterPoint owns and operates about 40.1 million square feet of property, and the company and its affiliates own or control an additional 3,329 acres of land. CenterPoint had a total market capitalization of approximately $3.0 billion as of March 31.
Hankowsky oversees Liberty Property Trust, one of the largest owners and managers of suburban commercial real estate in the nation. Hankowsky will discuss Liberty Property Trust’s investment criteria and the company’s plans for future industrial and office development in southeastern Wisconsin.
Steiner is one of the nation’s foremost experts in open-air retail and mixed-use development. Steiner will discuss his company’s progress on the Bayshore project and will discuss the elements of the metro Milwaukee market that convinced him to invest in Glendale.
The annual conference is attended by realtors, brokers, developers, architects, accountants, attorneys and others involved in southeastern Wisconsin’s commercial real estate industry.
The conference is presented by Small Business Times, in conjunction with the Robert B. Bell Sr. Real Estate Program at Marquette University and the Commercial Association of Realtors of Wisconsin (CARW).
The conference will be emceed by Mark Eppli., Ph.D., professor and chair of the Bell Real Estate Program. Opening remarks at the conference will be provided by Richard "Rocky" Marcoux, commissioner of the Milwaukee Department of City Development.
Additional information about the conference is available by contacting Sarah Wilson at (414) 277-8181, ext. 129. Small Business Times will publish the 2005 Commercial Real Estate & Development Book in conjunction with the conference.
July 8, 2005, Small Business Times, Milwaukee, WI
