The annual BizTimes Commercial Real Estate & Development Conference will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 14 at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago St., Milwaukee.
Last year a record sell-out crowd of about 600 people attended the event. To register to attend this year’s conference, click here.
The conference will focus on the strategic competitive advantage the Great Lakes region will have in the 21st century, when "water becomes the new oil." While heavily populated regions such as California, Arizona, Texas and Georgia are draining their supplies of fresh drinking water, the Great Lakes region contains 20 percent of the world’s surface freshwater and 95 percent of America’s surface freshwater.
The expert panel for this year’s BizTimes Commercial Real Estate & Development Conference will include:
Sean Linnane, vice president of Magellan Development Group LLC, one of downtown Chicago’s most prominent real estate development companies. Linnane is overseeing the development of Chicago’s $4 billion, mixed-use Lakeshore East community, believed to be the largest parcel of downtown land under development in any major U.S. city. Loewenberg will speak about the intrinsic value of waterfront development, and he will provide an outsider’s perspective on Milwaukee’s commercial real estate market and its use of the lakefront.
Franz Hoffman, president of Procorp Enterprises LLC in Milwaukee and chair of the Milwaukee 7 Water Council. Procorp specializes in sustainable water and wastewater treatment solutions. Hoffman will speak about the Great Lakes water resource and the need to use sustainable real estate development practices and products.
James Randel, commercial real estate attorney, broker investor and author. Randel is a leader in "added value" investing, an approach to real estate that attempts to boost the value of a property well beyond normal appreciation or inflation. His strategies have been followed by investors throughout the country. He is the author of "The Real Estate Game And How To Win It" and "Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur." Randel is a distinguished commentator on real estate issues at conferences throughout the nation, including the Harvard Business School. A native of Ohio, Randel will speak about the future strategic advantages of developing real estate in the Great Lakes region.
The opening remarks of the conference will be provided by Richard "Rocky" Marcoux, commissioner of the Milwaukee Department of City Development. Jim Villa, the new president of the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin (CARW), will provide some exclusive market data at the conference. The conference will be moderated by Mark Eppli, Ph.D., professor of finance and chair of the Robert B. Bell Real Estate Program at Marquette University.
Small Business Times presents the conference annually in partnership with Marquette’s Bell Real Estate Program and CARW.