Demographics, Global Trends, and the Future of Capital Markets will be discussed. Economic Forecasts will be made.
- By Gilien Silsby
Nationally known experts will offer real estate market projections and up-to-date economic forecasts for California and the nation at the annual USC Law Real Estate Law and Business Forum on Wednesday at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.
As demographics shift across the nation and the economy remains uncertain, key economists and real estate experts will discuss how to survive and thrive in an unsteady market. They will also assess what the industry’s future holds.
"The speakers in the first panel will explain why they believe the recovery will be tepid, at best, and will tell us when is the earliest that we should expect a big bounce back in commercial real estate values," said USC Law Prof. George Lefcoe, who is moderating a morning session.
Real estate trends in commercial real estate transactions will also be addressed, with a special focus on distress debt situations in different segments of the real estate market.
A panel of experts will survey the real estate capital markets and answer a variety of questions, including:
o Who has capital and what will they be looking for?
o How will underwriting and perceived risk change in the new economy?
o Should real estate volatility be regulated?
o How should the overhang of distress be dealt with?
o Is CMBS on the way back, what form does it take and how will traditional and specialty lenders take up the slack?
o What is the effect of government and its potential to jump-start the system?
o Whither Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; what are their roles and that of HUD/FHA in the current marketplace and what will it cost taxpayers?
o Why isn't the money coming yet?
Lefcoe will moderate the opening session, “The Real Estate Picture: Demographics, an Economics Forecast and a Look at Global Trends in Real Estate Transactions,” featuring James Chung, president and founder of Reach Advisors in New York; Christopher Thornberg, principal and founder of Beacon Economics; and Robert White, founder and president of Real Capital Analytics in New York.
Other sessions are designed to provide strategies for fixing broken deals.
Phillip Nichols of Pircher, Nichols & Meeks; Ken Cruse, chief financial officer of Sunstone Hotel Investors; Dean Heller of Seyfarth Shaw; and Gary Stougaard of Prospect Street Hotel Investors will discuss issues in restructuring and purchasing troubled operating properties, including important issues for hotel owners and franchise agreements.
In a separate session, top experts will explain busted condos and land deals. Thomas Fileti of Morrison & Foerster; Robert Champion, president of Champion Real Estate Company; Robert Gilmore, southern district manager of California Department of Real Estate; Bill Pham of McKenna, Long & Aldridge; Ken Swenson, division counsel, Real Estate, Banking and Special Assets, Bank of America, will present a due diligence primer on where to find potential treasure instead of liabilities in such deals.
Later in the day, Patricia Sinclair, co-president and general counsel, Playa Vista; Amy Forbes of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Bill Myers, senior vice president of Cerberus Real Estate Capital Management; Jeffrey Oderman of Rutan & Tucker; and Richard Pachulski of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones will discuss how to deal with broken expectations and hidden liabilities in busted land deals.
The forum also will feature USC Law Prof. Edward McCaffery and Seyfarth Shaw LLP as the luncheon keynote speakers, explaining “The Impending Fiscal Crisis and What it Means to You.”
The symposium will take place from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.
The event is free for the media. Others may register by going to: http://lawweb.usc.edu/why/academics/cle/realestate/registration.cfm.
To download a full programming brochure, go to http://weblaw.usc.edu/why/academics/cle/realestate/assets/docs/REIbrochure.pdf .
For more information, please call the USC Law Continuing Legal Education office at 213-743-1772.
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