While the Icahn-led investors have won
the Tropicana, casinos in the city are losing
big. A May report from the commission
found that casino revenue fell 15.4% to
$351.3 million from the same month a year
earlier. Casino revenues, or wins, are the
net amount of dollars won by the casinos; it
is not profit. For the first five months of the
year, casinos won $1.6 billion, down 15.7%
from the same period in 2008.
The Worst Is Yet to Come
At RealShare Chicago one common theme
that overshadowed every presentation and
panel discussion—the recession has yet to
hit its bleakest point and recovery is still in
the far-distant future. The seventh-annual
conference was held in mid-June at the
Renaissance Hotel in Downtown Chicago.
“This industry will always be a roller
coaster ride,” Michael Desiato, VP and
group publisher for Incisive Media, told
attendees at the beginning of the day; and
speaker after speaker confirmed this fact.
Headlining the event, Bruce Miller,
international director for Jones Lang
LaSalle, jokingly told attendees the
recovery will begin to take shape on
October 15, 2009 at 2: 22 pm. On a more
serious note, he said rising from a trough
will not even be a possibility until there is
“real, sustainable employment growth” in
the market and the lending community
begins to lend again.
The decline in the market is slowing
but most speakers believe we have yet to
hit the bottom of the trough. In another
three months it will be easier to predict
the market’s status as either already in the
trough or approaching it.
However, panelists on the Industrial
Market forecasting panel gave their best
estimate for a recovery.
The most optimistic of the group, Mike
Yungerman, VP, real estate development for
Opus North, pegged the middle of 2010.
The more conservative, Lynn Reich, EVP
for Colliers B&K, said she doesn’t expect
growth until the second quarter of 2011.
Panelist Steven Schnur, SVP of Chicago
operations for Duke Realty Corp., said his
firm is less concerned about the lease rate
than capital preservation. It has renewed
leases set to mature in 2009 to 2015.
“Tenants don’t want to disrupt their
operations,” said Jim Deter, executive
managing director for CB Richard Ellis.
They are looking for ways to stay in their
current location or condense operations.
Now, every decision is about cost
savings. The large one million-square-foot
distribution centers will no longer be as
popular since companies are looking to cut
down extensively on rising transportation
costs by locating closer to the buyers,
according to panel moderator Leonard
Caldeira, managing director, industrial
services Jones Lang LaSalle.
Yet through all the doom and gloom
most speakers agreed that a number of
companies and investors are sitting on
“dry powder” just waiting for the right
opportunity to invest.—Katie Hinderer
CORRECTION
In “Retail & MXD: Perfect Together,”
in the May/June issue of Real Estate
New Jersey, Princeton Forrestal Village
was incorrectly identified as Princeton
Forrestal Hills.
