Worth Repeating

Sounds bites from NAIOP’s I.CON East, held June 7-8 in Jersey City, New Jersey.

“It does seem like the worst is over from the fallout of Silicon Bank and the related banking crisis, but banks are looking at CRE, which is the Achilles’ heel, mostly in the office space.” — Dana M. Peterson, chief economist and center leader for economy, strategy and finance, The Conference Board

Dana M. Peterson, chief economist with The Conference Board, was the keynote speaker at NAIOP’s I.CON East.

“You are seeing a factory boom in the U.S., especially in the East North Central and East South Central regions. And as a less expensive alternative, friendshoring has many opportunities in places like Mexico and Canada.” — Dana M. Peterson, chief economist and center leader for economy, strategy and finance, The Conference Board

“[Artificial Intelligence] won’t replace real estate people. AI will replace real estate people who don’t have AI. Right now, we are reaching an inflection point where you can easily use data for commercial real estate.” — Itay Ron, senior president of Northeast markets, Faropoint

“Solar is a great solution, but achieving ESG goals is fundamentally about understanding your whole portfolio and how to work through it. Start with one building, evaluate it, and look at the load and tenant usage. Then, look at how to apply tools for improvement.” — Michael Barone, project manager, Rockefeller Group

“The challenge we’re trying to solve with the logistics building is primarily the speed to customers … We have challenged ourselves to think creatively if we’re going to meet the needs of occupiers as those needs evolve, and that’s what this whole exercise is about: designing the logistics building of the future.” — Matt Brady, LEED AP, architect and executive vice president, Ware Malcomb (see related article)

“But the core thing that we have learned over the past few years of [overseeing a workforce initiative] is, candidly, the training is the easy part. It’s figuring out the support for workers that’s the hard part. How many people can we retain and what services do they need to be retained?” — Steven Hussain, head of government and community affairs, Prologis

“[Nearshoring] is real and it’s growing at an exponential rate. Mexico is at less than 3% vacancy and they are on fire with industrial companies, especially with Tier 1 companies realizing they need a mitigation strategy for China.” — Jeffrey Garza Walker, MRED/MBA, executive vice president at NAI Horizon

“Industrial is the most popular asset class in the world. If a fund needs liquidity, it will not sell an office but an industrial asset that has held up in value. There is interest in this space.” — Jack Fraker, president and global head, industrial and logistics capital markets, Newmark