J. Paul Beitler of Douglas Elliman-Beitler, Inc. told 300 real estate professionals Tuesday that 2001 is the year to "buy something and leverage the daylights out of it. I don't care if it's a three-flat, buy it and leverage the heck out of it now."

But while low interest rates and the availability of capital make Beitler bullish on the local real estate market, Karen Case, group senior vice president for LaSalle Bank's commercial lending department, related increasing underwriting concerns lenders are facing. And economist Robert Genetski recommended the stock market for 2001, despite the harsh descent of the Nasdaq and once glamorous tech stocks. "I'm fascinated there's very little public interest in real estate," said Terry Savage, a personal finance columnist and author who moderated the ULI panel. "You folks are seen as stodgy."

"I feel like the Maytag repairman," said Beitler, whose firm's developments include the nascent Dearborn Center. "Everybody in the economy has been talking about the boom years that we've had, but everybody in commercial real estate has been waiting for it to come." Which is unsettling for developers such as Beitler, who once entertained the idea of reclaiming for Chicago the title of home to the tallest building in the world, is they must guess what the economy will be doing at least two years after announcing plans for a project.