"If the stock market takes off, you might find a lot of wealth in real estate go back into the market," said Thomas Caputo, EVP of New Hyde Park, NY-based strip center-owner Kimco Realty Corp. "There's plenty of opportunities for potholes out there."

But all of the speakers agreed that times are good now. "I've been brokering for 24 years, and I've never seen so much capital in the marketplace," said Bernard Haddigan, managing director of Marcus & Millichap in Atlanta.

Attendees got to hear the largest retailer in the world's plans for 300 new US stores next year from Tony Fuller, VP of Wal-Mart Realty Corp. About 70% of those units will be the company's 200,000-sf Supercenters, which add groceries to the discount store format. (The company operates nearly 3,000 US Wal-Mart stores.) Fuller also spoke about the retailer testing 90,000-sf prototype Supercenters so it can expand into urban areas, a place where the company has not normally gone.