recession mode, the message delivered at NAIOP's New Jersey "Tenant Retention In Trying Times" seminar was marked not by doom and gloom, but rather what can we do better.

Panel moderator Bob Palestri, a partner with the Property Institute, emphasized this point by noting that "there are no trying times, only those who chose to sit on the sidelines." He--along with panelists Glenn Buie of First Industrial Realty Trust; John Marazzo of Mack-Cali Realty Corp.; Seena Stein of Newmark Knight Frank; Michael Schofel of Eastman Co.; and Andrew Zezas, SIOR, of Real Estate Strategies Corp.--then proceeded to lay out a plan for keeping tenants in place, whether it be through tenant surveys, selecting the proper employees or investing more in tenant retention budgets.

While many of the questions posed elicited a variety of different responses, the takeaway was communication. "Many of us don't know who property managers are…they are not who we first deal with," says Stein. "In this time of horror, it's important that we all hear and know what tenants want. We must maintain a relationship of trust. During the last economic downturn, tenants remembered which brokers hurt them."

Added Zezas, "Landlords will say they have a great relationship with tenants but ask who the CEO is and they usually don't know." For tenant retention to work, said Marazzo, "it has to come from the top. There was a well-known New York City real estate executive who owned some great trophy properties in Manhattan, but behind his desk he had a sign that read, 'I am the lord in landlord, you are the ant in tenant.' Unfortunately, that mentality will trickle down to the rest of your company."