ICSC's Michael Kercheval

The International Council of Shopping Centers’ RECon, the largest retail real estate convention in the world, is taking place this week in Las Vegas. Of course, the past 12 months have not been the retail industry’s best. Linens ‘n Things, Circuit City and some large regional chains are out of business. Once-stable retailers are seeing sales plummet. Developers aren’t able to complete their construction pipelines due to a lack of financing. All of this–and the fact that Simon Property Group and Westfield Group have pulled out of leasing convention space–RECon has led to a lot of chatter in the retail real estate world, debating what the conference would be like this year. ICSC is expecting 30,000 to 35,000 attendees this year, down from more than 50,000 two years ago. But this year’s projected number still exceeds what some have predicted. Michael Kercheval, president of ICSC, recently spoke with GlobeSt.com, shared his perspective on these developments and gave us a peek into what has changed this year at RECon.

GlobeSt.com: How will people do business differently this year than compared to previous RECon events?

Kercheval: In years past, and up through last year, it was all about leasing rollover space. Now the major emphasis is on the quality of tenancy, both from the landlord side and the expanding retailers that are looking to shore up the quality of their store portfolios. It really is all about quality and not quantity, and that will be different. It will be positively different because the discussions will be more sincere and robust because there will be more time to carry on those conversations. The frenzy of using RECon to grip and grin and see as many people as you can was kind of like Facebook, having as many friends as you can but not going very deep.