RECon Report: What Is Going On???

OK. Things at the International Council of Shopping Centers RECon conference in Las Vegas are getting a little confusion. One person tells us that retailers are getting rent reductions and someone else says that they’re not budging on giving concessions. Someone says the recession is going to be over by the end of the year, and someone else will say that the commercial real estate industry will feel pain through 2012.Our head is spinning, and it’s not just the heat. So we’ll try to summarize what we heard today as best we can.William Taubman, COO of Taubman Centers, contends that we’re in a “V-shaped recession.” They are offering rent relief to certain tenants, which he calls an “out of court settlement.” “Where the tenant is in difficult financial condition, we and others are giving rent relief.” We will have more from him on GlobeSt.com next week.Mark Schurgin, a principal at the Los Angeles-based Festival Cos. says he thinks we’ll start seeing transactions soon, as companies get off the sidelines and start buying up the distressed assets out there. “The patient’s coming out of the ether,” is how he characterized it.Richard Dube, president of Tri-Land Properties, clued us in on some interesting properties in Kansas City, where we grew up, and said to watch for a Paul Mitchell salon concept expanding.Finally, Matthew Bordwin, a managing director of KPMG Corporate Finance, says that landlords need to give tenants rent breaks in this environment. “The natural progression is that they will lose tenants,” he says, if they don’t negotiate. He contends that future Circuit City situations can be avoided if we go this route.That’s it for today. Look for our final blog from RECon tomorrow.