Expert: It's Refreshing to See Some Bottoming Out

[IMGCAP(1)]LOS ANGELES-”If there is anything that is clear about our market today, it is that nothing is clear about our market today.” So said moderator Marc Renard, executive managing director of Cushman & Wakefield Inc., in the panel “A Rebalancing Act-the New Investment Market” at the annual Real Estate 2010 conference on Tuesday. The conference is produced by the RealShare Conference Series, part of ALM’s Real Estate Media Group, and awarded Harvey Green, president and CEO of Marcus & Millichap, this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Following the morning sessions where virtually all panelists said that although headwinds remain to be reckoned with, the evidence of recovery keeps piling up, experts noted that values are starting to recover, and if you aren’t getting back in the game, your business model should be questioned. During Renard’s panel, experts such as Christopher Chee, managing director of Blackstone, agreed that things are starting to pick up. “After waiting on the sidelines for about two years, just over the past two months, we have invested lots of money,” Chee said. “I think most of the opportunities in our pipeline are not surprisingly through debt.”

Like Chee, Wiliam Lindsay, partner of PCCP LLC, said the action is in debt. “There is going to be a lot of consolidation in the investment management business and we want to be in the front of that,” he said. “We can recapitalize deals and we know how to do it.”