Fitzpatrick, while acknowledging that the past few years were tough for residential developers, said the demand for undeveloped land—which his REIT specializes in—was already beginning to return. “In two years, Las Vegas will be the baby boomer capital of the world,” the Shopoff EVP predicted.

And all four panelists were equally enthusiastic about the prospects for their trusts, despite competition and other challenges. The executives spoke at a panel titled “Examining Opportunities within Alternative Investment Classes,” held Thursday afternoon as part of the seventh annual New York Non-Traded REIT Industry Symposium.

A particular challenge in the self-storage space, said Ryan, is the need to educate broker-dealers. Hand in hand with the simpler operating model and lower expenses of self-storage facilities is the fact that the properties look drab by comparison to an office tower. But broker-dealers need to look past that, she said. “You can’t just say ‘that’s a pretty picture, so that’s what my client should own.’”

Similarly, an earlier panel liked non-traded REITs’ prospects as compared to those of their publicly held counterparts, while acknowledging that both classes of REITs face the same frustrations in finding accretive buying opportunities. Thomas Robinson, senior advisor at investment banking firm Stifel Nicolaus, predicted that pension advisors may begin to migrate over to the non-traded side “because they’re beginning to get flack from their investors.”

Nicholas Schorsch, chairman and CEO of American Realty Capital, concurred. “They’re looking for alternative sources as a backup, because they believe they can co-invest well,” he said. “And you know what? They can.”