NEW YORK CITY-Economic turbulence and political uncertainty in the US is not stopping the CRE industry from opening their wallets and doing big deals. Top executives at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ and NAIOP’s 2011 Real Estate Capital Marketplace Conference at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan agreed that investors and developers can still find acquisition and development opportunities hot gateway markets--if they act now.

“There are so many ways we can access capital during down cycles, including using our equity, and that is a great tool to use,” said Jeffrey Olson, CEO of Equity One. Inc., of North Miami Beach, FL. The company recently acquired Capital & Counties for $600 million, one of the largest owners of retail real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, Olsen announced that an apartment complex in Pasadena, CA is now under contract, with a cap rate in the low-4% range. “We made the decision to grown our company through an aggressive acquisition program focused on A quality assets, but in particular, rather than using leverage, we use equity.”

Similarly, Scott Rechler, CEO of New York City-based RXR Realty LLC, is focusing on class A assets as well. “What we’ve seen historically, and this goes back through the last 20 years of cycles, is that B quality assets are a value trap,” he said. “People think they are getting good returns and people think they are getting good deals until you get down to the down cycle, where you have to invest almost as much as you spend to buy the building, re-build the building and get the same rent that you got ten years ago.”