GlobeSt.com is partnering with SIOR for its Spring World Conference May 1-4 in Palm Desert, CA. SIOR LIVE will provide coverage of the event until May 15, featuring pre-event articles, live video interviews on site and post-conference analysis.
INDIANPOLIS-Expect a lot of talk about technology and other practical information for brokers at this year's Spring World Conference, says Bryan Poynter, an industrial specialist and vice president here at Cassidy Turley. Poynter also heads up SIOR's Breakout Subcomittee, which determines the educational sessions that attendees will experience at the event. He spoke with us about how the conference will be different this year and what is going on in his local industrial market.
GlobeSt.com: What are you doing differently with the breakout sessions this year?
Bryan Poynter: We have a committee that literally plans the sessions a week after our conference is over, already looking at it. In the past we had two conferences in a row, one in Los Angeles and one in Miami, which have major ports. We tried to focus two or three of our sessions around understanding the logistics in ports with the improvements that are taking place in all of our major ports in preparation for the Panama Canal. Being that we're on the West Coast again, in California, we didn't have that natural draw, but our breakout sessions are extremely important for our members to have something to take away. We're coming out one of our worst economic downturns, and we're focusing a lot of our breakout sessions on things that are mattering most to the day-to-day operations of our individual members, such as how to use technology. We have two or three tech-related sessions, one of which is going to be focused on the use of the iPad. We also have another session focused on philanthropy. SIOR members and individual companies have focused a lot of their work on giving back. Three of our past presidents, who are distinguished service recipients, are going to lead a breakout session on why we do so much philanthropy and how we can grow that in our personal businesses. Since we have had such limited availability to good comp material, how we as brokers are asked to do opinions of value, we have an expert coming in on how we truly do a better job of valuing buildings and assets for client members of ours. So we're looking at really the blocking and tackling in our breakout sessions this year to give people good takeaway material that they can use in the next week.
GlobeSt.com: Is there any kind of industry buzz that people will be talking about this year?
Poynter: This year the conversation will be focused around who's developing in what markets. We still hear across the country that developers are not building spec, and I speak from an industrial perspective because that's my specialty. Indianapolis, where I do most of my business, is very much an anomaly in that we have over four million square feet of spec being developed as we speak that should come online in the next year. Most major metro areas have nowhere close to that type of new development in their industrial portfolio. The conversation that is going to be permeating throughout the conference is who is developing, what they're developing and when that will likely take place if it's not already.
GlobeSt.com: What is causing all of the development in the Indianapolis market?
Poynter: We've always been a “build it, and they will come” market. We compete in the Midwest as a natural distribution center because we are within a 24 hour drive of two-thirds of the population. We have very good infrastructure in terms of highways that feed into the area that provide distribution to the East and West coasts very easily. Ultimately, we have land that is available and cheap, so developers that have land positions here are developing that land in an environment that allows them to build competitively. So we'll have five or six spec buildings that going to be added to inventory ranging from 400,000 square feet to 800,000 square feet, which should get us a look by those of us who are seeking to diversify their distribution portfolios and expanding our already significant bulk-industrial markets.
GlobeSt.com: Are there any tenants you want to mention that are driving some of this?
Poynter: The developers are very tight lipped. They continue to say that they have activity because of the inventory, but none have been inked in the first quarter. We expect to continue to see expansions of existing companies. But we expect two of those buildings will be filled with two new-to-the-market tenants by the end of the fourth quarter.
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