“Multifamily is not at its peak,” Staciokas said. “The next two to three years should be pretty good.”

While it was generally agreed that there are a lot of lenders in the marketplace, Klein cited more private lenders in the mix. “But are they lending?” he asked. “There are a lot of folks in, but I'm not sure that they're actually executing.”

Klien related, ”Three and a half years ago there was almost no one lending; today you have 10 lenders tripping over themselves to make a deal. Distressed assets are found more in tertiary markets—value-add is harder to employ. We're doing a lot of new construction.”

Sullivan touted the pro-business climate in Arizona, but said Northern California still has a lot of high-tech snobbery and “they're not willing to give up the zip codes. The strategy is not for Arizona to get the headquarters here; we should look at it as more of a partnership when going after business. You have to go out and find opportunities. Only in the past few years has the ACA become really aggressive in terms of outreach. We've put an emphasis on sustainability of retaining the human pipeline and focusing on the assets we have in Arizona.”

Sullivan also noted that winning the small to medium size deals is just as important as the big ones. “Even when we don't win, we're getting out name out there as a state, through the process. So even when we don't get the deal, it's still a win-win.”

Krumwiede noted: “There is a fair amount of spec industrial, though getting capital in certain markets is tough. We will see spec in Deer Valley.”

“A lot of people are focused on generation Y,” said Staciokas. “But Arizona is very diverse. There are a lot of suburban areas that have that live, work, play environment. With amenities, it used to be that people asked for them, but didn't use them; that's changed.”

“Tech companies want for their employees to be able to have that live, work, play,” stated Krumwiede. “They want their employees happy and they want to retain them.”

The panel agreed that much of what tech companies want, collaborative and virtual office space, will cause vacancy rates to rise, but that ready, accessible space is good for business.

Sullivan said Arizona is competing with Utah, Colorado and Texas for business, and that Utah is a formidable competitor. “But we have a superior quality of graduates; we have a better pipeline of talent here in Arizona when we're talking about those salaries that are $50,000-plus. And the companies want to retain the employees they recruit. That's where quality of life comes in.”