MIAMI—The closing bell of the 2015 CORFAC International Spring Conference rang last Saturday, but there will be echoes for the 100 attending members for years to come. From the changes wrought by social media and the widening of the Panama Canal to the economic outlook and strategies for portfolio disposition, the conference provided a wide-ranging spectrum of topics underscoring the change taking place in the real estate industry. In addition, there was time to reflect on the importance of members working together to enhance the networking aspect of national and international deals.

With a new Chicago-based headquarters and a new internal support staff, 2015 president Scott Savacool, CCIM, SIOR, reports that there was a new energy pervading the conference. This was in large part bolstered by such presentations as that of National Association of Realtors economist Lawrence Yun.  

“He predicted that residential mortgage rates should actually eclipse the 6% mark by the end of 2016,” says Savacool, who is also senior sales associate with Sansone Group/CORFAC International in St. Louis. Recommending caution against getting overzealous, Savacool added that Yun saw no threats on the horizon. “The presentation also touched on the steep drop in oil prices from June of last year and predicted that they would stay consistently around $60 a barrel for the foreseeable future, with a couple of variations in the $50-to-$70 range.”

In the realm of social media, presenter Phill Tomlinson, Commercial Properties Inc./CORFAC International, pointed out that there are sites that can actually help you with your prospecting and relationship building. The primary sites members should consider and even experiment with are LinkedIn and Twitter.

And when the prospecting is done and it's time to wind down your real estate involvement, there's a neat trick not many members had thought of. In his presentation, Duncan Patterson, CCIM, of Patterson-Woods Commercial Properties/CORFAC International, recommended an alternative disposition strategy for your assets, namely gifting. Savacool reports that if done wisely, which means with the aid of attorneys and CPAs, gifting can actually help you not only maintain the steady income a real estate asset brings but also "avoid or at least minimize the tax burden. To do it properly, you will need attorneys and CPAs, but it definitely has a tax minimization structure."

The other major presentation was the keynote by Rob Richter, of Flagler Global Logistics. In his in-depth presentation of the workings of international logistics markets and the impact of the Panama Canal widening, Richter indicated that his firm was spreading out to a number of South American areas.

This was a key point for CORFAC members in attendance since that expansion is in lock step with CORFAC's own widening…into South America, as well as Europe and Asia. The group welcomed new members from each of those regions and Savacool reports that by the end of the year, the association should have as many as 30 international members.

CORFAC's award ceremony, dubbed the COR$TARS Referral Awards, are essential to the existence of the group since its emphasis, as the name implies, is on referrals—the lifeblood of a successful network. “It emphasizes the value of our relationships with one another and through that, our ability to get deals done,” says Savacool.

Honored this year for transactions done in 2014:

Top Industrial Award (by dollar volume): Tucker Rocky Distributing (Client) in Jacksonville; $7.5 million; Referring Brokers: Don Ossey, SIOR and Robbie McEachern (Capacity Commercial Group/CORFAC International); Transacting Broker: Jeff Graham, SIOR (King Industrial Realty/CORFAC International);

Largest Industrial Award (by size): New Breed Logistics (Client), Memphis; 404,400 square feet; Referring Broker: Steven Podolsky, SIOR (PodolskyICircle CORFAC International); Transacting Broker: Treat Macdonald, CCIM, SIOR (Crump Commercial/CORFAC International);

Top Office Award (by size and dollar value): Halstead Investments LLC (Client), Farmington Hills, MI,  40,000 square feet, $3.45 million; Referring Broker: Barry Bram, CCIM, LEED-AP (TRI Commercial/CORFAC International); Transacting Broker: Mason Capitani, SIOR (L. Mason Capitani/CORFAC International);

Top Retail Award (by size and dollar volume):SkyZone Franchise Group (Client), Pineville, NC, 25,536 square feet, $3 million; Referring Brokerage: The Klabin Co./CORFAC International); Transacting Brokers: Scott Hensley, CCIM, SIOR, Lester Osborn, CCIM, SIOR (Piedmont Properties of the Carolinas/CORFAC International);

Top Referring Broker:  Scott Savacool; Total transactions referred: 14; and

Top Referring Firm:  Sansone Group/CORFAC International; Total transactions referred: 20