Bob Gray, partner, Rockwood Capital, a real estate investment company managing more than $6.5 billion of equity commitments from investors, agreed experience is vital in retail. For that reason, he sees many centers working to bring the supermarket and gym into the mall. That makes location more important than ever in a retail world that's seeing increasing e-commerce disruption. (Rockwood recently named a new partner.)

“Real estate is occupied by tenants and tenants need employees,” said Gray. “We are focused in on areas that are conducive to growth. San Francisco is a wonderful exporter of talent to other parts of the world because it's too expensive for people to rent apartments or buy homes. We're focused on Boulder, for example, because Google is going from 400 to 1,500 employees right next door. Value of talent is what's driving location today. In certain locations rent is not a factor, not when the value of the talent can change industry.”

Next, the audience listened intently to a keynote session with Gregg Pasquarelli, principal and co-founder, SHoP Architects, and David Martin, president and co-founder, Terra. SHoP Architects is one of Fast Company's “Most Innovative Architecture Firm in the World.” Meanwhile, Martin has engaged some of the world's leading architects in distinctive South Florida projects. The duo discussed many of the firm's innovative projects and how SHoP's disruptive thinking has impacted the industry.

“Real estate tends to do things the same way until one person innovates and then you all instantly change,” Pasquarelli told Martin. “We've found every time we've been able to use technology to improve cost control or transparency or manufacturing costs in one of our buildings and we have hard data showing it works, everyone jumps on board.”

In a panel called “Redevelopment Ready: Miami 2.0,” Al Dotson, a partner at Bilzin Sumberg, moderated a panel about the next generation of South Florida development. He's a specialist in public-private partnerships.

Arnaud Karesenti of 13^th Floor Investments offered a presentation about a transit-oriented design called in Coconut Grove called The Link at Douglas, followed by Related Urban Development Group principal and vice president Al Milo's discussion on Liberty Square. Michael Comras, president of Comras Company, shared how his firm is remaking iconic retail projects like Sunset Place and CocoWalk while working to redesign high street retail on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale.

Rounding out the day was a keynote session with David Simon, chairman and CEO of Simon Property Group and Stuart Miller, CEO of Lennar Corporation. The duo discussed growing up as a second-generation real estate leader under powerful father figures as well as the evolution of the retail industry from bricks to clicks and from Wall Street to Main Street.

“We bought Sawgrass Mills in '07 and had $55 million in NOI. Today we have $150 million in NOI,” Simon said. “People want to say retail is going out of business. There are a lot of negative headlines out there but the fact is if you can diversify the mix—if you can bring in the right retailers—if you can make it a real part of the community you can bring in tourism, and grow your business.”

MIAMI—For the sixth year in a row, South Florida, national and international industry experts converged in Miami for a meeting of the minds at the University of Miami Real Estate Impact Conference. Hosted by the School of Architecture and the School of Business Administration, the 2017 event at the Four Seasons Hotel Miami was standing room only.

As in past years, the conference featured global leaders in commercial and residential real estate in one-on-one conversations. Innovators and trendsetters who are informing and shaping the industry's future were also on hand to share what they are seeing now and what they expect to see next as disruptive continues marking the industry.

The event, which drew some of the who's who in Miami's business world, kicked off with the “Finding Opportunity in Disruption.” Natalia Martinez-Kalinina, general manager of the Cambridge Innovation Center, a real estate services company that bills itself as a “community of entrepreneurs,” moderated a discussion exploring how the commercial real estate industry can partner with, and profit from, firms like Amazon, Bonobos and WeWork as they continue to revolutionize their segments.

“There has always been disruption in the industry,” said James Bry, executive vice president of development and construction at Seritage Growth Properties, a self-managed REIT with a portfolio of 235 properties and 31 joint ventures. “Department stores used to be in the downtowns in the 1800s. They moved to the suburbs in the '60s and '70s. There have always been bankruptcies. If you go to goods centers, you see a lot of people with bags. Retail is about the entertainment as well as the shopping experience. We're all still social. The majority of us want to get out of our house and do things. That's not going to change no matter what generation it is.”

Bob Gray, partner, Rockwood Capital, a real estate investment company managing more than $6.5 billion of equity commitments from investors, agreed experience is vital in retail. For that reason, he sees many centers working to bring the supermarket and gym into the mall. That makes location more important than ever in a retail world that's seeing increasing e-commerce disruption. (Rockwood recently named a new partner.)

“Real estate is occupied by tenants and tenants need employees,” said Gray. “We are focused in on areas that are conducive to growth. San Francisco is a wonderful exporter of talent to other parts of the world because it's too expensive for people to rent apartments or buy homes. We're focused on Boulder, for example, because Google is going from 400 to 1,500 employees right next door. Value of talent is what's driving location today. In certain locations rent is not a factor, not when the value of the talent can change industry.”

Next, the audience listened intently to a keynote session with Gregg Pasquarelli, principal and co-founder, SHoP Architects, and David Martin, president and co-founder, Terra. SHoP Architects is one of Fast Company's “Most Innovative Architecture Firm in the World.” Meanwhile, Martin has engaged some of the world's leading architects in distinctive South Florida projects. The duo discussed many of the firm's innovative projects and how SHoP's disruptive thinking has impacted the industry.

“Real estate tends to do things the same way until one person innovates and then you all instantly change,” Pasquarelli told Martin. “We've found every time we've been able to use technology to improve cost control or transparency or manufacturing costs in one of our buildings and we have hard data showing it works, everyone jumps on board.”

In a panel called “Redevelopment Ready: Miami 2.0,” Al Dotson, a partner at Bilzin Sumberg, moderated a panel about the next generation of South Florida development. He's a specialist in public-private partnerships.

Arnaud Karesenti of 13^th Floor Investments offered a presentation about a transit-oriented design called in Coconut Grove called The Link at Douglas, followed by Related Urban Development Group principal and vice president Al Milo's discussion on Liberty Square. Michael Comras, president of Comras Company, shared how his firm is remaking iconic retail projects like Sunset Place and CocoWalk while working to redesign high street retail on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale.

Rounding out the day was a keynote session with David Simon, chairman and CEO of Simon Property Group and Stuart Miller, CEO of Lennar Corporation. The duo discussed growing up as a second-generation real estate leader under powerful father figures as well as the evolution of the retail industry from bricks to clicks and from Wall Street to Main Street.

“We bought Sawgrass Mills in '07 and had $55 million in NOI. Today we have $150 million in NOI,” Simon said. “People want to say retail is going out of business. There are a lot of negative headlines out there but the fact is if you can diversify the mix—if you can bring in the right retailers—if you can make it a real part of the community you can bring in tourism, and grow your business.”