ICSC: Booth Bonanza!
Bisnow is on the ground in Vegas at ICSC ReCon this week, and in between talking to retail experts, we're also checking out the floor's biggest (and coolest) booths. To fit in as many dealmakers as possible, most of the big brokerages like Cushman & Wakefield (to the left), CBRE, JLL, and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank offered massive open-air setups. Big-time owners like GGP and Acadia Realty Trust, shown here, are going for a more enclosed, private feel. Over at the Cushman booth, the firm's Americas retail head Matt Winn told us placemaking is a popular topic among brokers and owners alike this year, and he says it's not just about sprucing up old shopping centers anymore; to survive, retail owners need to curate a healthy mix of hip local as well as tried-and-true national retailers.
On the convention center floor, we caught up with Community Builders CEO Bart Mitchell, snapped here with colleague Stephanie Garrett. Bart's gearing up for Wednesday's celebration of the firm's 50th anniversary, and says that while Community Builders currently has mixed-income residential projects in 70 neighborhoods nationwide, it hopes to be in 90 over the next five years. DC, Detroit, and New York are big growth area besides its established New England base, he says.
