ICSC: Live from Vegas!

The retail industry is rocking the Strip this week for the 38th annual ICSC RECon, and Bisnow reporters are live on the scene to bring you the latest. (Unless they sleep late, what with all the parties.) What happens in Vegas this week will surely not stay in Vegas. The 40,000 retail pros in attendance are on a mission to bring back new deals. Buzzwords on the floor this year are growth and expansion, and while many we've asked are cautiously watching this fall's election, it doesn't stop them from crowding the 1,000 booths in search of transactions.

As usual, there's a huge Texas contingent out in Vegas. We partied... um, we mean networked... at David M. Schwarz Architects' party last night, where we ran in to Fort Worth's own Johnny Campbell of Sundance Square (right). We snapped him with David himself, Paul Beard of Vegas' Smith Center symphony, and Schwarz's Gregory Hoss at the new Linq mixed-use project. Are you working the RECon scene? Send your pics to tonie@bisnow.com.

Larger firms like Brookfield have big, techy booths to fuel dealmaking, as national director of retail leasing Ed Hogan showed us. (Time for a quick game of World of Warcraft?) Ed's been leasing up tons of space in high-profile properties in LA (FIGat7th) and NY (Brookfield Place). The former is a repositioned mall (acquired via Trizec) where Ed scored the nation's first City Target as an anchor, while the latter is in the giant buildings of Lower Manhattan formerly known as the World Financial Center, counting luxury brands like Ferragamo and Burberry as new tenants. Stay tuned for even more on-the-ground coverage.