NAIOP NETWORKING!

Yesterday afternoon, 250 Northern Virginia NAIOP members gathered at the Tysons Ritz for their ?Times They Are A-Changin? themed Mid-Year Forecast. With recent deals like Trammell and EOP, they had a lot to talk about. Speakers for the event were Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers? Marty Almquist and Bob Pinkard, who have themselves been affected by events this year. Marty came to Cassidy in May when EOP was acquired byBlackstone. And Bob got 5.3 million more SF for leasing and management, when Blackstone flipped the Washington assets to Beacon. Apparently, change is good.

NAIOP's new communications guru, Eric Dobson, ECS Mid-Atlantic's Tracy Allen, and Cassidy's Marty Almquist. Marty updated the crowd on market stats. Her prognosis? Solid, but a little slow in activity right now, with things likely to improve in the third and fourth quarters. She also advised members to keep an eye on who owns the buildings, private equity or REIT, because each has different goals.

Isn't this heart warming? Cassidy's Avi Fisher met up with her dad,Advance's David Fisher, center, and Cassidy's James Hunter. Avi is the oldest of David's five girls, but don't worry—they're not competing. She's a researcher and he's a developer. Down the road, Avi hopes to be a broker.

Mancini Duffy BizDev Manager Tina Benedetti, and Rand team project leader Matt Merz. Tina just wrapped the new Tysons Morrison & Foerster office a month ago, and now she's ready for some relaxation, read: golf.

West*Group's Wade Hoffman and Larry Hanes, and Cassidy's Bob Pinkard. Bob said Cassidy has added over 100 employees in the last 12 months, principals have shot up from 6 to 25, and property under management has tripled. As for Larry, he's busy leasing space in Tysonsand searching for his next big deal. He's soon flying out to Idaho for a family vacation and then on to Bandon Dunes in Oregon for golf with the guys.