By Ray Uttenhove
The theme for the 2011 Florida Conference in Orlando on Monday and Tuesday of this week was MORE TENANTS, MORE INFO, MORE VALUE, MORE CONTACTS. As one of the larger regional shows, this meeting pulls beyond the Florida market. In fact, the participation by Atlanta retailers, developers, owners, and brokers was high. Overall attendance was reported to be about 3000 people, up 10% from last year.
The mood was upbeat. Retailers clearly are expanding, and developers are definitely talking about new projects-much of which involves resurrecting centers that were delayed because of the economy. It was clearly evident that we are in a recovery. How robust could, of course, be debated. The general consensus seemed to be ” keep focused on the positive activity and pray that the economic volatility of the last month does not upset the positive momentum.”