The Center for Real Estate Development concluded a successful annual conference on Feb. 19, 2009. Held in the Alumni Hall at the Carolina Club on campus, the conference drew over 350 attendees. Over 100 real estate companies were represented at the conference, which featured Ethan Penner, Executive Managing Director of CB Richard Ellis Investors and and John Levy, President of John B. Levy & Company, as conference speakers.

Speaker Backgrounds

Ethan Penner joined CB Richard Ellis Investors in 2008 as an Executive Managing Director and member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Mr. Penner has 24 years of experience in the real estate sector and is widely recognized for being a pioneer and innovator in real estate finance. Prior to joining CBRE Investors, Mr. Penner was a principal at Lubert-Adler, a real estate investment firm, where he advised the firm and its clients on opportunities in real estate structured finance. Prior to joining Lubert-Adler, Mr. Penner was the manager of Penner Global Properties and a founding partner of Pacific Star Capital, both private real estate investment companies. Notably, Mr. Penner was the founder and CEO of The Capital Company of America/Nomura Capital, a leading real estate lender in the U.S. during the 1990's, where he is considered by many to have pioneered the application of securitization technology to real estate finance. Mr. Penner was voted by his peers in the real estate industry as "The Financial Services Executive of the Year" for each year that he headed CCA/Nomura (1993-1998). In 1999, National Real Estate Investor recognized him as one of the 20th Century’s 100 Icons of the U.S. real estate industry. In 1997 and 1998, Global Finance included Mr. Penner as one of the world’s 600 most powerful people in finance. Prior to creating CCA/Nomura, Mr. Penner was a Principal at Morgan Stanley, responsible for developing and managing the mortgage trading and mortgage finance businesses, including subordinated securities. He began his career as a mortgage-backed securities trader at Drexel Burnham Lambert.

John Levy, a well-known commentator and analyst, is an expert on commercial real estate financing trends. For more than 20 years, he was the originator and author of the Barron’s/John B. Levy & Company National Mortgage Survey, a survey of more than 30 of the country’s largest institutional investors, and of buyers and sellers of commercial mortgage-backed securities. The Survey was a regular monthly feature of Barron’s. The Giliberto-Levy Commercial Mortgage Performance Index (sm), the first and pre-eminent index to measure the performance of investments in the commercial mortgage industry, was co-created by Mr. Levy and Mr. S. Michael Giliberto, who is Head of Real Estate Research at a global money management firm. The Index is now published in partnership with Property & Portfolio Research (PPR). The Index is published each quarter in the Giliberto-Levy Monitor, which provides detailed analysis and commentary on commercial mortgage investments. A seasoned speaker, Mr. Levy has presented nationwide to major real estate associations and key industry groups, including the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Urban Land Institute, ICSC and many others. Mr. Levy is also a member of the Board of Directors of Anthracite Capital Inc. (NYSE: AHR), a New York Stock Exchange REIT managed by BlackRock, Inc and a former director for Value Property Trust. Mr. Levy received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard University and his Master of Business Administration, specializing in real estate and corporate finance, from Georgia State University.

In addition to these two great speakers, there were two more sessions, the first by Clint Myers from PPR, who gave the conference an update on the real estate economy, and then a real estate panel discussion moderated by David Hartzell. Panelists included Ross Cowen Managing Director of Northwood Investors, Michael Franco Managing Director of Morgan Stanley, Teresa Hee and Barrett Kollme, Managing Directors of Wachovia Securities and Ron Terwilliger, Chairman of Trammell Crow Residential.

We are lucky to be able to offer some of the presentation slides from the afternoon:

• Ethan Penner
• John Levy
• Clint Meyers
• Michael Franco
• Hee & Kollme

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our platinum sponsor this year, Wood Partners. Without their sponsorship we could not have had such impressive speakers and panelists. Here is complete agenda of the day’s activities and biographies of our speakers.

The 2010 conference planning has already begun. Our 2010 Real Estate Conference will be held on February 18th, 2010. If your company wishes to be a sponsor for the 2010 Conference, contact Susan Drake [susan_drake@unc.edu] with your interest. In addition, "Save the Date" cards will go out in the early fall of 2009 for all who are on the Center’s mailing list. If you did not receive a "Save the Date" card or a mailed invitation to the 2009 Conference, the Center needs you to update your contact information. Send your contact information to Susan Drake [susan_drake@unc.edu], and the Center will be sure to include you in the next Real Estate event. We always welcome your visits to Chapel Hill and hope to see you at all of our Real Estate events.