Coronavirus fears hit California CRE: Bigwigs ditch Florida property conference

Fears of the coronavirus have led two of the biggest California-based commercial real estate owners to pull out of a prominent property conference in Florida.

Representatives for Hudson Pacific Properties and American Homes 4 Rent said that their executives have decided not to attend the Citi 2020 Global Property CEO Conference in Hollywood, Florida this week, due to concerns over the rapidly spreading virus.

“Management no longer plans to attend the conference due to an abundance of caution related to travel amidst an evolving virus landscape,” American Homes 4 Rent, which is based in Agora Hills and is one of the largest single-family rental owners in the state, said in a statement.

And Hudson Pacific, which has developed campuses for the likes of Google and Netflix and owns over 3 million square feet of office and studio properties in Hollywood, said in a statement that its executives would no longer be attending the Citi conference “in light of a growing list of cancellations.”

Representatives for the companies could not immediately be reached for comment, nor could representatives for the Citi conference.

Bigwigs at Blackstone Group, Cushman & Wakefield, Savills, Knight Frank, PGIM Real Estate and other firms announced last week that they would not be sending representatives to the MIPIM property conference in Cannes because of the ongoing spread of the coronavirus.

MIPIM eventually decided to postpone the conference until June.