What happens in retail

Highlights from this year’s mega retail convention

About 2,000 real estate players from New York attended the massive International Council of Shopping Center’s annual RECon conference in Las Vegas last month. The event, which drew 33,500 people, included myriad opportunities to meet and greet, from booths on the convention floor to party hopping. Below are some of the highlights:

-Kickoff day for ICSC found more real estate pros hanging out poolside than in the convention hall. Lounging in cabanas at Wynn Las Vegas, for example, were retail moguls Jeff Sutton and Alex Adjmi and brokers such as Bob Knakal, Jason Pruger, Adelaide Polsinelli and others.

-A slew of New York-based firms hosted mega-parties, which were among the 60-plus ICSC-related fetes. They included RKF’s bash at Cabo Wabo overlooking the Las Vegas Strip, SCG Retail’s cocktail party at the Grand Ballroom in the Four Seasons and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s popular event at the Cosmopolitan’s Marquee Nightclub.

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-The Related Companies debuted a virtual reality tour, which used space-age 3D goggles, to provide a sneak peak of its Hudson Yards site, including the 750,000-square-foot retail space. The mall is expected to generate about $2,000 per square foot in sales annually, Kenneth Himmel, CEO of Related Urban, told TRD.

-A TRD analysis of New York attendees found that NGKF and RKF flew out the highest number of pros from NYC-based offices — with 50 and 40 respectively.

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