When asked at The Deal's PC Symposium panel, "Real Estate — All Maxed Out,"
what sectors in the real estate market may look like good places to invest,
Richard Mack, partner at Apollo Real Estate Advisors, was bullish on the
commercial retail real estate market in major urban areas. Mack said he likes
retail space in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. "We continue to see
great demand for retail space [in those major urban areas]," Mack added. He
said there is far less retail space per square foot in those three cities when
compared to the suburbs and less densely populated areas in the U.S. As a
result, demand will be high in those areas in the near future. In New York
City, Mack points to uptown neighborhood Harlem as having strong growth
prospects. Apollo is involved with several projects in Harlem that include the
building of the National Jazz Museum. Meanwhile, Kevin Donahue, senior vice
president at Midland Loan Services, sees value in old industrial sights in
port regions. One thing the panelists — Donahue, Mack and Michael Irvin,
managing director at CIT Group Inc. — agreed upon is that any real estate deal
relies on finding an asset with the right location. —Gerald Magpily
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