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5th Annual Commercial Real Estate Investors Forum Set March 30, 2007

PALM DESERT (Calif.) — The recent 4th Annual Commercial Real Estate Investor’s Forum was so successful, the Desert Area Commercial Information Exchange announced today that next year’s forum will be held March 30 at the Desert Springs J.W. Marriott Resort and Spa.
“We had more than 500 attend this year’s event, which is 30 percent more than the previous year,” said Rob Firth, chair of the 2005 Forum.
The Forum focused on projected commercial and retail growth of the Coachella Valley. The 4th Annual Commercial Real Estate Investor’s Forum is aimed at investors, developers, residential Realtors and real estate industry professionals such as title companies, banks and mortgage companies.
“People came away with the sense that the commercial and retail growth is definitely heading east valley following the rooftops (new home construction),” said Firth, of Coldwell Banker Commercial Real Estate /Lyle Associates in Palm Desert. “That’s why you see all the national retailers like Costco, Wal-Mart, Nordstrom’s, coming here.”
Commercial real estate experts, many of whom were panelists at the forum, said rising land prices is forcing developers to move east toward the Salton Sea.
Peggy Sue Lane, forum emcee and vice president of Stewart Title in Palm Desert, said some 72,000 homes have been approved for construction by governmental agencies. Many of those new homes are in the Thermal-Mecca area near the Salton Sea.
Commercial developers say they are optimistic that retail and commercial growth will continue for the next decade primarily because of the residential boom and the projections of a growing population. Various estimates are that the Coachella Valley’s population will reach 700,000 by 2030.
It is that kind of population growth that will lure major retailers to the Coachella Valley, various panelists pointed out.
Featured Panelists: Land: Susan Harvey of Desert Pacific Properties; Dick Baxley of Baxley Properties; Ingrid Baddour of Baddour Associates; Industrial/ Office: Matthew Johnson, Wilson Johnson Commercial Real Estate; Polo Doria, Industrial West; Bob Young, Coldwell Banker Commercial/Lyle and Associates Retail: Maggie Montez, CB Richard Ellis; Curtis Barlow, Coldwell Banker Commercial/Lyle and Associates; Margie Taft, Taft and Associates.

The presenting sponsor was California Bank and Trust and co-sponsors were Stewart Title, Desert Pacific Properties, Baxley Properties, Stewart Title, Wilson Johnson Commercial Real Estate, CB Richard Ellis, Coldwell Banker
Commercial/Lyle and Associates, Asset Preservation, Dyson & Dyson Commercial Group, LandAmerica Title and Chicago Title.
The Desert Area Commercial Information Exchange has 180 members, and is a division of the California Desert Association of REALTORS®.