Commercial real estate focus of talk at trends conference

Don't look for commercial real estate values to rebound any time soon.

They won't recover next month or next year, said Sally Gordon, a managing director at BlackRock, a global investment management firm.

"In this cycle, commercial real estate values have fallen much farther and faster than ever before," she said. They lost more value in the past five quarters than in the past five years - "and we're not done."

Gordon, head of BlackRock's risk and quantitative analysis unit in New York, will expand on that projection tomorrow at the annual Virginia Commonwealth University Real Estate Trends Conference in Richmond.

The event, organized by the real estate program in the VCU School of Business, will be held at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

Gordon's topic is "Commercial Real Estate: What We've Learned So Far and Where Do We Go From Here."

Joining her on the roster are Stephen R. Blank, senior resident fellow, finance, at the Urban Land Institute; David Lereah, president of Reecon Advisors; and Jeffrey DeBoer, president and CEO of the Real Estate Roundtable.

The breakfast conference runs from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Registration and networking start at 7:30 a.m. Learn more at http://www.realestate.vcu.edu or call (804) 827-7412. The cost is $150. Walk-ins are welcome.

Also consider attending the Richmond Association of Realtors' first economic trends event Thursday from 2:30 to 5:45 p.m. at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.

The cost is $20. To register, call (804) 422-5010.

- Iris Taylor