Leaders in Real Estate to Converge on Columbia to Discuss Issues in Real Estate

World-renowned investor Sam Zell will present the keynote lecture for the 2007 Real Estate Forum.

Members of the Midwest real estate community, mortgage banking professionals, and investment managers as well as College of Business students and faculty members are expected to attend the Jeffrey E. Smith Institute of Real Estate’s annual conference on April 27, 2007. The focus of the conference will be on Emerging Issues and Trends in Real Estate. The full-day conference, which will be held on the MU campus, will feature nationally known speakers, panel discussions, and research presentations.

The Smith Institute of Real Estate Forum is now in its second year.  Sam Goldman became the director of the Smith Institute last August.  “The members of the Smith Institute of Real Estate advisory board and many other people involved with the Institute and the college have done a spectacular job planning this conference,” says Goldman.  “With speakers from a variety of different backgrounds and schools of thought, this conference promises to be a great forum for a wide-ranging audience to discuss important topics in real estate.” 

The conference’s keynote speaker will be Sam Zell, chairman for six public companies and founder, president, and chairman of Equity Group Investments, LLC, an entrepreneurial investment firm based in Chicago.  Zell recently sold Equity Office Properties Trust to The Blackstone Group for $39 billion. The transaction represented the largest private buyout in history. Equity Group Investments was the originating company for Equity Office, as well as for Equity Residential Properties Trust and Equity Lifestyle Properties, all of which are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.  The keynote address, “Investments in Real Estate – Private and Public Equity Markets,” will take place in Bush Auditorium at 9 a.m. 

You can read more about Sam Zell here.  Read more about the other featured conference speakers on the Jeffrey E. Smith Institute of Real Estate webpage.  

The Smith Institute in the MU College of Business will facilitate the conference in partnership with the Jeffrey E. Smith Companies.  Sponsoring companies include Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, National City, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Regions Bank, and Southwest Bank. 

Click here now to register online for the conference.