7:15 AM 

REGISTRATION & CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

8:00 AM 

OPENING COMMENTS

8:05 AM 

OPENING PRESENTATION: Calgary and Edmonton Leasing Market Overview: Key Trends and Transactions in Office, Retail and Industrial Real Estate

Presenters will provide an overview on office, retail and industrial leasing activity in the Calgary and Edmonton markets for the first three quarters of 2007. What are the major trends? What were some of the most significant transactions? How much new space is anticipated for 2008? What are the anticipated absorption rates? What are the profiles of the tenants that are looking for space? What are the resulting implications for leasing activity in 2008 and beyond?

Moderator:
Greg Kwong, Managing Director, CB Richard Ellis Alberta Ltd.

Panel:
Jon Mook, Vice President/Partner, CMN Calgary Inc.
Todd Throndson, Managing Partner, Avison Young Commercial Real Estate
Rob Walker, Vice President/Partner, CMN Calgary Inc.
Dave Young, Managing Director Edmonton, CB Richard Ellis Alberta Ltd.

9:00 AM

MORNING REFRESHMENTS

9:30 AM

CONCURRENT SESSIONS (Select A1, A2 or A3)

Session A1:
Understanding Landlords’ and Tenants’ Rights and Remedies: An Interactive Discussion with a Litigator and a Real Estate Lawyer

This session will provide a unique perspective on the rights of landlords and tenants as they should be incorporated into a lease, e.g. early termination rights, rights of first offer, rights of first refusal, use and exclusive clauses, relocation clauses, damage and destruction, restrictive covenants. Learn how these points should have been addressed from a litigator’s perspective.

How do you construct the ideal lease document? What are some sources of common conflict between a landlord and a tenant that can be avoided through the drafting process? What are the things that can go wrong? What are the issues to concern yourself with when you are drafting them?

Speakers:
Ian MacRae, Partner, Macleod Dixon LLP
Andrew Wilson, Associate, Litigation, Bennett Jones LLP

Session A2:
Industrial Real Estate Leasing Trends in Calgary

This session will provide an examination of the most common trends in leasing industrial buildings in Calgary. What will be the next frontier of logistics buildings?

Have the standards for industrial leases of environmental compliance increased along with the need for exit reports? Is the demand for sale leasebacks growing or is it a rather limited trend? To what extent have the increasing costs of construction and the rising price of industrial land affected build-to-suit activity in Calgary? What impact have these trends had on lease rates? Do leasing rates reflect economic costs or not?

Moderator/Speaker:
Marshall Toner, Vice President, CB Richard Ellis

Panel:
Paul Derksen, Senior Vice President, Regional Partner, Verus Partners Canada Ltd. 
Philip Markovich, Vice President, Leasing, Bentall Capital LLP
Andy Smele, Principal, Panattoni Development Company

Session A3:
Operating Costs: An Increasingly Thorny Issue for Tenants and Landlords

Operating costs are one of the most negotiated issues in lease negotiations, and sometimes they are the most misunderstood. Discussion will cover current practices among owners with respect to new cost areas, and other typical items that tenants are concerned about in reviewing additional rent charges. What constitutes operating costs and what does not? Do tenants understand them? What happens with the operating costs when an existing building requires retrofitting? How transparent are landlords? How transparent do they need to be? Is there an appropriate admin fee that landlords can charge? Finally, if a tenant asks for full audit rights can they exercise such a right?

Moderator/Speaker:
Mark Kolke, President, MaxComm Realty Advisors

Speakers:
Kenneth Dixon, Director, Real Estate Management, Oxford Properties Group 
Kevin Keyes, Partner, Gowlings LLP

10:50 PM

CONCURRENT SESSIONS (Select B1 or B2)

Session B1:
The Changing Dynamics of Calgary’s Office Leasing Market: What Does It Mean for Tenants, Brokers and Landlords?

Calgary experienced an office leasing frenzy from approximately October, 2004 to Halloween 2006. As a result, vacancy dropped to levels thought to be impossibly low and new supply quickly rose to the highest levels in two decades. However, the past year has been mostly become a ‘wait and see’ market. What is next? Another frenzy or a contraction? How do tenants, brokers and landlords position themselves for both possibilities? What will likely happen in 2008? How are landlords dealing with the pricing structure for non-energy related companies, e.g. financial services, technology?

The session will also briefly examine the mindset of today’s tenants. Are they placing a much greater emphasis on finding the right environment for their staff as opposed to simply focusing on cost? To what extent are tenants pushing the demand for greener building environments?

Moderator/Presenter:
Sandy McNair, President, Altus Insite (please contact [email protected] to obtain a copy of presentation)

Panel:
Dennis Djonlich, Associate Vice President, CB Richard Ellis 
Dwight Jack, Vice President, Office Leasing, Brookfield Properties
Gary Jones, Managing Principal, CresaPartners (invited)

Session B2:
Drafting Key Clauses in Leases: Understanding Damage and Destruction, Termination, and Demolition & Restoration Obligations

Damage and destruction provisions of a lease have often been overlooked or lightly negotiated. For many years, Canadian landlords declined to discuss this topic by noting that, except for one roof collapse in Newfoundland in the 1980s, there has never been an event of catastrophic damage in Canada. However, that is now changing as a result of many natural and man-made forces over the past five years in North America. Prudent landlords and tenants are reassessing their master lease and policies in an effort to avoid some of the potential quagmires. This session will examine many aspects of these issues from all perspectives, e.g. What does “not tenantable” mean? Can you invoke that if you merely cannot get access? What if there is mold damage as a result of a storm? What if there is damage from contamination? What if there is a blackout?

Termination clauses will be a second issue that will be examined. How do you break them if you are a landlord? If you are a tenant? How can termination be applied for default?

Many tenants are not aware of their final obligations at the end of the term of their lease. The final discussion will examine some of these issues and responsibilities including: demolition and restoration obligations; moving out problems; redundant wiring and who must remove it. Discussion will also focus on tenants that holdover without consent, and what options landlords have with respect to dealing with these circumstances.

Speakers:
Chris Howard, Vice President, Real Estate, Aspen Properties Ltd. 
Brad Krizan, Manager, Corporate Real Estate, EnCana Corporation 
Gregory Liakopoulos, Partner, Real Property & Planning Department, McCarthy Tetrault

12:15 PM

INFORMAL LUNCHEON & NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY

1:20 PM

CONCURRENT SESSIONS (Select C1, C2 or C3)

Session C1:
Mastering Lease Negotiation: Five Points That Should Not Be Part of the Final Discussion

A panel of experts will discuss a range of strategic issues in lease negotiations in today’s market — from planning for step-downs on the landlords’ side to making your case for changes on the tenants’ side. What are some of the typical discussion points that are easily resolvable in lease negotiation and what are the arguments used to reach the middle ground? How do landlords perceive themselves and likewise for tenants? What value could lawyers and brokers bring to the landlord, to the tenant, and to the overall process in a tight market? How long should it take to finalize a deal in today’s market in Calgary? How should a landlord deal with a bully tenant who just can’t be satisfied? How should a tenant deal with a bully landlord that won’t compromise?

This panel will also explore current problems in dealing with tenant convenants and ways in which leases can be structured to minimize any problems associated with these provisions.

Speakers:
Terry Adams, Manager, Lease Documentation, Bentall Real Estate
Terrence Philps, Vice President, J.J. Barnicke Calgary Inc.
Beth Vogel, Attorney, Burnet, Duckworth Palmer LP

Session C2:
New Developments and Challenges in Retail Leasing

This session will focus on some of the major trends and issues in retail real estate leasing from both the landlords’ and the tenants’ perspectives. What impact is consolidation in both the landlord as well as the tenant sector having on retail leasing? Given the blurring of retail lines between food and drugs, how are some landlords responding to this trend, e.g. elimination of exclusive use clauses and non-competes or restrictive covenants? In retail real estate, what are some of the ways in which landlords are adding value in the leasing process? What impact might the trend towards lifestyle centres vs. power centres have on future trends in retail leasing? Are lease audits on the rise? Does realtime tenant access to tenant operating cost data avoid lease audits? Who is doing this now? Could the emergence of gross leases reduce the need for lease audits? How likely is it going to happen?

Moderator/Speaker:
Kevin Deeks, Associate Vice President, Cushman & Wakefield LePage

Panel:
Chuck Neufeld, Development Manager, Starbucks Canada
Don Goyan, Manager, Retail Leasing, Hopewell Development Corporation
David Pidgeon, Managing Partner, TriTerra Capital Inc.

Session C3:
Leasehold Improvement and Construction Costs in Today’s Market: Current Issues and Management Challenges

What are the implications on real estate assets and portfolios of a market where the cost of capital appears to be dramatically and quickly changing? How do these market conditions affect values? How do they affect acquisitions and dispositions, development, investment, and financing decisions? What has happened to CMBS and debt financing over the past eight months? Why is private equity so strongly attracted to REITs? Does private equity pose a significant threat to REITs, public corps and the prospects for this sector to continue to evolve and grow? Are sale-leasebacks likely to continue to grow under the current market conditions or not? What are the three techniques that real estate owners can be effectively used to hedge rates within the current interest rate environment?

This session will examine how a construction schedule really works. The goal will be to provide strategic advice on how to effectively manage a buildout or leasehold improvement (from the perspective of a landlord or a tenant) in today’s market taking into account the very latest in building code regulations and standards. Discussion will also cover issues such as: being ready on time, managing construction costs given the uncertainty in labour, materials and construction costs, and delivery dates and penalties. What are the main elements of tenant space and landlord space? What are their respective work obligations? How important are measurement clauses in a lease with respect to tenant build-outs? What alternatives do owners and tenants have in light of these issues?

Speakers:
Cole Harris, President, Centron Construction 
Sharon Martens, Principal, Martens-Group 
Georgi-Anna Sizeland, Principal, Sizeland Evans Interior Design Inc.

2:45 PM

CLOSING ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: UNDERSTANDING TODAY’S LANDLORDS, THEIR ASSET MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES AND THEIR LEASING POLICIES & PRACTICES

Today’s office, retail and industrial real estate market is comprised of a diverse group of building owners and landlords — from REITs to pension fund and their advisors, from passive equity investors to privately owned companies, from corporations to private individuals and their families. As a result, the range of asset management and leasing policies, styles, practices, and processes can be quite considerable.

This roundtable discussion among senior executives will examine how leasing strategies, policies and approvals can be influenced and differ among various types of owners and asset management decision-making models. The following are some of the questions that they will address:

• How do you ensure that your investment, asset management and leasing teams are all on the same page?
• To what extent would you say that product differentiation and branding is a critical part of your corporate priorities and marketing strategies? Do you believe that any of this matters to your tenants?
• What have you found to be the most effective ways to market your properties and space?
• What role and value do brokers, lawyers and intermediaries provide in your marketing and leasing strategies? How can they be more involved in the renewal process? Do you see their roles changing going forward?
• How would you describe deal flow, velocity, and pace in today’s market?
• As a leasing executive, how do you manage an asset manager? As an asset manager, how do you manage the owner?
• Are tenants more or less sophisticated today?
• Everyone talks about tenant retention but how strongly do you really practice it? What are your most significant strategies as part of these programs?

Moderator:
Greg Kwong, Managing Director, CB Richard Ellis Alberta Ltd.

Panel:
Brian Kozak, Vice President Western Canada, First Capital Realty
Scott Taylor, Vice President, Asset Management, GWL Realty Advisors 
Scott Sharples, Vice President, CREIT Management LP

4:00 PM

Adjournment