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TOP EXECS TO ATTEND LEADING EDGE CONF.

“The Agony and the Ecstasy of Multiuse Projects” will be among the topics discussed by a panel of top developers with experience in the format at ICSC’s third annual Leading Edge Conference.

The panel will describe examples of mixed-use projects whose “success took longer than planned,” according to conference Chairman Paul Jacob III, chairman of RTKL Associates, Baltimore. The panelists will include Roger Boyer, chairman of The Boyer Co., Anthony Flanagan, president of Federal Realty Investment Trust, and Lee Wagman, former president and CEO of TrizecHahn. They will discuss Gateway, in Salt Lake City; Santana Row, San Jose, Calif., and Hollywood & Highland, Hollywood, Calif.

The meeting will take place on Feb. 1-3 at the Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch, in Avon, Colo. As in past years the conference, which is geared to senior-level professionals, will focus on trends likely to affect the shopping center industry.

Yaromir Steiner, developer of the innovative Easton Town Center in metro Columbus, Ohio, and other New Urbanist projects, will head a panel on “urbanizing suburbia,” while senior executives from CBL & Associates Properties, General Growth Properties, RED Development, Westfield Group and other firms will cover the future of the regional mall.

In another session, James Hale, executive vice president of Target Corp., will talk about that chain’s continuing growth and success.

Conference organizers have also recruited speakers from outside the retail real estate industry, including one focusing on branding.

Developers are using this conference to get a grasp on trends, organizers say. Such an understanding of the ever-changing world of retail is vital to the health of their companies.

“They all want to talk about what they are doing differently to respond to the challenge of the lifestyle center,” said Jacob.

For more information, please visit www.icsc.org.