Principal of Newmark Knight Frank’s Southeast Capital Markets Group, Whitney Knoll, heads Retail Panel at Interface Retail in Atlanta

ATLANTA, Ga. --- Whitney Knoll, principal for Newmark Knight Frank’s Southeast Capital Markets Group, told an audience of real estate investors, brokers and developers gathered in Atlanta that Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) will play an increasingly important role in the retail development industry as the U.S. economy improves.

Knoll headed a panel of experts discussing the impact of REITs on economic development in the southeast U.S. at the Interface Retail: Atlanta conference sponsored by professional trade journals Shopping Center Business and Southeast Real Estate Business.

While the retail development industry’s recovery from the recession has been slow and new construction reflects slow residential growth, retail equity partners have been actively pursuing acquisitions of well-positioned retail facilities throughout the southeastern U.S., Knoll said.

“Retail equity participation is weathering a severe credit crunch and an evolving debt market,” Knoll said. “REITs have emerged as a principal source of liquidity in both debt and equity capital fundraising as investors and developers seek other means of financing projects,” he said.

Knoll, who is responsible for initiating retail investment sale transactions and capital markets transactions for Newmark Knight Frank’s Southeast Capital Markets Group, ranks as one of the leading retail property brokers in the Southeast, with career transactions that total more than 3.3 million square feet of commercial space valued at approximately $3.3 billion.

Knoll’s panel, “Meet the Retail REITs: Hear From the Equity Players in 2011,” included Richard H. Carson, Regional Vice President for New Development and Acquisitions at Weingarten Realty Investors; Mike Cohn, Executive Vice President for Retail Investments, Leasing & Asset Management at Cousins Properties, Inc.; Bob Mitzel, Regional President for Southeast and North Florida at Equity One; and Will Ponder, Vice President of Investments at Edens & Avant.