Urban Land Institute (ULI) North Florida hosted its annual “Emerging Trends in Real Estate” program last night at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. The event drew more than 100 attendees who had the chance to listen to national and local speakers discuss trends and forecasts for 2012, including featured guest speaker Dean Schwanke, executive director for the ULI Center for Capital Markets and Real Estate and senior vice president for ULI in Washington, D.C. A panel of local speakers, moderated by ULI Chairman Peter Rummell, addressed how national economic and real estate trends will play out on the First Coast. The panel included Charles Carlisle of Bristol Development Group, Jerry Mallot of USAJAX Partnership and Eric Zimmerman of Eastdil Secured, New York.

“Dean Schwanke is one of the foremost experts in emerging real estate trends, as well as many other topics, including real estate capital markets, place making and mixed-use development,” said Bruce Johnson, ULI North Florida district council chair. “His presentation included some of the newest and cutting-edge research, as well as invaluable insights into what we can expect from the real estate industry in the coming year.”

Here’s a sneak peek into what the country’s leading experts believe is ahead for the 2012 real estate market. For a full review of the ULI Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2012, you can purchase the summary here.

“For 2012, U.S. real estate players must resign themselves to a slowing, grind-it-out recovery following a period of mostly sporadic growth, confined largely to “wealth island” real estate markets – the primary 24-hour gateways located along global pathways. A handful of cities also should continue to benefit from expansion in locally based technology- and energy-related industries. Otherwise, most commercial markets have stabilized, but will find marked improvement in occupancies and rents relatively elusive. Despite some stepped-up bargain hunting, capital generally will continue to avoid commodity real estate in most secondary and tertiary cities. Among the property sectors, only apartments will score especially well: demographics trends and the aftermath of the housing bloodbath combine to increase and sustain demand for multifamily units…”

To read more from the executive summary, visit www.uli.org. Did you attend last night’s event? Tell us your thoughts and reactions below.