Chicago Area Newsmakers to Headline at Inland Development Seminar; Inland Real Estate Sales Hosts Many of the Minds behind the Area's Top Development Stories.

OAK BROOK, Ill. -- Inland Real Estate Sales, Inc. will host its first Greater Chicagoland Real Estate Development Seminar on Thursday, May 18 from 8 to 10:30 a.m., featuring a panel of experts who represent a virtual Who's Who of the Chicago area's most impressive and attention-getting recent development success stories. The panelists include:

--Bolingbrook mayor Roger Claar, who has overseen a remarkable spate of recent headline-grabbing development efforts that have turned his southwest suburb into an unlikely regional retail powerhouse, and the site of a world-class golf course. Claar stunned observers by convincing the uber-trendy furniture franchise Ikea to open its second Illinois store in Bolingbrook rather than its original destination within the borders of the city of Chicago. That coup de tat helped him persuade other major retailers to follow Ikea's lead, including Marshall Field's first non-mall location outside of the Loop.

--Robin Schabes, director of Lakefront & Downtown Redevelopment in Waukegan. The city of Waukegan is currently overseeing the transformation of its downtown and lakefront from a venerable manufacturing district on the banks of Lake Michigan to the heart and soul of "the new North Shore." Capitalizing on the city's harbor-front location, the launch of vibrant new cultural attractions, such as the renovated Genesee Theatre, and the adoption of an award-winning master plan, Schabes is helping attract new private investment to Waukegan's downtown and lakefront redevelopment area. She'll talk about how she's accomplishing it.

--Robert Kunze, deputy commissioner of the City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development. As a leading officer in the department empowered to grant Tax Increment Financing, Kunze has had a hand in most of the city's major developments. He has also helped the city become a national leader in the use of this TIF funding model to spark redevelopment efforts that have dramatically revitalized a wide variety of neighborhoods. Kunze will have advice for developers who want to know how to make the TIF -- and the city's other resources -- work for them.

--William Mueller, president of the village of Lombard, has worked extensively with the Yorktown Center on plans for new developments at the mall, including a new lifestyle center, a major hotel and a conference center. Yorktown has survived for 30 years just down the road from the competing Oakbrook Center, one of the region's biggest mall powerhouses for years. It has done so with a savvy focus on moderately priced retailers. Now, as industry trends shift, Lombard and Yorktown remain aggressive about changing with the times, branching into the hotter-than-hot lifestyle market as the singular reign of the indoor mall comes to an end. Mueller will talk about how his town is staying in step with modern consumers, and about the implications of competition from two new lifestyle centers planned for Oak Brook.

--Lynn Dubajic, executive director of the Yorkville Economic Development Corporation, which is overseeing one of the nation's most rapid and fascinating transformations. A farming community that is swiftly being transformed into a suburban center for commuting urban professionals, Yorkville is the beating heart of the second-fastest growing county in the United States. If the town keeps up its current pace, it will have expanded from 16,000 to 50,000 residents in just four years. Few towns are riper with development opportunities, and few are better equipped to talk about what that will mean for developers than Dubajic.

The panel will be field questions from moderator Scott Goldstein, vice president of policy and planning for the Metropolitan Planning Council, a prominent nonpartisan group of business and civic leaders committed to the promotion of sensible planning and development policies necessary for an economically competitive Chicago region. The MPC, founded in 1934, has helped to guide many of Chicago's communities plan for growth and development without sacrificing intelligence or vision. He is also a member of the board of directors for the Urban Land Institute, which has a similar mission on a national scale.

"These panelists are all civic leaders who have been involved first-hand in some of the region's greatest success stories, and in Scott Goldstein we have a moderator who is one of the region's more visible experts on the issues surrounding community development," said Inland Real Estate Sales President Jonathan Stein, who organized the session. "This promises to be a robust and educational discussion."

The seminar will take place at Inland's headquarters at 2901 Butterfield Road, Oak Brook, Illinois.

Inland Real Estate Sales, Inc. (www.inlandresales.com) is part of The Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, Inc., which comprises independent real estate and financial companies with more than 30 years of experience specializing in commercial real estate brokerage, investments, development, acquisition and mortgage lending. The Inland Real Estate Group was recently named one of the top two largest commercial real estate brokerage companies in the Midwest by Crain's Chicago Business (Dec. 5, 2005). Inland's national headquarters are in Oak Brook, Ill.