Come May, Horack Talley attorney John Maheras starts his term asstate director for ICSC of the Carolinas. (So start buttering him up now.) The hottest issue in retail real estate, he says, is financing.

"Especially in the last six months, when landlords want to lease space, tenants try to get financing for a portion of the upfit work and they cant get qualified for financing through their lender, he says. That puts the onus on landlords to do something about the situation: Fund the costs for the upfit, give the tenants more time to get the money together, or offer free rent for several months. (All twentysomethings gasped at the prospect of the latter.) That all means its taking longer for deals to go through, and it affects owners value because they have fewer tenants.

In his new position, John says that one of his goals is to talk with lenders he knows personally and, through his law practice, develop a list of lenders doing these types of financing arrangements with tenants. Then hell let ICSC members know who might provide a better opportunity to finance. Another goal is to encourage more conversation about trends among members, so tenants know which lenders are doing deals, and the landlords know which tenants are expanding and looking for space.