Several executives who participated at Akerman's 2013 U.S. Real Estate Summit were quoted in the Law360 article titled, "Optimistic Outlook Prevails at Real Estate Conference." The annual event, which opened with remarks from Richard Bezold, chair of Akerman's Real Estate Practice Group, featured notable speakers including Len O'Donnell, president and CEO, USAA Real Estate; Thomas K. Sittema, CEO, CNL Financial Group; and Peter Linneman, principal, Linneman Associates.

The article focused on the optimistic outlook of the real estate market and the nation's economic recovery, emphasizing the discussions on supply and demand, an abundance of capital, banks willing but slow to lend and uncertainty about interest rates.

"In some respects, [the multifamily residential sector] has the best fundamentals I've seen in 25 years," O'Donnell said. "The world is awash in capital. If you're a strong borrower, you can get whatever debt you want. We have an abundance of capital available to invest. It's just a question of where — trying to find yield."

"Choosing the right projects is a somewhat more complicated question for these firms. Despite sitting on tremendous amounts of capital, banks have still been slow to lend. But they will trip over themselves for the desirable projects," Sittema said. "Investors today are really looking for one primary expectation in their investment and it's yield. And it's ridiculously difficult to find yield when 10-year treasuries are trading at [1.8 percent]."

"The Federal Reserve's strategies of keeping interest rates so low and continuing to inject money into the economy failed to get capital flowing. I just never thought the Fed would be so manipulative for so long," Linneman said.

"The future is ripe with opportunity," said Bezold. "I predict that we will look back a year from now and remember that today's discussions were well timed and that the real estate industry continued to make a resurgence in many key sectors of the market."