The March 16 conference will cover real estate, energy, oil, investment and economic development opportunities in the state of North Dakota.

“Any person who has any sort of interest in what is happening in North Dakota should attend this event,” said Jeff Johnson, general manager and group publisher of Minnesota Real Estate Journal. “There are so many opportunities available to them in North Dakota. Attendees will walk away from this conference with all the knowledge they need to make a better business decision.”

The conference will feature several important speakers, including Ed Schaefer, former governor of North Dakota and current board member of Continental Resources. Also speaking are Jack Ekstrom from the Whiting Petroleum Corporation; Mike Faldeland, North Dakota Chamber of Commerce; Tom Rolfstad, Williston; Kevin Cramer, North Dakota Public Service Commission; Scott Hennen, The Bakken Beacon; and several others.

Minnesota Real Estate Journal has applied for continuing education credits for real estate professionals, appraisers, legal professionals and financial planners. The publisher has applied for eight continuing education hours for real estate professionals, eight hours for appraisers, seven hours for legal professionals and eight hours of insurance credit for financial planners.

Johnson said that he expects a full-house at this all-day conference.

The event begins with registration at 7:15 a.m. at the Double Tree Hotel located at 7800 Normandale Blvd. in Bloomington, Minn. A hot breakfast will be served at 7:30 a.m., while lunch will be served at noon.

The speaker portion of the event begins at 8 a.m. with a look at North Dakota’s history, an examination of the types of businesses that call the state home and an in-depth exploration of the state’s economic drivers.

Other sessions focus on oil production in the Bakken, how oil has impacted North Dakota, economic development opportunities in the state and the capital markets opportunities that investors, developers and brokers can enjoy in North Dakota.

Attendees can qualify for the conference’s early bird rate of $179 through Feb. 24. After this period, tickets to the conference cost $199. Attendees who pay at the door on the day of the event will be charged $239.

“We have lined up an extremely impressive group of speakers for this event,” Johnson said. “We have energy consultants, a former governor, economic-development officials and a representative from Whiting Petroleum. We have the principals and the stakeholders who are the driving forces behind all the activity that is happening in North Dakota.”

To sign up for Minnesota Real Estate Journal’s Opportunities in North Dakota conference, click here.

Ulteig Engineers, which provides engineering, planning and surveying services to a wide range of public and private clients, currently occupies 30,000 square feet in the River Road Business Center in Fridley, Minn. Seeking a larger space, the company will be moving to Arden Hills Corporate Center IV in Arden Hills, Minn.

The 52,379-square-foot space is currently leased to FICO through June, and will be enhanced with the addition of a new 2,000-square-foot garage for the company’s vans and equipment.

Construction on the garage is slated to begin July 1, and Ulteig will move into the building Sept. 1.

“As a service provider it is imperative our business is never interrupted for our employees and customers,” said David Karels, chief business officer of Ulteig.  “Ulteig’s current location and lease will allow us to complete all the tenant improvements, including a state-of-the-art data center, which will allow a seamless move and virtually no business interruption.”

Kathy Marinac

Kathy Marinac recently joined Sherman Associates as a commercial real estate manager based in Duluth, Minn.

Marinac has worked in the commercial leasing and asset/property management business for more than 24 years. She most recently worked at Holappa Commercial Real Estate.

In her new role, Marinac will provide property management and leasing services for the Sherman Associates portfolio in Duluth. She will also work with out-of-state properties.

The researchers at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services predict that builders will deliver 1,865 rental units in 2012. That’s the highest this figure has stood in eight years. It also dwarves multi-family activity in 2011, when builders delivered 477 multi-family markets to the Minneapolis/St. Paul market.

The news is not all good, though. Marcus & Millichap is predicting that vacancies in the Twin Cities multi-family sector will rise 20 basis points in 2012 to 2.8 percent. The reason for this is fairly obvious: The number of new units delivered by builders will exceed a smaller increasein demand among Twin Cities consumers.

Don’t expect the rising vacancies, though, to hurt rents. According to Marcus & Millichap, operators should be able to raise asking rents 2.9 percent by the end of 2012 to $987 a month. Effective rents will see an even bigger increase, a predicted 4.5 percent to $956 a month.

This is all good news for the Twin Cities. Overall, Marcus & Millichap ranks Minneapolis/St. Paul as the 10th-best multi-family market in the country. That’s down a bit from 2011, when Marcus ranked the Twin Cites as the eighth-best such market, but it’s still a solid ranking. And it provides yet more evidence that the multi-family market here, and in most Midwest markets, remains the best commercial real estate bet out there.

In Caulfield’s new role, his scope of responsibilities will expand to include oversight of Arbor’s $5.8-billion multi-family loan servicing portfolio as well as a heightened level of business collaboration and engagement with Arbor’s valued business partner, Fannie Mae. Arbor is the sixth-ranked Fannie Mae DUS® Multi-family lender, as measured by total origination volume.

In addition to his new responsibilities, Caulfield will continue to oversee Arbor’s sales origination, capital markets and underwriting departments as well as all aspects of the company’s loan process, from screening to closing. He is also responsible for managing the company’s trading and investment banking partnerships.

During his more than two decades with Arbor, Caulfield has helped Arbor rapidly climb the ranks of the Top 10 Fannie Mae DUS® Multi-family lenders, ascending from 10th to sixth within the past four years alone. He has also played a critical role in recently expanding Arbor’s Bridge Loan and FHA lending business.

Just consider the recent investigation of NRP and ProPublica. The two news agencies found that Freddie Mac purchased billions of dollars worth of complex mortgage-backed securities that only profit if borrowers remain trapped in high-interest-rate home loans.

Freddie Mac today holds $5 billion worth these securities. Its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has since requested that Freddie Mac stop purchasing these securities. Freddie Mac in December agreed to this request.

Now, what does this story say to the homeowners across the country who want to refinance to mortgage loans with lower interest rates but have been denied? It says that the game was rigged against them from the start.

The Freddie Mac story is just one more blow against the real estate industries. The reporters who cover real estate — people like me — know that the vast majority of professionals doing business in the industry are smart and hard-working. But members of the general public? They have a far lower opinion of the industry.

I’d say its similar to the feelings that consumers have toward lawyers, car salesmen, contractors and, yes, journalists.

Freddie Mac certainly hasn’t helped the image of the real estate industry. And don’t think that members of the public will differentiate between those real estate professionals who work in residential and those who work in the commercial fields.

The Freddie Mac story, simply, is one that the real estate industry desperately doesn’t need as it tries to recover from some of the most difficult years in memory.

Brixmor is the owner of White Bear Hills Shopping Center, and was represented by Matthew Johnson with Brixmor.

And little wonder: As Cydney White, first vice president of investments for Chicago’s Equity Residential, said, these younger adults are actually faring better in today’s economy than are most others. The unemployment rate for the Echo Boomers actually stands at a low 4.4 percent. These Echo Boomers, then, have enjoyed the benefits of most of the jobs created in 2011 and early 2012.

Because of this, these consumers are driving many commercial real estate trends today, including the solid performance of the Midwest’s multi-family market. The Echo Boomers are in their household formation years. But instead of buying single-family homes, a large number of these consumers are choosing to rent.

“The Echo Boomers are delaying marriage. They are more interested in renting. They want to be more flexible,” White said during the panel discussion.

In fact, White said, many of the Echo Boomers are putting off buying their first homes until they hit 30 or beyond.

The message for commercial developers is clear: Multi-family will remain hot well beyond 2012. And when it comes to financing, multi-family projects will be some of the most attractive to commercial lenders.

In 2011, Towle closed 56 loans with a transactional volume of more than $250 million. That comares to 31 loans totaling $142 million in 2010.

“Our 2011 transactions included a mixture of apartments, retail, industrial, office and medical office, student and senior housing projects. Our pipeline of transactions going into 2012 appears to be building as we see a continued improvement in commercial real estate,” said Mark Vannelli, president and principal with Towle Financial.

Illinois ranked third among all states when it came to the LEED-certified space it boasted per capita according to a study by the U.S. Green Building Council. Minnesota also performed well, ranking 10th among all states in this study.

Illinois had 2.69 square feet of LEED-certified space for every person to take home the third spot. Ranking ahead of Illinois was the District of Columbia, which 31.50 square feet of LEED-certified space for every person, and Colorado, with 2.74 square feet.

Minnesota — ranking in the top 10 for the second straight year — had 1.81 square feet of LEED-certified space for every person.

This is good news for the Midwest: It’s nice to see states not just talking about green building, but actually putting environmentally friendly techniques into place.