It was easy to read the room at Connect Orange County 2025, where a sold out crowd came to the Hyatt Regency in Irvine to hear what the experts had to say regarding the Southern California and OC markets. Celebrating Connect’s 10-year anniversary as a company and a CRE conference leader, the one-day event included five panels discussing the local and national markets, trends, predictions and the current political and economic climate. The event concluded with the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was given to Guy Johnson of Johnson Capital Advisors.
While uncertainty predominated with both panelist and attendees, there were still other voices that urged calm. In light of tariffs and what the White House will do, it was anyone’s guess. “For anyone who thinks they have this all figured out, well, that’s just a bunch of… Nobody has this figured out right now. It’s going to take time to get out of this but we will and regenerate,” said Joe Vargas, of Wonderful Real Estate. Vargas, along with moderator Julian Freeman of Cox, Castle & Nicholson, Adam Candler of BKM Capital Partners and Paul Jones of Bridge Logistics Properties, made up the second panel on the SoCal Industrial market.
“People are waiting to see what the tariffs are going to look like,” said Jones, noting that all tariffs do is create uncertainty. With uncertainty comes stagnation. “It’s the same thing with consumer spending. So, with the stock markets down because of the turbulence and the news, it puts everything on pause and pause isn’t good for us.”
Link: https://www.connectcre.com/stories/batter-up-the-first-inning-of-a-major-trade-wa/
