BY BILLY GRAY

The International Council of Shopping Centers landed in New York at the Hilton this morning for Day 1 of its two-day New York National Conferences. Keynote addresses were made, palms were greased and rubbery chicken was endured, as attendees shuffled between booths set up by retailers and brokerage firms ranging from A&G Realty Partners to Zinburger Frozen Yogurt. The Commercial Observer’s Billy Gray joined, and attempted to stay above, the fray.

9:07—Chaos reigns as hundreds of brokers are told registration takes place not at the Hilton on the Avenue of the Americas near 54th Street, but at the Sheraton, one block away on Seventh Avenue.

9:21—Panic-stricken, sleep-deprived young brokers amble through the main lobby, gesticulating and shouting, “Where is the coffee!?” to no one in particular.

9:33—Jonathan Gray, global head of real estate at Blackstone Group, addresses a half-full Grand Ballroom West. “I’m usually not one to make these keynote addresses,” Mr. Gray says. “But it was either this or manning a booth that required 60 one-on-one meetings.”

10:04—A zombie-esque procession snakes through the Hilton’s Rhinelander Gallery, which is jam-packed with brokerage firms and retailers.

10:17—The CO takes note of rival booths’ foodstuff presentations. The Goldstein Group’s platter of black & white cookies takes the early lead.

10:35—“This is my booth: nothing,” jokes a Corporate Realty Advisors representative while standing in front of a seriously denuded booth.

10:51—en Barnes, senior director of northeast regional development at 7-11, tells The CO that the line of convenience stores “can’t open more New York locations fast enough” and that the company is shooting for 30 signed leases in 2013. “Every neighborhood is a target,” Mr. Barnes says.

To read the minutes, click here.

BY KARSTEN STRAUSS

Each year when the International Council of Shopping Centers rolls into New York, retail real estate’s most recognizable faces line up to speak on dozens of panels and forums.

To make things easier, after the jump, a look at five must-attend events on today’s schedule.

To see the Top 5 Must-See Events, click here.

BY AL BARBARINO

With more than 50 million tourists running amok each year, consumers feeling recharged, and throngs of foreign retailers streaming in, Manhattan’s prime retail corridors are not only booming—they’re expanding.

High rents and low vacancies in prime corridors are changing the invisible boundary lines that once separated high- and low-end sections of Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Greenwich Village and other retail corridors throughout the city, analysts and real estate brokers claim.

“When these big names and huge chains move into these areas, people just love to follow them,” said Jeffrey Roseman, an executive vice president and principal with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s retail division. “They become anchors and magnets to pull others.”

Just as the earlier success of Urban Outfitters and H&M sparked further expansion below 49th Street on Fifth Avenue, and Alfred Dunhill and watchmaker Panari boosted retail appeal below 57th Street on Madison when they emerged in 2009, aspirational clothing retailers are now doing the same in Greenwich Village.

To read the full story, click here.

BY AL BARBARINO

First it was the hipsters. Now it's the Chinese government and the city’s largest office landlord, SL Green Realty Corp., who are finally seeing promise in the residential development of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Moments before an announcment involving the Chinese government's acquisition of a development site on Kent Avenue, the real estate investment trust announced yesterday morning that it had agreed to purchase a newly completed, vacant residential building in the hip-turned-posh Brooklyn neighborhood — the company’s first foray into Brooklyn’s residential market.

Information in a prepared statement sent by the company suggests that the address is 250 Bedford Avenue, though it was not specified.

A company spokesperson, Rick Matthews of Rubenstein Communications, declined to comment or connect The Commercial Observer with SL Green executives.

The residential building, consisting of 72 newly-constructed apartment units and 12 townhouses, sits atop a commercial condominium that SL Green purchased in 2010 and includes an HSBC, Duane Reade and a 142-car parking garage. The property is three blocks south of the L Train.

“SL Green’s management is uniquely positioned to find opportunistic residential investments in New York City, as evidenced by this deal, that will give us the high returns associated with new construction without any construction risk,” said Brett Herschenfeld, SVP at SL Green, in the prepared statement.

To read the full story, including China's position in Williamsburg, click here.