As Elvis famously sang, "Viva Las Vegas." Since this year's NAREIT Annual Conference takes place at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, I decided to look at the Strip. The vibrant four-mile Vegas Strip is the one of the few places in the world where you can visit several famous places in one day, such as Egypt, Italy, New York City and Paris. Each casino hardly disappoints with visual effects such as replicas of the Eiffel tower and the skyscrapers of New York.

However, among the dazzling sights, it's hard to miss the construction taking place along the strip with the development of several casinos such as the Cosmopolitan and Project City Center. Even outside the Strip, there are more than 110 high-rise, condo, hotel, mixed-use and other major projects in the Las Vegas area in various stages of planning, development and construction.

Las Vegas is just one example of how the commercial real estate industry is meeting demand with development, offering the latest in urban design and technology. Development is a skill a number of REITs amply provide.

In fact, this year's "Paving the Way" features Ed Linde and Mort Zuckerman of Boston Properties, a development-oriented REIT that builds in four major U.S. markets: Boston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. They are true industry innovators who have set an example by operating at the high-end of the market and turning neglected locales into prime high demand assets.

Boston Properties has a growing pipeline of $456 million of construction projects on the balance sheet at mid-year 2007. The REIT's strategy is to develop and extract value from class A office buildings in areas with high barriers-to-entry, such as the Times Square Tower in New York City.

To read more on Linde and Zuckerman and how they consider development to be the heart of Boston Properties, turn to "The Boston Props ."

Turning Pages

This issue of Portfolio also addresses a number of issues facing the REIT industry. For example, faced with a down market earlier this year, REITs began authorizing stock repurchases from shareholders. Even though shareholders have reacted favorably to such programs, it's not certain that buybacks are wise for every REIT. To read more on this debate, turn to "Buyback or Payout?"

Also in this issue, Portfolio looks at how REITs continuously search for ways to retain top executives. There always is concern that talent may jump to the private side of the real estate investment fence. As a result, REITs are focused on what it takes to hire and retain talented employees. To read more, turn to "Fine Line."

Erin Corcoran
Managing Editor