Dive Brief:

• It may be time at last to banish the doubts brought on by the construction downturn and rev up commercial real estate development and redevelopment, says Englewood Construction President Bill Di Santo.
• The element that has been missing -- and that Di Santo found returning at the ICSC's annual meeting RECON: The Global Real Estate Convention -- is financing.
• Lenders are more demanding about details such as wanting to know who will rent in a project, for example, but the reluctance to lend at all seems to have melted.

Dive Insight:

DiSanto reported that what changed between the 2013 and 2014 events was that a feeling of caution was gone. After his 18th convention, the Lemont, Illinois-based contractor wrote in his blog: "If the buzz at this year’s RECON is an indicator of future retail trends – and it generally is – then the tide is about to change quickly."