CAREA SoCal Retail Panel: Navigating Today’s Retail Real Estate Market
Retail real estate keeps changing. Shoppers are spending in new ways, tenant demand is shifting, and capital markets are being repriced. Join CAREA for an afternoon with industry leaders from brokerage, investment and lending. Across two panels, they’ll discuss the trends shaping Southern California retail and what’s ahead for 2027. Stay afterward to network with fellow real estate professionals.
Topics include:
- Leasing and tenant demand: which retail categories are expanding and how the tenant mix is changing
- Investment and capital markets: pricing, buyer appetite and where the opportunities are
- Financing retail: today’s lending environment, from SBA 504 owner-user loans to institutional debt
Featured Speakers
Paul Su – Senior Vice President, Retail Leasing & Sales, Progressive Real Estate Partners
Paul specializes in leasing and selling shopping centers and owner-user retail properties in the Inland Empire and Eastern San Gabriel Valley. He has leased space to Target, Kaiser Permanente, Starbucks and Planet Fitness. CoStar has named him a Power Broker six times, and he won Crexi’s Platinum Award in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Yale Huang – Asia-Pacific Regional Director, 1st Commercial Realty Group
Yale helps Asia-Pacific investors grow their U.S. real estate holdings. He has spent nearly two decades in senior leadership, including eight years as COO of Shin Yen Management. He is a licensed California Real Estate Broker, holds a J.D., and serves as a Parks and Recreation Commissioner for the City of Covina.
Victoria Liang – Southland EDC
Victoria has 15 years of commercial lending experience and specializes in SBA 504 financing for owner-occupied commercial real estate. At Southland EDC she helps business owners and their advisors structure long-term financing for property and equipment that supports growth and ownership.
Jason Wang – Director, George Smith Partners
Jason has closed more than $1.8 billion in loans with life insurance companies, banks, CMBS lenders, agency lenders and debt funds. He specializes in financing for new construction, value-add projects and foreign national investors. He is a UC Berkeley graduate and sits on the CAREA Board.