Barry Gabel

Arizona commercial real estate professionals and other members of the business community packed the Ritz Carlton ballroom on September 12 to attend Commercial Executive Magazine’s (CEM) 4th Annual Fall Forum. Over 500 guests attended the event, which included an awards segment and two-hour panel discussion with some of Arizona’s top real estate professionals.

Following an hour of networking and cocktails, CEM publisher Mandy Purcell and Healthcare Trust of America Executive Vice President Amanda Houghton took the stage to announce the recipient of CEM’s 2013 Broker of the Year Award. CBRE’s Barry Gabel emerged from the crop of deserving brokers to win the award.

This was Gabel’s fourth win. In 2012, he shared the award with CBRE’s Mindy Korth.

Following the award ceremony, land guru Nate Nathan took the stage to proctor the event’s panel discussion. Panelists included Charlie Freericks, DMB & Associates; Jerry Moyes, Swift Transportation; Chapin Bell, PB Bell; Scott D. Peters, Healthcare Trust of America; Mel Shultz, JDM Partners; Elliott Pollack, EDP & Co.; and Vanessa Hickman, Arizona State Land Commissioner.

The panel discussion focused on how the real estate and business communities can learn from these industry figureheads in order to promote positive growth in the post-recession economy.