The International Tenant Representative Alliance (ITRA) will discuss recent growth and success stories in a down commercial real estate market at its Spring Conference on March 26-28 at The Stoneleigh Hotel and Spa in Dallas, Texas.

"At a time when most organizations are experiencing great difficulties due to current economic conditions," says Debra Stracke Anderson, ITRA's newly elected chairman, "ITRA continues to thrive.  ITRA is a unique organization, differentiated by our focus on advocacy for the corporate tenant and buyer.  Our international presence is growing due to the credibility and wealth of resources that our global platform provides for each of our offices.  While other organizations are downsizing and trimming expenses, ITRA is expanding."

Anderson, who serves as President and CEO of Sloan Street Advisors, Inc. /  ITRA in the Washington, D.C. area, says the board of directors will also convene a special session at the conference to focus on continued national and international expansion as well as creative tools to make ITRA even more competitive.

Four ITRA U.S. offices also will detail their business development success stories in a tough commercial real estate market at the Dallas conference:

• Carrie Holstead, President of ITRA  / Carrie S. Holstead Real Estate Consultants, Inc.in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will discuss the tools and resources she developed in the Global Business Development Committee and later used to generate revenue by completing transactions with other ITRA affiliates.

• Ronald R. Pollina, Ph.D, President of ITRA / Pollina Corporate Real Estate in Chicago, Illinois and Chairman Emeritus, will document how he "kicked the competition to the curb" through an innovative sale-leaseback transaction for expansion of a company's research and development and manufacturing facility in Minnesota.

• Bert Rosenblatt and Andrew Stein, Principals of ITRA / Vicus Partners, LLC in New York City, will discuss how valuable the ITRA platform and collaborations with affiliates have become in their effort to expand and service tenants on a national basis.

• ITRA Chairman Debra Stracke Anderson will describe the overall benefits of ITRA's international platform and the sophisticated tools available to market corporate real estate services to clients.  As an example of ITRA's broad reach, Anderson will document how the alliance was recently invited to compete as a national contractor for the General Services Administration in its National Lease Acquisition Solicitation.  Although ITRA made the strategic decision to wait for the next round of Solicitation to formally compete, several ITRA offices have subsequently been invited to submit proposals as subcontractors.

• In addition to other speakers at the conference, Lissa Cooke, Principal of ITRA / Cooke, Swaney & Cooke in Dallas, will welcome attendees to the host city and provide an assessment of market conditions in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Patrick Moultrup, President and CEO of AsiaPac International Inc., an affiliate of ITRA, will describe market developments abroad.

• Sponsors of the conference include Quarem Real Estate Technologies, Lucernex Technologies, and Synergy Real Estate Group.

For more information regarding ITRA, contact Beth Wade, Executive Director, at 1.888.925.4872 (Canada and U.S.) or 1.706.654.3201 (International) or by email at itra@itraglobal.com.  Please visit the ITRA website at www.itraglobal.com.

About ITRA

With coverage in major markets throughout the United States, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Europe, ITRA is the largest tenant representation organization in the world, offering a unique approach to Corporate Real Estate Services.  While other real estate organizations represent both landlords and tenants, ITRA's North American offices represent only corporate users of space.  Furthermore, ITRA is comprised of principal-level brokers and consultants who offer traditionsl services of leasing, dispositions, renewals, buying and selling, in addition to advising clients on state and local incentives, lease auditing, lease management, location analysis, project management, strategic consulting, space planning and more.  All of these services are offered with the objective of achieving the best financial, business and lease terms, while eliminating the potential conflicts that inherently exist within traditional brokerage firms.