Baby Boomers have been usurped in their position as the leading demographic group, and apartment marketers would do well to recognize the preferences of this age group versus those of their parents, suggested speakers at a session at the National Apartment Association Education Conference & Exposition in Las Vegas.

New home sales dropped 2.1 percent in May compared with April, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which was a drop, but not as much of a drop as economists had expected.

Gaylord Entertainment has selected High Point, a gargantuan master-planned business district being undertaken by LNR Property L.L.C.’s Commercial Property Investment Fund L.P. in Aurora, Colo., for its latest project. The hospitality and entertainment company will build an $800 million resort and convention hotel on 85 acres at LNR’s sprawling development.

Real estate investment company C-III Capital Partners L.L.C.’s announcement that it will acquire NAI Global — combining its commercial real estate loan servicing, loan origination, fund management and principal investment activities with the largest network of independent commercial real estate firms in the world — turned heads in the industry, but the deal says just as much about where the country is going as it does about the real estate market.

Peter Hobbs, senior director of Group Business Development at IPD, discusses research from the IPD 2010 Global Index. The report looked at 23 markets and found a 9.5 percent return on a local-currency basis for 2010, compared with –8.2 percent in 2009. The United States and the United Kingdom made the strongest returns, largely a result of those markets falling the most during the recession. The report also found that multifamily was the top performing asset class in the United States for 2010.

NAI — whose network comprises 5,000 employees and 350 offices in the U.S. as well as 55 countries worldwide — will continue to operate as a separate company. The firm provides corporate, financial, technology and project management services.

Kenco Logistic Services L.L.C. has laid claim to more than half of the industrial building at 100 W. Manor Way in Robbinsville, N.J., with the signing of a 504,300-square-foot lease. The four-year-old facility sits along the New Jersey Turnpike.

Josh Cleveland comes to Clairvue Capital Partners from Liquid Realty Partners, where he was a director of business development.

The Federal Reserve acknowledged common knowledge after the conclusion of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting: Namely, that U.S. economic growth is slower than expected and labor market indicators “have been weaker than anticipated,” according to the FOMC statement.

CPE’s June digital edition is here.