My recent work in Los Angeles has caused me to look at that market a little closer than in the past:

Some forecasts¹ conclude that the office markets in L.A. and San Francisco will continue their downward trend through 2011 as a result of the recession and freezing of available credit for office space development.

As a whole, this is good news for tenants who can expect rental rates to continue to moderate as vacancy rates rise.

Los Angeles County favors better in the forecasts because it entered into this recessionary period with both low levels of vacancy rates and construction in comparison to adjacent Orange County which experienced a construction boom prior.

¹ Allen Matkins/UCLA Anderson Forecast for California commercial real estate

Despite the rather staid commercial real estate market, one segment remains active - medical properties.  Transactions are continuing in general and long-term acute-care hospitals and other specialty facilities.

Read the GlobeSt. article here: http://www.globest.com/news/1315_1315/houston/176004-1.html?st=rss

As the commercial real estate market began to slow in early 2008, I noticed a marked increase in the number of requests to remeasure properties on the basis of tenants questioning the amount of square footage they are being charged by their landlords.

Requests have come from both sides: individual leaseholders, attorneys representing leaseholders, and landlords wishing to quell disputes.  We are often able to identify errors in the amount of space indicated in leases, thus allowing the tenants to renegotiate the terms of their lease or recover costs in other ways that benefit the tenant.  If the space is accurately represented in the lease, the tenant is at least assured that they are not overpaying for their property.