As each day passes, it looks like one of the great bull runs of commercial real estate is “over”. We were already sliding into a global commercial real estate slump, and that slide will likely accelerate as the turmoil in the financial markets continues (this was written just after the wild Lehmann Bros.–Merrill Lynch–AIG weekend — and what a week this is turning out to be!).

In early September, Business Weekhad a story titled “Global Office Space is in the Basement”. Similar stories are popping up almost daily around the world. It is quite hard to believe that the job losses tied to the implosion of the financial markets and the rapid contraction of capital will not have a severe impact on certain ma