The rumblings are beginning … a few encouraging developments here, a few positive signs there; it seems the commercial real estate industry is primed for a comeback. Things are moving slowly, but the patient is off life support — although a long way from healthy. But after a near-death experience, expectations are tempered and there exists an appreciation of the little things, such as improving capital markets and revitalized transaction activity. While a number of risks remain, the best industry news in 2010 and heading into 2011 is “the worst is behind us.”

The year 2010 presented a ray of sunshine, a glimmer of hope to participants in the commercial real estate industry. Of course, after the industry’s dismal showing in 2009 — a year of crumbling property values, limited credit availability and only a trickle of transaction activity — it didn’t take a lot to get investors hopeful that a recovery was at hand.

“2010 was the year that the asset class