Much of the emphasis and news coverage for the industry’s growing “green” trend has focused on the development of new buildings. In fact, there’s hardly a new class A commercial office building these days that isn’t labeled “green.”

In September 2006, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued FASB Statement No. 157, Fair Value Measurements. Statement 157 establishes a framework for measuring fair value in generally accepted accounting principals (GAAP), clarifies the definition of fair value within that framework and expands disclosures about the use of fair value measurements.

The noncore real estate fund universe is now truly a global universe, with only 41 percent of offerings in 2007 focused on the United States. This is welcome news for many investors who, for almost a decade now, have recognized that developed markets around the world can attractively increase the opportunity set and that emerging markets offer an attractive risk premium in some cases.