... To be sure, every product sector existing back then is still here today, observed Stan Ross, chair of the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate. But there have been shifts between suburban and urban redevelopment. In retail, the power centers weren't as popular back then, but regional malls still were in vogue. The regional malls got larger and office buildings got taller. And a whole lot of space got built.
According to Ross, '88 and '89 were strong years for the commercial real estate industry. "Then we moved into soft years and we had excess supply coming out, so we had a substantial amount of excess space," Ross said.
But he described this as a short cycle, with the space being absorbed relatively quickly. "The builder/developer at that time said, 'Don't worry. I'll never build ahead of the demand side again,' and it didn't take very long before development started again," Ross said.
One change that occurred was in who was developing these buildings. At the time, companies were shifting into the real estate investment trust format, Ross said. The major companies were getting more active, and they also were getting bigger...