ONTARIO, CA-Reports of recovery are surfacing throughout thecommercial real estate industry, but the optimism they generate istempered by fears of a double-dip recession and concern that thecomeback won't really gain momentum without new job creation. Thesewere some of the main messages presented Wednesday at a mid-yearreview and panel discussion presented by the Inland Empire Chapterof Naiop. The event, at the Ontario Convention Center, included akeynote by Roger Staubach, executive chairman of Jones LangLaSalle.

The panelists generally agreed that conditions have improved intheir respective corners of the commercial real estate world, whichincluded development, investing, logistics, a new non-traded REITand investment advisory services. Case in point: EVP and COOAnthony Chiarello of NYK Logistics Inc.―one of theworld's largest logistics companies―said that NYK is nowhiring but was cutting staff by 15% about 18 months ago. Presidentand CEO Stephen Hopkins of Irvine-based Hopkins Real Estate Groupobserved that the mood at this year's annual ICSC (InternationalCouncil of Shopping Centers) spring convention in Las Vegas wasdecidedly more upbeat than it was last year. "Things are startingto percolate a little bit more," Hopkins said.

CEO Dwight Merriman of Denver-based Industrial Income Trust, arecently formed non-traded REIT that aims to raise $2 billion, saidthat his company sees opportunities in the current market to buyindustrial properties in top US markets. At the same time, Merrimanhit on a theme that is recurrent these days in discussions aboutbuying opportunities: "It doesn't appear to me that we will havethe same types of buying opportunities today as we did in themid-1990s," he said. His remark was a reference to the 1990srecession, when the federal government formed the Resolution TrustCorp. to dispose of thousands of assets held by failed savings andloans. Today, by contrast, distressed assets are selling at a muchslower pace as lenders, thus far, have delayed taking the assets tothe market.