When I think back over the past 10 years that GlobeSt.com has been following the fortunes of the commercial real estate industry, I think about not only real estate itself but subjects that, though at least one step removed from the industry, still had bearing on it. About the time we were building a head of steam and getting ready to launch GlobeSt.com, there were the concerns about Y2K and what disasters might befall computers around the world―including those that keep all of the financial records that are so important to real estate. Y2K came and went smoothly, and there is no truth to the speculation that we waited until after January 1, 2000 to launch GlobeSt.com to make sure our computers would be working.

But Y2K did bring another concern: the Dot-Com bubble, which had a more direct bearing on real estate. New internet companies were starting up all over the place, not just in Silicon Valley here in California, and they were buying and leasing loads of space. Often, they were taking on much more space than needed, anticipating huge growth, so they helped to drive up rents and sales prices. The real estate industry prospered from this Dot-Com growth for a while, but it had to adjust drastically when the bubble burst. Nonetheless, commercial real estate recovered and went on to prosper along with the rest of the economy until the downturn late in the decade.

Another event not directly related to real estate that comes to mind was America Online’s purchase of Time Warner, which showed just how much the world was changing technologically. Not only has technology seriously advanced, making it easier to text, email, network through social media and get news around the clock, but it has also created less of a need for face-to-face meetings, although the need for those meetings, in my opinion is that they are still very necessary.

And although a key to finding those key “off-market” deals is still all about relationships, in keeping up with the times, online property-listing offerings have continued to increase services and products, making it easier for brokers, appraisers and other professionals to market and browse property listings with the click of a button. People who study these things sometimes use the phrase “appropriate technology,” suggesting that just because a technology exists, doesn’t mean that it’s appropriate at all times for all purposes. In my view, commercial real estate is in the process of testing new technology to find out when and where it is most appropriate and most likely to improve efficiency.

Along with changes in different industries, the economy and society in general have made differences in our industry in the past decade, and there have obviously been a host of changes within the industry itself, far too many to list here. There has been the resurgence of REITs, the emergence of the tenant-in-common phenomenon, the growth of alternative investment vehicles like non-traded REITs, mergers and acquisitions that have changed the landscape, and some huge unwindings (like Equity Office Properties) that have reverberated throughout the country.

No look back is complete without a look ahead. As our next decade of following the commercial real estate industry begins, GlobeSt.com will be watching as the industry figures out how best to cope with distressed properties, how to meet the housing demands of aging Baby-Boomers and the generations X and Y (and others yet to come) that will be following them.

Of course, in the midst of coming changes, we at GlobeSt will be watching technology as well, monitoring how communication will continue its evolution, and striving as we always have to stay on top of the wave.

Like the decade that is now behind us, the one we are entering will surely bring differences that nobody anticipated. We leave behind one decade of differences to enter another.