Grubb & Ellis will release its fourth quarter market reportin mid-January. Preliminarily, Crawford says he's seeing a lot ofone- and two-year lease renewals in the fourth quarter, but thatthe mood of people in the industry is starting to improve in smallways.

"The first quarter probably will still be pretty slow. I'mcautiously optimistic that it will start to pick up late secondquarter, or third quarter, at least that's my hope," he says. "Thisis not based on any research, just me talking and making my calls,but I'm seeing at that people are at least willing to discusswhat's going on next year and that they are at least starting tothink about real estate again. Sixty to 90 days ago, no one wantedto discuss it. That's a long ways from a transaction, but it's atleast proof that people are willing to talk about growth and how Ican encourage efficiencies. It's not a transaction, but it's a longway from hunkering down."

In its third quarter report, Grubb & Ellis said Atlanta'sindustrial market was uncertain for the short term, because of thesluggish economy. The vacancy rate in the market increased 3.2%this year, for a rate of 11.8% at the end of the third quarter. Newconstruction slowed to 7.5 million sf, a reduction of about 4.5million sf from the second quarter, according to the report.