Still, the DFW's industrial market remains "in the Top 10 forall the major institutional investors," Thomas O. Pearson ofCushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc.'s Dallas office tellsGlobeSt.com. Institutional investors are still buying anddevelopers are still building, although the pace has slowedsomewhat. And industrial brokers like Pearson are still cuttingdeals.

The 2002 pipeline isn't as full as it was at this time lastyear, but the industrial market has picked up some steam in thepast 30 days, Pearson says. "I'm encouraged by the number ofcompanies that tell me they have plans to expand or relocate nextyear," he confides.

Pearson's optimistic about the coming year, perhaps more so thanothers in his specialty. That optimism is strong despite Q4 numbersthat show the lowest net absorption of the past three quarters.C&W research shows warehouse net absorption at just below 1.7million sf in the final quarter of the year. In comparison, a bitover two million sf was absorbed in the third quarter and more than3.5 million sf in the second quarter. For office-showroom space, itlooks pretty grim with the region posting in the negative for threeconsecutive quarters: about 1.2 million sf for Q4; 930,471 for Q3;and about one million sf in Q2.