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Real estate investment trust (REIT) returns outperformed the broader real estate market in November. The FTSE NAREIT Indexes are now up more than 100 percent from their March 6 lows. The growth is largely being fueled by the recapitalization of the REIT industry, where REIT public equity and debt offerings have raised nearly $35 billion with 86 secondary equity offerings, eight initial public offerings, and 33 unsecured debt offerings in 2009. According to these numbers and expected trends, well-positioned companies could go on a buying spree.

The Federal Reserve Board has adopted a policy statement supporting prudent commercial real estate (CRE) loan workouts. The policy statement, adopted by each of the financial regulators (including the Reserve's Board of Governors and FDIC), provides guidance for examiners and financial institutions that are working with CRE borrowers who are experiencing diminished operating cash flows, depreciated collateral values, or prolonged delays in selling or renting properties.

Green building is booming, but new buildings account for less than 2.5 percent of the U.S. building market each year. Retrofits of existing structures, a tremendous market opportunity for green builders, owners, and building product manufacturers, are the focus of McGraw-Hill Construction's Green Building Retrofit and Renovation SmartMarket Report. The report says that green building currently comprises 5 percent to 9 percent of retrofit/renovation market activity and projects that the figure will grow by 20 percent to 30 percent by 2014.

Annapolis, Md., Mayor Ellen Moyer kicked off a grant application process on September 14, offering up to $10,000 to commercial property owners who add some artistic flair, such as murals, artistic lighting, or other works of art, to their buildings.

The city's Commercial Facade Improvement Grant program is paying for the incentive, but the money, which the winners will match with their own funds, must be used on buildings in the Annapolis arts district.

The delinquency rate on commercial property loans pooled together into investments—estimated at around $750 billion—hit nearly 3 percent in the second quarter, almost tripling from where it was at the end of last year, according to Reis Inc. The Real Estate Roundtable, which represents commercial property owners, has responded to the U.S. commercial real estate market's worst crisis in two decades by spending $780,000 in the second quarter on lobbying for federal assistance for the troubled industry.

Investors are showing a new interest in a government program aimed at spurring lending in the troubled commercial real estate market. The program is part of a larger consumer lending effort called the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), which is a prominent part of the efforts by the Federal Reserve Bank and the Obama administration to ease credit, stabilize the financial system, and help the economy.

Commercial real estate activity has been set back by a combination of the nation's general economic downturn and a severe credit crunch. In fact, according to a forward-looking index, the forecast for commercial real estate sectors will remain weak for the remainder of 2009.

Although there are tenants out there that are looking to lease commercial space, in today's economy they're much harder to find and, in some cases, even harder to maintain. That was one of the results of a spotcheck on the state of the industry conducted by the Insider.

Experts say that the reality, whether most owners like it or not, is that they have to be sensitive to what their tenants are experiencing. And if there's something that they can do to help them succeed, they should step up and do it.

In “Get Rent Protection with Contractual Lien,” (Insider, February 2009, p. 1), we recommended getting the tenant's signature on the UCC financing statement when it was signing the lease.