"Preliminary feasibility surveys indicate enormous opportunities in this area, particularly in the downtown area," St. Joe Commercial vice president Frank W. Herring Jr. tells GlobeSt.com. "While a strong niche exists in the rehabilitation and restoration of historic buildings, we plan to focus on opportunities that offer larger scales."

For example, Herring notes typical suburban office facilities developed 25 to 30 years ago are no longer workable. "Opportunities to acquire and redevelop them abound," Herring says. "Over the next decade, we see the biggest commercial development opportunities in the creative recycling of such older properties."

The developer also sees other trends developing. "The robust economy is creating strong demand not only for new commercial space, but for new ideas," Herring says. "Twentieth-century development parameters that treated ground-level parking lots as value-enhancing amenities will see their value decline in the new millennium."