And, as if the recession-related losses weren't enough to weigh the industry down, Enron began to unravel, and initial cutbacks there dumped some 790,000 sf of office space back onto the Houston market. Of course, that vacancy would be a drop in the bucket compared to the long-range impact the likes of Enron would have. (Can anyone say Sarbanes-Oxley?)

Arthur Anderson took a hit as well that year, and threatened the Manhattan market with a 650,000-sf return to inventory. Insignia/ESG, in the waning days of its existence, filed corporate governance changes in the wake of shareholder questions about financial compensations.

The doldrums didn't prevent some firms from making big-ticket plays. Aimco completed its $1.5-billion buy of Casden Properties in March and Westfield ponied up $756 million for nine regional shopping centers it acquired from Richard E. Jacobs.

TrizecHahn (before its name change) opted to not make a major sale, retaining its hold on the Sears Tower. The deal was one of the first decisions rendered by newly tapped chief Tim Callahan, who had vacated the CEO post at Equity Office in April of that year.

Almost a year after the terrorist attacks, Ground Zero was looking more like a construction site than a war-torn city, and the agonizingly slow, sometimes wildly frustrating, process of rebuilding the acreage began.