(Crystal Proenza is associate editor of Real Estate Florida.)

MIAMI-Falling commercial real estate values are expected to create an opportunistic environment for buyers of distressed properties in 2009, according to Jones Lang LaSalle's Fall 2008 Cross-Sector Survey, completed by 100 planned attendees of last week's Urban Land Institute conference here. Respondents included development firms, property owners, public agencies, financial institutions, professional services firms and consultants.

According to Moody's/REAL Index, commercial values have declined 12% from their peak in January 2007, and multiple speakers at the ULI fall meeting warned that there is still a ways to go. "If anyone doesn't leave this conference thinking values are going down, they didn't learn here," said Thomas Wood Jr., president of Coral Gables, FL-based Thomas D. Wood and Co., during a session on lending. "Cap rates are going straight up, with the low end at eight and the high end at 10, depending on the asset class," he said. "I think we lose 15% to 20% value in 2009."

According to results of the JLL survey, "respondents were in striking unison as a vast majority of those polled predict performance in all sectors to decline in 2009." Six months ago, 56% of respondents to the bi-annual survey predicted that retail sector performance would decline by zero to 50% in 2008. Now, a whooping 96% of respondents say retail performance will decline zero to 50% in 2009.