"It's hard to predict any kind of rebound in the market until the job outlook begins to turn the other way," Thomas Bogle, principal and managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle in Atlanta, tells GlobeSt.com. With a weak job market, demand for space is weakened and vacancies will be on the rise, which could put downward pressure on rates. "It's also possible that rates can stay flat without a decrease, but that means competition for tenants will be in front end concessions and tenant allowances," adds Clark Gore, JLL's local market director.

With unemployment expected to increase into 2010, and an expected 3.5 million square feet of new product being completed, the office sector is especially poised to take a deeper dive in the first half of this year, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The upside is that not much of the new construction is taking place beyond Buckhead and Midtown, which should allow rents to stabilize, concessions to decrease and positive absorption to occur toward the end of the year, according to Lisa Dunavin, senior director with Cushman & Wakefield's Atlanta office.

Retail will also see an increase in vacancy in 2009, with more store closings on the horizon for the beginning of this year. Rental rates are expected to continue to slide until an uptick in sales occurs and retailers feel the market has bottomed out, says Tony Cerniglia, vice president of retail services with CB Richard Ellis.