Although the single-tenant real estate market is overly popular, who or what in our industry is actually thriving in this period of a declining cap rate yield curve is rarely discussed.

In 2009, I wrote an article about the apparent high rate of attrition in the net lease brokerage community. Brokers couldn't afford to be brokers, developers couldn't develop, tenants shut down plans for new stores and closed existing locations. So what happened to everyone that hung in there and stuck it out? The cream has risen to the top.

Developers of single tenant properties that stuck to what they knew, maintained and fostered existing relationships, and made people aware that they weren't going anywhere fared extremely well when it became time to start building again. They had more opportunities to purchase land for new buildings or redeveloped vacant buildings.