November 2007 2007 Commercial Real Estate 101 By Alexei Smirnov Hats off to Tennessee commercial real estate developers (and also architects, engineers, builders,
brokers and lawyers shaping the industry). Reporting on the state's economic conditions this past
spring, UT-Knoxville's Center for Business and Economic Research found that nonresidential
construction activity in Tennessee kept the whole construction sector afloat while some other states
had much less commercial activity to cover their subprime mortgage woes. In early 2007, Tennessee
saw a 15.1% spike in the number of seasonally adjusted jobs in construction, and in 2006
construction sector employment made a solid 8% gainall of which means that the state's economy is
in good hands. In the following pages, we present the figurative brick and mortar of the industry.