Yes, it's that time of the year again: Real estate forecasting season!

One of the biggest, and longest running events in the Triangle, took place this afternoon at the RBC Center in the form of the NAI Carolantic Triangle Commercial Real Estate Conference.

Now in its 27th year, it featured comments by Steve Stroud, NAI Carolantic's chairman, as well as presentations by Jimmy Barnes, the firm's president, and Peter Linneman, an NAI global economist and CEO of the American Land Fund.

NAI Carolantic's space survey showed nearly 32 million square feet of the Triangle's 240 million square feet of office, multipurpose and shopping center space remained vacant at the end of the year.

The firm predicts vacancy rates across all sectors will continue to come down and investment sales activity will increase 40 percent in 2012.
 

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's go eat some shrimp."

So said Steve Stroud, chairman of NAI Carolantic Realty, at the tale end of the company's 25th annual Triangle commercial real estate conference held Wednesday at the RBC Center.

The thousands who had filled a section of the arena then made their way towards said shrimp while the Black Eyed Peas song "I Gotta Feeling" played over the arena's loud speakers.

The promise of shrimp ... the uplifting music ... it was enough to make you think for a second that it was 2006 all over again.

Just for a second, of course.