To spur office demand, its not enough to create any kind of jobs. It has to be the right kinds of jobs.(We can't all be birthday clowns.) Stream Realty co-managing partner Blaine Annett saysOC finally seems to be doing that.

Confidence levels are up throughout Orange County, Blaine tells us (right, with his brother and co-managing partner Colby Annett). Industries such as mortgage and financial services, homebuilding, tech, and healthcare have been the recent drivers of new office space and expansions. Theyre hiring carefully, he adds, but theyre hiring as their business climate is getting clearer and theyre ready to get back into the game.

In the last three months, Stream has been involved in leasing 500k SF of office and some retail, including negotiating new leases with tenants like Starbucks, Sun West Mortgage Co, Hosting.com and PSI Services. Blaine says while they love large tenants (ummm, we believe they prefer to be called grande), theydon't scoff atsmaller ones: recently Blaine and colleague Beau Ramsey repped the owner Tustin Business Park in a 1,400 SF new lease with Fotoworks Pro, and a 1,800 SF renewal with Enviro Compliance Solutions.