Making predictions about development and real estate has always been something of an inexact science, like reading tea leaves or shaking a Magic Eight Ball.

Ten years ago, how many industry experts could have forecast how successfully the real estate market would have rebounded from the recession of the early 1990s, or the growing importance of real estate investment trusts on Wall Street? What about the changing needs of both office and industrial tenants? Or the number of traditional office users that set up shop in buildings intended for distribution or warehouse tenants?

The coming decade, like the last, will certainly be full of surprises. Nonetheless, some trends and issues have started to emerge that will likely affect the next 10 years. They are:

Urban development: For the first time in years, both developers and government officials are showing an interest in bringing vitality back to downtown areas. Three long-awaited entertainment centers are expected to open in 2000: Centro Ybor in Ybor City, Channelside at Garrison Seaport in downtown Tampa, and BayWalk in downtown St. Petersburg.

In addition, Camden Properties is building a luxury apartment complex in Ybor City, the new Marriott is opening its doors soon in downtown Tampa and several new condominium projects are under construction in downtown St. Pete.

Neotraditional projects: Even suburban projects are starting to have an urban flavor, as developers and city planners start to promote pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods and community centers, similar to Disney's Celebration project in Orlando.

The best example in the Tampa Bay area is West Park Village, the project now under construction at Terrabrook's Westchase development in northwest Hillsborough County. West Park Village's roads are laid out in a grid, unlike the conventional suburban model of collector roads and cul-de-sacs, and houses will be located within walking distance of the retail and office space.

Echelon International and the Bromley Company are both planning office and retail projects that incorporate a lot of neotraditional elements, though neither project can truly be considered neotraditional because they do not have single-family housing.

Both are pedestrian-friendly projects that will incorporate office space, shops, restaurants, movie theaters and hotels. Echelon's Carillon Town Center will be built at the Carillon business park in St. Petersburg, while Bromley's Tampa Bay 1 is proposed for the southeast corner of Dale Mabry Highway and Interstate 275 in Tampa.

Real estate investment trusts: A few years ago, REITs seemed poised to dominate the real estate industry, with enough Wall Street muscle to acquire properties aggressively. That's no longer the case, but it looks like REITs will remain healthy over the next decade, growing modestly through development and some acquisition. Several REITs are developing new buildings in the Tampa Bay area, including Duke-Weeks Realty, Highwoods Properties, EastGroup Properties, First Industrial Realty Trust and ProLogis.