The early 1990s were dark days for commercial real estate developers in Southern California. “Stay alive until ’95,” they used to say, the Los Angeles Times reports.

But only now is a strong recovery at hand. Landlords are cranking up rents, and office developers are beginning to build again in earnest. More than a dozen major office towers and complexes in the region are being built or are to start construction shortly.

To old-timers, however, the burst of construction activity in recent months raises the nagging question of whether the office market will once again overheat and tumble.

“Will it be a repeat of 1990 to ’92? Absolutely not,” said John Cushman, chairman of giant real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield. Is the Southern California “market ready for new construction in selected areas? Yes.”

The 1980s and early 1990s were heady times. A construction boom of historic proportions dramatically changed the Southland’s urban landscape from Irvine to Woodland Hills. The most dramatic example of that construction is the 72-story Library Tower, which opened in downtown Los Angeles and is now called US Bank Tower. It remains the tallest building in the West.

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