No one has had much good to say economically about 2012, and Grubb & Ellis Co.'s chief economist, Bob Bach, is not going to be the first.

In an investment column in Commercial Property Executive, Bach succinctly bills 2012 as "one more subpar year."

"Grubb & Ellis expects GDP growth in the range of 2.0 to 2.5 percent in 2012, still below the economy’s long-term potential of around 3 percent," Bach said of what his analysts concluded. "Expect the U.S. economy to muddle through, adding an average of 125,000 net new payroll jobs per month in 2012 – the same pace as 2011."

The sovereign debt crisis in Europe and Congress' seeming inability to move on any program catch criticism for contributing to the malaise.

The upbeat in it all is the leasing market, where the company expects to see a 25 percent increase in sales.

Investors likely will "continue their foray, begun tentatively last year, into riskier assets such as Class B properties in primary markets or Class A- properties in secondary markets," Back wrote.