WHAT a long, strange year it was.

Office buildings worth $1,500 a foot on Jan. 1, 2008, might be worth less than half of that now – and that’s assuming a buyer would be willing to pay that amount, and could even get financing.

Hedge funds turned out to be this decade’s dot-com bubble, as big losses, and the closure of more than a few, has led to big blocks of trophy space and trading floors collecting dust.

In the retail sector, everyone has become a window shopper, dooming that segment of the commercial real-estate market.

Hotel rooms are abundant as operators stubbornly maintain high room rates in the face of soaring vacancies.

And so it is against that backdrop that we hand out our Annual Golden Bricks Awards:

A wooden nickel: To Macklowe Properties for losing their prized General Motors Building and Deutsche Bank portfolio. As we predicted at the end of 2007, Harry Macklowe would either be honored for having made the year’s best deal – or the worst.

Largest sale of the year: The transfer of the GM Building for $2.8 billion to Boston Properties, which is twice what Macklowe paid for the marble tower before he pledged it as collateral for other office towers and then lost them all.

Worst bet of the year: Boston Properties’ purchase of the GM Building for $2.8 billion.

No good deed goes unpunished award: A tie between Larry Gluck of Stellar Management and Tishman Speyer Properties for upgrading properties to raise rents at a time when residents don’t want to pay more.

Smiling Energizer Bunny award: To Larry Silverstein for having an upbeat attitude and continuing his redevelopment of the World Trade Center no matter what happens to the market or his lawsuits.

Owner-tenant love-fest award: To Viacom and SL Green Realty Corp. for making up and playing nice after the renewal of Viacom’s lease for 1.3 million feet at 1515 Broadway.

Furthest move of the year: Ogilvy & Mather, which leased 564,000 feet in the middle of nowhere at 636 Eleventh Ave.

Biggest speculative bet: In Midtown, it’s SJP Properties’ development of 10 Times Square, while downtown it’s Silverstein’s World Trade Center Towers.

Hide-and-seek award: To Elad Properties for both the Plaza Residences and the Grand Madison, where buyers sued after they finally eyeballed their units and dis covered interi ors that weren’t what was adver tised in plans.

Last-minute bet award: To Steve Roth and Michael Fascitelli of Vornado Realty Trust after both last month exercised stock options and sold them privately, pocketing around $20 million and $11 million, respectively. [email protected]