People ask me how it's going, and I can't lie: 2009, I tell them, has been a long year.

I'm not alone in feeling the ongoing pressures of the economy and trying to keep myself, my family and my employer ahead of the many downward measures hitting this nation and this city.

That's one reason that I'm proud to present this year's nominees for Deals of the Year today.

Each nominee has pushed this area forward with the "deal" - some action over the past year - that earned it a spot on the list.

The deals can be signing a new lease for larger offices, signifying commitment to growth in this region. It can be a funding infusion that lets R&D move forward, faster. It can be showing the leadership to find a merger that preserves services while strengthening the balance sheet.

Business Review has spent every fall of the last five years pulling Deals of the Year together. We seek nominees from the public and from some of our key contacts in the community, and every year we wait until the event - this year, Nov. 6 - to announce winners. Not on the nominee list are the winners of our Executive of the Year and Company of the Year awards.

And that means that every September, we're compiling and researching the list of potential nominees until we make the announcement.

This year, when we started to advertise that we wanted "Deals" nominees, I took many questions from people who wryly asked, "Were there any deals?"

It wasn't a new question: I first heard it last year, as the list came together amid the national financial world unraveling.

But it was more acute this year. More worried and "wryly" than joking.

I still can't lie: 2009 feels off-balance, as if Michigan - which is starting to hear signals of a coming national recovery - is just waiting for more blows. From the automotive sector, from out-migration, from job loss instead of creation.

All of that probably will continue as the economy bounces around, seeking bottom and then letting us sort out our direction.

But that's not the only business story out there. Our "Deals" nominees prove that.

This list shows 21 local companies that made significant business moves over the past year, even amid what appears to be generation-defining challenges.

And the list of potential nominees was three times as long, not much shorter than in previous years.

I hope this community will look at these nominees and celebrate what their individual success means to the Ann Arbor region as a collective movement toward recovery and growth.

By the night of Nov. 6, we'll honor seven winners in these sectors, and both an individual and company that help define Ann Arbor as this state's economic driver.

Until then, I'll be thinking about the impact of these nominees, and all of the other companies that also had viable deals to put them into consideration.

It has been a long year. But also one with signs of hope for the future.

Paula Gardner is business director of Business Review on AnnArbor.com. Contact her by email or 734.623.2586, and follow her on Twitter.
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Read an invitation to Deals of the Year 2009

here.