Small businesses are starting to look like the heroes in the commercial real estate market’s turnaround tale.

Businesses buying property for their own use, also known as owner-users, have fueled a number of deals in the Tri-Counties recently, many of them aided by financing through U.S. Small Business Administration lending programs.

In Oxnard, Industrial Park Associates has brokered five transactions totaling more than $10 million in the past six months. All five went to owner-users: A machine shop, an electrical contractor, an electric supply company, a general engineering contractor and a hydraulic equipment distributor — “All industries that you would not expect to be expanding in this current economic environment,” Industrial Park Associates Vice-President Mike Wax said in an e-mail interview. “I think some of this counter-intuitiveness can be explained by the opportunity to take advantage of the reduced market prices and desirable properties becoming available.”

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