From the Inside Flap
As of the writing of Commercial Real Estate Restructuring Revolution: Strategies, Tranche Warfare, and Prospects for Recovery, one in four homeowners is underwater, and one in seven is delinquent on their mortgage payment. But at least the worst is behind us. Or is it? At the end of 2008, although U.S. investment in commercial real estate (CRE)--office buildings, multifamily rental properties, retail stores and shopping centers, hotels, hospitals, warehouses, factories, and flex spaces--totaled $6.4 trillion, it is nearly all leveraged with mortgage debt, and by 2014, $1.4 trillion of CRE debt will come due. Even worse than homeowners, 50 percent of all CRE projects are underwater--trillions of dollars worth of CRE capital investment will be lost in this cycle. Written by attorney Stephen Meister, a nationally recognized name and highly respected voice in real estate, Commercial Real Estate Restructuring Revolution discusses the impending tsunami of CRE foreclosures, how it will coincide with Subprime 2.0, and what you need to do now to prepare. Meister details:
- The history of the commercial real estate capital markets
- The cause of the impending CRE crisis, including the subprime mortgage meltdown, debt structures, lender-borrower collusion, and bankruptcy abuses
- How consumer purchasing power drives the CRE markets
- Why the multifamily CRE sector presents both risks and benefits not found in other CRE asset classes
- Why rent control laws are misguided and damaging
- Why the Obama administration's efforts to combat the housing crisis have not only failed but actually compounded the crisis
- How banks, in an attempt to pay back their TARP loans so they can get out from under the govern- ment's thumb, are currently hiding losses in CRE
- Real reforms that can be implemented today to prevent tomorrow's bubbles
The correction process in the housing market is far from over. With debt maturities for the already beleaguered commercial real estate market fast approaching, the correction process in CRE markets is just beginning, although it's being concealed from the general public. Commercial Real Estate Restructuring Revolution shows how you can plan for, protect yourself, and profit from the impending CRE crisis.
STEPHEN B. MEISTER is a founding partner of Meister, Seelig & Fein, LLP, where he represents real estate investment trusts, real estate private equity firms, hedge funds, banks, real estate developers, and investors. Well known throughout New York City for the powerful deal-making presence he brings to high-stakes negotiations, he is also nationally recognized for the trial skills he brings to bear in complex lender liability cases, mortgage and mezzanine equity collateral foreclosures, affordable housing cases, mandamus proceedings against state and municipal agencies, rent control laws, contract disputes, business tort actions, legal malpractice, and brokerage commission claims. Meister appears regularly on Fox News and CNBC, and writes op-ed pieces for the New York Post that are reprinted by many online news sites. Mr. Meister is often quoted or featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, New York Post, Crain's New York Business, Real Estate Weekly, The Real Deal, and other business journals and daily newspapers around the country.
