The 2006 purchase of Manhattan’s Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village by Tishman Speyer Properties and the real estate arm of BlackRock for a record-setting
$5.4 billion was one of the
highest-profile commercial real estate deals ever to take place.

As 2009 comes to a close, there are initial signs that financial stability may be returning, but the system remains fragile. We are still bracing ourselves for what may come next in a financial crisis that has proven difficult to contain, with sector after sector being impacted in waves. There is reason to be concerned about mounting pressure in the commercial real estate (CRE) sector. Billions of dollars in CRE loans are coming due over the next few years. The amount of maturing CRE loans in 2009 is estimated to be between $300 and $500 billion, with another $2.6 trillion in maturing debt through 2012.