A Guide To Buying And Selling Delinquent Office Space The fate of the millions of square feet of office space sitting empty in downtowns across the country has the capacity to shift the landscape of the overall economy and commercial real estate. That outcome is increasingly falling into the hands of distressed asset specialists, whose job it is to facilitate the least painful result for troubled properties. New York University professors estimate office property nationwide will lose a collective 49% of its value by 2029. Distressed sales of office space are likely, Colliers Research Director of U.S. Capital Markets Aaron Jodka told Bisnow in April, due to elevated vacancies and difficulty meeting debt service covenants. Specialists in distressed assets see “a reckoning” on the horizon. And buying, and financing, these assets won’t be easy, either. “An investor I was talking to tells me he feels the banks are pulling out, they’re starting to view commercial real estate like crypto, that it’s very risky,” said Esther Reizes-Lowenbein, a New York-based equities connector and fund manager who started Esther Reizes & Co. 
But this larger narrative will play out in thousands of smaller stories, building by building, asset by asset. As defaults look more certain, downward pressure on valuation leads to more sales, and funds to invest in distressed office assets begin to coalesce and seek buying opportunities, a wave of…  Read the full story here. | 
