'Uncertain' Markets Pose New Challenges

(Read more on the debt and equity markets.)

NEW YORK CITY-The past year was split down the middle by the debt crisis, with New York City’s real estate market facing very different challenges before and after that crisis emerged. So said panelists at yesterday’s Real Estate Board of New York members’ luncheon, where Mary Ann Tighe, CEO of the New York Tristate region for CB Richard Ellis, moderated the discussion, which drew about 600 attendees.

In the first two quarters of 2007, the challenge was to compete for properties, noted David Levinson, chairman and CEO of L&L Holdings. In the third and fourth quarters, the challenges have all stemmed from the debt crisis–a theme taken up in a variety of ways by Levinson’s colleagues on the Rebny panel, “Negotiating in an Uncertain Market.”