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NEW YORK CITY-Amid fears that the credit crunch could lead to recession as well as large-scale layoffs on Wall Street, commercial real estate experts on a CoreNet New York City panel on Friday took a calmer long-term view. The CoreNet panel was titled "Is the Sky Falling?" and provided evidence that the sky is still intact as far as the real estate industry is concerned.

"Maybe it's because I'm a lawyer rather than a developer, but I'm more comfortable with a moderate, sustainable rate of growth," said Robert J. Ivanhoe, chair of the New York office of Greenberg Traurig, which has one of the largest real estate practices in the US. Slow and steady growth is essentially what Ivanhoe and his fellow panelists predicted for the New York market over the years.

"There's been a clear moderation" of the growth rate lately compared to the feverish pace of investment sales in 2006, said Joseph Harbert, COO of the New York region for Cushman & Wakefield. Harbert, who moderated the panel, said double-digit increases probably won't be seen for the next few years, but added that the market isn't likely to decline either.