CHICAGO-The typical push-pull accusations and complaints about the crisis in commercial real estate, compounded by a lack of lending, permeated a US House hearing on CRE problems and solutions here Monday. The hearing, held at the Dirksen US Courthouse downtown, was overseen by the House’s Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. The topic was "A Chicago Perspective," and the purpose was stated succinctly by Bruce Cohen, CEO of Wrightwood Capital, during the hearing, "The current credit system in America simply does not have the capacity to meet the legitimate demand for commercial real estate debt."

Various local CRE industry experts, bank and government officials spoke during the hearing. A couple of the industry leaders spoke on behalf of organizations. Joseph Cosenza, vice chairman and director of the Inland Real Estate Group Inc., and president of Inland Real Estate Acquisitions Inc., presented views on behalf of National Association of Realtors and Illinois Association of Realtors.

Cozenza said a crisis is looming in the commercial real estate market due to a confluence of issues that include economic conditions, especially high unemployment; weakening commercial property fundamentals; declining commercial property sales volume and price; slow commercial property lending; and increasing commercial loan delinquencies. "These circumstances, paired with $1.4 trillion of anticipated commercial mortgages’ maturities through 2014, create a challenging commercial real estate finance environment," he said during the hearing.