NEW YORK CITY-After commercial mortgages took a nose-dive during the credit crisis, the role of special servicing is continuing to increase. But given the large influx of loans and ownership changes, many in the industry are concerned about the fate of CMBS.

"Investors are becoming increasingly skittish over potential conflicts between existing CMBS borrowers and the ownership interest in the special services," says Stephanie Petosa, managing director at Fitch Ratings in a report. "Additional issues attracting market attention are fair market valuations and special servicers’ expansion into related fee-generating businesses."

One of the biggest players in the special servicing world has been C-III, who entered a definitive agreement to acquire Princeton, NJ-based NAI Global in June and acquired JER Partners’ CDO management business in September. Another example is the recent acquisition of Rockwood Advisors by Fortress, which aligns Rockwood’s investment sale platform with Fortress’ special servicing unit, CW Capital. Additionally, Berkadia has formed an in-house brokerage team and LNR Partners has formed a loan advisory group, Archetype, which has participated in real estate auctions with Auction.com.