There is no shortage of capital searching for opportunities in commercial real estate. In most cases, this has generated high competition, compressed cap rate and pushed asset pricing. The middle market sector—defined as deals valued at $20 million to $50 million—is a rare sweet spot for CRE investment. Too small for big institutions and too large for many high-net worth individuals, the market segment offers plenty of opportunity.

The middle market is also the playground for Walker & Dunlop Investment Partners, who is finding a lot of success in the sector. "The middle market happens to be the largest portion of the commercial real estate market," Sam Isaacson, the president of Walker & Dunlop Investment Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. "It makes up the majority of the real estate in this country. A lot of that real estate is owned by baby boomers, and a lot of them are getting older and are making changes to their real estate holdings."

Equity capital is also not interested in middle market investments. These players have too much capital to deploy to consider a middle market deal. "A lot of the institutional owners of commercial real estate, like the pension funds and the endowments, have significant capital to deploy at any given time," says Isaacson. "When they are looking to deploy capital into real estate, they are not going to look at a $4 million or $5 million equity check on a middle market asset. They are focused on deploying $20 million to $25 million at a time. We see that over and over again. There is less capital chasing those middle market deals."