NEW YORK CITY-“What’s really happening” in the market, asked the title of a panel discussion at the Real Estate Board of New York’s fall members’ luncheon. The consensus answer from the panelists: it’s now possible to get deals done that were unlikely to happen amid the Wall Street meltdown, albeit under straitened circumstances that are likely to prevail for awhile.

Recalling that the capital markets shut down amid the collapse of Lehman Brothers but are now reviving, RCG Longview president Christopher LaBianca commented, “That was a two-year period it took to get back to some semblance of normalcy. I don’t know that we’re there yet.” He noted that on most of the transactions in which RCG has participated recently, it’s neither the properties or the owners that are distressed; it’s the lenders.

That being said, Eastern Consolidated’s David Schectman offered a case study of a deal that his firm finally consummated after two years of running into dead ends. On 20 Henry St., a residential conversion in Brooklyn, Eastern sought to replace AIG’s position after the insurance giant pulled out amid its massive financial woes. Equity wasn’t forthcoming until the Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, which also recently provided a $22.6-million loan to complete the Isabella condominium project elsewhere in Brooklyn, stepped up with a $15-million loan that closed this past Friday.