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

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

That being said, Eastern Consolidated’s David Schectman offereda case study of a deal that his firm finally consummated after twoyears of running into dead ends. On 20 Henry St., a residentialconversion in Brooklyn, Eastern sought to replace AIG’s positionafter the insurance giant pulled out amid its massive financialwoes. Equity wasn’t forthcoming until the Canyon-Johnson UrbanFunds, which also recently provided a $22.6-million loan tocomplete the Isabella condominium project elsewhere in Brooklyn,stepped up with a $15-million loan that closed this pastFriday.