Tim McHale: Where are we now, where are we headed and where are the opportunities?

Commercial real estate has not been exempt from the pain felt across much of the real estate industry in the last few years. Long Island is one of the areas that commercial real estate has fared better than others during the economic downturn. The decrease in new construction, among other factors has helped control supply and demand which puts pressure on the rental prices and the vacancy rates. This may be the only silver lining. The construction industry is not the only industry to suffer from the stagnant market. Commercial real estate problems and the lack of new construction causes a domino effect across various industries. Architecture, engineering, legal, and accounting services, to name a few, are strongly affected. These difficulties also continue to weigh heavily on lending institutions. If the individual accounting firms and institutions are not able to adjust on the fly and withstand the storm for the near future, they will be left behind. Tim McHale is the director of taxation at Cerini & Associates, LLP, Bohemia, N.Y.