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By Bruce Davis, Lee & Associates Atlanta

The key here for owners and prospective investors is the power of bankruptcy judges. Though a strong infusion of cash has been pre-negotiated with GE Capital Corp. to accommodate the bookstore’s reorganization under Chapter 11, the terms are said to be most specifically contingent on the borrower having the bankruptcy judge set aside, or give them an escape plan for, a number of their deals. This can not only affect landlords but other tenants who co-locate around vendors such as Borders as well as other types of retailers.

By Jeffrey Brown, Pircher Nichols & Meeks

Though real estate executives focus significant time and resources negotiating financial and other substantive terms of their agreements, boilerplate provisions are often given too little attention. One such provision relates to the method for resolving disputes between the parties. Far from simply cutting and pasting a provision from your last deal, serious consideration should be given to this important part of your agreement.

By Lisa Palmer, Regency Centers Corp.

Today’s investor stands to benefit from REITs’ income growth, development and healthy balance sheets.

By Bob Bach, Grubb & Ellis Co.

Yet another gap is opening between Main Street and Washington, this one involving inflation expectations. Federal Reserve officials have repeated again and again that they don’t think inflation will take hold anytime soon because there is so much excess capacity weighing down the economy in the form of unemployed workers, too many houses, low rates of factory utilization and vacant commercial space. Most mainstream economists agree with that assessment. Yet when I speak with individual investors, I always ask for a show of hands on whether they think inflation will become problematic in the next year or two, and nearly everyone in the room raises a hand.