NAI Global, a managed network of commercial real estate firms, has formed a Special Asset Solutions group to assist lenders and servicers with financially distressed real estate assets and REO.

The Special Asset Solutions group concentrates NAI Global’s resources across multiple disciplines and markets to provide banks, financial institutions, special servicers, and other holders of REO assets with the full spectrum of services an asset is likely to require throughout the ownership cycle. The organization, which has global headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, says it is dedicated to preserving and recovering value in its clients’ distressed real estate portfolios.

The group’s service offering includes loan sales, loan restructurings, asset management, property management, receivership, due diligence, valuation,

leasing, and disposition. The group also leverages the product-specific expertise of NAI’s specialty practice groups in the retail, multifamily, and hospitality sectors.

“With a large number of assets coming under their supervision over the next 12-24 months, lenders are having to adapt to a new role as de facto property owners,” said Jeffrey M. Finn, NAI Global’s president and CEO. “This realignment of our established service lines enables understaffed REO departments to focus on their core competencies while proactively dealing with their nonperforming loans and REO.”

NAI’s Special Asset Solutions team, led by EVP Rhyne Brown, works with the client to assess the physical asset, preserve and enhance the asset’s current value, mitigate risk, and put a strategy in place to dispose of the property or loan. The team is supported by the local expertise of 5,000 professionals in over 325 NAI offices worldwide, including most secondary and tertiary markets where many of these assets are located.

“While there are a variety of issues that must be addressed along the way, the ultimate goal for many of our clients is a successful disposition,” Brown noted.

He explained that NAI employs a variety of disposition methods, from traditional real estate marketing to loan sale programs and accelerated marketing programs such as auctions. Brown’s says NAI disposition strategies ensure broad exposure to commercial real estate investors across the United States and worldwide.