[rasz]

but .. this has been going on for years in NY. Rossmann video checking out commercial spaces he was considering full year ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk5o6cbq_Qs all but one are still vacant. He sometimes shows stores he tried renting 7 years ago, and they are still empty.

[toomuchtodo]

I believe this is why the renewed interest (last paragraph):

> That said, Covid is changing everything. I can honestly say I’ve seen 10x more modifications in the last 3mo than I saw my entire career including the great financial crisis. There is a HUGE flurry of activity happing in the commercial finance sector that nobody outside of the industry is talking about.

[phendrenad2]

Maybe this is an ongoing game for commercial real estate speculators. Get a loan, try to get tenants, if you can't get people to pay full-price, default after a few years?

[srtjstjsj]

Why do the bankers play along?

Answer: because they pawn the loan off on naive investors who trust the bankers to not be scamming them. Naive investors don't care because they are money managers for a pension or something.