More than two years into the economic downturn, commercial real estate executives have yet to experience the kind of the distressed environment seen during the late 1980s and early 1990s. This is due in part to federal policies encouraging lenders to extend and repair troubled loans. "An asset is only distressed when [parties] are forced to sell. Otherwise it's just under water. The policy now is the opposite of 'force to sell.' It's 'encourage to hold,' which means there's not a lot of distressed activity," explained Howard Roth, a director at Ernst & ....